Bhagalpur: Research work conducted by the postgraduate department of chemistry under the Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University (TMBU) has indicated that groundwater in areas near the Ganga here is not suitable for human consumption.

The study, sponsored by the University Grants Commission (UGC), has shown not only arsenic contamination but also fluoride and hexavalent chromium.

The report has also attributed the rise in the number of cancer patients locally to the consumption of hexavalent chromium in drinking water sources.

The public health engineering department (PHED), which is all set to start a mega project to provide at least 200 villages arsenic-free water, mostly in areas near the Ganga, was taken aback at the TMBU report and is gearing up to take measures to counter the hexavalent chromium problem.

As part of the UGC-sponsored research work, Ashok Kumar Jha, Bindeshwari Singh (all teachers) and a faculty student, Uzzal Kumar, of the chemistry PG department, conducted the study in areas like Naugachia, Sabour, Sultanganj and Bhagalpur in 2017.

"The presence of hexavalent chromium is several times more than the permissible limit of 0.05 parts per million (PPM), which is carcinogenic for humans," said Jha on Thursday.

"We have already made the UGC, the central government and the state government aware of the facts through the report," he added. The team had conducted survey in around six villages which have cancer patients. "At Rasalpur, we found many cancer patients and eventually found high quantity of hexavalent chromium in the groundwater of several villages in the Naugachia sub-division," said Jha.

According to Jha, after submission of the report, a high-level team of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) visited some villages in Naugachia, including some of the Narayanpur block. CSIR later acknowledged the findings by Prof Jha and his team and advised for the installation of iron removal attachment devices in the hand-pump sets to remove such elements.

Prof Jha said after the CSIR's recommendation and the team's findings, then district magistrate Bhagalpur initiated for countering such problems but it is yet not implemented in the villages here.

On the presence of hexavalent chromium in the groundwater, PHED executive engineer (east) Ranjit Kumar said water samples from different parts of the affected areas will be collected soon and sent to the department's state laboratory in Patna, for rechecking. "Let's see what immediate step could be taken to counter this problem," he said.

Work on installation of plants for providing arsenic-free water in 200 wards of the district at a cost of Rs 90 crore has been started. A total of 183 wards in Naugachia and 17 wards in Sabour block have been selected for it, tenders have been issued for 191 wards, while work has started at some places, Ranjit said.

"But since now the matter of hexavalent chromium has come to light, we will have to formulate strategies on how to counter it in areas where we have already started working for providing arsenic-free water to residents," he said.