UMERKOT, Dec 24: Fluorosis, a disease caused by high intakes of fluoride, is becoming endemic in Tharparkar with more than 250 of 950 people in Samoon Rind village having developed bone deformities, skeletal and dental fluorosis due to consumption of groundwater with high levels of fluoride.

Chemical analysis of 425 groundwater samples collected from Umerkot, Mithi, Chhachhro, Diplo and Nagarparkar talukas of the district indicated that 89 per cent groundwater in Thar was fluoride-affected, said Dr Tahir Rafiq, senior scientific officer of PCSIR Laboratories.

He said that he found after research on “Occurrence, distribution and origin of fluoride-rich groundwater in the Thar desert” that the samples had fluoride values exceeding the limit of 1.5 mg/L as prescribed by the WHO.

The research was carried out in collaboration with Dow Medical University of Health and Sciences, Karachi, Geology Department of Karachi University and Centre of Excellence in Analytical Chemistry.

Dr Rafique said that the Thar desert had been identified as one of the most fluoride-affected areas in the country. In the absence of public water supply, people were compelled to use groundwater, which was brackish with high concentration of fluoride when surface water dried up, he said.

Fluoride causes dental and skeletal fluorosis, osteoscalerosis, thyroid, and kidney problems when its concentration exceeds 1.5 mg/L in drinking water and the intake of excessive fluoride leads to chronic bone and joint deformations in skeletal fluorosis, for which early symptoms include sporadic pain and stiffness of joints and finally the spine, major joints and muscles, damaging the nervous system, he said.

He said that fluorosis is irreversible and no remedy and treatment has so far been found except prevention by keeping fluoride intake within safe limits. Both dental and skeletal fluorosis not only affects the body of a person but also renders him socially and culturally crippled, he said.

The research disclosed that groundwater in the areas along the north and north-eastern side of Thar, particularly in Samoon Rind, Kalario, Narovari and Sukhani villages of Tharparkar and Bhojrajio, Morasio, Ramsar villages of Umerkot district carried high level of fluoride.

Samoon Rind village had a population of 950 souls, out of whom more than 250 had the disease. One or two members of each family were suffering from arthritis and a large number of elders and children were in serious need of corrective orthopaedic surgery.

Social worker Karim Bux Shaikh said that the situation in Thar region was alarming and required the government to immediately take remedial measures including, better rainwater harvesting, development of sweet groundwater and installation of defluoridation and desalination plants.

Haji Bijar Rind, a villager, said that since early 70s they had been consuming the contaminated water with high levels of fluoride but authorities had never bothered to get the water tested.

A Karachi-based philanthropist Dr Nighat Afza had donated Rs600,000 worth reverse osmosis system to the village two months ago but it sat idle since then because the poor villagers could not afford fuel for the generator.

Tharparkar District Nazim Arbab Anwar Nohri expressed his ignorance of the disease and said he did not know if it was endemic among people in the village nor any villager had approached him. If there was such a problem he would form a team of doctors and experts who would analyse the situation and suggest remedial steps, he added.