When life-giving waters turn lethal

“I had completed my state board exams for Class 12. The arts stream results were due in June. I didn’t know exactly what next then, but I wanted to attend senior college, get a degree,” says Sanket Lokhande wistfully. That was in 2021 when he was, like any other 18-year-old, still full of beans. He sighs as he speaks now, and that itself exhausts him. Fatigue marks his frame as he sits on a woven cot in the courtyard, elbows resting on his knees. It’s been about four days since this week’s dialysis session.

“Breathlessness started a few weeks after the board exams. I would feel washed out after walking just a few steps,” he says. His parents hoping to ensure the best treatment took him to a private hospital in Ahilyanagar (earlier Ahmednagar), about 64 kilometres from their village Nimgaon Bhogi. But by the time Sanket’s results were out, he was home-bound with complete kidney failure.

"The doctors said that the water we consume could be the reason. We all used to drink water from the lake, which must have been contaminated. We never realised it until our son fell sick,” says Sanket’s mother Manisha, 47.

She is referring to Pazar talav – a percolation tank, an artificial earthen water-harvesting structure built across a natural drainage line over half a century ago. The 330 households in the village have depended on this lake for their domestic and agricultural needs. But the last 12 to 15 years have seen a rise in cancer and kidney failure cases across the village.

“Drinking polluted water for a long time damages the kidneys, doctors warned us. Many in our village are suffering from kidney failure," says Manisha. In one reporting trip alone, I met around five families where at least one person is on dialysis.

Dnyaneshwar Borge’s family is one of those. “Maza paar prapanchach budalaay [my family life is destroyed],” says the 46-year-old talking about his wife Maya Borge. She has been detected with acute kidney failure at age 34 and has been undergoing dialysis – three times a week – since 2022. Dnyaneshwar’s job as a contract worker at a factory in the nearby industrial hub of Ranjangaon leaves him with little time to take care of Maya and her regular hospital visits.

He has no option but to let her at stay at her parents’ in Vadgaon Sheri, while their two teenagers live in a hostel. “My salary in the factory is 9,000 rupees. All that I earn goes towards her treatment,” he says.

The families face enormous physical and mental stress, while being pulled down by the financial drain. Sanket also travels 14 km to a private hospital in Shirur taluka twice a week with his father and brother on a bike. Each session costs Rs. 3,000. Add to that the medicines and it’s Rs. 34,000-40,000 a month towards his treatment.

“We have sold half a dozen cows and buffaloes to meet the expenses till now. Each animal fetches 50,000 to 60,000 rupees when sold. We are left with just seven or eight,” says Manisha. “Ami kaych karu shaktoy. Je samor aahe tyala samore jaatoy fakt. [What can we do? We are just dealing with it].”

It is not only the health of the people, the growing contamination of the waterbody has ruined things for the animals and farms in the village. “Evadhya chincha, kairya, peru, jambhul khaallit na talaavaavar ki khaun khaun kantala yayacha. Itki bharbharati hoti jaminila ya talaavamule. [How many tamarind, mango, guava and jamun trees used to grow here! We got sick of eating their fruit. Because of this talav the land was fertile],” says Supriya Pawshe, 40, walking near the lake. A layer of white foam can be seen on its edges. Most of the trees have turned black and dry. The dark soil is greasy and sticks to our footwear. The air smells foul.

“Gaav udhvasth karun taakle purna tya companyne [That company has destroyed our entire village],” says Dnyaneshwar taking us to the heart of the problem: Maharashtra Enviro Power Ltd. (MEPL). In 2005, this private company received the licence and space from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to operate a Common Hazardous Waste Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility in Ranjangaon, near Pune. The operations began in 2007. A couple of kilometres uphill from Nimgaon Bhogi, the back wall of the plant is visible.

“The company misled us” says Gulab Jadhav, 45. “They told us that they were going to generate electricity.” The villagers had no idea that the plant was to process toxic waste from multiple industries. “Also, the land on which the facility came up belonged to the Ranjangaon Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, so we had no say in their operations,” he adds. But in the next few years Gulab saw his orchard of 150 custard apple and 45 guava trees being lost to the contaminated water that the company released regularly.

“We had everything. Thanks to the lake the land was fertile,” says Supriya who has also lost three acres in last few years. “Paani hota, zameen hoti.[We had water, we had land].” Ironically, it was the lake that had transformed this parched village.

“The talav was dug under the government’s paani adavaa, paani jirava [hold water, percolate water] campaign during the 1972 drought. Our village was severely affected then,” says Supriya. But with time “the lake recharged the groundwater and people built dug wells in their farms. In the year 2000 my father spent three lakhs from his savings for a 5-paras [35ft] well.” She points to a part of her farmland that now lies hidden under contaminated water, thorny shrubs and tall grass.

Pazar talav was the lifeline for a village dependant on rainfed agriculture, like most of Maharashtra, where 76 per cent of the total 163 lakh hectares under cultivation remain rain-fed.

“We took crops all through the year — onions, groundnut, jowar, bajra, even sugarcane. There were orange, guava and mango orchards. Some of us even installed motors and pipelines that carried the well water to our houses,” says Supriya thinking of another time. “We have drunk this water in our cupped palms. But now even when you touch it, your skin will itch and turn black. This hazardous discharge from the facility above has made it toxic.”

The wastewater flowing downhill from the facility has been percolating through the soil along with rainwater. “Agriculture yield has decreased, orchards have stopped flowering and the water smells of chemicals. Like a rotting dead body. The stench gets worse in the evenings,” she adds.

“Earlier these dakali had clean water in them and cows and goats would drink from it.” Bapu Dashrath Jadhav, 65, pointing to a few puddles on a hilly slope around the lake where he brings his cattle to graze. Toxic liquid discharge flowing down from the unit settles in these shallow pockets now, turning the soil dark red.

“Even the lake has a layer of oil. Nowadays we have to buy drinking water.” Bapu informs me about the five ‘filter rooms’ across the village installed by the Sarpanch’s office. “We pay five rupees for 10 litres of water. This isn’t affordable. How much will we keep spending for clean water?” he asks.

“For years they have been releasing the water. It must be mixing with the groundwater as well. That is how the land has turned infertile.” Bapu once farmed six acres, including a guava orchard. “Now I only have these animals,” he says. But even they fall sick when they graze or drink here.

“They get skin issues and watery eyes. Treatment helps but there is no permanent cure. Even my cows give less milk when they drink water from the talav.” Bapu’s monthly income from milk, he says, fails to meet his fodder expenses. “Many have even lost their animals. But there is nowhere else for them to go. What to do?”

Veterinary doctor Vijay Kaskar whom the villagers consult has seen a number of cattle deaths in the last seven years. “Infertility, stomach and eye infections, bladder diseases and skin wounds are more common. When animals touch the contaminated water, they develop itchy rashes and wounds that turn into gangrene.”

There has been no scientific study conducted in this village to establish a link between contaminated water consumption and the problems people face. But several other studies in India and abroad have established the effects of toxic water on animals and humans. Contamination of soil and water is a widespread problem in the country. A 2024 report listed 440 districts, including Pune among 32 from Maharashtra, with a higher than permissible limit of nitrate posing a threat to potable water and agriculture.

The people of Nimgaon Bhogi have protested several times over the last decade. “We have been on a hunger strike in front of the company gate. Have held demonstrations in front of the MPCB office. A rasta roko in Ranjangaon. How much should I tell you? We have been fighting for action against the company and for our right to a healthy life,” says Laxman Sambare, former village sub-sarpanch.

In 2024 the Shirur MP Amol Kolhe raised the issue in the Zero Hour in parliament moving the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) into action. The findings the board made in its report after the inspection corroborated the villagers’ observations about livestock, soil and water contamination. They noticed visible signs of wastewater from the drain under the compound wall flowing toward Pazar talav. Groundwater samples from a dug well near the lake revealed the presence of harmful toxic substances like sulphide and cyanide.

The condition of the area surrounding the plant raised questions about the implementation of the 2016 rules for waste management, and the CPCB guidelines. They mandated the design and layout of the facility including storm water drainage channel, approach roads, leachate (contaminated liquid generated from water percolating through a solid waste disposal site) treatment system. The CPCB also required ground water monitoring wells, fence and gates, among other things. Compliance with these rules is essential to save the people and environment from the consequences of hazardous waste. The inspection by the board forced MEPL to build a retaining wall around the peripheries of the plant.

“But the percolation of wastewater continues. We have even filmed company workers discharging liquid through an open area of the wall that is temporarily blocked with a concrete slab,” says Jyoti Sambare, the present Sarpanch. “We want an independent committee to study the damage the company has brought upon us,” she says.

The matter has been with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) since 2025. The villagers demanding a complete stop to the discharge of the hazardous liquid. During a February 2026 hearing, NGT formed a six-member committee to conduct a two-day site visit on March 16-17. The committee will present its report at the next NGT's hearing.

Our multiple efforts to get a direct statement from the company have failed till now. Company officials, however, appeared to have gone on record with BBC Marathi, categorically denying any responsibility in water and soil contamination in the area. But the villages beyond Nimgaon Bhogi – Kardelwadi, Annapur and Ahmedabad – also complain of infertile fields, sick people and livestock.

“We want financial compensation for the people. And we don’t want this company here,” says Jyoti. "There is no chance of reselling our land. Who wants infertile land or a house in a polluted village? Not even if we sell at lower than the market rate. We can’t just migrate. We are forced to live here."

But Sanket wants to leave. “I so want to go to college and study. My body, however, won’t let me.” He yearns to breathe free. So does Pazar talav.