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Ludhiana: 1.5 yrs on, villagers in Mangat await PPCB’s water sample report
The problem of contaminated water has plagued the farmers in the village for several years; they had to dig their borewells deeper some years back after the water turned dirty but now the problem has returned
Around 20 months after tubewells started pumping out black water in Mangat village here, local residents say they are still waiting for the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) to share the results of the samples collected. They also want to know if any action has been taken.
Sarpanch Karam Chand said the problem has only worsened. “We haven’t heard anything from the PPCB. The report for the samples collected in December 2023 hasn’t been shared with us and we don’t know of any action taken so far,” said the sarpanch.
In December 2023, a tubewell that lies next to a dyeing factory started pumping out dirty water. A PPCB team reached the village and collected a sample, the report of which was to come out in a few weeks. A 50-year-old farmer, Kehar Singh, who owns the tubewell and the land around it, said the PPCB didn’t share any report with him even after petitioning many times.
“We even staged a protest outside the PPCB office back then. But no one heeded our demands,” he said.
The problem of contaminated water has plagued the farmers in the village for several years. They had to dig their borewells deeper some years back after the water turned dirty but now the problem has returned.
“Earlier, I had a 200 ft deep bore. Due to the contamination, we dug 310 ft, but the contamination has reached that depth as well,” he said, adding that his crop yield has halved over the past decade, blaming the poor water quality.
Residents allege that wastewater from the dyeing unit in the village is seeping into the groundwater. While the unit had shifted its dumping site after the issue was flagged, locals claim the water remains unfit for farming and household use.
Sukhjeet Gill from the village shares a worrying trend emerging in the village over the years. “The water households use is not fit for drinking. Many are suffering from health problems—hepatitis infections, and at least 20 cancer cases. Around 10 people have already died of cancer,” he said.
PPCB executive engineer Kuldeep Singh said, “Records show the water quality is within permitted limits.” Regarding the water sample report, he said, “The process is still on and we have shared the report with higher-ups. It is up to them when to make it public.”
The owner of the dyeing factory, Namit Jain, dismissed the allegations as politically motivated. He said that the factory was regularly inspected for norms by the pollution board.
Earlier, chief engineer Pardeep Gupta had admitted that the report detected high levels of total dissolved solids (TDS), and said a study of the three-kilometre radius around the affected tubewell was underway. When asked about the report, he first claimed that the report had been public but later said that it could not be released unless approached directly.
