About 60 persons including 25 children were taken ill in two incidents of water contamination and food poisoning in two villages in the district on Sunday. All of them were rushed to the hospital here, where the condition of eight persons was stated to be serious. According to information reaching here, 31 persons of Somuladoddi village in Anantapur rural mandal took ill with the water supplied through the protected water supply scheme in the village. Of the 31 who were ill, 18 were children in the age group of 7 to 11 years. The overhead tank in the village gets filled with water from a bore well sunk on the bed of nearby Tadakaleru rainwater stream through pipeline. However, the pipeline was damaged at one place thus allowing seepage of stagnated water in the stream. Unfortunately none noticed the damaged pipeline. The overhead tank water was released in the morning. Those who consumed the