Around 900 kilometres from Delhi, it is difficult to find a single household unaffected by illness in Tiwaritola village of Ballia﹘a border district cushioned between Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Reason: presence of high levels of arsenic in groundwater.
“I have been taking medicines for my liver and arthritis since 2000. Even getting up or sitting down hurts, bones ache all the time; uric acid increases, there are problems related to thyroid,” says Tarkeshwar Tiwari, a 63-year-old villager suffering from liver cirrhosis. “I fell ill due to the arsenic. The water here has too much of it. We came to know about this because of my medical investigation.”
