Jharkhand, a journey among children crippled by uranium contamination
New Delhi (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Swollen heads, blood disorders, skeletal distortions, missing eyes or ears, fingers fused together, brain damage. These are just some of the physical deformities that a vast number of the children in the villages around Jaduguda, the eastern city of the Indian state of Jharkhand, suffer from.
For years, environmentalists have been tracing these conditions to toxic waste products from the mining of uranium in the area. Yet Diwakar Acharya, Chairman of the Uranium Corp. Of India Ltd. - the public company that manages the reservoir - denies all liability: "I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those guys are imported from elsewhere".
Discovered in 1951, the Jaduguda reservoir
became the first uranium mine in India. The mining
started in 1967. February
last the publication of photographs
depicting children with severe deformities, prompted the
High Court of Jharkhand to
investigate the Uranium Corp. and other government agencies.
The High Court wrote in its order "the health problems related to uranium
mining are affecting the indigenous people disproportionately in and around the
uranium mining operational area," with as many as 50,000 people at risk. Children living near the mines are "born with swollen heads, blood disorders
and skeletal distortions".
This is the case of 10 year old Sanjay Gope. In a report dated 9 July Bloomberg showed the conditions in which this child lives: after a series of attacks and seizures that no one was able to explain, his arms and legs became deformed, leaving him unable to walk. Without help from someone, his grandfather says "he can only crawl on the ground like a snake." One of his older sisters, Sunita, died two years ago at age 13. Just like her little brother, her limbs grew deformed to the point of not being able to feed or wash herself.
Across the street leading to Sanjay's house, Rakesh Gope - of the same
tribe but no relation - sits on a dirty floor,
moving his hands in continuous spasms. He is also 10,
and like Sanjay is not able to walk alone.
In response to a High Court order,
the Uranium Corp. filed an affidavit of 337 pages, which denies
all liability. The document includes
a survey of the Jharkhand State Pollution Board (JSPB), conducted from 2010 to 2012 in 16
villages comprising 4,557 examinations of children
and adults who did not report congenital
malformations.
Commenting on the survey results Mahendra Mahto, JSPB
secretary, wrote: "The villagers suffer from conventional
health problems, which could be seen in any village with similar socio-economic
condition". The survey wasn't signed by Mahto but by Dr. U.K. Majhee --
identified as Uranium Corp.'s chief
medical officer at its Jadugora hospital. When contacted by Bloomberg he declined to be interviewed because he didn't have the study in front of
him. "Unless I see the document, how can I say what I have said and what I have
not?" he said.
It seems almost
impossible to find answers to the living conditions of many families in Jadugoda and its surroundings. What is certain, however, is that the water of three Uranium Corp, waste pools containing uranium,
flows into the River Race. The course runs
near Jadugoda and several other
villages and is used every day by the people
to fish and swim.
Some water samples collected in 2008 by the Jharkhandi Organization Against Radiation and
analyzed by the Centre
for Science
and Environment, have revealed the
presence of heavy metals. In
particular, the samples - from drinking water wells - contained levels of
mercury at 200% above the allowed
minimum, and lead values 600%
over the norm. Lead is a
byproduct of the extraction of uranium,
mercury is not. In any case, the
central government has not initiated any
investigation to trace the source of
these toxic elements.
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10/05/2016 17:46
22/09/2016 11:02
