Photo Source; Babushahi Bureau
Sultanpur Lodhi MLA raises concern for presence of heavy metals in groundwater
Rana Inder Partap Singh suggests elaborate studies to verify the facts
Babushahi Bureau
Kapurthala, September 3, 2024: Speaking on the environmental issues concerning Punjab during the zero hour in Vidhan Sabha today Sultanpur Lodhi MLA Rana Inder Partap Singh today said that the state government needs to urgently verify the reports of toxicity in the underground water in the districts Majha of belt of Punjab including Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur.
Studies by various public and private sector agencies have revealed traces of heavy metals, such as arsenic and uranium, and nitrates in the groundwater.
“For about 20 years we have been getting reports of toxicity in subsoil water from the Malwa belt of the state and now the waters of Majha have also been reported toxicity”, Rana Inder Partap Singh said in his address in the house.
He adds that outside agencies are telling us about the presence of heavy metals in the water, the state government should crosscheck this, find the reasons, and take corrective steps by making a detailed plan.
“The rock strata close to the aquifers might be containing heavy metals enriched, and percolating in the aquifers, this also needs to be verified”, he said.
Ruling out the presence of impurities due to agriculture run off, he said that in case it has been uniform in all districts of the state as equally affected which is not the case.
The reports from four districts for arsenic, uranium, iron, and nitrates have lots of variation, which is not realistically possible.
Raising an alarm of heavy iron content in the water which is ten to 15 times the toxic limits, Rana Inder Partap Singh said that there are at least 45 lakh redundant agriculture tubewells in the state and the farmers have a tendency to shift the tube-wells but the iron pipes are left to rust in the earth which gets rusted and oxidized iron percolates into the water.
“We need to make an elaborate plan to take these redundant pipes out of the earth”, he suggested and raised alarms to study the future impact of plastic pipes used these days to bore water.
The studies should not be in piece meal but there should be comprehensive data analysis, he said.
He also said the source of nitrates in the soil is untreated human and animal feces directly percolating into the ground, which should stopped immediately and the government needs to introduce a disposal plan.