毒（薬） for parched throats: Water in Andhra 地区 is high on flouride content

By A. Srinivasa Rao

Published: 00:46 BST, 15 July 2012 | Updated: 00:46 BST, 15 July 2012

Crooked bones, 新たな展開d 四肢s and deformed 団体／死体s sat in the doorways, 注目する，もくろむs 空いている, 星／主役にするing into the horizon.

Movement for them is a 悪口を言う／悪態, each day a 拷問, as they struggle to find answers to 政府 apathy that has left them dwarfed and shrivelled, thanks to fluoride 毒（薬）ing of ground water.

Most people living in Nalgonda 地区 of Andhra Pradesh have to 生き残る on 汚染するd ground water, which is high on fluoride content. In fact, the 量 of fluoride is as high as 10 parts per millilitre (ppm), as against a permissible 限界 of 0.5 to 1 ppm.

Tirupatamma?s 四肢s are 新たな展開d and she cannot stand on her feet. She is 軍隊d to はう to move around

Drinking this water gives rise to fluorosis, which in turn leads to 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd 四肢s, deformed teeth and stunted growth. Ironically, the 地区 is just 50-60 km away from Krishna river and clean drinking water.

But the inhabitants can only watch helplessly as water from the river is carried in 抱擁する pipelines to Hyderabad.

'We need clean drinking water from river Krishna. We cannot stand this 毒（薬） anymore,' read a board placed on an STD booth in Vattipalli village of Nalgonda 地区.

The STD booth belongs to 32-year-old Tirupatamma, who looks much older than her age. Her 四肢s are 新たな展開d. She cannot stand on her feet and is 軍隊d to はう to move around the house. Her mother is dead and her father is bedridden with 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd 脚s.

'I used to eke out a living from the STD booth. But I had to の近くに it 負かす／撃墜する as these days there are hardly any 顧客s with most of them carrying 動きやすい phones,' Tirupatamma said.

She 生き残るs with a meagre 量 of Rs500 that her father gets as 年金 and 35 kg of rice 供給するd by the 明言する／公表する 政府.

Tirupatamma has now joined 手渡すs with the Fluorosis Vimukthi Porata Samithi (委員会 for eradication of fluorosis), an NGO working to 供給する 安全な drinking water to the 影響する／感情d villages.

'My life has no hope. All I can do is fight so that the next 世代 does not を煩う this dreaded 病気,' Tirupatamma said.

There is an 総計費 戦車／タンク a few yards away from her house that is supposed to 供給（する） river water to the village. But it remains 乾燥した，日照りの most of the time and the 村人s have no choice but to depend on 地下組織の water.

Like Vattipalli, there are 974 more villages which are 影響する／感情d by fluorosis. Many people have 砂漠d these villages as they could not take the 'poisonous' water anymore.

によれば the 2001 国勢（人口）調査, there were nearly 75,000 people who were 苦しむing from fluorosis and the number must have gone up by now.

'But the water 供給（する） is grossly 不十分な,' Subhash said.

'Our first 優先 is to get 安全な water to all the 975 villages. The 政府 should also fill up the 乾燥した，日照りのd-up 戦車／タンクs so that the level of ground water rises, which will automatically bring 負かす／撃墜する the fluoride content,' he 追加するd.

Subhash is aware that this is easier said than done. Twenty-two- year-old fluoride 犠牲者 Rajitha of Khuda Baksh 棺／かげり village summed up the agony and the apathy 直面するd by the inhabitants of Nalgonda 地区.

'Some days ago the （衆議院の）議長 and some MLAs paid us a visit. But all they did was 供給する lip service. In the past, too, former 長，指導者 大臣s N. Chandrababu Naidu and Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy had come to see us, as if we are live 展示（する）s,' Rajitha said.

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