• After West Bengal, arsenic contamination in groundwater is being detected westward along the Gangetic Plains. Ballia district in western UP shows new spread of this toxin.
• Ballia administration denies report. Threatens to take CSE to court. Legal notice says CSE report is against national interest.
• CSE stands by its findings, confirms arsenic contamination in the groundwater and wants urgent remedial action by the state government.
• CSE says groundwater contamination is becoming a cause for great concern. Wants government to launch programme to monitor quality of water.

New Delhi, October 5, 2004: Arsenic is gaining new ground, claiming new victims. Deadly arsenic contamination of India’s groundwater is spreading -- from its traditionally known regions of West Bengal, to remote villages in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district -- says a report in the science and environment fortnightly Down To Earth. The report is based on confirmatory laboratory studies sponsored by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

The laboratory analysis of handpump water, hair and nail of people living in the villages has found levels of arsenic much higher than what is considered safe. Between 4,800 ppb to 6,300 ppb of arsenic was detected in the hair samples. There is no legal safe limit for arsenic in hair, but toxicologists say that between 80 to 250 ppb can be tolerable, perhaps. Clearly, this level is unacceptable.

The analysis of the blood sample of Ashok Singh, a resident of Ekwana Rajpur village in the district found arsenic levels of 34.50 ppb, when the reference (safe) level is 1-4 ppb. When CSE checked Ashok Singh’s handpump, it found arsenic levels over 73 ppb. The Bureau of Indian Standard guideline for arsenic in drinking water is 10 ppb. As a result of this poisoning, a large number of people living in these villages are visibly suffering from various stages of arsenic poisoning, including cancer.

What’s worse, the government persists with its ostrich-like attitude, denying the problem and defying all scientific evidence that point to it. The Ballia district magistrate and chief medical officer have issued legal notices to Down To Earth editor and reporter, demanding compensation.

Similarly, the Central government only accepts that arsenic contamination is found in eight districts of West Bengal and one district of Bihar, namely Bhojpur. It does not accept that arsenic has been found in localised areas in other states along the Ganga as well, condemning people to misery and disease.

The report was laid open to scrutiny at a public meeting organised here by CSE today. The Meeting was chaired by former Prime Minister and current Member of Parliament from Ballia, Shri Chandra Shekhar. Among the other speakers were Sunita Narain, director, CSE; Dr Dipankar Chakraborti, director, School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University (JU), Kolkata; Binod Khaitan, professor, Department of Dermatology and Venereology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS); and Paul Deverill, project officer, child environment, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Jadavpur University and UNICEF have conducted extensive arsenic tests in the Gangetic Plains and have found high levels of contamination in many districts. The available scientific literature suggests that this is natural arsenic, which has traveled from the Himalayas and has been embedded in the soil of the plains. However, what scientists are still unclear about is how this arsenic, naturally found in the soil, is released in the groundwater. There is some evidence to suggest that this could be because of the extraction of water through tubewells.

CSE believes that the case of arsenic in Ballia highlights a matter of intense urgency: to understand the extent of the arsenic contamination in the country; and, on this basis, create a clear policy and action plan to ensure that people are not forced to drink arsenic contaminated water. This issue, CSE also says, is related to the cousin issue of fluoride contamination of groundwater, which is affecting large numbers of unsuspecting Indians, who drink poisoned water every day.

There is still little interface between the health and water agencies on these issues, as increasingly, the challenge is not just the management of health but one of the management (or mismanagement) of groundwater.

Says Sunita Narain, "The fact is that we are neglecting surface water bodies and becoming more and more dependent on groundwater, which is now increasingly getting contaminated. Furthermore, the surveillance for quality of drinking water is neglected." The Gangetic Plains is a rain-rich region, so it is possible to use surface water bodies once again for drinking. In fact, it would be possible to recharge shallow wells and clean ponds, so that people escape slow death from arsenic-laden water, says Narain.