The high court on Friday ordered the public heath engineering (PHE) department to monitor the quality of drinking water supplied to government offices, state-run hospitals and railway stations.

The department will have to report its findings to the court at regular intervals.

The order followed submissions by the civic bodies of Calcutta and Howrah that they were supplying pure water, but it was getting contaminated because of lack of proper storage facilities in these establishments.

The civic bodies argued that they were not empowered to inspect the reservoirs in government offices. “The PHE department is authorised to do so,” the civic bodies said.

The green bench of Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar and Justice Dipankar Dutta then ordered the PHE department to monitor the quality of water supplied to the offices, hospitals and railway stations.

A month ago, on the basis of an order of the high court, the civic bodies had conducted random tests of water samples collected from government offices in the twin cities. The report stated that water in most of the establishments were unfit for human consumption.

The case started in 2002, following a petition by green activist Subhash Dutta, who claimed that a large number of people in Howrah and Calcutta had been drinking contaminated water. He submitted test reports of water samples to back his claim.