By Asia Samachar | India |
The next time you step foot into the Malwa region of Panjab, think before you drink its water. Eighty per cent of groundwater in the region – the largest region of the Indian state of Punjab, both geographically and politically – is unfit for drinking and irrigation.
Although there is no exact figure in any recent study, experts are unanimous that the chemical contamination of the groundwater is posing a great health risk to the people living there and it is also putting children at risk of a blood disorder, reports Tribune News Service.
A study of 2018, which was commissioned by the Centre’s Department of Science and Technology, had found concentration of calcium, magnesium, sodium, nitrate and flourine higher than the permissible limits, rendering 80.3 per cent groundwater of Malwa unsuitable for drinking, the report added.
“We are monitoring the water quality in seven districts of the region and we have found that some areas have more content of uranium, and some have high content of fluoride or other heavy metals in the groundwater,” according to Prof Dr VK Garg, a dean at Bathinda-based Central University of Punjab.
Garg, the dean of the School of Environment And Earth Sciences, said it had been proven that the metals in the groundwater were affecting the health of people. The presence of 1 mg fluoride in 1 litre of water can make the teeth colour yellow and 4 mg fluoride in 1 litre water can affect bones, he said.
Bathinda is one of the districts under the Malwa belt. Other districts include Faridkot, Moga, Patiala, Malerkotla and Ludhiana.
Malwa constitutes nearly six out of 10 of the state’s assembly seats (69 out of 117). It is also home to bulk of farmer suicides, with one study estimating that 97% of Punjab’s farmer suicides, largely owing to financial pressures post 1990, took place in the Malwa region.
Prof Dr Bhupinder Singh Virk of Punjabi University in his study on “The Problem of Drinking Water in the Malwa region of Punjab” has stated that Punjab, a pioneer of green revolution today, was facing an acute problem of drinking water due to water pollution.
The report quoted him as saying: “During the study, it has come to light that there are different factors responsible for the problem. In Bathinda, we found fly ash of thermal plants, pesticides, weedicides, chemical fertilisers used by farmers, untreated water discharged by industries in seasonal rivulets of this area”.
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It is of the utmost urgency that the Government of India find a quick solution to this problem as the inevitable process will in the long term affect India.
Now that Prof Dr Bhupinder Singh has made a discovery of water unfit for drinking & its side effects on human beings of Malwa area…. I hope some research will be done to find a solution ( short term & long term ) to see the water can be made safe for human consumption.
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