Chromium Contamination Plagues Dattanagar, Nashik Residents

Residents of Dattanagar, a residential area adjacent to the Ambad industrial estate on the outskirts of Nashik city in Maharashtra, are facing severe health issues and disruption to daily life due to contaminated groundwater. For the past two months, 55-year-old Gangubai Laxmigan Shivale has been unable to cook for her family of four, relying on outside food like samosas and vada pav. Shivale reports constant itching, with blood pouring out if she scratches rashes on her hands.

Approximately 400 Dattanagar residents have reported a range of skin problems, including severe rashes, chemical ulcers, swollen lymph nodes, and black lesions, which they attribute to the groundwater. When drawing water from their borewells, residents observe it runs bright yellow into their buckets. An independent laboratory test commissioned by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), an NGO, confirmed high levels of chromium.

The test, carried out by Ashwamedh Engineers and Consultants on a borewell water sample near the Nandini river in the Ambad industrial area, found total chromium at 50.5 milligrams per litre (mg/L). Of this, 50.3 mg/L was identified as hexavalent chromium. This concentration is more than 1,000 times the permissible limit for drinking water set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), which allows only 0.05 mg/L of chromium. A separate analysis by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) also detected chromium at 45 mg/L in two groundwater samples from borewells and dug wells.

What to watch: Ongoing efforts by residents and NGOs to address the persistent water contamination and its health impacts in Dattanagar.

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