Chief executive officer of Care International Geoffrey Dennis (in garland & white shirt) inspects the plant site in Bodhgaya. Picture by Suman

Gaya, April 21: A water treatment plant would be installed at Gaurbigha village under Bodhgaya block after several cases of dental fluorosis were reported from the place. The water that people drink here contains high percentage of fluoride.

Dental fluorisis is a disease where the teeth first start turning yellowish before starting to crack.

The treatment plant would be installed with the support of Care International of the UK.

The chief executive officer of the organisation, Geoffrey Dennis, signed an agreement with a Gaurbigha village-based women’s self-help group.

The group would ensure maintenance as well as monitoring of the treatment plant that would start functioning within a week.

After the plant gets functional, a population of nearly 2,000 would get the benefits. Sujeet Ranjan, the deputy team leader of sector-wide approach to strengthen health (Swasth) programme in the state, said a tubewell would be sunk.

“The place where the tubewell would be sunk would be selected after the public health and engineering department (PHED) tests the quality of the underground water. It has to be ensured that the presence of fluoride is low. The solar-based motor pump installed with the tubewell would fill a water storage tank constructed at the place. At least five taps would be connected to the water storage tank,” Sujeet said, adding that the self-help group would spread awareness among the villagers to use the water for drinking and cooking purposes.

For other purposes, the water can be used without any problem, he said. PHED executive engineer Ajay Kumar told The Telegraph the department was also getting such tubewells installed in the villages where water contains a huge percentage of fluoride.

“So far, the PHED has installed water-treatment plants in 14 villages. The installation work at 18 other villages is in progress. Installation of one water treatment plant costs around Rs 40 lakh. A big filter is installed with the tubewell and the fluoride is separated from the water through absorption and ion exchange process. Normally, one water treatment plant is installed for a population of 1,000 to 1,500,” Kumar said.

During his Gaya visit, Dennis also visited the anganwadi kendra at Gaurbigha village and the primary health centre in Barachatti block of Gaya today.

A total of 891 patients from the village have been reported to be suffering from dental fluorosis, Sujeet said, adding that 1.5MG of fluorine is permissible in water.

“But 6.5MG of fluorine is present in the water here,” he said.

A Gaya-based dentist, Khushboo Sahay, said fluorine in the water was measured 1,000 parts per million.

“Because of an intake of water having a very high percentage of fluorine, a person also gets affected of bone deformity, apart from dental fluorosis,” she said.

Another dentist, Dr P.K. Tarun said: “The disease is also called dental backing.”