600-cr. plan to fight fluorosis in Nalgonda district

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 10. The Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, on Friday gave an assurance to the fluorosis-affected people of Nalgonda district that the Government would tap all sources to mobilise Rs. 600 crores required for providing fluoride-free drinking water for them. He also announced a pension scheme for those crippled by the disease.

Inaugurating a seminar on "Sustainable policy initiatives on fluorosis," Dr. Reddy said it could be an expensive proposition to supply water from Krishna river (through the pipeline going to Hyderabad) and take up other schemes but the Government was determined to provide succour to the people in all 1,100 affected villages, who had been suffering for decades, whatever the cost. The seminar was organised by the Citizen's Against Pollution (CAP) and the Fluorosis Vimochana Samithi. Dr. Reddy interacted with some of the victims who attended the seminar.

Groundwater exploitation

The previous Telugu Desam Government had slept for ten years without solving problems faced by people and "we do not want to do the same," he said. He made it clear that the Government was determined to implement the Andhra Pradesh Water, Land and Trees Act (WALTA) from September 15, for checking indiscriminate exploitation of groundwater, even if a section of people had reservations. "It is after all, for the good of a large section of society."

He said one of the reasons for the prevalence of fluorosis in Nalgonda was overexploitation of groundwater and cited the example of Mushampalli where 6,500 borewells were sunk and half of them had failed. In the same village, one farmer had dug as many as 65 borewells on his 11-acre farm and earned the nickname "Borula Raghava Reddy." An expert committee would be constituted to study the problem of fluorosis.

Problem acute in Nalgonda

K. Purushottam Reddy, convenor of CAP, said that though the problem of flourosis was prevalent in other districts too like Anantapur, it was severe in Nalgonda, owing to the concentration ranging from 6 parts per million to 15 ppm, against the permissible limit of 1.5 ppm. The problem had aggravated owing to overexploitation of groundwater. The only remedy was to supply water from Srisailam Left Bank Canal and Krishna and take up rain harvesting programme. Prithvi Raj, Head of the Preventive Medicine unit of the Gandhi Medical College, and D. Narasimha Reddy of CAP spoke.

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