PATIALA: The midterm review of
World Bank sponsored project for easy accessibility of
potable water across the state has thrown up troubling data hinting at the presence of
heavy metals in
underground water being supplied in 1971 villages of the state that have been surveyed by the Punjab water and sanitation department.
The random investigations carried out by the department have revealed the presence of heavy metals like uranium, arsenic, aluminium, lead, selenium, mercury, fluoride, cadmium and nickel. While, in many villages, the key parameters have been found to be permissible limits, but water testing reports of many villages show the presence of heavy metal which is beyond the accepted limits.
According to the report arsenic, lead, aluminium and fluoride have been found on a higher side in 82 villages of Amritsar district. Uranium was found in all 11 villages surveyed in Bathinda district.
Water samples of 51 villages in
Fatehgarh Sahib were found to be having traces of uranium, fluoride, selenium and nickel, while uranium, fluoride and aluminium were found in water samples of 22 villages of Fazilka.
In 89 villages of Ferozepur, the investigators detected uranium, lead, aluminium and selenium contents. The report states that 206 villages of Gurdaspur were drinking water that had high levels of lead, whereas traces of aluminium, arsenic, cadmium, nickel were also found, but their level was quite low.
Most of the water samples tested in 150 villages of Hoshiarpur district revealed traces of chromium, whereas, in some villages lead, selenium, nickel, aluminium along with arsenic were also found. The water samples of 165 villages in Jalandhar district should high levels of lead and selenium and some even had nickel and aluminium.
Selenium, lead and aluminium have been found in 67 villages of Kapurthala and uranium in villages that fall under Sultanpur Lodhi block. 95 villages in Ludhiana were high on lead with some having concentration of aluminium, selenium and even mercury.
Aluminium and lead have been found in water being supplied to 26 villages of Moga district, whereas uranium was found in villages under Dharamkot and Nihal Singh Wala segments of the district. Aluminium is present in most of 113 villages of Pathankot whereas 41 villages in Patiala have higher lead levels in the drinking water. Some of the villages in the Bhunarheri block of the district even showed the presence of Uranium.
In 290 villages of Ropar, aluminium was found to be in higher concentrations along with lead, but no uranium traces in water were detected in the district.
Uranium has been found in the 62 villages checked in Sangrur district, which also had fluoride, lead and selenium. Maximum aluminium deposits were spotted in the 46 districts of Mohali district where the investigators also found lead and fluoride.
Mercury, selenium, aluminium and lead was also found 32 villages in Nawanshahr, while 48 villages in Tarn Taran showed the presence of uranium arsenic, nickel, lead and selenium.
While, Ashwani Kumar, special secretary cum head of department of water and sanitation, could not be contacted for his comments on the issues, one of the senior officials of the department said that on the basis of the latest report regarding the quality of the underground water, the department was planning to recommend installation of reverse osmosis (RO) system in villages where the key parameters were not in the permissible limits.
Representative image.