Uranium exceeding safe limit in 62.5% of Punjab groundwater samples: Satnam Sandhu in Rajya Sabha

Rajya Sabha Member Satnam Singh Sandhu on Friday raised the issue of groundwater pollution in Punjab saying uranium, nitrate and other toxic pollutants had raised water toxicity. 

Raising a special mention in the Rajya Sabha, Sandhu quoted Central Ground Water Board’s (CGWB) ‘Annual Ground Water Report 2025’ to flag uranium exceeding the safe limit in 62.5% of water samples in Punjab, which is the highest rate of contamination in the whole of India.

“This is a public health emergency. In more than half of the samples, uranium is above 30 ppb (parts per billion) which is causing cancer and kidney diseases in our future generations. Furthermore, the excess amounts of nitrate in 14.6% and fluoride in 11% of the samples are making our children susceptible to Blue Baby Syndrome and bone diseases,” Sandhu said.

He said there is also a threat to agriculture.

“Residual sodium carbonate and increasing salinity in 25% of the samples are turning our fertile land barren,” he said appealing to the Central Government to immediately launch a ‘Special Groundwater Mitigation Mission’ to save Punjab from this disaster. 

Sandhu said RO-based community systems must be installed on a war footing in the affected villages and screening camps set up in disease-affected areas. 

“Simultaneously, deep aquifer mapping must be conducted to locate sources of clean water. Water is a national asset. Punjab that feeds the entire country today has its own people forced to drink poisoned water. The health of the farmers is paramount and we must take immediate action,” MP Sandhu said.

As per latest CGWB report for 2025, Punjab is the worst-affected state with uranium levels above permissible limit of 30 ppb in 53.04% of samples before the monsoon and 62.5% of samples after it.

As compared to 2024, when 32.6% samples were contaminated, the proportion of samples breaching the safe limit jumped to 62.5% this year, showing 91.7% spike. 

As per this report, 16 of Punjab’s 23 districts, which have been categorised as contaminated zones, include Tarn Taran, Patiala, Sangrur, Moga, Mansa, Barnala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Fatehgarh Sahib, Faridkot, Amritsar, Muktsar and Bathinda. Two of these distrits, Sangrur and Bathinda recorded uranium concentrations exceeding 200 ppb.