Excess fluoride content in Darbhanga village

Bihar PHED minister Ashwani Choubey has directed officials to confirm excess fluoride content in water sources at Rampura village of Sighwara block in Darbhanga.

"Till date excess Fluoride was not detected Darbhnga. But I have asked officials to confirm the newpaper reports so that we can take appropriate steps," Choubey said pointing out that 12 districts of the state were afflicted by fluoride which causes fluorosis, a disease nicknamed by medical professionals as "bone crusher". Reported the detection of excess floride by a team of researchers.

Choubey conceded that fluoride and arsenic had been emerging as a major health problem in Bihar. "There are 13 districts in the state where arsenic poisioning have been detected and another 12 district where excess fluoride have been identified from the water source, There are three districts common in this list which have both arsenic and fluoride poisoning. They include Bhagalpur and Munger," he said. He pointed out that around 600 tolas and localities have been identified across the state which were identified as places where arsenic and floride were detected from the water source.

The minister claimed that the state government had mooted a Rs 1000- crore scheme for meeting the challenge. "It's a multi-village scheme in which tanks will be contructed and surface water will be supplied to the effected localities," he said. He said work has already started in Ara where 35 villages are hit due to arscenic, Vaishali and Patna(Maner). The three projects alone will cost over Rs 200 crore", he said.

He said the department had amlso mooted setting-up mini-plants for treatment of floride and arscenic water. "We will run these plants with solar power at places where there are no power", he stressed. He said in addtion to all these the department will install 2000 special tubewells which have mechanism to prevent fluoride and arsenic posioning",he remarked.

The minister claimed that the department had achieved about 60 per cent of its target in sinking 1.09 lakh tubewells across the state. He also spoke about the "Muktidham" Yojna of the state government aimed at making crematory ghats equiped with furnaces for burning bodies, shades, toilet, gardens and shops. He said that out of 50 such ghats selected, work was under progress in 21 of them and 15 would be copleted during this financial year. He, however, said that work was still to begin in many ghats because the land either belonged to private persons or the railways. link

Cerebral malaria kills 25 in Munger

A Central team Friday visited the eastern state of Bihar to take stock of the situation in cerebral malaria-hit Munger district even as the death toll due to the disease rose to 25.

The four-member panel headed by joint director of Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry Dr S N Sharma would assist in providing medical care to the affected people, Munger District Malaria Officer B Sahu said.

Five more children succumbed to cerebral malaria during last two days in Kharagpur sub-division and Dharhara block in the district, he said, adding that the disease has so far claimed 25 lives and affected more than 1,500 others.

"Out of the 1,450 people whose serum samples were tested, 565 were positive," Sahu said.link

Some relief for Bihar’s arsenic hit villages

High levels of arsenic in the groundwater pose the threat of cancer to people in many Bihar villages, but the state government has finally moved to bring safe drinking water from the Ganga river to some of these areas.

‘Multi-village water supply projects’ have been given the green signal in 200 arsenic-affected villages in three districts.

“The multivillage water supply projects would be launched soon and completed under a timeframe,” said Public Health Engineering Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey.

The projects will cover 130 arsenic-affected villages of Simri block in Buxar district, 45 villages of Bidupur block in Vaishali district and 25 villages of Maner block in Patna district.

D.S. Mishra, an official in the department, said the government would provide safe drinking water from the Ganga to villages affected by arsenic.

“First, the surface water (in the river) will be treated to remove harmful substances and then it will be supplied,” Mishra said. He said the treatment of groundwater containing arsenic was costly and not sustainable.

The state government admitted early this year that high levels of arsenic have been found in the groundwater of 15 Bihar districts on either side of the Ganga river, posing the threat of cancer, an official said.

“A total of 57 blocks on both sides of the Ganga are affected by high levels of arsenic in the groundwater,” he said.

Arsenic causes cancer of the intestines, liver, kidneys and bladder as well as gangrene. People in several villages are suffering from bone deformation and a variety of skin problems.

“In some affected villages, people have complained of weakening and bending of the bones and dreadful rashes and lumps on the skin,” a health expert said.

Arsenic, an odourless and tasteless semi-metal element, occurs naturally in the environment and sometimes as a by-product of agriculture and industry.

An official said the worst affected districts are Bhojpur, Buxar, Vaishali, Bhagalpur, Samastipur, Khagaria, Katihar, Chapra, Munger and Darbhanga and Patna.link

Among these, Harail Chapar, a village in Samastipur district, recorded the highest levels of arsenic - 2,100 parts per billion (ppb) - in groundwater, the official added. The World Health Organisation guideline for a safe limit is 10 ppb, while the Indian government’s guideline is 50 ppb.

The official said a survey conducted in the arsenic affected districts reveals that the deeper aquifers lying below 80 metres were free of arsenic.

Last year, a state government report based on a survey of water samples collected at random from 19,961 tubewells in 398 villages found that arsenic concentration was above 10 ppb in 310 villages and above 50 ppb in 235 villages.