Japanese team visits fluoride-hit villages

[pfpcnews]

Japanese team visits fluoride-hit villages

Newwindpress - January 24 2007

DHARMAPURI: A team from the Japan Bank For International Cooperation (JBIC) on Tuesday held discussions with the District Collector and other higher officials regarding the Rs 1,005 crore ‘Hogenakkal Comprehensive Drinking Water Project‘ at the Dharmapuri Collectorate.

Team members Nakamura and Yamamoto visited the villages affected by fluoride contamination in the district after visiting several areas in Krishnagiri district, including the Kelavarappalli water reservoir.

The team held discussions with officials of the district administration, MPs, MLAs and representatives of other local bodies. A power point presentation on the project was made to the team. The team was briefed about the problems faced by the people of the district due to flouride contamination.

During the discussion, Collector Pankaj Kumar Bansal said according to the latest survey, all panchayat unions in the district had been affected by fluoride contamination.

Some areas in the district had recorded a high fluoride content of 9.0 mg per litre of water against the normal content of 1.5 mg. Dharmapuri was the most-affected district in the State on this count. There was no other alternative for providing potable water to the people except from the Hogenakkal River Cauvery source, Bansal said.

Dharmapuri MP and neuro specialist Dr R Senthil explained the ill effects of consuming water with high fluoride content. He also said that the permanant solution to this problem was implementation of the Hogenakkal project.

TWAD officials said that the actual cost of the project was Rs 1,005 crore. The cost of annual maintenance would be Rs 51.65 crore, while the cost per 1,000 litres of water would be Rs 32.20 crore. They also explained the ground water table variations to the team.

MP E G Sugavanam, district panchayat chairman S P Venkateswaran, MLA P N Periyannan, Dharmapuri municipal chairman D C P Ananthkumar Raja, DRO R Nagarajan, Project Officer, DRDA, N Idimannan, district PRO M Palanisamy and officials from other related departments were present.

SOURCE:
http://tinyurl.com/397sna