No lab facility in Haryana for testing uranium contamination: CAG report

“Contamination of uranium in drinking water drawn from shallow tubewells would have given rise to kidney diseases which would have been easily captured through an epidemiological survey, but no such evidence has ever been reported across the state.” – Haryana public health department

A performance audit of Haryana’s rural and urban water schemes by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has found that there was no facility for testing uranium contamination in the state laboratory at Karnal despite the fact that 18 districts were partly affected with high uranium in groundwater.

A performance audit of Haryana’s rural and urban water schemes by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has found that there was no facility for testing uranium contamination in the state laboratory at Karnal despite the fact that 18 districts were partly affected with high uranium in groundwater. (HT File Photo)

As per the CAG report tabled in the state assembly last week, uranium concentration was found more than 30 PPB22 (permissible limit for drinking water prescribed by World Health Organisation) in Haryana with maximum value observed as 131.4 parts per billion in Sahu village of Hisar.

As per a June 2020 report of the Central Ground Water Board, the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti on Uranium Occurrence in Shallow Aquifers in India, 19.5 % samples (88 out of total 450 samples) analysed in Haryana had uranium concentration more than 30 PPB22. Eighteen districts - Ambala, Bhiwani, Faridabad, Fatehabad, Gurugram, Hisar, Jhajjar, Jind, Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Mahendergarh, Palwal, Panipat, Rohtak, Sirsa, Sonepat and Yamunanagar were found partly affected by high uranium in groundwater, the report said. “It was observed that there was no testing facility for testing uranium contamination in the state laboratory at Karnal. No efforts had ever been made to tie up with other laboratories for checking the presence of uranium in ground water in the areas where tubewell-based water supply was in practice whereas uniform drinking water quality monitoring protocol emphasises that state laboratories should coordinate with the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) approved laboratories /NABL accredited laboratories for monitoring radioactive and virological parameters,’’ the audit said.

No evidence of rise in kidney disease due to uranimum contamination: Dept

The public health department in April 2022 stated that contamination of uranium in drinking water drawn from shallow tubewells would have given rise to kidney diseases in that region which would have been easily captured through an epidemiological survey, but no such evidence has ever been reported across the state. Audit is of the view that timely and appropriate remedial measure was required to be taken in respect of uranium contamination so as to timely restrict the chances of people getting exposed to the contaminated underground water as traces of uranium presence (though within permissible limit) have been detected at three out of five randomly selected locations during sampling exercise, the report said.

‘No data on testing from all sources’

The audit said the engineer-in-chief, public health department, issued instructions in December 2017 to the sub-ordinate officers for testing chemical contamination for every ground water source i.e., tubewells and spring-based sources and were directed to submit samples of groundwater to the State Water Testing Laboratory, Karnal. Each test report was required to be scrutinised by the executive engineer concerned for failed samples and remedial measures were required to be taken on priority. For the purpose, Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) had been installed in the State Water Testing Laboratory, Karnal, which had the capacity to test the presence of heavy metals in drinking water. As per data provided by the department, it was noticed that 2,835 deep tubewells (2,480-rural, 355-urban) and 268 (244-rural, 24-urban) shallow tubewells were operated by department in selected divisions.

The CAG said that public health department division -1 Karnal had got water samples tested for heavy metals more than the number of sources but no data in this regard was available to confirm whether all the sources had actually been tested or not. Therefore, audit cannot comment on 100% coverage of sources. Whereas in the case of other divisions the percentage of source tested ranged from 0 to 68% during 2017-21. Thus, instructions of higher authorities to test all sources for chemical contamination were not adhered to as the divisional offices had not sent samples for all the sources under their jurisdiction, the report said.