(Francophones, voir plus bas version en langue francaise, SVP)
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| Water reservoir near Palani |
"Are any of the water samples potable ?"
The lanky chemist with piercing eyes shook his head. "No, Ma'am".
EW, a small French NGO, has been working in South India for nearly ten years, focusing on education and integrated development. The issue of environmental sustainability, however, hardly registers with our local partners. Trying to lift all of the nation's 1.2 billion people out of poverty and illiteracy is work enough ; worrying about green issues is seen as a luxury past-time for the industrialized West. "Shiva is protecting us" or "our bodies here manage to adjust to such things" are common enough replies to probing questions. More often still, our inquiries into contaminants and their effects are dismissed with a faint laugh or that distinctly Indian lateral head bob which is as polite as it is utterly non committal.
India is chronically water-stressed, with need outstripping supply. Wild flooding gives way to prolonged periods of drought. Monsoons are erratic and virtually all annual precipitation falls within just 2 to 3 months. Thereafter, skies have already had every last drop wrung out of them, and temperatures soar into the triple digits. The aquifer suffers from both saline intrusion and contamination. Many riverbeds turn to red dust and rare reservoir resources are trucked to parched villagers.
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| Garbage dump near market - Kodaikanal |
It is easy to love Tamil Nadu, but much of this southernmost Indian State has become an open-air dump, while its waterways reek of sewage and industrial run-off. If the feral dogs scavenging in this toxic milieu are any kind of indicator species, then there is cause for grave concern. They often suffer from acute ataxia, a neurological disorder impairing the voluntary muscle system. They tremble and quake on all fours like the shell-shock victims of the Great War. Simple deduction might suggest that perhaps the same toxic environment is responsible for the many birth defects among the children in EW's project areas. Sweet kids with gentle smiles and misshapen limbs or fingers welded together in clumps. Youngsters who are retarded, autistic, blind, deaf, hydrocephalic or victims of cerebral palsy - most often caused by damage to the developing fetal brain. One, a doe-eyed "CP" boy unable to sit up, is locked into a wooden device on the ground where he spends the day watching the world pass him by. Drool puddles on his left shirt pocket. Others suffer from a combination of such diseases. There is no hard evidence and no firm epidemiological figures, but the sheer numbers of severe impairment here would seem to point to an underlying problem far surpassing the expected statistical norm.
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| Child with cerebral palsy |
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| Multi-handicapped boy with this grandma at the Center |
With no reliable results concerning local water quality and no real resolve on the part of local partners to force the issue, EW decided to tackle head on the testing taboo. Scientifically sound results, according to cursory internet research, depend upon sample conditions. Ideally, it would be necessary to use sterilized 2-liter containers, filled to the brim and them covered with an air-tight protective polythene sheet. The actual collection methods vary according to water source - tap, pump, well, reservoir, river - but any such samples all need to get to the lab in under six hours.
So scientific rigor had already fallen by the wayside from the outset. Realistically, EW would have to settle for rough approximations and ballpark figures concerning potability and pollutants present in the three target sample areas considered representative of the watershed. The first site selected was well up into the Ghat Mountains, a small holding pond there with a pump house providing the only drinking water to a small village of Tribal Peoples who, despite government dissuasion, continue to crisscross the Indira Gandhi National Forest to pursue their ancestral traditions : collecting herbs and roots, special grasses and wild forest honey. EW's old rented Ambassador to get there blew its radiator. The jeep that was to ensure the 2nd leg never arrived, as there had been a death in the driver's family. A replacement vehicle was finally called in, but its clutch was shot and the young chauffeur peered straight ahead tensely as he negotiated steep grades, hair-pin turns and a road surface of rough-cut stone, all in first gear. To have got this sample to any lab within 6 hours would have required nothing less than a helicopter.
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| A tribal little girl drinking polluted water directly out of a hose |
The second target water source was the main reservoir which collects all rain run-off coming down the slopes of the Ghats and provides drinking water to Palani proper, a town of about 100,000. We had tried to get a sample earlier at one of the villages abut the reservoir but, as nightfall was fast approaching, we were strongly advised by the members of the local Self-Help Group not to proceed. They looked anxiously off into the dark, beyond the little stone bridge separating the village from the tranquil expanse of water. "Ya-neye. Elephants.They come down to drink at dusk when it's cooler. Dangerous."
We heeded that advice, so came back the following afternoon at about 5 p.m., giving us a good 90 minutes leeway before sunset. Once across the bridge, we came across the local pump-house man, alone in a stand of cottonwood trees bordering the reservoir. Yes, he'd heard a family of Ya-neye that had come straight down the path we were standing on, but at three in the morning. A Tamil friend, looking somewhat spooked himself, hurried down the cement embankment to fill up an empty 1-liter bottle of mineral water. There was certainly no question of rowing out to collect a sterile sample at mid-depth near the out-take zone; it was just get what we could and get on out. The next morning the local paper ran a story that was chilling : a local day-laborer had been out later than usual, tending a vegetable plot just across from our collection point and had been trampled to death by a group of thirsty Ya-neye.
The third EW water sample was collected in Vaiyapuri "irrigation tank" right in downtown Palani. This reservoir was separated from the bus station and the town's fruit and vegetable market by a busy two-lane bridge. Our job would have been far easier during the rainy season, but that was already months behind us. By April, the water level had already greatly receded, leaving a good 15-foot drop to the rim of a stagnant and smelly mire the color of lime jello and Cool Whip. Trash floated in pools of white froth through which unattended water buffalo lazily trudged to feed on weeds and plastics.
A Swiss army knife was enough to puncture two lateral holes in a plastic container through which EW's entire laundry line was drawn, providing a rudimentary bucket. As we were tossing our line over the parapet, incredulous passersby looked down to see just what we were fishing for. Fishing for the truth, in fact, as to just what toxins were entering the local food chain.
If collecting the samples had been hard, it was harder still to find anyone to take them. The official Water Board only analyzed its own samples and was less than forthcoming with results. There was one University lab some 50 kilometers down the road, but the academic year had just ended and the Lab Assistant informed us that no decision could be made regarding our samples until his boss had returned from holidays, some months hence. Perhaps a private institute could be found in Madurai, Tamil Nadu's second-largest city - a three-hour bus trip to the southeast ? And at what cost ? Had we got in over our heads ?
We were saved by a bit of Indian serendipity : precisely because it was the extended holiday season, we stumbled upon a Graduate Fellow in chemistry who was filling in for tenured staff. Work was slack, the weather beastly hot, and all other prospects for human companionship nil. So rather than scoff at our substandard collection methodology, this young scientist flashed a congenial smile and set about educating EW in bacterial cultures, electrical conductivity, chemical and heavy-metal poisoning.
Indeed, we would have needed "fresh" samples and then a three-day wait to see exactly what bacterial cocktail would have emerged from a Palani petri dish. Surely a number of different strains - perhaps even the "Super Bug", a multi-resistant germ which is now immune to virtually every known antibiotic and which has recently turned up in New Delhi's drinking water. It was also impossible to test for some other possible contaminants - manganese, aluminum, chromium, arsenic, petrolium products - as better equipped lab facilities would have been required.
Yet, during the course of the morning, the scientist conducted no fewer than 13 physical and chemical analyses of each of the samples submitted. The overhead fan cut slow circles through the heat while he sucked up pipettes of poisonous liquids and added dropperfuls of substances so as to come up with all the hard data he could. There was a strong suspicion of bacterial contamination in all three EW samples. The Tribal Community was drinking water tainted by high levels of iron, as well as phosphates and ammonia. These were also present in the principal Palani water supply.The city's main irrigation reservoir had figures that were off the charts : a twenty-fold increase in Total Dissolved Solids over the first two samples, an even higher increase in terms of phosphates and ammonia (1:25) and dangerously high levels of alcaline/bicarbonates. Suddenly, the mountains of fresh produce in the adjacent market no longer looked appetizing.
As lunch is often not taken until 2 p.m., we still had an hour to discuss potability, public health and politics with the chemist. First he ran EW through the findings, while indicating that cross-country comparisons are difficult as India sets its own standards for "safe water" which are generally more lax than those used by the World Health Organization. The WTO, for example, caps allowable Total Dissolved Solids at 1000 mg/liter, while the Tamil government only begins to raise an eyebrow should its levels of "TDS" surpass twice that amount.
Then he broached the larger implications for public health. Palani Town's main drinking reservoir - where locals and wild elephants sometimes engage in a deadly struggle for water access - has its supply treated with "bleaching powder" so as to kill off harmful micro-organisms. But you can't just bleach or boil away lethal pesticides and fertilizers, diesel residue or heavy metals. Many of the direct consequences of these substances are well documented :
- Iron phosphate is registered in the Pesticide Database. It is a neuro-toxin which causes cancer and which affects reproductive development.
- Industrial solvents cause respiratory damage, attack the G.I. tract and can severely alter blood Ph, thus harming all bodily organs.
- Toxic anemia results from chemical poisoning, and indeed an alarming percentage of EW's local staff is currently being treated for anemia.
- There is no known antidote for ammonia poisoning, a key ingredient found in the Vaiyapuri irrigation tank used for crop production.
Teratogens - birth defects due to fetal chemical exposure - are rampant. One 10-year-old study estimated there were more than half a million severely handicapped children born in India every year. In December, 2010 the Birth Defects Registry of India (BDRI) centralized delivery records from 700 hospitals and found nearly one million infants suffering from the identical maladies EW team members were seeing every day in the Handicapped Center just below our borrowed dorm-room : neural tube defects (damage to the embryonic structure which goes on to create the baby's brain and the spinal column), Down's Syndrome, autism, muscular dystrophy, clubfoot and cleft palate... What actual percentage of these young lives had been destroyed from the offset due to fetal exposure to contaminants ? Other than EW, who in Palani might be interested in knowing ?
"Our people are generally under-educated about such issues", offered the chemist. "I would like to work truthfully and sincerely, but I cannot do correct report. Government expects reports with all areas having 'good water' but this is not true", he continued, with the accent and syntax of his native language coloring his otherwise highly proficient English.
This man obviously loved his field but clearly did not like his job. Low salary. An under-funded lab. And particularly the obligation to doctor statistics.
"What would happen were you to tell the truth ?", we naively asked. "Would you lose your job ?"
"Oh, much worse than that, Ma'am. No one takes environmental action because..." Here he trailed off, leaving the end of his sentence in mid air.
"Because it's too dangerous ?"
He nodded and then paused, leaving a heavy silence broken only by the churning whir of the ceiling fan. "You can lose your life. Some here have great political influence."
As we bid farewell, with half-bows and warm handshakes, he tried to be reassuring. "You know, Palani water is OK. You should see the figures for Dindigul (the County seat). With all its industrial tanneries, the situation there is so much worse."
NB - EW continues to sponsor Green Workshops in its South Indian zones of intervention, in an effort to spark heightened awareness and improve public health of all communities involved. No names or otherwise compromising details have been published here, for obvious security reasons. Events reported are all true and scientific information fact-checked in as much as possible.
VERSION - LANGUE FRANCAISE
The third EW water sample was collected in Vaiyapuri "irrigation tank" right in downtown Palani. This reservoir was separated from the bus station and the town's fruit and vegetable market by a busy two-lane bridge. Our job would have been far easier during the rainy season, but that was already months behind us. By April, the water level had already greatly receded, leaving a good 15-foot drop to the rim of a stagnant and smelly mire the color of lime jello and Cool Whip. Trash floated in pools of white froth through which unattended water buffalo lazily trudged to feed on weeds and plastics.
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| Irrigation tank in Palani |
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| 3rd sample |
A Swiss army knife was enough to puncture two lateral holes in a plastic container through which EW's entire laundry line was drawn, providing a rudimentary bucket. As we were tossing our line over the parapet, incredulous passersby looked down to see just what we were fishing for. Fishing for the truth, in fact, as to just what toxins were entering the local food chain.
If collecting the samples had been hard, it was harder still to find anyone to take them. The official Water Board only analyzed its own samples and was less than forthcoming with results. There was one University lab some 50 kilometers down the road, but the academic year had just ended and the Lab Assistant informed us that no decision could be made regarding our samples until his boss had returned from holidays, some months hence. Perhaps a private institute could be found in Madurai, Tamil Nadu's second-largest city - a three-hour bus trip to the southeast ? And at what cost ? Had we got in over our heads ?
We were saved by a bit of Indian serendipity : precisely because it was the extended holiday season, we stumbled upon a Graduate Fellow in chemistry who was filling in for tenured staff. Work was slack, the weather beastly hot, and all other prospects for human companionship nil. So rather than scoff at our substandard collection methodology, this young scientist flashed a congenial smile and set about educating EW in bacterial cultures, electrical conductivity, chemical and heavy-metal poisoning.
Indeed, we would have needed "fresh" samples and then a three-day wait to see exactly what bacterial cocktail would have emerged from a Palani petri dish. Surely a number of different strains - perhaps even the "Super Bug", a multi-resistant germ which is now immune to virtually every known antibiotic and which has recently turned up in New Delhi's drinking water. It was also impossible to test for some other possible contaminants - manganese, aluminum, chromium, arsenic, petrolium products - as better equipped lab facilities would have been required.
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| Our 3 samples at the lab |
Yet, during the course of the morning, the scientist conducted no fewer than 13 physical and chemical analyses of each of the samples submitted. The overhead fan cut slow circles through the heat while he sucked up pipettes of poisonous liquids and added dropperfuls of substances so as to come up with all the hard data he could. There was a strong suspicion of bacterial contamination in all three EW samples. The Tribal Community was drinking water tainted by high levels of iron, as well as phosphates and ammonia. These were also present in the principal Palani water supply.The city's main irrigation reservoir had figures that were off the charts : a twenty-fold increase in Total Dissolved Solids over the first two samples, an even higher increase in terms of phosphates and ammonia (1:25) and dangerously high levels of alcaline/bicarbonates. Suddenly, the mountains of fresh produce in the adjacent market no longer looked appetizing.
As lunch is often not taken until 2 p.m., we still had an hour to discuss potability, public health and politics with the chemist. First he ran EW through the findings, while indicating that cross-country comparisons are difficult as India sets its own standards for "safe water" which are generally more lax than those used by the World Health Organization. The WTO, for example, caps allowable Total Dissolved Solids at 1000 mg/liter, while the Tamil government only begins to raise an eyebrow should its levels of "TDS" surpass twice that amount.
Then he broached the larger implications for public health. Palani Town's main drinking reservoir - where locals and wild elephants sometimes engage in a deadly struggle for water access - has its supply treated with "bleaching powder" so as to kill off harmful micro-organisms. But you can't just bleach or boil away lethal pesticides and fertilizers, diesel residue or heavy metals. Many of the direct consequences of these substances are well documented :
- Iron phosphate is registered in the Pesticide Database. It is a neuro-toxin which causes cancer and which affects reproductive development.
- Industrial solvents cause respiratory damage, attack the G.I. tract and can severely alter blood Ph, thus harming all bodily organs.
- Toxic anemia results from chemical poisoning, and indeed an alarming percentage of EW's local staff is currently being treated for anemia.
- There is no known antidote for ammonia poisoning, a key ingredient found in the Vaiyapuri irrigation tank used for crop production.
Teratogens - birth defects due to fetal chemical exposure - are rampant. One 10-year-old study estimated there were more than half a million severely handicapped children born in India every year. In December, 2010 the Birth Defects Registry of India (BDRI) centralized delivery records from 700 hospitals and found nearly one million infants suffering from the identical maladies EW team members were seeing every day in the Handicapped Center just below our borrowed dorm-room : neural tube defects (damage to the embryonic structure which goes on to create the baby's brain and the spinal column), Down's Syndrome, autism, muscular dystrophy, clubfoot and cleft palate... What actual percentage of these young lives had been destroyed from the offset due to fetal exposure to contaminants ? Other than EW, who in Palani might be interested in knowing ?
"Our people are generally under-educated about such issues", offered the chemist. "I would like to work truthfully and sincerely, but I cannot do correct report. Government expects reports with all areas having 'good water' but this is not true", he continued, with the accent and syntax of his native language coloring his otherwise highly proficient English.
This man obviously loved his field but clearly did not like his job. Low salary. An under-funded lab. And particularly the obligation to doctor statistics.
"What would happen were you to tell the truth ?", we naively asked. "Would you lose your job ?"
"Oh, much worse than that, Ma'am. No one takes environmental action because..." Here he trailed off, leaving the end of his sentence in mid air.
"Because it's too dangerous ?"
He nodded and then paused, leaving a heavy silence broken only by the churning whir of the ceiling fan. "You can lose your life. Some here have great political influence."
As we bid farewell, with half-bows and warm handshakes, he tried to be reassuring. "You know, Palani water is OK. You should see the figures for Dindigul (the County seat). With all its industrial tanneries, the situation there is so much worse."
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| Polluted horizon - Palani watershed at sunset |
NB - EW continues to sponsor Green Workshops in its South Indian zones of intervention, in an effort to spark heightened awareness and improve public health of all communities involved. No names or otherwise compromising details have been published here, for obvious security reasons. Events reported are all true and scientific information fact-checked in as much as possible.
VERSION - LANGUE FRANCAISE
"N'y a-t-il aucun de ces echantillons d'eau qui soit potable?"
L'ingenieur chimiste, jeune homme filiforme et au regard percant, secoua la tete: "Non, Madame".
EW, petite ONG francaise, mene des actions dans le sud de l'Inde depuis pres de 10 ans. Son travail est essentiellement axe sur l'education et le developpement integre. Cependant, les problemes de respect de l'environnement ne trouvent guere d'echo chez nos partenaires locaux.
Tenter de sortir de la pauvrete et de l'illetrisme un milliard deux cent millions de personnes est deja une tache considerable. Se soucier des problemes "verts" est souvent percu comme un passe-temps de luxe reserve aux pays occidentaux industrialises. "Shiva nous protege" ou "nos corps ont appris a s'adapter a tout ca" sont des reponses que l'on nous donne frequemment lorsqu'on essaie d'en savoir davantage. Plus souvent encore, un petit rire ou ce mouvement de tete lateral si particulier aux Indiens - qui est certes poli mais ne les engage a rien - viennent balayer nos questions concernant les substances polluantes et leurs effets.
L'Inde souffre d'un manque d'eau chronique, ses ressources ne suffisent pas a repondre a ses besoins. Aux inondations incontrolables succedent de longues periodes de secheresse. Les moussons sont irregulieres et les precipitations annuelles sont reparties sur 2 a 3 mois. Apres cela, le ciel n'a plus aucune goutte a donner et les temperatures explosent. Les nappes phreatiques sont contaminees a la fois par les intrusions salines et les produits polluants. Les lits des rivieres ne sont que poussiere rouge et les rares ressources provenant des retenues d'eau sont acheminees par camions aux villageois assoiffes.
L'Inde est un pays merveilleux mais une grande partie de son territoire s'est transformee en decharge a ciel ouvert et ses cours d'eau ont des relents d'egouts et de dechets industriels. Si les chiens errants qui se nourrissent dans ce milieu toxique peuvent etre un indicateur, il y a lieu de s'inquieter. Ils souffrent en effet souvent d'ataxie aigue, maladie neurologique qui entraine une perte de controle musculaire. Ils sont agites de tremblements comparables a ceux des Poilus traumatises par les obus de la Grande Guerre.
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| Depot d'ordures pres du marche - Kodaikanal |
Il n'est nullement besoin de se lancer dans de grands raisonnements pour en deduire que les memes causes expliquent peut-etre les cas de handicaps teratogenes que l'on retrouve chez les enfants accueillis dans les ecoles soutenues par EW. Enfants adorables, aux gentils sourires, mais dont les membres sont deformes, les doigts et les orteils palmes. Des petits ou des adolescents mentalement retardes, autistes, aveugles, sourds, hydrocephales ou victimes d'infirmite motrice cerebrale. L'un d'eux, un petit garcon aux yeux de biche, incapable de se maintenir en position assise est emprisonne dans une petite chaise basse en bois ou il passe la journee a regarder passer le monde, tout en bavant sur sa chemise. Certains enfants souffrent de plusieurs pathologies a la fois. Il n'y a ni preuve indeniable, ni chiffres epidemiologiques surs, mais il semble que les cas de handicaps soient ici beaucoup plus nombreux que ceux annonces par les statistiques.
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| Enfant atteint de dystrophie musculaire |
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| Enfant polyhandicape atteint d'infirmite motrice cerebrale - avec sa grand-mere au Centre |
Ne disposant d'aucun resultat fiable quant a la qualite de l'eau de la ville et des environs, ni d'aucune veritable volonte de la part de ses partenaires pour imposer une etude du probleme, EW a decide de prendre a bras le corps la question tabou de l'analyse de l'eau.
Premiere etape: l'echantillonage. D'un point de vue scientifique et pour des resultats optimaux, l'operation requiert des conditions bien precises. Dans l'ideal, les recipients utilises devraient etre sterilises, contenir 2 litres, etre remplis a ras bord et refermes sous vide a l'aide d'une capsule en polyethylene. La methode d'extraction, elle, varie selon la provenance de l'eau (robinet, pompe, source, retenue d'eau, riviere). Dans tous les cas, les echantillons devraient etre remis au laboratoire dans les 6 heures qui suivent le prelevement.
L'organisation de notre sejour ne nous permettait pas de suivre un processus aussi rigoureux et notre equipe a donc du se contenter de chiffres approximatifs concernant la composition de nos echantillons. Ceux-ci ont ete preleves a 3 endroits distincts dans la zone visee.
Le premier echantillon provenait du coeur des montagnes des Ghats, d'un etang equipe d'une pompe reliee a un reservoir, unique source d'eau d'un petit village tribal. Faire parvenir notre echantillon au laboratoire en moins de 6 heures relavait de l'impossible, a moins d'avoir un helicoptere. En tenoignent les nombreuses peripeties de notre voyage. Pour commencer, notre premier vehicule, un vieil Ambassadeur de location, est tombe en panne de radiateur ; le second, une jeep, plus adaptee a l'etat des routes, n'est jamais arrive, le chauffeur etant reste aupres de sa famille suite a un deces. Un vehicule de remplacement est arrive mais en tres mauvais etat: problemes d'embrayage, de freins ; le jeune conducteur inexperimente a du negocier les virages en epingles a cheveux, les pentes plus ou moins raides, les sols caillouteux, le tout en premiere.
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| Une petite fille tribale boit directement au tuyau |
Le deuxieme echantillon a ete extrait du reservoir principal de Palani meme (ville de 100 000 habitants). Celui-ci recueille ce qui reste des pluies qui s'ecoulent sur le flanc des Ghats. Nous voulions faire une premiere tentative dans un village alentour ou EW soutient un groupe de femmes ; mais il faisait deja sombre et les villageois nous ont fortement deconseille de nous aventurer pres du reservoir. "Ya-neye. Elephants. C'est ici qu'ils viennent s'abreuver a la tombee de la nuit quand il fait plus frais". Le danger aurait ete trop grand. Nous sommes donc revenus le lendemain. L'un de nos amis tamouls, quelque peu effraye, a donc descendu rapidement le rebord en ciment du reservoir pour remplir notre bouteille. Au matin suivant, dans le journal, on pouvait lire une histoire a faire froid dans le dos: l'un des travailleurs journaliers du village s'etait trouve dans un champ pres du reservoir plus tard qu'a l'ordinaire et avait ete pietine par un groupe d'elephants assoiffes.
Le troisieme echantillon fut collecte a la reserve d'eau d'irrigation Vaiyapuri en plein centre ville de Palani. La dite reserve est separee de la gare routiere et du marche de fruits et legumes par une deux-voies au traffic dense. La manoeuvre aurait ete beaucoup plus facile pendant la saison des pluies mais celle-ci se trouvait deja plusieurs mois derriere nous. En avril, le niveau de l'eau avait deja grandement baisse, laissant une descente d'au moins cinq metres avant d'atteindre le bord d'un lac aux eaux aussi stagnantes que malodorantes, couleur vert laiteux. Des ordures flottaient dans de l'ecume blanche ou erraient des buffles d'eau qui mangeaient des mauvaises herbes et des dechets en plastique.
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| Eau d'irrigation de Palani |
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| 3e echantillon |
A l'aide d'un couteau suisse, deux trous furent perces de chaque cote d'une bouteille d'eau dans laquelle fut ensuite glisse le fil a linge de l'equipe Tandis que nous faisions descendre notre seau rudimentaire le long de la paroi, des passants incredules s'approcherent pour voir ce que nous pouvions bien pecher. C'est bien a la peche a la verite que nous allions, afin de savoir quelles substances toxiques etaient presentes dans la chaine alimentaire.
Si la collecte des echantillons ne fut pas chose aisee, il fut plus difficile encore de trouver ou les faire analyser. La regie officielle en charge des analyses d'eau ne travaillait qu'a partir de ses propres echantillons et etait peu encline a en communiquer les resultats. Un laboratoire universitaire se trouvait bien a quelque 50 kilometres mais l'annee academique venait de se terminer et l'Assistant Chef du labo nous informa qu'aucune decision ne pouvait etre prise concernant nos echantillons en l'absence de son Superieur, parti en vacances. Peut-etre que nous pouvions nous adresser a un institut prive a Madurai, deuxieme plus grande ville du Tamil Nadu, situee a 3 heures de bus? Combien cela couterait-il? Notre projet etait-il trop ambitieux?
Une chance inesperee, comme cela arrive souvent en Inde, allait se presenter a nous: justement parce que nous nous trouvions en periode de vacances, nous avons pu rencontrer un jeune chimiste, venu remplacer le personnel parti en conge. La charge de travail en cette saison etait moindre, la chaleur accablante et il n'y avait personne a qui parler. C'est pourquoi, sans se moquer de notre manque de rigueur methodologique, le jeune scientifique a entrepris de faire notre education en matiere de cultures bacteriologiques, de conductivite, d'empoisonnement par les produits chimiques et les metaux lourds.
En fait, il nous aurait fallu des echantillons "frais", puis une attente de trois jours avant de pouvoir connaitre la multitude de bacteries qui sortiraient du bouillon de culture de Palani. Nous en aurions certainement vu emerger un grand nombre de varietes, peut etre meme le "Super Bug", germe resistant a tous les antibiotiques connus, qui est apparu recemment dans l'eau reservee a la consommation de New Delhi. Il nous a ete de meme impossible de verifier la presence d'autres contaminants tels que le manganese, l'aluminium, le chrome, l'arsenic. Le laboratoire manquait d'equipement pour ce faire.
Toutefois, le chimiste avait deja dans la matinee mene pas moins de treize analyses physiques et chimiques de chacun des echantillons remis. Tandis que le ventilateur tournait au plafond, il recueillait des pipettes de liquide empoisonne et y ajoutait des gouttes de diverses substances afin d'obtenir des donnees aussi fiables que possible. Les trois echantillons semblaient etre porteurs de bacteries. L'eau consommee par la communaute tribale, notamment, etait hautement chargee en fer, phosphates et ammoniaque. Ces trois substances etaient aussi presentes dans l'eau de Palani. Tous les chiffres du principal reservoir pour l'irrigation de la ville etaient hors echelle: 20 fois plus de solides dissous que dans les deux premiers echantillons et 25 fois plus de phosphates et d'ammoniaque et des taux d'elements alcalins et de bicarbonates dangereusement eleves. Tout a coup, les montagnes de produits frais proposes au marche tout proche ne semblaient plus aussi appetissantes.
Comme nous ne dejeunions jamais avant 14h, il nous restait une heure pour discuter de la potabilite de l'eau, de sante publique et de politique. Notre interlocuteur nous expliqua d'abord les resultats tout en indiquant a notre equipe qu'il etait difficile de comparer l'Inde aux autres pays, son gouvernement ayant etabli ses propres normes de potabilite de l'eau - qui sont, en general, bien plus laxistes que celles de l'Organisation Mondiale de la Sante. L'OMS, par exemple, n'autorise pas la presence de solides dissous a plus de 1000 mg par litre, tandis que le gouvernement tamoul, lui, en tolere le double.
Puis il aborda le probleme plus general de la sante publique. Pour venir a bout des bacteries, l'eau de la reserve principale de Palani est traitee au chlore. Mais les traitements ou le fait de faire bouillir l'eau n'affectent en rien les pesticides et fertilisants, les residus petroliers et les metaux lourds et les effets qu'ils entrainent sont largement reconnus:
- Le phosphate de fer figure au registre officiel des pesticides. C'est une neurotoxine cancerigene ; il affecte egalement le systeme de reproduction.
- Les solvants industriels provoquent des degats dans les appareils respiratoire et digestif et peuvent modifier considerablement le PH du sang.
- L'anemie toxique provient d'un empoisonnement chimique (tous les membres de l'equipe de nos partenaires locaux en souffrent).
- Il n'y a pas d'antidote connu a l'empoisonnement par l'ammoniaque, un ingredient-cle dans le troisieme echantillon de EW (eau d'irrigation).
Les teratogenes, malformations congenitales dues a une contamination chimique du foetus, sont inombrables. Selon les estimations d'une etude realisee il y a 10 ans, plus d'un demi-million d'enfants severement handicapes naissent chaque annee en Inde. En decembre 2010, le registre indien des malformations congenitales (BDRI) a mene une etude sur les naissances dans 700 hopitaux. Pres d'un million de nouveau-nes souffrent des memes maladies constatees chez les enfants du centre Award pour handicapes (ou nous logions) par les membres de EW: defaut du tube medullaire (dommage cause a la structure embryonnaire qui deviendra le cerveau et la colonne vertebrale du bebe), trisomie, autisme, dystrophie musculaire, pied bot, bec de lievre... Combien de ces jeunes vies ont ete detruites des le depart en raison d'une contamination du foetus? Et qui, a part EW, a Palani, s'interesse au probleme?
"Nos concitoyens sont peu informes en general sur ces problemes ; je voudrais travailler en toute verite et sincerite, mais je ne peux pas faire de rapports exacts. Les experts du gouvernement affirment que partout l'eau est bonne mais ce n'est pas vrai", poursuivit le chimiste avec cet accent particulier des Indiens venant colorer un anglais de tres bonne qualite.
Il etait evident que le specialiste aimait son metier mais pas la maniere dont il l'exercait: salaire mediocre, laboratoire sans vrais moyens et surtout l'obligation de manipuler les statistiques.
"Qu'arriverait-il si vous disiez la verite?", avons-nous demande naivement, "Est-ce que vous perdriez votre travail?"
"Oh, bien pire que ca Madame. Personne ne s'attaque aux problemes de l'environnement parce que...". Sa phrase resta en suspens.
"Parce que c'est trop dangereux?"
Il acquiesca et laissa planer un long silence que troublait simplement le vrombissement du ventilateur.
"On peut y laisser sa vie. Certains, ici, jouissent d'une grande influence politique."
Avant de nous quitter, apres des salutations et des poignees de main chaleureuses, il essaya d'etre rassurant: "Vous savez, l'eau de Palani n'est pas si mauvaise. Si vous voyiez les chiffres de Dindigul (siege du District), avec toutes ses tanneries industrielles, la situation est bien pire."
NB: EW continues a soutenir des ateliers "verts" dans le sud de l'Inde, ou elle intervient, s'efforcant de sensibiliser la population et d'ameliorer la sante publique des communautes concernees. Aucun nom ni detail compromettant ne sont mentionnes ici pour des raisons evidentes de securite. Tous les faits rapportes sont veridiques et les informations scientifiques aussi fiables que possibles.
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| Nos 3 echantillons au labo |
En fait, il nous aurait fallu des echantillons "frais", puis une attente de trois jours avant de pouvoir connaitre la multitude de bacteries qui sortiraient du bouillon de culture de Palani. Nous en aurions certainement vu emerger un grand nombre de varietes, peut etre meme le "Super Bug", germe resistant a tous les antibiotiques connus, qui est apparu recemment dans l'eau reservee a la consommation de New Delhi. Il nous a ete de meme impossible de verifier la presence d'autres contaminants tels que le manganese, l'aluminium, le chrome, l'arsenic. Le laboratoire manquait d'equipement pour ce faire.
Toutefois, le chimiste avait deja dans la matinee mene pas moins de treize analyses physiques et chimiques de chacun des echantillons remis. Tandis que le ventilateur tournait au plafond, il recueillait des pipettes de liquide empoisonne et y ajoutait des gouttes de diverses substances afin d'obtenir des donnees aussi fiables que possible. Les trois echantillons semblaient etre porteurs de bacteries. L'eau consommee par la communaute tribale, notamment, etait hautement chargee en fer, phosphates et ammoniaque. Ces trois substances etaient aussi presentes dans l'eau de Palani. Tous les chiffres du principal reservoir pour l'irrigation de la ville etaient hors echelle: 20 fois plus de solides dissous que dans les deux premiers echantillons et 25 fois plus de phosphates et d'ammoniaque et des taux d'elements alcalins et de bicarbonates dangereusement eleves. Tout a coup, les montagnes de produits frais proposes au marche tout proche ne semblaient plus aussi appetissantes.
Comme nous ne dejeunions jamais avant 14h, il nous restait une heure pour discuter de la potabilite de l'eau, de sante publique et de politique. Notre interlocuteur nous expliqua d'abord les resultats tout en indiquant a notre equipe qu'il etait difficile de comparer l'Inde aux autres pays, son gouvernement ayant etabli ses propres normes de potabilite de l'eau - qui sont, en general, bien plus laxistes que celles de l'Organisation Mondiale de la Sante. L'OMS, par exemple, n'autorise pas la presence de solides dissous a plus de 1000 mg par litre, tandis que le gouvernement tamoul, lui, en tolere le double.
Puis il aborda le probleme plus general de la sante publique. Pour venir a bout des bacteries, l'eau de la reserve principale de Palani est traitee au chlore. Mais les traitements ou le fait de faire bouillir l'eau n'affectent en rien les pesticides et fertilisants, les residus petroliers et les metaux lourds et les effets qu'ils entrainent sont largement reconnus:
- Le phosphate de fer figure au registre officiel des pesticides. C'est une neurotoxine cancerigene ; il affecte egalement le systeme de reproduction.
- Les solvants industriels provoquent des degats dans les appareils respiratoire et digestif et peuvent modifier considerablement le PH du sang.
- L'anemie toxique provient d'un empoisonnement chimique (tous les membres de l'equipe de nos partenaires locaux en souffrent).
- Il n'y a pas d'antidote connu a l'empoisonnement par l'ammoniaque, un ingredient-cle dans le troisieme echantillon de EW (eau d'irrigation).
Les teratogenes, malformations congenitales dues a une contamination chimique du foetus, sont inombrables. Selon les estimations d'une etude realisee il y a 10 ans, plus d'un demi-million d'enfants severement handicapes naissent chaque annee en Inde. En decembre 2010, le registre indien des malformations congenitales (BDRI) a mene une etude sur les naissances dans 700 hopitaux. Pres d'un million de nouveau-nes souffrent des memes maladies constatees chez les enfants du centre Award pour handicapes (ou nous logions) par les membres de EW: defaut du tube medullaire (dommage cause a la structure embryonnaire qui deviendra le cerveau et la colonne vertebrale du bebe), trisomie, autisme, dystrophie musculaire, pied bot, bec de lievre... Combien de ces jeunes vies ont ete detruites des le depart en raison d'une contamination du foetus? Et qui, a part EW, a Palani, s'interesse au probleme?
"Nos concitoyens sont peu informes en general sur ces problemes ; je voudrais travailler en toute verite et sincerite, mais je ne peux pas faire de rapports exacts. Les experts du gouvernement affirment que partout l'eau est bonne mais ce n'est pas vrai", poursuivit le chimiste avec cet accent particulier des Indiens venant colorer un anglais de tres bonne qualite.
Il etait evident que le specialiste aimait son metier mais pas la maniere dont il l'exercait: salaire mediocre, laboratoire sans vrais moyens et surtout l'obligation de manipuler les statistiques.
"Qu'arriverait-il si vous disiez la verite?", avons-nous demande naivement, "Est-ce que vous perdriez votre travail?"
"Oh, bien pire que ca Madame. Personne ne s'attaque aux problemes de l'environnement parce que...". Sa phrase resta en suspens.
"Parce que c'est trop dangereux?"
Il acquiesca et laissa planer un long silence que troublait simplement le vrombissement du ventilateur.
"On peut y laisser sa vie. Certains, ici, jouissent d'une grande influence politique."
Avant de nous quitter, apres des salutations et des poignees de main chaleureuses, il essaya d'etre rassurant: "Vous savez, l'eau de Palani n'est pas si mauvaise. Si vous voyiez les chiffres de Dindigul (siege du District), avec toutes ses tanneries industrielles, la situation est bien pire."
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| Horizon pollue - reserve d'eau de Palani |
NB: EW continues a soutenir des ateliers "verts" dans le sud de l'Inde, ou elle intervient, s'efforcant de sensibiliser la population et d'ameliorer la sante publique des communautes concernees. Aucun nom ni detail compromettant ne sont mentionnes ici pour des raisons evidentes de securite. Tous les faits rapportes sont veridiques et les informations scientifiques aussi fiables que possibles.
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| Reserve d'eau pres de Palani |
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