The SARS virus is big news.
Understandably. It is a virus, mutant and
mysterious, which in this extremely small and well-connected world is capable of being
transported within days across the globe. Globalisation means that it can move from the
remotest and poorest of villages to the homes of the richest. It is of no small credit and
achievement that the world science and administrative authorities are working overtime to
diagnose, investigate and take precautions to keep the disease from spreading. Creditable.
Impressive.But put another way, it is also shameful. Where is the same global
leadership and determination when it comes to countless diseases that threaten the poor?
From the acute lower respiratory infection, which according to academic and lifelong
campaigner Kirk Smith kills 8200 people each day, to malaria, tuberculosis and the AIDS
pandemic, global commitment to eradicating diseases has never been more wanting or
pathetic.
This is also true of the growing problems of arsenicosis and fluorosis. The extent of
the problem and enormity of the tragedy caused by these diseases in the subcontinent is
indeed shocking and frightening. We are literally talking about the crippling of these
countries. Perhaps deliberately.
Because what is rarely understood
is that these diseases are related to the state of groundwater. Studies done in the
arsenic-affected belt show that concentration increases with depth in the aquifer peaks around 100-125 feet down
— and gets reduced as it reaches 400 feet down. The fluoride-groundwater link is
clear but its geographical extent is not known. No one region can be identified as
chronically or endemically fluoride-prone.
It is also ironical, that in some ways, both arsenicosis and fluorosis, are the result
of efforts to eradicate other equally killing diseases — caused by dirty drinking
water. In the 1960s and 1970s, national governments and international agencies drew up
detailed plans to provide safe water to all. They understood, rightly, that bacteria in
water kills more babies than any other substance. They believed the water on the surface
— in millions of ponds and tanks and other water harvesting structures — was
contaminated and so invested quickly in new technologies to dig deeper and deeper into the
ground. Drills, borepipes, tubewells and handpumps quickly became the triumphalistic
instruments of public health missions.
Then the water table started to fall. Investment were made to dig deeper. And here is
where the story turns. While government was well-intentioned in its quest for clean water,
it was equally callous, indeed criminal, when it came to responding to the news that was
filtering in that maybe, just maybe, these ‘strange’ diseases are linked to
drinking water. It responded with denial and caused confusion by misinformation. Science
and its uncertainty became the servile tool for inaction.
The answer to the problem, therefore, is not the management of the disease. The answer
is in the management of water. We are threateningly dependent on underground aquifers for
our drinking needs. At the same time, technological advancement is helping us reach lower
and lower into the earth to search for water. What we desperately need is strategies to
ensure that the abstraction of water does not exceed the recharge of the groundwater
aquifers.
Most of the victims — the patients remain unknown. They only know that they are
ill. Very ill. Sometimes doctors diagnose their ailment. Sometimes not. But they still
have no option but to drink the water that is poison.
This SARS we are dealing with has no cure. Only prevention will work.
— Sunita Narain
Director |
