The state rural development minister, Daddu Prasad, shared this alarming information in the Assembly today.

Replying to a notice of Hindu Mahasabha member Radha Mohan Agarwal, Prasad said that the study was conducted in 322 development blocks of the 20 districts in the state where the amount of arsenic present in the groundwater was found beyond the permissible limit of 0.05 MG per litre.

In the Balia and Lakhimpur districts, which are the worst affected by the arsenic contamination, hundreds of hand pumps have been sealed.

The other 11 districts that have high Arsenic content in its ground water are Bahriach, Chanduli, Gazipur, Gorakhpur, Basti, Siddarthnagar, Balrampur, Sant Kabir Nagar, Unnao, Bareilly and Moradabad. The seven partially affected districts are Raibareli, Mirzapur, Bijnor, Meerut, Sant Ravi Das Nagar, Shahjahanpur and Gonda.

The survey has also pointed to the high level of arsenic contamination in 6,277 habitats of the 20 districts.

The minister assured the House of taking all possible measures to overcome this danger. He said that a task force, comprising officials from UP Jal Nigam, Central Ground Water Board, UNICEF, Industrial Toxicology Research Institute of Lucknow, IIT Kanpur and CSM Medical University of Lucknow, was constituted and it has submitted its report.

Rejecting the demand of the Opposition to table the report of the task force in the House, the minister said that the measures have been taken on the basis of the recommendations of the task force.

He said people are being made aware of the dangers of using arsenic contaminated water for bathing and washing purpose. He said in several affected districts hand pumps have been painted with a red colour ‘X’ mark to prevent people from using water from those pumps.