Excerpt from Mumbai Mirror, reported by Nazia Sayed and Geeta Desai on December 29, 2009 : Read Full Article
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Woman drawing water from an illegal well in Mankhurd |
The polio-causing virus passes from infected faecal matter, contaminates ground water and finds its way into humans though the mouth.
Driven by sheer desperation caused by an unprecedented water crisis, residents in Shivajinagar, Deonar, Trombay and Mankhurd, have resorted to digging illegal wells in their own backyard and drinking poisonous water — almost 70 per cent of which is contaminated with the deadly enterovirus which causes polio.
Not only that, WHO tests carried out on the samples from these wells, have revealed the presence of other crippling viruses too — hepatitis and cholera to name two.
Consuming this deadly cocktail every day makes the people vulnerable to a number of diseases, but none as grave as polio, which has technically no cure, and to eradicate which the government has spent nearly Rs 26 billion till date.
