KOT ASADULLAH: Basharat Ali was 15 when his legs began to falter, a condition doctors have blamed on polluted water in a Pakistani region infamous for the deformities that afflict many of its people.
Too weak to carry his own schoolbag, he was taken to hospital, where doctors said water laden with toxic levels of arsenic, fluoride, minerals and various metals was to blame.
“It was a big blow to me as I had to quit my studies to get treatment,” Ali told AFP on the rooftop of his house some 45 kilometres from Lahore.
From there Ali´s view takes in some of the plastic, chemical, pharmaceutical and wire manufacturing factories nearby. They are widely blamed for contaminating the water local residents have to drink.
According to the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 90 per cent of factories in and around the city dump their waste untreated in open pits or discharge untreated water in streams.
Local media first reported on the problems in Ali’s village well over a decade ago, prompting teams from Lahore’s government hospital and water officials to make several visits.
New wells have been dug since, but they only provide more water polluted with arsenic.
Meanwhile Ali and other residents of the area have paid a heavy price, with activists saying 200 other children have suffered bone and dental deformities since 2000.
“Now these children are grown men and women, but they remain hidden in their houses. They are not getting any marriage proposals because people say that their bones are deformed,” he says.
