Editorial photo #1877995 Health

Arsenic area contaminated in West Bengal

A pair of female hands uses the poisoned water for household works shows the signs of arsenic contamination. Gaighata, West Bengal, on India 2 April 2017. Gaighata, a village in north 24 parganas located near the Indo Bangladesh border is one of the highly arsenic affected areas of West Bengal. Almost all the water bodies of this area including tube wells produces arsenic contaminated water. Villagers are forced to use arsenic contaminated water for drinking purpose and for every other household chores. According to the WHO, drinking arsenic-rich water over a long period of time results in various health hazards including skin problems, skin cancer, cancer of bladder, kidney and lung besides other diseases. These people are also deprived from the medical facilities which has made their life worse. Recently some NGOs are providing fresh water to the villagers but the supply is far lower than the demand level as well. (Photo by Sushavan Nandy/NurPhoto)