The Yadgir Zilla Panchayat has started marking borewells with high arsenic content with red paint so that the public can avoid using water drawn from them borewells for drinking.
Speaking here on Monday, in-charge Deputy Secretary K. Ziaulla said that officials had started marking borewells that had arsenic levels more than the permissible limit of 0.05 mg per litre of water.
He said that in 2011, reverse osmosis water purifying plants were installed in seven villages in Surpur taluk where water sources were found to have high arsenic content.
He said that though a purification plant with a 250-litre capacity per hour was installed in Kiradalli tanda in Surpur taluk, where a large number of people were diagnosed with skin cancer after drinking water with high arsenic content, it was not sufficient to meet the demand. As per the government’s instructions, another purification plant with a 1,000-litre capacity per hour was being installed which should be sufficient to meet the demand in the tanda. Similar plants had been installed in the remaining villages of Jainapur, Godrihal,Goudigera, Havinal, Chigrihal and Hebbal.
Mr. Ziaulla added that high levels of nitrate and fluoride were found in drinking water in 80 villages of the district. Of the 80 villages, 27 were in Shahpur taluk, 20 in Surpur taluk and 33 villages were in Yadgir taluk. A sum of Rs. 1.76 crore had been allocated under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme to Yadgir district this year, which would be used to provide potable water to the affected villages.
