NALBARI, Aug 28 - The Nalbari Deputy Commissioner, Ananta Lal Gyani, has directed the PHE Department to collect samples of drinking water sources from Madhupur Development Block area to carry out laboratory tests, after reports of massive arsenic contamination in 21 tubewells of primary schools of the locality came to the fore.
While talking to this correspondent, the Deputy Commissioner said that he had asked the PHE officials to install the arsenic removal filters that were provided to the schools earlier as most of them are reportedly lying defunct.
As per the direction of the Deputy Commissioner, the Block Development Officer of Madhupur Development Block organised an arsenic awareness meeting at Kaithalkuchi Bazar Sabha Ghar on Saturday.
About 500 primary teachers participated in the awareness meeting from the locality. Addressing the meeting, Dr Rabin Dutta, Head of the Department of Chemistry, Tezpur University, said that the dreaded arsenic contamination in drinking water has become a major problem all over the State.
He added that as per the WHO guidelines, 0.17 ppb arsenic in drinking water may cause cancer. However, the arsenic level has crossed 153 PPB per litre in some tubewells in Madhupur. He further stated that though the PHE Department has fixed the tolerance level of arsenic at 50 ppb, that is still very dangerous to human health. According to him, drinking water should be arsenic free.
While the arsenic level of the packaged drinking water is below 10 ppb, the arsenic in PHE supply water is fixed at 50 ppb. It is a big difference between the rich and the poor people, Dr Dutta observed.
It may be mentioned here that Professor Dutta prepared a cheap model of arsenic removal equipment from drinking water called �arsiran nilagan�. He exhibited the arsenic removal model at the meeting and distributed free kits to the arsenic-affected 21 schools free of cost.
The arsenic removal model of Professor Dr Dutta is also popular in Rajasthan and Telengana besides Assam.
The meeting conducted by Nabaratna Patowary, Block Development Officer of Madhupur Block was addressed by Dr Suresh Nath, a researcher on fluorides, Kshitish Talukdar, Assistant Engineer of PHE, Belsor division, Anowara Begum, president of Madhupur Anchalik Panchayat and Ramen Talukdar, chemist of PHE among others.
