Away from the tourist circuit and the mango belt in Junagadh, the coastal area of Mangrol have become the scene of a major health scare that has largely gone unnoticed.Take Loej village, five km from the coastline. The 200-odd families have one thing in common: Each has at least one member suffering from kidney stones. There are many villages like Loej in Mangrol.Over the past three decades, salinity ingress has made ground water unfit for drinking in village after village. As the state’s drinking water schemes never reached the area, people kept drinking the well water. Kidney stones were first noticed here 10 years ago. Now, the problem is endemic.Former sarpanch Laxmanbhai Nandaniya says that at first, only elders were affected. Now, even children are developing stones. ‘‘When a child starts crying with severe stomach pain, we know what it is,’’ says Laxmanbhai, who himself is a victim. His 34-year-old son Naran also has kidney stones.Ranabhai Nandaniya developed kidney stones six years ago. He often suffers from stomach cramps that force him to abandon all activity. His neighbour Dhanbhai, who also has kidney stones, says: ‘‘Sometimes the pain is so severe it is difficult to eat.’’ Dhanbhai’s son is also a victim.In nearby Rahij and Shil villages, it’s the same story. Members of Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), which recently conducted a health camp at Shil and three nearby villages, say most complaints they received were of pain caused by stones.But the medical facilities here are dismal. Loej primary health centre has only one nurse. The health centre at Shil has a doctor, but does not even have testing facilities. ‘‘Treatment is expensive. Then, one has to go all the way to Junagadh, which is 70 km away, or to Rajkot,’’ says Ranabhai.Yet, Junagarh Civil Hospital superintendent Dr Sunil Awasia says they receive a large number of kidney stone patients from the coastal belt. ‘‘Every week, we perform at least two operations,’’ he says, and adds, ‘‘I don’t think there is a single village in that belt that has not been affected.’’The area has a population of about 70,000. So far, no survey has been conducted about the number of people suffering from kidney stones. Local Congress MLA Chandrikaben Chudasma, herself a doctor, admits the conditions are ‘‘extremely dismal’’. Taluqa Development Officer M.J. Myatra claims they are supplying drinking water by tankers to many villages from the nearest ground water source. According to WHO standards, the total dissolved solids (TDS) in drinking water should not exceed 500 parts per million (ppm). But in villages like Loej, the TDS content is anything between 4,000 and 8,000 ppm, says AKRSP cluster manager Umesh Kumar Saxena.‘‘Of the 60 villages, salinity ingress is total in 23. In 29 other villages, it has contaminated more than half the groundwater sources,’’ he says. Officials attribute this to over-exploitation of ground water for irrigation, which began in the sixties. There is little hope for the future. The Narmada water supply scheme covers only parts of Jamnagar and Rajkot districts.
