Underground water posing health risk in Muktsar dist

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, February 24

Despite the fact that the underground water is unfit for human consumption in Muktsar district — which has the state’s highest average of 136 cancer patients per one lakh people — the authorities are yet to conduct a detailed survey in this regard.

Shockingly, at some places, iron hand pumps, wall tiles, bricks etc are decaying due to the high fluoride and nitrate levels in water. For instance, during the recent testing of underground water sample taken from the site of the new district jail at Bura Gujjar village, the TDS level was found to be 7,000 ppm, which is much above the permissible limit of 500 to 2,000 ppm.

When asked, Amrik Singh, Executive Engineer, Water Supply and Sanitation Department, Muktsar, said, “The underground water in most parts of Muktsar town is unfit for human consumption. But our water schemes are running on canal water. However, no study has been done regarding the underground water here in the last few years. If someone brings a water sample, our department officials conduct the test here,” he said.

However, locals said due to “shora” (efflorescence), they were facing a lot of health problems.

GS Dhillon, former Chief Engineer, Drainage Wing of Irrigation Department, said, “I have repeatedly requested top officials of the departments concerned to conduct a detailed survey of the underground water of the Malwa region, comprising Muktsar district, but nobody has bothered to date. The presence of uranium in the underground water is also a very serious matter, but no survey has been done in the last few years.”