State turns blind eye, deforms childhood in UP
27 Nov 2014 12:07 AM GMT
Oblivious to the highly carcinogenic environment, her parents one day saw deformity in Gudia’s little fingers. They were told that she was developing deformities due to the consumption of ground water, which had turned highly polluted due to untreated industrial waste being released in the area.
Gudia’s poor parents, who often find difficult to arrange two square meals a day, are finding it difficult to meet her treatment expenses. The local administration, which for greased palms, allowed pollutants to be released causing disease shows helplessness to the victims when approached for help.
Since Hapur is a newly-created district, it still doesn’t have a full-fledged district hospital to address the spread of the near epidemic like condition. The poor patients are referred to either Meerut or Delhi for treatment and thereafter it turns into a never ending trauma for parents and children.
The tragedy of Gudia is a mere example of a village located in the vicinity of a highly polluted drain.
There is a deluge of such cases in the district which is witnessing increasing number of patients every day. The statistics reveal that about 3.5 lakh people of the nearly 70 villages of two pockets are affected with the deadly cancer and similar types of diseases due to ground water contamination.
These villages, located in the vicinity of highly polluted drains, are facing serious threat with more than 200 patients of cancer, hepatitis and other diseases reported to have surfaced in almost every village.
Notably, state water department, pollution control department and various bodies of central government have declared the area around two drains — one from Simbhaoli to Pooth and Mawana to Babugarh — as highly polluting and also accepted that water pollution was the main cause of rising cancer in the area.
‘Although the central authority has taken care of the issue, number of cases is on high in the region. As we have no facilities to detect cancer, we have been referring cases to the other districts. Until the polluting industries are shutdown and Effluent Treatment Plants installed in industrial units, people will not get relief at all,’ said a senior physician of Hapur district hospital requesting anonymity.
Gudia’s poor parents, who often find difficult to arrange two square meals a day, are finding it difficult to meet her treatment expenses. The local administration, which for greased palms, allowed pollutants to be released causing disease shows helplessness to the victims when approached for help.
Since Hapur is a newly-created district, it still doesn’t have a full-fledged district hospital to address the spread of the near epidemic like condition. The poor patients are referred to either Meerut or Delhi for treatment and thereafter it turns into a never ending trauma for parents and children.
The tragedy of Gudia is a mere example of a village located in the vicinity of a highly polluted drain.
There is a deluge of such cases in the district which is witnessing increasing number of patients every day. The statistics reveal that about 3.5 lakh people of the nearly 70 villages of two pockets are affected with the deadly cancer and similar types of diseases due to ground water contamination.
These villages, located in the vicinity of highly polluted drains, are facing serious threat with more than 200 patients of cancer, hepatitis and other diseases reported to have surfaced in almost every village.
Notably, state water department, pollution control department and various bodies of central government have declared the area around two drains — one from Simbhaoli to Pooth and Mawana to Babugarh — as highly polluting and also accepted that water pollution was the main cause of rising cancer in the area.
‘Although the central authority has taken care of the issue, number of cases is on high in the region. As we have no facilities to detect cancer, we have been referring cases to the other districts. Until the polluting industries are shutdown and Effluent Treatment Plants installed in industrial units, people will not get relief at all,’ said a senior physician of Hapur district hospital requesting anonymity.
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