Jalandhar: To determine the cause of Uranium, Selenium and Arsenic contaminations in ground waters of Punjab, the Geological survey of India is going to initiate the survey in the state.
The Geological department sought forest clearance from the forest department to commence the survey from Bathinda, where the contaminated water is stated to be the prime cause of cancer.
The Geological department was to start the survey by drilling the area from last week, however, it was delayed as forest department objected to the process citing that it did not acquire mandatory clearance from the department, said a senior government officer.
In a letter wrote to forest department by Geological department on Tuesday sought clearance for 70m drilling for geo-environment project in Koreana village in Bathinda.
“The work would involve 70-80m drilling at each location in Punjab and no trees shall be cut down and soil will not be exposed to erosion due to this process,” the letter read.
On the request of the state Geological Programming Board to determine the cause of Uranium, Selenium and Arsenic contaminations in ground waters of Punjab, Haryana. Many cancer cases are being reported from the area. The work has tremendous societal impact and will facilitate the local population. The report of this two-year investigation will be handed over to Punjab government, the letter added.
“The very high values of Uranium and Selenium above permissible limit for human consumption have been found in the Bathinda district and drilling was initiated at Koreana village here but Punjab forest department officials stopped the process citing the forest clearance,” GS Tiwari, Deputy Director General of Geological survey of India said in the letter.
Various studies in recent period have indicated Punjab is facing a crisis situation due to high levels of uranium, arsenic and selenium in underground water table of Punjab. The situation is especially grim in Malwa belt of Punjab including Bathinda, Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Roop Nagar and Fatehgarh sahib districts, which have high selenium contents in groundwater. Selenium Acceptable Limit (AL) for groundwater is fixed at 0.01 mg/l (ppm) by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), repots indicate.
Following this, the government decided to examine the exact cause of rising contamination in the drinking water and a two year survey from 2020-22 has been initiated in the Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh states by the Central government.