For nearly two decades, Shakina Bibi (48) has not stepped out of her hut. She suffers from excruciating pain whenever her skin comes into contact with sunlight, water or even clothes. This is what arsenic contamination of groundwater has done to residents of the Bhangar Assembly constituency and adjoining areas in South 24 Parganas district. But major political parties, including the ruling Trinamool Congress, have scarcely addressed the issue. South 24 Parganas will go to the polls next Saturday.
Polls mean “nothing” to Shakina Bibi. “I cannot move my fingers now. The joints have become stiff from ulcers. I will not vote this time as in the past 20 years.” she said. She is a resident of the Nalpukur area of Bhangar.
About 500 metres from her house lives Sakherjan Bibi (80). For the past four years, arsenic contamination has not only deformed her toes but has also left her unable to walk without support. “Now I can not bend forward to pick up something. My hands have become too weak ... how can I vote,” she asks.
Poor awarenessNone of them has even heard about arsenic, let alone about its ill-effects. “There is almost no awareness here of arsenic contamination and the State government should have been more proactive about it,” says M.A. Wohab, director of Southern Health Improvement Samity.
According to the World Health Organisation’s guidelines for drinking water quality (1971), the permissible limit of Arsenic in groundwater is 0.05 mg per litre, but in the Bhangar I and II blocks it ranges from 0.056 to 0.078 mg per litre.
According to the SHIS, which has done extensive surveys in the area, more than 2 lakh residents of the Bhangar I and II blocks face the risk of arsenic contamination through groundwater. Also, nearly 3.3 million people face the risk in eight districts — North and South 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, Nadia, Malda, Howra, Kolkata and Bardhaman.
Even as the Trinamool manifesto says that 91 per cent of the population of arsenic-affected areas have been provided clean water, the party candidate from Bhangar, Abdur Rezzak Molla, admitted that he “has not raised” the issue in his campaign.
“We have neither raised the issue of arsenic contamination nor the condition of those who are affected by it,” he said. His rival, Rashid Gazi of the CPI(M), admitted that the “Trinamool’s corruption and terror” have been the main focus of his campaign and the arsenic issue has found almost no space in his poll speeches.
Welfare Party of India (WPI) candidate Mohammad Jalaluddin Ahmed accused both the Trinamool and the CPI(M) of turning a blind eye to the issue, and alleged that both the parties were only concerned about “grabbing power” with money. He said the WPI had taken up the issue in its campaign.
Terming the lack of awareness “most unfortunate”, K.J. Nath, chairman of the State Government’s Arsenic Task Force, said it had repeatedly urged the government to launch an extensive awareness programme. He stressed the need for marking tube wells that were arsenic-contaminated, and said the government had spent nearly Rs. 3,000 crore to supply clean water in the affected areas. “Let us hope that the new government, whichever it is, responds to this crisis on a war footing,” he said.
