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A veritable hell on earth near Delhi

C.K. Chandramohan

Photo: Parveen Kumar

POISONED: A young victim of contaminated water in Daurala near Meerut on Friday.

DAURALA (MEERUT): Highly toxic untreated effluents released from industries and used as irrigation water are spelling a slow death for 18,000-odd residents of Daurala village-cum-industrial estate not far from Delhi. The local men are no longer preferred for employment by the industrialists as they are "not as healthy" as outsiders to undertake strenuous jobs.

According to a study, "Daurala: Hell on Earth", conducted by Janhit Foundation with technical assistance from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, the levels of dangerous elements in drinking water, agriculture soil and sludge of the area are high enough to put Daurala among the top 50 most polluted habitations in the country.

Alarmed by the findings of the study the Foundation director, Anil Rana has approached the Supreme Court appointed High Powered Committee on Hazardous Wastes to save the lives of the innocent and unsuspecting people. The Committee is expected to visit Daurala next month.

Mr. Rana has also urged the Centre to immediately launch an intensive medical drive to save the population and ask the erring industries to stop functioning till they install effluent treatment plants.

A government intervention becomes all the more urgent as the local authorities including the Pollution Control Board, politicians and the industrialists themselves have not shown any signs of action despite repeated demonstrations by the locals.

A door-to-door survey by the Foundation volunteers has revealed that of the 192 persons dying over the past five years, 54 died due to thyroid cancer, 33 died of heart diseases and 42 lost their lives due to gastro intestinal disorders. Many more are suffering from serious ailments with little or no funds to seek medical attention. "The reason for these ailments is supposed to be the presence of alarming levels of heavy metals like arsenic, lead, aluminium and lethal compounds like cyanide in the drinking water, waste water, agriculture soil and sludge samples tested at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee," said Mr. Rana.

The village community uses the untreated waste water coming out of the chemicals, organic and distillery units for agriculture purposes and the ground water has also been polluted. "Dozens of hand pumps are spewing poisonous water," said Sukhbir Singh, Rajbir Singh and Raj Kumar, all farmers suffering from thyroid cancer.

Although Dr. Garima Bhasin of the Government Primary Health Centre admits that every family has cases of serious ailments, she does not have the necessary life saving drugs or other medicines to cure them.

Munni Devi, gram pradhan of Daurala, says the problem started after some industries gave their wastewater for irrigation. "Everything was fine and we got a better yield for a few years. But then our crops began to fail, the cattle fell ill and now for the past few years the people have become chronic patients with no money to seek the expensive treatment at Meerut or Delhi," she laments.

Twelve-year-old Monu has lost his legs while five-year-old Mamata has severe boils all over her body with no money in the family to seek medical assistance.

"This is a fit case of human rights violation and deserves stern action from none other than Sonia Gandhi," says Haseena Begum who suffers from blood cancer. Her young son, Shabbir is down with a serious neurological disorder.

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A veritable hell on earth near Delhi

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