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2 Indian town in world's most polluted places list
Published on Wed, Sep 19, 2007 at 16:18, Updated on Wed, Sep 19, 2007 at 21:14 in 
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Sukinda/ Vapi: Fatiaya Bahi Halpati's fingers and toes are slowly being eaten away. The water that flows through a village in Vapi is spiked with heavy metals.
“The water here is contaminated and we are all contracting diseases,” says a resident of Vapi, Fatiaya Bahi Halpati.
Untreated toxic waste dumped by over 50 chemical manufacturing estates in the industrial town in Gurjarat has impacted over 70,000 people.
The mercury in the groundwater is 96 times higher than WHO standards. Grim statistics that have earned Sukinda a place amongst the world's most polluted sites.
The latest study on the top 10 worst polluted places by International Blacksmith institute includes industrial towns in China, Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine, Zambia and Peru. In India the study features another town, Sukinda in Orrisa.
Makara Dehuri's been steadily losing weight. The 35-year-old miner from Ostpala village doesn't know what's wrong with him.
Over 2 lakh people in Sukinda suffer from some form of hexavalent chromium poisoning because of the untreated water discharged by the mines into the Brahmani River.
Sukinda contains one largest open cast chromite ore mines in the world. As much as 60 percent of drinking water here is poisoned.
“Drinking water is a major problem for us. If we tell our boss he will suspend us from our job,” says a villager in Orissa, Makara Dehuri.
The recent study has chosen these places for the severity of its toxins, its impact on human health and the extent of damage caused.
But these aren't new findings. Late 1990s pressure from NGOs forced Vapi Industries Association to form a committee to set up a common effluent treatment plant to trace water from the major plants.
But the treated water has been deemed unsatisfactory by Gujarat pollution control board.
The study highlights that despite technological advances, mining and unregulated industrial production continue to be key pollution triggers.
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