Why children in this Dhanbad village don't smile?
What's the story
At least one person in each of the 68 households of Dhanbad's Brahman Tola village has fluorosis.
The crippling disease has affected about 60% men and over 75% of its women. It hasn't spared children either. Those older than 6-7 years have strained teeth, which is why they don't smile anymore.
Here's how high fluoride in Tola's groundwater has blotted an entire generation.
Disease
Fluorosis first attacks teeth and then bones
Fluorosis, caused by high fluoride consumption, is a painful disease that deforms bones by making them brittle.
Fluoride calcifies tendons and deposits on intervertebral disc (which absorbs shocks suffered by the spinal cord), resulting in a bent back and pain in bones and joints.
It first affects teeth (dental fluorosis), often marked by their staining and pitting, before developing into skeletal fluorosis.
Problem
Tola residents forced to drink contaminated water
Groundwater is the primary source of drinking water in Tola. However, it is laced with high fluoride, making it unfit for human consumption.
Despite the Public Health Engineering Department marking handpumps with contaminated water, the villagers, in the absence of any other alternative, drink water from them.
They are forced to knowingly drink poison every single day and see their families wither away.
Permissible limit
6 wells, 3 handpumps for water requirements of 11 villages
According to the WHO, 1.5mg fluoride per liter is considered safe for drinking. Beyond this, fluoride has adverse effects on human health.
Last year, Megh Pyne Abhiyan, a non-profit working on water and sanitation, tested the water quality of 45 wells and 78 handpumps in 11 villages including Brahman Tola. They found the water of only six wells and three handpumps safe for drinking.
Information
Over 132 Indian districts have high fluoride in drinking water
According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, at least 132 districts in 19 states across India are severely affected by high fluoride content in drinking water, exposing the people living in these areas to the high incidence of getting fluorosis.
Government scheme
Damodar river water to be supplied to villages
Seeing fluorosis become a major health concern in Tola and neighboring hamlets, the Jharkhand government sanctioned Rs. 7 million three years ago for the treatment of Damodar river water and its supply to affected villages through pipes.
The work was supposed to finish this month but has been hampered by slow progress.
The scheme is now expected to be functional by March 2018.