India: Alarm over flouride level in water

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Alarm over flouride level in water
PARUL CHANDRA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2003 04:25:34 AM ]

NEW DELHI: As many as 200 districts in the country have a high fluoride concentration in ground water. About 25 million people, spread over 17 states, are affected, while another 66 million have been described as a "population at risk", according to a WHO- Unicef sponsored study on the country’s water supply and sanitation.

The country assessment report, on which the Planning Commission collaborated, is part of a joint monitoring programme for the sector.

The report calls for enactment of a ground water legislation in all states, ‘‘aiming at equity and sustainability in access to ground water and its development needs’’.
The study also calls for a river-basin or sub-basin based approach to water management in the country.

‘‘The present approach restricts the issue only to political boundaries, involving a number of agencies and ministries with overlapping responsibilities’’, it notes.

According to the report, a river-basin based approach will ensure that issues such as water allocation, controlling pollution and protection of water resources ‘‘are not dealt with in isolation and decisions on the overall development process and land-use planning flow
from this’’.

As for ground water contamination, the report notes that fluoride isn’t the only contaminant, with nearly 13.8 million people in 75 blocks in West Bengal also reported to be at risk owing to presence of arsenic in ground water.

There are varying levels of iron, too, particularly in the north-eastern part of the country, and heavy metals like lead, nickel, chromium, zinc, copper and manganese, apart from nitrates and bacteriological contamination.

While the assessment does take into account the efforts on to check this contamination, it also notes that in many instances, technology seems to have failed.

The study notes that a large section of the population in rural India continues to be dependent on unprotected sources of water.

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