Silent killer arsenic poisons lives in Ballia
The UP government has invested Rs 1,700 crore in mitigation measures but a recent report by a national-level monitor (NLM) has drilled holes in these efforts to contain the problem. Of the 873 UP districts that have alarmingly high arsenic content in groundwater, Ballia alone has 310 affected villages. This is just the tip of the iceberg since several areas have not even been surveyed yet, Chakraborty says. "The source of arsenic is the Himalayas and arsenic will be found in all those areas, in varying quantities, where Himalaya-fed rivers flow. My team recently lifted 10 water samples from Ballia district in which arsenic content was more than 1,000 ppm. There are about 500 million people at risk across UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Bangladesh," he warn
Read more:The TOI