Arsenic-affected habitations go up

The number of arsenic-affected habitations in rural India has increased from 7,067 in six states in 2006 to 10,004 in 14 states in 2009, a parliamentary panel has found, reports Aurangzeb Naqshbandi.

The number of arsenic-affected habitations in rural India has increased from 7,067 in six states in 2006 to 10,004 in 14 states in 2009, a parliamentary panel has found.

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The standing committee on rural development — in its report to Parliament last week — also found that the number of fluoride-affected habitations in the rural areas has increased from 29,030 in 17 states in 2006 to 33,071 in 19 states in 2009.

The panel noted that the increase in number was despite the ongoing national rural drinking water quality monitoring and surveillance programme, launched in February 2006.

An official of the rural development ministry’s drinking water supply department said: “It is possible that states might not have anticipated arsenic in rural drinking water sources in many areas and might not have understood its movement in aquifers. Fluoride is more evenly distributed across many states and over-exploitation of ground water might have resulted in increase in the fluoride level in drinking water sources.”

Though the government had accorded priority to tackling arsenic and fluoride-affected habitations, the “required work in this regard has not been done in the right earnest,” the panel said. “Contaminated sources of water in rural areas of the country may cause a severe crisis,” it added.

The committee said efforts to improve the coverage status and bring about sustainability of sources and systems become meaningless in absence of clean and safe drinking water.