VADODARA, Oct 13: At first glance, Sherkhi, Jasapura and Bhimpura are no different from the scores of villages dotting South Gujarat. Try pumping water from one of the tubewells, and you'll see why they stand apart: the water that gushes out of the mouth is a faded red in colour!Of course, the villagers don't drink water from the tubewell, but they aren't too sure what colours the water. The answer, however, lies in the proximity of the big industrial houses and the Nandesari Industrial Estate. Says a puzzled Gajraben Makwana, ``The water is quite clear for about an hour after the tubewell is operated. Then the water turns red''.Thus scores of tubewells installed by the Gujarat Water Supply and Sewerage Board more than 15 years ago in some 20 villages in the western belt of Vadodara taluka are now defunct for all practical purposes. GWSSB officials say on condition of anonymity that they are now supplying drinking water to Sherkhi and Jasapura.Since water is obviously at a premium, villagers have no option but to direct the tubewell water to the fields for irrigation. ``We know the water shouldn't be used for agriculture, but what is the option'', asks Sherkhi sarpanch Ishwarbhai Sisodia.The fields that the tubewell waters grow bananas, tobacco, millet, wheat and vegetables, and sooner or later, says a villager, they are bound to affect the health of people in Vadodara city, where they are sold.Though the danger to urban health may worry the authorities, a young girl pumping out yellowish-brown water from a tubewell is more concerned about the mouth ulcers it causes in their village. All that villagers can do is visit private doctors nearby and chlorinate water with Panchayat-supplied tablets, says Jasapura vice-sarpanch Vikramsinh Jadhav.According to Jadhav, the villages in the region were affected by effluents directly released by the industries as well leaks in the 55-km-long effluent channel between Dhanora and the Gulf of Cambay.Though there have been no surveys on the impact of industrial pollution on agriculture, Sisodia estimates crop production has fallen considerably. ``We cannot grow pulses at all now'', he says, while 60-year-old Ranjitsinh Parmar recalls days when they could drink water straight from the Mini river, which flows next to the village.The river had now become a repository of effluents, alleges Ranjitsinh Gohil of Amrapura, though Nandesari industries were supposed to release their effluent into the channel. ``Several animals have died after drinking water from the river'', he claims.But N L Kansagara of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board denies outright that any Nandesari industrial unit dumps effluent in the river. A fact, ironically, contradicted by none other than the Nandesari Industries Association. NIA's Babubhai Patel admits there are units that release their chemical waste into the river at nights, adding that they have begun a periodic monitoring of such units.While maintaining all units could not be tarred with the same brush, Patel says most of the units ordered closed by Gujarat High Court went on-line two years ago following the upgradation of the common effluent treatment plant.Project manager of the Effluent Channel Project Jitendra Rindhani, on the other hand, maintains there can be no seepage from the channel is it is a concrete structure. Asked about the dumping of effluent in Mini, all he says is that the ECP's responsibility was to collect the effluent at Dhanora and release it into the channel.Asked if farmers were drawing water from the channel out of ignorance, he says they have put up several boards mentioning the water was not potable.V V Modi, who headed a High Court committee investigating pollution in Nandesari, says a meeting will be convened in December to hammer out a solution. ``Currently the water passing through the channel is not fit for agriculture. But if there is no alternative source, the farmers are bound to use the water'', he says, adding that the industries would be requested to release the water only after making it fit for agriculture.
