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In Bihar, it is common to see children and cattle bathe together in the same water. Drinking water has become contaminated and sanitation facilities remain negligible, reports
Bula Devi
Access to safe drinking water is an
important millennium development goal, but in Bihar, which is
ironically enough blessed with innumerable rivers, it is proving to be
a huge concern. The evidence from the ground is compelling. Take
Shankar Yadav, 44, of Tilathi village in Saharsa district. He may have
enough land to feed his family but is still very troubled.
"Earlier, our water used to be clean. The root-cause of our
present health problems is impure water," he says. The water in
Yadav’s well has traces of iron. As if that is not bad enough, the
swamp adjoining his home is a breeding ground for flies and
mosquitoes, and diseases like kala azar and malaria are
common. The groundwater in this region straddling the Ganga is the
main source of drinking water. But it has become contaminated with
arsenic, fluoride and iron as shallow and middle-level aquifers get
overexploited. Anindo Banerjee, head of Praxis, a Patna-based NGO,
estimates that women in certain pockets have to walk at least 5 km to
find safe drinking water. "If they don’t do this, they will
have to depend on stagnant water in nearby ponds," says Banerjee. If
one travels along the embankment of the Kosi, where about one million
people live, and which is spread across about 384 villages, it is
common to see children and cattle bathe in the same water, even as
women wash their clothes and utensils nearby. But this water is
unsafe. According to Ashwini Choube, State Public Health Engineering
Department Minister, out of 38 districts in Bihar, 13 are affected by
arsenic contamination, 12 by fluoride and 10 by iron. The World
Heath Organisation’s permissible limits allow for 10 ppb (parts per
billion) arsenic in drinking water supplies. But in 2008-09, Dr Ashok
Ghosh, professor-in-charge of the Environment and Water Management
Department at Patna’s A.N. College, found in a study he conducted
that there was 1,861 ppb arsenic in Panday tola, Bhojpur district,
while in Khagaria and Supaul districts, drinking water contained 300
ppb and 250 ppb, respectively. Says Dr Ghosh: "In groundwater 87
per cent of the arsenic is in trivalent form, which is very
harmful." The three common sources of arsenic poisoning are
drinking water, water used for irrigation which enters the human body
through food, and the burning of cow dung cakes. Dr Ghosh makes the
connections: "The fodder given to cows has been irrigated by
arsenic contaminated water; so the cow releases arsenic-laced dung.
When cow dung cakes are burnt, arsenic is released as arsine
gas." It is the women who are largely affected by this. Not only
do they drink contaminated water, they spend most of their time in
unventilated kitchens, inhaling the smoke from the cow dung cakes used
as cooking fuel. Infants imbibe the toxins with their mother’s milk.
"The basic sanitation problem is because of cultural attitudes.
But it is also a poverty issue," says Dinesh Mishra, an MPA
activist. Open defecation is a big concern in Bihar, with dirty
surroundings becoming the breeding ground for the sandfly, which
causes kala azar. It is the poorest who are the worst hit. Dr Ashok
Kumar, a private practitioner in Khagaria, estimates that 90 per cent
of his kala azar patients are Dalits, who are among the lowest of the
low castes in Bihar. Clearly, rural Bihar is paying a high price for
the lack of clean water and proper sanitation. But there are some
innovative responses to the crisis. The MPA, for instance, has
spearheaded two initiatives. They began by convincing local
communities to undertake rainwater harvesting. Recalls Prasad:
"At first activists were met by a lot of resistance because of a
local belief that they could get goitre if they drink rainwater. The
question of proper storage also arose. We learnt from the local
villagers in Supaul district about the matka filter. We further
developed it by using bamboo and waterproof cement to protect it from
secondary The second initiative involved better
sanitation. This, too, was a challenge because people resisted the
idea of toilets. Says Mishra: "They just could not adjust to
confining themselves to a 3 ft x 3ft cell even for a while!" But
things are slowly changing. Some villages now have the ecological
sanitation system known as the faidemand shauchalay (beneficial
toilets)." The state government has introduced a slew of
measures to improve access to drinking water. Some 200,000 hand pumps
have been made functional across the state and an additional 100,000
will be dug between 2012 and 2015. There are plans to set up 200 to
500 new mini water plants in areas with 1,000 to 1,500 inhabitants.
The state government has also promised to make access to drinking
water and sanitation a fundamental right. There is also a growing
understanding about the importance of sanitation. The government has
coined slogans emphasising general health and social dignity,
especially that of women. One of these slogans goes like this — ghar
ghar mein ho shauchalay ka nirmaan, tabhi hoga laali betiya ka
kanyadaan (a toilet in the house is the right wedding gift for
one’s dear daughter). — WFS
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