Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, February 27
Bathinda has become the first city in the state where water from its handpumps has been officially declared unfit for drinking. The Bathinda Municipal Corporation in the process of painting warning signs on all its 640 handpumps.
A government survey recently had revealed 1,546 people suffering from cancer-like symptoms in the city. Uranium traces have also been found in the Gurdaspur belt.
The city handpumps draw water from merely 40 to 50 feet while uranium traces in the region have been found at a depth of 500 feet. With poor quality of underground water cited as one of the reasons for the spread of cancer in the region, the local government has declared all handpumps unsafe for drinking purposes.
Mayor Baljit Singh Bir Behman said the warning signs had become necessary as water samples from all the pumps had failed. " We have already painted 200 handpumps with the warning sign," he said. He said there were reports that the water was contaminated with uranium and sulphur.
However, those who can't read are still using the handpumps. As of now, the MC does not have any plan to seal the pumps.
EOM
key words: Bathinda, Cancer, underground water, uranium, mayor,
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