Today, Washid, a man in his twenties, looks not a day less than 50. His arms are deformed and he lies immobile on a wicker cot. He doesn’t know the medical name for the ailment that has reduced him to this state. It doesn’t matter to him because Washid’s helpless anger has one target: the dark waters of river Hindon, flowing sluggishly some 300 metres away from his hut.

In Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district, just 50 kilometres from Delhi, the Hindon is doing the exact opposite of what a river is supposed to be. Instead of a lifeline, its polluted waters are poisoning the region.

Originating in Saharanpur, Hindon winds its way across 400 kilometres, through five more districts of UP — Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar — before joining the Yamuna. According to the state government’s analysis in 2014, the level of dissolved oxygen in certain stretches of the river’s flow in Meerut and Ghaziabad has dropped to zero. It should be above four milligrams per litre.

Industrial pollution is a distressingly common feature as far as our rivers are concerned. However, what makes the situation catastrophic is the lack of a water treatment plant or external water supply. Clean water supply in UP is ensured by Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam. However, as these villages get their water directly from the ground water table, through hand pumps, the residents are directly exposed to the heavy metal contaminants.

For 24 villages in Baghpat district, there is no option but to depend on the waters of Hindon for everything from cooking to irrigation, and even drinking water. Even as every sip pump lethal heavy metals into their bodies.

The government is aware of this dire situation. In 2014, the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board found lethal contaminants like iron, magnesium and lead in the ground water samples collected from 48 different spots in Baghpat. The nature of contamination was accepted to be “of not an ordinary nature” by the NGT bench hearing the case filed by CV Singh, convenor of DoabaParyavaranSamiti.Singh has a PhD in Clinical Biochemistry and used to work with the Haryana Pollution Control Board. “Once contaminated, groundwater takes 40-50 years for restoration,” he said, hinting at a long-term problem. “Even then there is no surety that it will become pollutant-free.”

In 2014, the National Green Tribunal ordered the state administration to provide clean drinking water to affected villagers. Two years later, there’s no sign of any such program. When Newslaundry visited three of the 24 villages — Tavela Garhi, Patti Banjara and Sarora – locals denied this. District Magistrate of Baghpat Hriday Shankar Tiwari wasn’t particularly forthcoming. He first insisted that drinking water was being supplied to the area and when asked for the names of the villages receiving this supply, he hung up.

The effect of the water contamination is so dire that the villagers Newslaundry spoke to said that they tie their cattle’s mouths while crossing the river. If the cattle drink the water, they die.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO), the metals that are being released into the water cause impaired growth, skeletal abnormalities, reproductive deficits, even ataxia. Imprints of these ailments are visible among the people of the villages that are affected by the Hindon. Seventy people have died of cancer in the last three years in Gangnauli village alone.

“Most cases here are of degenerative diseases like cartilage damage and arthritis,” said Dr Nikhil Tarar of Murti Nursing Home, in Baghpat. He said water pollution was one of the possible causes for these degenerative diseases.

Four-year-old Lucky of Sarora village cannot walk. He has no control over his legs. His grandmother Sunita blames his condition on the river. “When my daughter-in-law was pregnant, she drank this contaminated water,” said Sunita. “That’s why my grandson was born with deformities.”

Rajiv Kumar, gram pradhan (village chief) of TavelaGarhi, Patti Banjara and Sarora, said “People here are drinking poison.” He’s installed an RO filter at his house after having developed liver problems from drinking the polluted water. However, with an average RO filter costing three to four thousand rupees, this is not an option that too many in the area can avail. The villagers in this area are either labourers or small-scale farmers. “Most people here are very poor and cannot afford to install RO filters,” said Kumar. “If I drink water in people’s houses, I have to take medicine.”

Locals say the water from hand pumps tastes bitter. “If you keep the water in a bottle, it turns red after a while,” says one of them. “People are scared of drinking the water.”

Last month, Kumar took 10 patients with him to the latest NGT hearing, on July 19. “They (the bench) thought we were just making things up,” said Kumar. “Then they saw the sufferers.”

The bench was enraged. NGT chairperson, Justice Swatanter Kumar, ordered that a committee headed by the UP Chief Secretary hold a meeting within three days of the order, to ensure water is provided and hand pumps with contaminated water are properly sealed. The tribunal also warned of “punitive and coercive orders” in its next hearing, on August 29, if there is no water supply.

“Initially, the state did not even take the NGT summons seriously, responding to it only after a fine of Rs 5,000 was imposed,” says Singh.
On Newslaundry’s visit, 20 days after the order, there was no water supply. Some hand pumps had ‘unsafe for drinking’ written in Hindi. But for someone with a parched throat and no supply of clean drinking water, red ink is hardly a deterrent. Neither is heavy metal contamination.