Toxins in Your Glass: Deadly chemicals flowing through Kashmir’s lifeline
Srinagar, Aug 3: Jhelum, the lifeline of Kashmir, flows from south Kashmir to the north, irrigating fields, filling water tanks and drinking glasses. However, its water has become a dangerous cocktail of pesticides, posing a serious risk to human health and biodiversity.
A study analysed 23 water sources in south Kashmir, including Jhelum and found how heavy pesticide use in horticulture is polluting vital drinking water sources.
The Drug and Food Control Organisation (DFCO) has not yet detected any such contamination in water or aquatic food sources, none worth telling the public.
The study, ‘Health Risk Assessment of Pesticide Residues in Drinking Water of Upper Jhelum Region in Kashmir Valley-India’, published in the International Journal of Analytical Chemistry, 2023, found that 10 out of 26 commonly used pesticides could be traced in water sources, including snow-fed springs, Jhelum, and freshwater lakes.
These water sources are critical for drinking, irrigation, and domestic use for not just the villages and towns in south Kashmir, but a wider part of the land.
The study reported that pesticide residues were identified only during the spring and summer seasons, “owing to pesticide application during these seasons.”
The researchers said that the pesticides leach off and seep into “nearby surface and groundwater, agricultural runoff, and spray drifts from indiscriminate pesticide application”. The contamination was found in regions dominated by agricultural and horticultural land use.
Out of the various pesticides detected, chlorpyrifos and quinalphos were found to have crossed the threshold level, indicating a considerable risk of pesticide exposure.
These chemicals are insecticides in the organophosphate category, widely used in paddy and fruit farming.
Both act by inhibiting acetylcholinesterase, affecting the nervous system of pests, and sadly, of non-target organisms too, including humans.
These are known for their high toxicity, including neuro-developmental disorders and serious acute and chronic health risks. These chemicals are also harmful to aquatic life, including fish, and can also reach humans through produce irrigated with contaminated water.
Due to these risks, many countries have banned or restricted their use.
The researchers have called for “consistent water quality monitoring”.
However, in J&K, the water quality monitoring is lackadaisical, passive, and reactionary, and data is almost non-existent. J&K DFCO, mandated to carry out sampling of water and various products to determine the level of pesticide contamination, has not revealed any findings in this regard. No public notice or test results on pesticide residues in the food chain and water bodies have been revealed in recent years.
When Greater Kashmir spoke to the previous Joint Food Commissioner, Food Safety, in April this year, he said that no pesticides were found in water samples tested during his tenure. Greater Kashmir has been highlighting the unsafe additives and contaminants in food and the influx of contaminated food and supplements in Kashmir.
However, pesticide contamination remains conspicuously absent from regulatory focus. This apathy leaves Kashmir’s population exposed to hidden toxins in their daily water and food supply.
