Balasore, Jan.25: Fluoride presence in groundwater in some places of the district is alarmingly high, and its consumption could cause serious health hazards.
This was observed by an expert team from a Delhi-based private organisation, which visited two gram panchayats - Patripal in Remuna block and Jayarampur in Bhograi block.
Rajnarayan Indu and S. Krishnan, both experts from the organisation that works for safe and sustainable drinking water, and a dentist, Sundar Senthilnathan of Bangalore, visited the villages.
The team collected drinking water samples and conducted extensive health check-up of schoolchildren.
The members also met some patients, who have become victims of deformity after consuming water with high-levels of fluoride content for a long time.
"The water at Patripal and Jayarampur gram panchayats contains over five milligrams of fluoride per litre against the permissible limit of 1 milligram," said Indu.
"The condition of some of the patients at Patripal is severe. The fact that they are consuming painkillers and antibiotics is alarming. This would affect their kidneys and other organs," said Indu.
"Nutrition supplements and consumption of drumstick leaves and green papaya are recommended rather than taking antibiotics and painkillers," said Krishnan.
The team members, however, said calcium and iron supplements could mitigate the severity of the health related problems because of the consumption of groundwater.
The team visited the affected areas and conducted medical examinations, mainly dental, of children belonging to two schools. They found many of them were suffering from dental fluorosis (also termed mottled enamel).
"They may be affected further with skeletal (that causes pain and damage to bones and joints) or non-skeletal fluorosis, if they continue to consume the same water untreated," the team said.
At Patripal, they found around 45 patients, some of them severely crippled and had lost hope of recovery.
The rural water supply and sanitation department had installed a treatment plant ar Patripal seven years ago. It is supplying Sono river water after treatment since high-level of oxides are present in tube wells.
The department's executive engineer Rajiv Panigrahi said: "Since seven years, villagers have been supplied treated water of the Sono after the groundwater was found to be unfit for consumption."
The villagers, on the other hand, said they were forced to use tube wells since they hardly get piped water.
Team co-ordinator Utkarsha Bharadwaj said: "The water samples have been sent to the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology in Bhubaneswar. A sample will also be sent to Ahmedabad."
"On the recommendation of the team, further action would be initiated. The problem is alarming, and if not handled properly, more people will suffer from fluorosis," said local MP R.K. Jena, who invited the team to counter the crisis.
