Pak tanneries a bane of Fazilka residents

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, April 27

For 15 years, thousands of residents of 130 villages in Fazilka have been forced to suffer the consequences of getting highly polluted water of tanneries located on banks of Sutlej river across the border in Pakistan’s Kasur.

Water from Hussainwala headworks on Sutlej first flows 12 km into Pakistan, where around 300 tanneries located in Kasur, reportedly release the untreated water, often laced with chemicals, which re-enters India through Kasur nullah.

Afflicted with skin diseases and cancer, the residents said they had been running from pillar to post since 2006, but the successive governments always turned their backs on them. Some of these villagers were in Chandigarh today to meet Irrigation Minister Brahm Shankar Jimpa and urged him to widen Ferozepur canal so that clean water be released to them from Harike headworks and diverting water to their villages through an existing link canal.

Hukum Chand, a resident of Jalalabad, said, “It has no financial implications, but will ensure good health and economic prosperity of villagers. Hundreds of people in our villages are suffering from cancer and our orchards have been destroyed permanently as the polluted water has seeped underground.”

These villagers told The Tribune that most residents in their villages were suffering from hepatitis C and cancer and they had to go to Bikaner on the “cancer train” for treatment. Harish Nadda, a farm union leader, said, “Many villagers have already succumbed to the disease. The reddish water that remains stagnant at Ganda Singh pond for nine months each year has seeped underground. The crops we grow and the groundwater we extract is all polluted.”

Bhim Sen of Khui Khera village said he had already lost his mother, sister and sister-in-law to cancer. “Before 2006, when the polluted water was not being released into India from Pakistan, there were hardly any cancer patients. In my own village now, at least 100 people are suffering from cancer, besides hepatitis C,” he said.

Steps will be taken

I have taken a serious view of the matter. Officials will soon be visiting the villages to assess the ground situation. Corrective measures will be taken immediately. — Brahm Shankar Jimpa , Irrigation Minister

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