Toxic Waste Turns Adampur’s Lifeline Poisonous; Villagers Battling Bacterial Contamination For Eight Years

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Clean ground water has now turned into a public health emergency for Adampur Chhawani village on Raisen Road, as tests conducted by the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) have confirmed the presence of E. coli bacteria in local water sources due to tons of garbage lying in the pit nearby.

The land that earlier gave clean and fresh water is now spewing poison, but for nearly eight years, residents of Adampur have been raising concerns over deteriorating water quality. Those fears were validated after contaminated samples were officially detected.

Thousands of villagers are still forced to use polluted water for bathing and washing clothes, while schoolchildren quench their thirst from water tanks placed along the roadside.

328 days left for scientific disposal of garbage

Adding to the action, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday had reprimanded the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) over mismanagements at the Aadampur garbage landfill, and directed to resolve the problem within 330 days.

600 tons of garbage dumped every day:

The root cause of the problem lies in a massive garbage dumping site located adjacent to the village. Around 600 tons of Bhopal’s municipal waste is dumped here every day. According to villagers, groundwater remained clean until 2018, but contamination began soon after the dumping site was shifted near Adampur. Toxic leachate from decomposing waste has seeped into the soil, polluting wells and borewells and rendering them unfit for use.

Nal Jal Yojna defunct:

Ironically, a 50,000-litre overhead water tank constructed under the Nal Yojana five years ago now stands defunct, earning the tag of a “white elephant.” All eight handpumps and two traditional wells in the village emit foul-smelling dirty water. As a result, Adampur’s population of nearly 7,000 people is entirely dependent on 12 water tanks filled daily by municipal tankers coming from the Ratnagiri area.

Residents ordeal:

Speaking with Free Press residents said the situation has severely impacted health and daily life. “A well dug in 1995 that once provided clean water now stinks due to the dumping site,” said local resident Himmat Singh. Another villager, Gayatri Bai, added that borewells now release reddish, dirty water, forcing people to fetch drinking water from distant areas.

Sanskriti Jain,Commissioner, BMC said, “Water supply through tankers is being ensured twice a day and that efforts are underway to dispose of waste from the dumping site at the earliest.”