Hogenakkal project: Water of hope
Times of India - April 16, 2008
By Radha Venkatesan
KRISHNAGIRI: Voices rose in protest over Hogenakkal water project on the Chennai-Bangalore highway, but in the tiny hamlet of Melerikottai near here, 35-year-old Govindamma, lay curled up in her house, sobbing quietly. Crippled from the hip down, she struggles to lift her head. "I cannot move my legs and hip. Please help me," she cries.
Protestors against Hogenakkal water project may not have heard Govindamma's wails or that of her crippled neighbour, 57-year-old Muniappan, but they showcase a pathetic story of how fluoride-filled ground water is crippling hundreds of people, including Kannada-speaking residents in western Tamil Nadu's Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts since decades.
Beneath the hills that girdle the two districts, is water laden with fluoride which causes fluorosis, leaving the teeth of school children discoloured and the middle-aged crippled. "This water is killing me. I can't even stand," sighs Muniappan, unable to even crawl to the nearby toilet. Having squandered away Rs 60,000 on medicines, Muniappan, a tomato farmer, desperately sought a local cure and got his thighs poked with red-hot needles. "No improvement... I am not able to even slightly move my legs," Muniappan says, rubbing his thighs full of boils and burns.
In the Melerikottai where 240 families live, fluorosis has pervaded almost every household. The water pump in the local school has been declared "unfit for drinking" by the Tamil Nadu Water and Sewerage Board, as its water has more than 6 mg fluoride per litre — an alarming four times more than permissible levels of 1.5 mg per litre. But school children have no other option. After their noon meal, they queue up at the water pump to drink the poisonous water. The result: Most of their upper teeth have turned brown, some even black with tiny holes, a clear case of dental fluorosis. "We tell students not to drink water, but is there any other water for them to drink?" asks headmistress Rosalin Mary.
Children in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts hesitate to smile. If they do smile, they purse their lips tightly to hide brown incisors. Some are so ashamed of their teeth that they cover their mouths while talking too. But they are unaware why their teeth are black. Ask Class IV student K Aravindan of Periyamuthur Panchayat School near Krishnagiri dam, how his teeth turned black and he says, "I chew thengai puttu (tender coconut shell) and maangai (mangoes). That's why."
In Krishnagiri district alone, 40,400 of 1.26 lakh school children suffer from dental fluorosis and Dharmapuri has another 75,000 children with significant dental discolouration, reveal district education authorities.
As fluoride content in water increases, incidence of dental fluorosis rise. In Kangaleri high school in Krishnagiri taluk, 610 students of the total 630 suffer from dental fluorosis. As many as 611 habitations in Dharmapuri district and 593 Krishnagiri villages of the total 6,755 have fluorosis with nearly 320 villages severely affected.
Dharmapuri district deputy director (health) Dr N Ayyanar says, "Incidence of skeletal fluorosis is increasing. In villages, we find young people with hunched backs, with legs crippled. High fluoride content in the water leaves women extremely fatigued and affects their productivity."
In fact, when the Army and State police conducted a recruitment drive in the two districts, most youth were found 'unfit', as they had signs of fluorosis.
The only hope for these people is the Rs 1,330 crore Hogenakkal project. The two districts get very low rainfall and ground water cannot be completely treated. Water from Krishnagiri dam supplied to a few areas flows is contaminated with sewage from Bangalore. "We are just going to use 1.45 tmc of the 194 tmc ft of Cauvery water Karnataka is stipulated to give us. And it will save the lives of 34 lakh people," says a senior government official.
If politics doesn't mix with water schemes, Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri will get clean drinking water.
SOURCE
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chen ... 955960.cms