Poisoned Water
Poisoned Water
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They pay the real price of mining with their parched throats and poisoned bodies. For some 400 villages in and around the Talcher coalfields of Orissa, it is a mad rush for water. Wells are sinking, the water table is constantly falling and even deep tubewells yield nothing. "In the last one decade around 100 wells and numerous borewells have been rendered useless', says Sisir Tripathy, coordinator of the District Action Group (DAG), a federation of 21 non-governmental organisations of Dhenkanal district, who are protesting against the ills of rampant coal mining and subsequent industrialisation of the district.
Groundwater availability in Talcher has been poor. But the Brahmani river provided plenty of water to sustain a predominantly agrarian economy. With mining activities picking up after India's independence, several water intensive industries came up. The Talcher-Angul region is how considered a