Bhubaneswar: Nearly 10,000 residents of Badaputti, P-Lakhimpur and Baginipetta, three villages under Chhatrapur block in Odisha's Ganjam district, consider themselves cursed.
As many as 70 people have died in the three villages in last three years due to kidney ailments and 200 others are allegedly suffering from the same problem because of air and water contamination.
Untimely demise of bread-earning and able-bodied persons has completely shaken the economy of three villages, forcing the people, including young women, to migrate to cities in search of work.
Worse still, people of other villages have stopped establishing marital relationship with the young boys and girls of the three villagers fearing that their kidneys might have already been affected by the disease.
Records from local activists indicate that at least 200 cases of kidney ailment were diagnosed over the last three years, with at least 70 deaths, most of them of individuals of working age.
"This death rate due to kidney ailment is significantly higher than the highest figure of 229 per million population reported by a national level study in 2006," says Gurudeb Behera, a social activist seeking proper healthcare for the affected persons.
Recently, a fact-finding team, comprising Dr Kalyani Menon-Sen, Dr Nisha Biswas, Basudev Mahapatra and Ranjana Padhi, visited the affected villages. They interviewed villagers who narrated how they were completely impoverished by the disease.
"Most of the people in the three villages are landless agricultural workers. They depend on seasonal work and collection of forest produce to eke out their living. In the absence of limited facilities at the MKCG Medical College, patients are forced to consult private doctors and clinics. Average treatment costs are reported to be in the range of '5-7 lakhs over two years. Families have no alternative but to sell or mortgage their tiny landholdings and meagre assets, and have been compelled to take loans from private sources at interest rates of 2-3 per cent per month," said team member Dr Kalyani Menon-Sen.
P. Eramma of Baginiepta who lost her husband to kidney disease
All six members of Gouranga Sahoo family of P-Lakhimpur died of kidney ailments as they could not afford the costly treatment.
Kamaraj Barma, a village head, informed that some people slip into depression when they are diagnosed with kidney ailments. He cited the case of a youth, G. Appana, who committed suicide a few days after he was diagnosed with kidney problem.
The local population holds the view that the high rates of kidney disease afflicting the area is a consequence of contamination of ground water with toxic by-products of monazite processing at the Indian Rare Earth Limited (IREL) facility located about one kilometer from Badaputti village. The fact-finding team was shown water drawn from local tubewells, with thick sediment of some chalky substance at the bottom. Every single household is purchasing bottled water or has installed an expensive water filter.
"The district administration and officials of IREL oppose this theory and offer the results of water testing conducted by the Regional Pollution Control Board, the State Public Health Engineering officials and a district medical official, which declared the water to be fit for drinking. However, the team noticed that the tests tracked the presence of only two heavy metals (lead and cadmium) and did not test for the several other toxic by-products of thorium processing such as molybdenum, mercury and psyrium," said team member Basudev Mahapatra.
State health minister Pratap Jena told this newspaper that he will send a team of doctors to the affected villages to get the matter enquired and put in place all required facilities to save the life of the people.
Though the kidney affected patients need adequate dialysis facilities, the local MKCG Medical College and Hospital is not well-equipped to meet this gigantic demand, Dr Saroj K Panda, consultant nephrologist at the MKCG hospital, said.
