Chandigarh, June 5
Over 80 per cent of Punjab’s groundwater is unfit for human consumption, with arsenic toxicity touching an all-time high.
Whereas the safe limit for arsenic content in water is 10 parts per billion (ppb), its concentration in groundwater samples taken from different districts of Punjab ranges from 3.5 ppb to 688 ppb in the south-western districts, where the incidence of cancer is also rising. Jajjal, Makhana and Giana villages are the most affected, with arsenic in water reaching dangerous levels.
Soil scientists from Punjab Agricultural University, who visited these villages for their latest study, found that water and vegetable samples here didn’t have high pesticide content. However, groundwater used for drinking and domestic purposes had lethal arsenic concentration.
In the arid south-west, comprising Sangrur, Mansa, Faridkot, Muktsar, Bathinda, Ferozepur, not a single water sample was found fit for drinking. Arsenic pollution varied from 11.4 to 688 ppb, averaging 76.8 ppb.
Scientists also found buffalo milk in these districts, especially in Talwandi Sabo and Gidderbaha blocks, contaminated with arsenic. Content ranged from 208 to 279 ppb. Consumption of shallow hand pump
water with high salt and arsenic levels is the cause, Dr V. Beri, head of soils department, PAU, said.
He added, “Arsenic concentration was lesser in hand pumps close to canals, ponds and water tanks where continuous flow of canal water diluted toxic elements. In samples from hand pumps far from canal water sources, arsenic content was dangerously high.”
In the south-west, groundwater level earlier was 80 feet deep. Now it is 30 feet deep or lesser. As long as water was being drawn from old deep wells, there was negligible disease. But with hand pumps replacing old wells, cancers of lung and skin are on the rise. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, US has also shown arsenic’s association with lung and skin cancers.
The situation in other districts is no better. In zone 1, comprising Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur,
Nawanshahr and Ropar, arsenic in groundwater varied 3.5 to 42 ppb, averaging 23.4 ppb. In zone II comprising Amritsar,
Tarn Taran, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Patiala, Mohali, Barnala and Moga, the content varied from 9.8 to 42.5 ppb, averaging 24.1 ppb.
When seen against arsenic safe limits, only 3 and 1 per cent of groundwater samples collected from zones I and II, respectively, were fit for drinking purposes. After analyses of samples, scientists issued guidelines for the populations of the affected areas to follow.
Said Dr H.S. Hundal, main author of the study, accepted for publication in the journal “Communications in Soil Sciences and Plant Analyses, USA”, “Wherever possible they should take water from canal sources for drinking. Only hand pumps located close to ponds should be used. If normal hand pump water is to be used, it should be left overnight for aeration and then consumed.”
Other authors of the study are Raj Kumar, Dhanwinder Singh and Kuldip Singh.
