Today is world water day. Got up a bit late and skipped my morning jog ( a bit relaxed being a sunday or might even go in the evening). Was missing my family a lot and the regular weekend outings with them, they being back in Hyderabd and I in Kolakta on work.
I started the Sunday Times, my favourite newspaper and the below article on page 2 headlines, stared out at me(could also serch in times of india- cities-kolkata):
In summary it covered the many children in West Bengal who are forced to drink Arsenic Contaminated Water as they have no alternate source. Arsenic is a deadly Carcinogen, and these children contract cancer, painful lesions that turn malignant and make them immobile by the time they reach 25 years resulting in eventual death by their mid-age. Pictures of people with painful cancerous lesions, children drinking contaminated water and rusted and defunct pipes and wells which stand testimony to the govt.'s half hearted attempts glared out. People are scared to marry off their daughters into these villages, due to the Arsenic curse. Arsenic is prevalant in many states in India- is there no Hope?
The irony of the fact is that the govt. and people are barking up the wrong tree(intentional???). To narrate a story, on my return from KL in 2006, I was invited by the gov. of India to a conference on Drinking Water which was also attended by Mr. Raghuvansh Prasad Yadav, the minister for rural affairs. There were lengthy debates and discussions on the problem of Arsenic in West Bengal and the stupendous work that the govt.'s arsenic task force and various university labs were conducting to remedy the problem. Crores and crores had been sunk into these projects without much impact without any significant impact on the people's lives.
Being new to the water industry, I asked the simplest of questions? Why doesnt the govt. treat the surface water (which can be very easily treated) than do all these expensive projects on treating Arsenic? It is a well known fact that Arsenic (and for that matter any chemical cotaminants like fluoride) is only present in deep underground water, but is absent in surface water like ponds, lakes, rivers etc...Having studied in Khargapur, I used to travel to my many friends in Kolkata and was only too aware that ponds and other surface water was plentiful in W.B. Without any exaggeration, all the pundits did not have a reply.....
So what is the reason? Is it that the govt. has sunk in lots and lots of money and now do not want to admit that they were all along wrong, when there was a much simpler alternative available? Or are other reasons in making excuses to spend huge sums of money??
We have started it in W.B. What is required is a behavioural change to change people's drinking water habits from Ground water to surface water..more of that later....
Regarding the case of West Bengal, i think it was a historical case of government pushing people to drink deep bore water because surface water was contaminated with bacteria. This was done through many ICT measures that finally resulted in people believing that underground water is safe. After a few decades Arsenic in underground water started to affect health of those who drank that water.
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