The Hindu : Change in WHO standard favoured

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 03, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

Change in WHO standard favoured

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD April 2. An international conference on water resource management for safe drinking water, which was held recently in Chiang Mai, Thailand, has suggested that the WHO standards of fluoride in water should be raised to have 0.7 milligrams per litre instead of the present 1.5 mgs per litre, as per the findings of medical research.

Informing The Hindu about the proceedings of the conference, A.S. Narayana, well known city-based orthodontist, who is involved in providing fluoride-free drinking water to some Nalgonda villages, said that the present research indicated that fluoride content of 0.9 to 1.2 mgs per litre in drinking water could cause fluoride problems among the people.

Dr. Narayana was among 60 scientists and activists who participated in this conference.

The general conclusion at the conference was that over-exploitation of drinking water, specially groundwater, was leading to rapid lowering of water tables resulting in intrusion of toxic chemicals such as fluoride, arsenic and salinity into the ground water reservoirs.

Speaking about his intervention in ameliorating the fluoride-affected water in Nalgonda, Dr. Narayana told the conference that rainwater harvesting, supply of lake water and installation of domestic de-fluoridation filters for domestic use, were measures which had proved successful.

He said that reverse osmosis method of removing fluoride from drinking water, which was demonstrated in some Thai villages, could be used in Nalgonda too if the district administration provided the investment costs.

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