#pakistan: Vicious circle of fluoride contamination, illness and poverty

Over 80 percent of groundwater unfit for human consumption.

More than 50 percent of the population using water with total dissolved solvents of over 5,000 mg per litre (mg/l). In one village in pakistan, that figure rose to 20,000 mg/l, well over the World Health Organization's maximum limit of 1,500 mg/l.

Two desalination plants set up by AWARE in Sanjwani and Samoo Rind lie abandoned for lack of money to buy the fuel to run them.

The communities here are poor and cannot pool enough money to run these facilities.

Even while the rulers of pakistan are failing to provide even the basic clean drinking water to its citizens, the pakistn Army continues to grab increasing share of the country's meager budget as and when it desires, often taking away money earlier allocated for social development programmes - increasing the wealth of its Generals while the rest of the civilian population is degenerating into abject poverty & destitution.

Although deeper wells are a possible solution, the people lack the resources for digging and maintaining these installations.

Locals say cases of deformities are affecting families.

“My daughters are beautiful girls but they have been rejected multiple times for marriage because they look ill and have bad teeth," said Mohan,* a middle-aged schoolteacher from Malo Bheel, a town 55km from Mithi. "I am ready to give good dowry but before that I wish I could do something about the yellow teeth and weak bones...

"My eldest daughter has given birth to sons both of whom are deformed."

The daughters and grandsons, a local doctor said, suffer from arthritis and are either victims of fluorosis or a genetic disorder.

“No one in my family had such weak bones and hunched shoulders," Mohammad explained. "When the doctors told me that it is the water in our wells that is responsible, I realized it could be something in the water. Over the years, the water has turned more brackish and muddy, and I feel that we are consuming poison knowingly.

"I just hope and pray that no child in my family is ever born with this deformity [again].”

(*not a real name)