Clean water is all we want, say villagers

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 27

Villages across Shahkot are prone to a host of diseases, including the dreaded cancer, which they blame on polluted water of the Chitti Bein and the Kala Sanghian drain.

Panch Tarsem Lal says they have seen over 20 deaths in the past few years at Eesewal village. Similarly at Seechewal village, where polluted water is the key issue, at least 12-13 deaths from cancer have taken place in the past few years. While a high-pitched campaign was witnessed in the constituency in the past two days, the villagers say they only hope that the winning candidate keeps the promise to provide clean water to the area residents.

Manjit Kaur of Seechewal, who lost her 16-year-old daughter to cancer, says: “After fish deaths, candidates of all parties took the water issue. We wonder once the elections are over, will they bother about it?” Similarly views were aired by her neighbour Jaswinder Kaur (70), who lost two family members to cancer. Villages all along the Chitti Bein do not have access to clean drinking water. Environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal says: “The villages across the Shahkot constituency are digging out tubewells as deep as 400-500 ft since until 200 ft, the water is polluted. We have received assurances from all leaders that they would be working to clean Kala Saghian drain and the Bein. We only hope that they paid heed to this serious issue.”Kahan Singh Pannu, Chairman, PPCB, said: “We have capped the capacity of the units running at the leather complex at 50 per cent. ”