People of Thelkodungri village of Bargaon gram panchayat in Khariar block in Nuapada district have decided to withdraw their children from the Primary School of Kashipala village. Out of 75 students in this school, 40 belong to Thelkodungri. “We cannot put the lives of our children at stake. Available sources of drinking water at Kashipala are not safe,” said students’ parents of Thelkodungri. “We have stopped our children from taking MDM (midday meal) and water in this village,” they added.
The people of Kashipala also hold the same view about the sources of drinking water at the village. “The fear of people has not emerged out of the blue. More than 10 people of this village have already died in last seven years in kidney-related diseases and the cause of the diseases are stated to be drinking water,” informed Sanjay Tiwari of Bendrabahal village. “But where shall we go; it is our village; we and our children are destined to suffer the consequence of Government apathy” said villagers of Kashipala. The fear of people accentuated when a seven-year-old girl student, Sibani Barik, of the school died of kidney failure in August last.
The villagers are harping on the demand of river water supply for several years, but the department of RWSS (Rural Water Supply & Sanitation) is yet to take up a project although there is availability of fund for this purpose under fluoride special project. Kashipala villagers informed that eleven villagers are now suffering from kidney-related diseases and four of them are in critical condition. Bhismadev Barik (50) is bedridden. “I spent lakhs of rupees for my treatment in Raipur but did not recover. I now don’t have money for dialysis,” said Bhismadev.
Premsila Panda (40), wife of a daily wage earner, knew of her kidney problem five months ago. “I was admitted to the Mission Hospital at Khariar when my face and leg swelled and urination stopped,” said Premsila. She could not afford the cost of treatment in the hospital and, thus, resorted to homoeopathy treatment. Her condition is gradually deteriorating. Hemsagar Raut of Kashipala is getting treatment from a Baidya of Sindhekela village in Balangir district. “I availed treatment from the VSS Medical College at Burla which did not work. The ‘cherimuli’ (root and herbs) of the Baidya is working well, I am taking that with cow urine once a day since last four months and feeling better,” said Hemsagar.
When the villagers blame the drinking water sources for their kidney problems, the health and RWSS officials rebuff this. “It is a fact that the tube-wells at the village contain high level of fluoride, but that cannot be the cause of kidney problems,” said the Executive Engineer of RWSS. To provide alternative source of drinking water, the RWSS has dug two sanitation wells at the village, which the people say are also not free from fluoride. “The water of the wells also contain more than 2 ppm fluoride,” informed Padmalochan Panda of Kashipala. “But surprisingly enough, no one in our village is affected by flourosis; the only problem is kidney ailment,” he added.
Nuapada CDMO Dr Jagdish Mahanand also disagreed that the cause of kidney ailment could be drinking water. “Kidney ailment is in no way related to high level of fluoride or calcium in water as the people fear. The cause of their problem might be something else,” said he. The problem of this village had been reported to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) a few years back. Directed by the human rights body, a team of doctors of the VSS Medical College Hospital, Burla had conducted a study and ascertained that the cause of kidney problem is not water. But they did not ascertain why the number of people with kidney ailment is so high.
“One of the causes of kidney ailment is the practice of drinking less amount of water. Most labour class people do not drink adequate water although they do hard work, and that might be causing kidney problem,” assumed Dr Mahanand. “Anyway, we would study the situation and take step accordingly,” he added. He has assured to send a team of doctors to the village to study the cause. In Khariar block, there are a few other villages where kidney-related problem is rampant. More than 50 cases of death due to kidney problem have been reported from Thakpali, Bankapur, Anchalpur and Bhojpur villages of this block. It is learnt that the number of deaths in Khariar town due to kidney problem is also on the rise.