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New Delhi, January 12 (IANS / Mongabay) The groundwater of more than 25,000 homes in India is contaminated by excessive levels of arsenic and fluoride. To address this problem, a parliamentary committee has now asked the Ministry of the Drinking Water and Sanitation Union (MDWS) to develop a plan together with a accurate timeline to achieve the goal of providing safe drinking water to contaminated areas.
In India, 15,811 homes are affected by arsenic and 9,660 by fluoride, said the State Minister in charge of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi, in response to a request from Parliament in December 2018.
Of the 15,811 homes affected by high levels of arsenic, 13,577 (approximately 85%) are located in West Bengal (9,250) and Assam (4,327). With regard to fluoride-affected homes, of the 9,660, Rajasthan has the most with 5,176 dwellings, followed by West Bengal with 1,263 dwellings.
Last year, in March 2018, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development expressed its concern over the contamination of drinking water with arsenic and fluoride in many homes and asked the MDWS to take action "on the war foot" to find a solution, indicating that the "work pace" solve the problem is "extremely slow", which leads to more housing are affected.
In July 2018, in response to the concerns expressed by the committee, the Ministry of Drinking Water stated that "rural drinking water is a state issue" and that the technical and financial support It already provides states under the National Rural Drinking Water Program can be strengthened. used to treat the problems of quality of drinking water, primarily homes affected by arsenic and fluoride.
In its March 2018 report, the parliamentary committee, chaired by India's Indian chief Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), also noted that "as long as the homes affected by the contamination will not be supplied with running water they will remain under the effect of the harmful effects of the contamination ".
Arsenic is a carcinogen and is associated with cancers of the skin, lungs, bladder, kidneys and liver. Excessive consumption of fluoride in drinking water and food for a prolonged period can cause health problems such as dental, skeletal and non-skeletal fluorosis, in addition to causing aging.
According to the Bureau of Indian Standards of IS 10500-2012, the acceptable limit for arsenic in drinking water is 0.01 milligrams per liter (the limit allowed in the absence of alternative sources is 0.05 mg / l) and 1 milligram per liter for fluoride. (the limit allowed in the absence of alternative source is 1.5 mg / l).
According to data from August 2016, a population of about 21 million inhabitants in more than 23,500 homes was affected by groundwater contaminated with arsenic and fluoride.
The issue of contaminated waters was again raised recently by the parliamentary committee in its latest report, which was presented to Parliament on December 31, 2018.
"In its recommendation, the committee specifically asked the ministry to ensure that all states provide a water supply channeled to contaminated dwellings." In its response, the ministry informed the committee that it had advised states to address the problem of water quality dwellings in rural areas by piped water supply systems using safe water sources, "said the latest report.
But as PWS systems take about three to four years to get into service, the ministry also advised states to install community water treatment plants in rural homes that affect quality.
The committee appreciated the measures taken by the Ministry of Drinking Water, but said that "channelized water supply is the only solution to water quality problems and that it is therefore necessary to set a time-bound plan to achieve the goal of providing safe drinking water to "contaminated areas".
He reiterated that the Ministry of Drinking Water, "must discuss the issue with state governments until the channelized water supply reaches each household, an arrangement should be put in place to provide an alternative supply of clean water by installing Community Water Treatment Plants (CWPP) to identified priority contaminated affected rural dwellings and accelerated the process of supplying running water and in informed the Committee in this regard ".
In March 2017, the Ministry of Drinking Water launched the National Water Quality Sub-Mission (NWQSM) as part of the NRDWP, which aimed to provide safe drinking water. homes affected by arsenic and fluoride "over a period of four years, subject to available funds". The total expenditure of the sub-mission was estimated at Rs 25,000 crores (Rs 250 billion), of which Rs 12,500 crores (Rs 125 billion) were to be provided by the central government as of FY 2017. -2018.
A year earlier, focused on arsenic and fluoride contamination, the Indian government had issued 1,000 crore rupees (Rs 10 billion) in March 2016 for the commissioning of PPCPs and the connectivity of the latter. piped water supply networks.
Satish Sinha, associate director of Toxics Link, however, questioned the efforts of the government and municipalities to provide drinking water to the population. He said the government was not doing enough and that it should examine the available technologies to solve the problem of contamination.
"I think the effort was not enough." said Sinha. "If you can not put safe water at the disposal of people, what are you doing then? Where is the action, plan or vision?" he questioned.
(In agreement with Mongabay.com, source of information and analysis on the environment.) The views expressed in the article are those of Mongabay.com Feedback: gopi @ mongabay .com)
–IANS / Mongabay
mayank / vm
(This story has not been changed by Business Standard staff and is generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
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