‘Pure water’ biz a hit as poison fear spreads
Treatment plants mushroom but experts raise doubt over the efficacy of such units
Groundwater in over 20 villages in Buxar is contaminated by arsenic, known as the ‘king of poison’. As a result, water treatment plants have turned out to be successful business ideas, feeding on the villagers’ fears. But experts doubt whether the plants are capable of removing the chemical from groundwater.
SIMRI (BUXAR): Every morning, hundreds of people line up to buy jars of “purified water” from several water treatment plants that have come up at a village in Simri block of Bihar’s Buxar district.
This daily routine for the past six months puts in perspective the predicament of the people in the district — one of several in the state where arsenic contamination of groundwater has killed hundreds of people over the years and left hundreds of others afflicted with various ailments including cancer.
Groundwater in more than 20 villages in Buxar is contaminated by arsenic, a naturally occurring chemical known as the ‘king of poison’.
As many as 12 states in India are severely affected by arsenic poisoning, an official report last year said, and more than one lakh people have died over the years. An estimated 7.04 crore people have been affected, most of them (30%) poor and malnourished.
In Buxar, the treatment plants have turned out to be successful business ideas, feeding on the fear among the villagers. But experts doubt their efficacy and whether the plants are capable of removing arsenic from groundwater.
All of them — at least four in Simri — claim to use reverse osmosis (RO) system to purify the water. Some of them operate from thatched huts, supplying nearly 4,000 litres of “pure water” every day to an estimated 0.25 million population in several villages.
“The idea to establish an RO plant came after seeing the plight of people here. Those using our water now at least do not complain of gastritis and other stomach-related diseases,” said Anjan Kumar Roy, owner of Shakti Neer.
His plant, set up at a cost of `4 lakh, supplies 50 jars of 20 litres each to neighbouring villages at a rate of `15-20 per jar.
To prove his point, Roy takes out a gadget and dips it in a sample of “purified” water he collects from his plant. The gadget shows a reading of 32 PPM (parts per million), while that of normal boring water is 362 PPM.
“The meter shows the concentration of total dissolved solid (TDS) particles,” said Arun Kumar, a scientist at the Mahavir Cancer Sansthan & Research Centre, working on arsenic presence in water in the Gangetic belt.
“The TDS has nothing to do with arsenic content.” Kumar even doubts that the water provided by these socalled RO water plant suppliers are actually arsenic-free.
“The equipment they have installed does not have the capacity to remove arsenic. To make water arsenic-free, you need to install machines that cost no less than `70 lakh. What the RO water suppliers are showing is basically the hardness of water and fooling the gullible people of the district,” said Kumar.
Bihar minister for public health and engineering department, Krishnanandan Prasad Verma, also doubted the claims of arsenic-free water. “We will look into such plants,” he said.
Data tabled in Lok Sabha show 357 habitations affected by arsenic in Bihar, next only to Assam (424) and West Bengal (1,124).
Though surface water in ponds is free of arsenic but is not fit to drink in absence of a water purification plant, villagers said. A `100-crore water supply scheme in Simri, initiated in 2009, is yet to start.
“We are serious about addressing the problem. We are coming up with water treatment plants that will provide pure water.” the minister said.
Ground water in 18 districts of Bihar, including Buxar have severe arsenic contamination, which has affected around 16 million people in rural areas and 12 million in urban areas, according to A K Ghosh, head scientist at Mahavir Cancer Sansthan. Ghosh found that arsenic level in ground water at Buxar was 1908 ppb (parts per billion) against a WHO prescribed level of 10 ppb.
“What is alarming is the traces of arsenic in the blood (505.2 ppb) of human habitation in Simri that is a main cause of cancer,” said Kumar.
The MCS study was based on 200 cancer patients from Bhojpur, Vaishali and Buxar. Experts concluded that the probability of two types of cancer — skin and gall bladder —was due to ingestion of drinking water in which arsenic presence was more than 300 parts per billion (ppb).
The idea to establish an RO plant came after seeing the plight of people here. Those using our water now at least do not complain of gastritis and other stomach-related diseases Anjan Kumar Roy, Owner of Shakti Neer