City on brink of arsenic poisoning, but is anyone listening?

The arsenic contamination of ground water has started to haunt Kolkata with more than half of the city’s wards facing this severe health hazard. The problem, which affected mostly the rural areas of the southern part of the state, has now enveloped the metropolis.

According to research conducted by the School of Environmental Studies (SOES) of Jadavpur University during the last decade, 77 of the 141 wards of the city have arsenic in their groundwater.

Not only this 32 per cent of the affected wards have arsenic level much higher than the normal.

The toxic metalloid that contain properties of both a metal and a non-metal, are now found in areas like Lake Gardens, EM Bypass, Rajarhat etc, where many large scale real estates projects are coming up.

“We have still not been able to supply arsenic free water in quite a few areas of Kolkata, including parts of Behala and EM Bypass. We are developing pumping stations at Behala and a water treatment plant at Dhapa for this,” claimed BK Maity, DC (Water Supply ) of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).

According to studies conducted by the SOES, 53.4 per cent of the 54,368 water samples tested had higher amount of arsenic than the internationally permissible limits.

While admitting that consumption of groundwater has reduced over the years, researchers at the SOES said, “The danger is not that people are drinking water affected with arsenic, but the fact that the water is contaminated with arsenic.”

In areas like the EM Bypass, where surface water supply is yet to reach, people have no option but to depend on ground water supply. Rapid exploitation of ground water that leads to receding water table increases the risk of

arsenic contamination.

Moreover, once the toxic element is introduced in the water it spreads swiftly and its removal can be very complicated.

Sunil Dabriwala, Managing Director, Rivernbanks Holding Pvt. Ltd, which has developed the Highland Park apartments at the Bypass said: “Since we did not have a choice but to use ground water supply, we have ensured that our tube wells are placed at least 500 metres away from each other to prevent groundwater depletion and the water is treated separately again. In addition, a different supply of drinking water undergoes Reverse Osmosis (RO) treatment.”

“Regular consumption of arsenic may lead to its accumulation in the body and if the body saturates its capacity, the metalloid may manifest itself physically in the form of a number of diseases of the skin, gangrene and even cancer,” said researchers of the SOES. “What’s worse is that by the time it is detected, it becomes often late. Besides, there is no medication for arsenic treatment in patients,” a researcher added.

While rural areas outside the city have water treatment plants to take care of arsenic and other bacterial contamination, ground water supply devices in Kolkata are not installed with such facilities.

The KMC, however, does not seem to be worried. “There is no need for such treatment, especially since we are expanding our surface water supply all over the city,” said Maity.

Maity added that lack of a proper distribution system and an excessive wastage of water is making it difficult for connecting every part of the city with surface water supply.

“We aim to reach every part of Kolkata by 2010,” he said.

The general public are hardly convinced by the KMC’s contention that once every household in the city gets supply water connection the issue of groundwater depletion will be minimised.

“We get KMC-supply water in our building, but it is extremely scarce and hardly suffices our daily needs. Having no choice, I finally have to get water delivered to my house from tube wells around the area,” said Purnima Dutta, a housewife.

Of the original 365 tube wells scattered around the city, Maity claimed that only 272 exist now.

He, however, did not give a specific deadline for the removal of every tube in the city.

Adding to this, there is no attempt made by the administration to educate the masses about the hazards of drinking ground water.

“Boiling the water may actually enhance arsenic content, yet many are not aware of such intricacies,” pointed out a SOES researcher.