TOXIC TRAIL
How a polluted seasonal rivulet in Ludhiana causes cancer, cognitive impairment and organ damage cases in districts 200 km away
FIVE-YEAR-OLD Gurnoor Singh suffers from an uncommon problem. Bits of his milk teeth keep breaking off randomly. Gurnoor's father Sukhvinder Singh, a farmer from Ghaunspur village in Ludhiana district, Punjab, says many children in the village have the same condition.
Over 200 km southwest of Ludhiana, in Burj Mohar village of Fazilka district, lives nine-yearold Hargun Kaur. She, too, suffers from an obscure tooth ailment. Her permanent teeth have begun to emerge without the milk teeth having fallen off. Her grandfather Kuldeep Singh, who takes care of Hargun since her father has cognitive and speech impairment, says that dentists attribute such problems to long-term consumption of water laden with contaminants, such as heavy metals and fluorides.
What possibly connects Gurnoor and Hargun, apart from their tooth ailments, is the contamination source of the waters they consume—Buddha Nullah, a 40-km seasonal tributary of the Sutlej river (see 'Contamination route', p17). It originates in Ludhiana, passes through the breadth of the district as well as along Ghaunspur, and merges with the Sutlej in the same district. In its course, it becomes a receptacle of Ludhiana’s substantial industrial discharge (the district is Punjab’s foremost industrial hub, with some 2,000 electroplating and dyeing units) through drains and sewer networks that empty into it.
Buddha Nullah’s waters percolate to contaminate the groundwater of Ghaunspur. Several samples collected in a 6 km stretch of the nullah in Ludhiana were unfit for drinking, says a 2013 pa
per in Environmental Science. In 2010, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests declared the nullah a critically polluted area. Since most Ghaunspur residents consume water supplied by waterworks or from borewells in their home, they could be consuming contaminated water. “An engineer with a water purifier company told me that the level of total dissolved solids (TDS) in this water is much higher than the permissible limit of 500 mg/l,” says Sukhvinder Singh. TDS represents dissolved organic matter and inorganic salts, including sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, bicarbonates and sulphates, which harm the kidney and heart.
Buddha Nullah then joins the Sutlej, transferring all its pollutants to the river. At the point of confluence, the stark difference in the black waters of the nullah and the cleaner Sutlej water is clearly visible. The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PCB) has graded the wterquality of Sutlej as Class C— drinking water source with conventional treatment followed by disinfection—before it merges with Buddha Nullah. But after the two waterbodies meet, the grade drops to Class E—suitable for irrigation and industrial cooling but not for drinking.
The polluted Sutlej then merges with the Beas at Harike Wetland, from where originates the Sirhind Feeder Canal that passes through four southwest Punjab districts— Ferozepur, Faridkot, Muktsar and Fazilka, supplying water to the latter two districts. There is no study on the quality of water in the canal, but it is likely that the canal water carries pollutants from the Buddha Nullah. Farmers from Dharangwala village in Fazilka say they use the canal water for irrigation and have seen a 40 per cent yield reduction in cotton, wheat and rice over the years.
The Beas, the other river that feeds into the canal apart from the Sutlej, is unlikely to be the source of contamination. A 2018 paper in Human and Ecological Risk Assessment calculates the heavy metal pollution index or HPI (the combined influence of each heavy metal on the overall water quality) of the Sutlej, the Beas and Harike Wetland to find that HPI of the Beas was 31.25 (within the critical pollution index value of 100), while those of Harike Wetland and the Sutlej were over 453 and 2,100, respectively. Therefore, when Sirhind’s contaminated water is used for irrigation, heavy metals are likely to get accumulated in the produce and enter the food chain. Heavy metals have been associated with increased risk of cancer in several studies. They can also seep into the aquifers and pollute them. Consumption of groundwater, therefore, could be adding to cancer cases in the districts.
Farmers say that use of pesticide (which also seep and pollute groundwater) has reduced in the state over the past decades, but cancer numbers have gone up due to the polluted waters of Buddha Nullah that contaminate Sirhind.
The water from borewell is black, smelly and so polluted that we have to change the filter of our purifier unit every 20 days —Sukhvinder Singh, Ghaunspur village, Ludhiana
“The village residents do not want canal water that has been polluted by Buddha Nullah,” says Harpreet Kaur of Ferozepur. “There is an urgent need to study the water from the canal," says Pritpal Singh, a doctor who runs a centre for children with special needs in Faridkot district. "The timing should be right. Checking samples after rainfall could give inaccurate result. Rainwater mixes with existing canal water, reducing pollutant concentrations. Waiting for stabilisation after rain yields more accurate results. Comparisons to dry weather measurements provide insight into the dilution impact. Multiple samples from various areas minimise localised variability,” he explains.
Down To Earth (DTE) travelled to seven villages and towns across four districts of Punjab in May to understand the impact of the polluted waters. The districts are Ludhiana (where Buddha Nullah originates); Ferozepur (which the Sirhind Feeder Canal passes through, without supplying water); and Fazilka and Muktsar (districts that receive the canal waters). Most people DTE spoke to said that cancer, cognitive impairment and organ damage cases have been on the rise.
Brain-related issues, skin ailments, cancer common DTE visited three villages in Fazilka: Dharangwala, Burj Mohar and Chuhri Wala—all of which have widespread health problems.
Dharangwala, a village of some 450 families, uses canal water for drinking and irrigation. "At least 40 children in the village have issues related to brain development; some 1,500 people have skin ailments and cancer claimed 13 lives in 2022,” says Rajinder Singh, a 48-year-old farmer. Sunil Kumar, a 25-year-old labourer, says he cannot work anymore because wounds cover his hands and legs. Labourers who work in farms are directly exposed to the canal water and have severe skin issues.
Residents in Burj Mohar, a small village of 60-70 families, are in a similar situation. "The village could consume the canal water about 10 years ago, but it is too dirty now. We use it only for irrigation,” says Kuldeep Singh, a farmer. The villages are forced to drink groundwater, which is largely unfit, as per the “Report on Aquifer Mapping and Management Plan: Ferozepur and Fazilka Districts, Punjab” by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB). Groundwater in the southern and southwestern parts of Fazilka has TDS above 1,000 mg/l, according to a 2022 study in Advanced Geochemistry. The concentration of arsenic in groundwater is 20 mg/m3 and lead 40 mg/m3, both of which are above permissible limits, as per a 2016 study published in Indoor and Built Environment.
A distillery unit has polluted the groundwater in our district by reverse boring, where untreated effluents are pumped into the underground aquifers —Protesters from 40 villages at Malbros International Pvt Ltd unit, Ferozepur, on May 27
This has had severe health impacts. Some 29 people have died due to cancer in the village in the last 10-12 years, says Kuldeep Singh, a 61-year-old farmer. His wife, Pushpinder Kaur, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017 and his son, Tijinder Singh, has a speech disability. Jaskaran, a 40-year-old mechanic, suddenly lost his ability to walk in 2018 and is now paralysed waist down. “People aged 50 have trouble standing up,” says Kuldeep.
Chuhri Wala, a relatively large village with 1,100 households and 15,000 residents, also primarily consume canal water. The water is supplied to our homes without primary filtration, says Jait Kumar, a social worker. “Private players have entered the fray and sell 20 litres of water for R10. Some 100 houses buy water from the private unit,” he says. There are several cases of impairments in physical and mental growth among children in the village. Karanjit, an 18-year-old resident, has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy with 100 per cent disability, as per his government certificate. Same is the story of siblings, Vinod, aged 19 and Dipu, aged 11.
Diseases and deaths can be seen in cities as well. Manmohan Goyal, who owns a neighbourhood grocery store in Abohar city of Fazilka, has
I cannot work anymore because of these wounds on my hands and legs. Many labourers exposed to canal waters have skin problems —Sunil Kumar, farm labourer, Dharangwala village, Fazilka
lost his mother and elder brother to cancer in the last decade. Circular Road, where he lives, is colloquially named Cancer Street, with some 20 cancer patients in a lane of 65 households.
DISTRICT MUKTSAR
Over 20 cancer deaths in one village in 2022 Residents of Pakki Tibbi, a village of 2,000 people, use groundwater for drinking. "The canal water was widely consumed 20-25 years ago, but now we see carcasses of animals floating in the canal every other day,” says Trilochan Singh, a photographer and a resident of the village. However, the groundwater is not fit for drinking, as per the CGWB report. Fluoride levels in Muktsar district are higher than permissible limits, according to a 2022 study published in Environmental Advances. "The village has seen 20-25 cancer deaths in the last year, " says Trilochan Singh.
“There are 65 active cases of non-communicable diseases, including heart ailments, cancer and chronic lung disease, in the village," says Sunita, Community Health Officer of the Health and Wellness Centre in Pakki Tibbi. The wellness centre does not have a doctor and residents visit Abohar city, some 17 km from the village, for treatment.
DISTRICT FEROZEPUR
A distillery destroying groundwater, say residents Groundwater is the only source of water for some 40 villages in the district. Residents of these village say that more than any other factor, the groundwater has been polluted by a distillery, Malbros International Pvt Ltd, functioning since 2008. "The company has polluted the groundwater by carrying out reverse boring, where untreated effluents are pumped into underground aquifers," says Harpreet Kaur, a resident of Zira town. She mentions that six-seven people have died in the 40 villages in past 11 months due to cancer and kidney issues. Jagdev Singh, a 48-year-old farmer of Sudhiwala village, located about 2 km from the factory, was diagnosed with throat cancer four years ago. “The doctor has told me that polluted water is responsible for my condition,” he says. As per results of a Central Pollution Control Board survey released in May 2023, waters from none of the 29 borewells examined in and around the distillery unit were fit for drinking.
About 10 years ago, Punjab's Department of Water Supply and Sanitation installed more than 1,000 reverse osmosis water treatment plants, operated and maintained by private companies, in several villages. All the villages DTE visited had these plants, but only Pakki Tibbi had one that was operational. In most villages, the plant was either too far for village residents to access, or supplied water only for a short duration during the day, making people depend on other sources. Those who can afford reverse osmosis units have installed them in their home; others depend on groundwater or canal water.