Food poisoning at TS hostels a regular now

Incidents of food poisoning taking place frequently in government hostels are not only affecting the health of the hostel inmates but also creating anxiety among the parents about the safety and security of their children studying in hostels. 

The food poisoning incidents are also causing student deaths in hostels in the Adilabad district.

An SSC student Pendore Pravin, studying at Jatharla Ashram School in Bajarhathnoor mandal , recently died of food poising and five others students who also fell sick underwent medical treatment at RIMS, Adilabad.

It is suspected that polluted water and poor quality food material are being used in preparing the food and poor sanitation in the kitchen adds to the dangers.

It is high time for the hostel staff to be more cautious while using water. Fresh water is coming into open wells and borewells due to heavy rains after a long gap  will be polluted and needs to be examined before using it for food preparations.

An Adivasi student of Raghapur village in Sirpur (U) Kova Divya,14, studying at a private residential school in Adilabad also died in suspicious circumstances. The management of the school said that she developed vomiting and died while undergoing treatment.

Both the incidents took place in the last five days after the schools have reopened and the district has started receiving rains.

The saddest part is that Divya, studying class VIII, died just four days after she was admitted in the best available private school after she was selected in a screening test conducted by the ITDA, Utnoor.

Adivasi leaders alleged that deaths of Adivasi students were taking  place due to the negligence of the officials concerned and staff of the Tribal Ashram Schools in maintaining the institutions properly and not providing good quality food.

Adivasi JAC leader of Utnoor Kanaka Venkateshwar Rao demanded that the state government announce Rs 25 lakh exgratia to the families of the deceased students and government job and ensuring insurance cover under Girirakshna for inmates of the tribal ashram schools.

The ITDA, Utnoor project officer R.V Karnan suspended the warden of the Jatharla Tribal Ashram School and issued show cause notices to two others staff members holding them responsible for the death of food poisoning incident.

Marriages being conducted with muddy water

newly married Kolam Adivasi couple participating in rituals 

People in interior areas are celebrating marriages, using muddy water as they are depending on streams and rivulets for their needs.

Most borewells have dried up and minor drinking water schemes have gone defunct due to damages.

Some Adivasis were struggling to collect drinking water a month before a marriage in their family. 

Now there is every possibility of an outbreak of water-borne  diseases if the forced to drink polluted water and cook with it, which could also lead to food poisoning. Such incidents took place last summer in Utnoor and Bela mandals in the district.

The RWS and gram panchayats have failed to supply bleaching powder to be mixed in open and agriculture wells nor has the medical and health department supplied chlorine tablet to purify polluted water prior to drinking.        

The marriage of Sidam Laxmibai and Atram Shankar was recently celebrated, the families going arduous lengths to procure potable water in Kakarboddi village in Sirpur(U) mandal.

Community elder of Kakarboddi Tekam Jashwanth worried about collecting water for various purposes , what with three marriages scheduled this month. 

He said that  the villagers were busy, collecting water from various drinking sources for the occasion. Some of them even being forced to drink polluted water at marriages.   

Atram Laxmibai of Kolam Kommuguda said that “the Kolams were a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PTG) and their living conditions were pathetic and opined that officials must take special care for their welfare”.

Safe drinking water a luxury

Atram Pullabai of Chapral

Drinking safe water (borewell) is cause for celebration for the Adivasis of interior areas where there is a drastic fall in the ground water table due to successive droughts in the Adilabad district.

The ground water table has gone down 7.81 meters in November, 2015 when compared to 7.16 meters in the corresponding period of 2014. It means -0.65 meters water table was depleted in the Adilabad district.    

Adivasis are now fetching water from streams, rivulets and drinking wells by walking long distances and majority of these water sources are on the verge of drying up while majority of bore wells were already dry in the district.    

People in general and Adivasis in particular have already experiencing severe drinking water shortage due to prolonged drought conditions in the district and this situation may become worst as summer fast approach.

On the other hand, most of the drinking water schemes have become defunct in the villages and Adivasi gudems due to minor repairs and drinking polluted water causing health problems for the people.      

Adivasis of a few interior gudems like Chapral save water available in the lone borewell fixed with a tap which gives only three buckets of waters every and they extract water one in a while from that borewell to offer that water to relatives when they visit their village or during the festivals. 

The remaining days, Adivasis of village drink muddy water fetched from streams and rivulets. Chapral village is just 7 km from Utnoor headquarters and ITDA office. 

Atram Pullabai of Chapral in Utnoor mandal said ‘villagers are collecting water from deserted well and also local streams and rivulets and using the same water drinking and bathing purposes’.

‘Every day she could hardly fetch only three buckets of water from the local stream and there is huge demand for this water as most of the villagers depend on the same stream and have to put their buckets in a queue waiting for their turn for hours together’, she said.

Mesram Nagorao of the Chapral said ‘they hardly get two or three buckets of water every day from lone borewell tap as ground water table gone down deep due to prolonged drought conditions. They take water once in a week from borewell to give water to their relatives when visit their village or use the borewells water during the festivals and any other celebrations’.He said they used the water collected from the borewell tap during Gussadi festival recently. 

For the last few days the borewell motor is not operational as the electric wire got damaged and few villagers got low level electric shocks while collecting water from the tap and children are at great risk.

ITDA staff fixed the inadequate electric wire and connected to electric motor. Villagers removed the electric wire from the tap to avoid incidents of electric shocks as children were playing around the tap’, said Nagorao.   

Safe drinking water dire need of Loddiguda tribals