Bengaluru Urban district administration recently identified 93 villages, where residents are suffering from fluorosis, once again bringing to the fore the issue of unsafe drinking water. Fluorosis is a chronic condition where teeth and bones get affected, at times even leading to permanent damage. People who consume water with fluoride …
function openmap(){ var popurl="html/20030415_map.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=650,height=500,scrollbars=yes") } Welcome to Wah india, a hazy land born of perfidy and malicious grace. Spread over territory co-extensive with 19 states in India, it is both traceable and unknown. Its physical geography, for instance, is quite virtual: Wah india keeps getting discovered; its expanding contours …
The 1970s and 1980s were a time of massive state investment in rural water development. Not only had more land to be brought under irrigation, but also drinking water supplied. These decades saw an exponential rise in the number of privately-owned pumpsets and wells, even as investment in public wells …
The official attitude towards fluoride-laced groundwater is best seen in the manner the state has gone about solutions. In a 1999 nationwide study New Delhi-based Fluorosis Research and Rural Development Foundation (frrdf) found that "only a few laboratories in the country have specified the methodology for fluoride analysis.' Experts claim …
Human negotiation with its own capacities and actions often tends to be triumphalist. A man admires his muscled torso; an elite believes itself to be the omphalos
It is a story about underground water: when the nectar turns into poison. When a daily task of drinking water from the handpump becomes the source of crippling disease and death. This is not a "natural' disaster
Fluoride is an acute toxin, with a rating slightly higher than lead. It is, in fact, one of the most bone-seeking elements known to human beings. And groundwater in India shows the presence of unhealthy quantities of fluoride. A worrying scenario: daily ingestion of just 2 milligram (mg) of fluoride …
here, children are resigned to walking with a limp. And women, weighed down by sheer pain, have stopped looking skywards. In fact, age and sex appear to be no bar as infirmity pervades the entire area. Welcome to the Kachnarwa panchayat in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, where disability has …
On November 19, the Allahabad High Court (HC) ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to file an affidavit within three weeks indicating steps taken to prevent, treat and control fluorosis in Chopan block of Sonbhadra district. It also demanded details of the measures taken to rehabilitate the affected villagers. The court …
The almost exclusive focus on the multiple violent insurgencies in Assam has ensured that no other issue catches the policymakers' eye. Fluorosis is not even a perceived threat in Assamese society, even as it slowly assumes uncontrollable proportions. Today, over 100,000 people in Assam suffer from hydrofluorosis
• The Supreme Court recently slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on the Union environment ministry for showing laxity in probing the disappearance of huge quantity of hazardous waste oil from major ports. • The Sikkim Forest Department arrested a person on charges of smuggling medicinal plants from Borong recently. …
The Andhra Pradesh high court has recently directed the state government to ensure protected water supply in the fluorosis-affected areas of Nalgonda district. The bench issued several directions to the state government in response to a public interest litigation filed for seeking the court's intervention to protect the
twenty states in India are endemic to fluorosis, a disease caused by excess intake of fluoride in drinking water that can result in various health hazards such as discoloured teeth and deformed bones. Several nations including Argentina, China and Japan are under the grip of this disease. It has spread …
cases of crippling bone deformities are emerging from four villages on the outskirts of Lahore. These villages are now known as the "fluoride belt'. Says Sajid Maqbool, project director of the Children Hospital in Lahore: "So far, 100-120 cases
there are increasing number of fluorosis cases among the residents of Delhi. Fluorosis is caused by consuming water contaminated with fluoride. A recent survey to check the content of fluoride in the water in the four zones of the National Capital Territory of Delhi ( nctd ) revealed that the …
in march 1998, Usha Rani, a 45-year-old resident of Mahavir Enclave in Delhi, was diagnosed with skeletal fluorosis. Tests revealed that the fluoride content in her blood and urine was 10 times higher than the acceptable limits. "Even today, I cannot stand for more than one hour,' says Rani. Fluorosis, …
about 12 villages around the Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh have been affected by fluoride contamination in the water. Consumption of the contaminated water has resulted in bone deformities among villagers; at least one member of every family in these villages is afflicted. A water survey conducted by the Uttar …
as we approach the new millennium, a glass of clean, uncontaminated water seems to be a luxury, that even money cannot buy. Newspapers are awash daily with reports of fluoride-contaminated water sources. Sadly, long-term constructive policies are yet to see the light of day. Occasional studies and certain discrete temporary …
sunil k gupta, a paediatrician and neonatologist at the Jaipur-based Satellite Hospital, has developed a new filter-based defluoridation technique which he says can
fluorosis a crippling disease caused by excess fluoride in water, is fast becoming a scourge in Rajasthan where about 50 per cent of the villages face the problem. Excess fluoride content in the human body causes toxicity, resulting in paralysis, muscle damage and premature ageing. The disease is prevalent in …
