Gorakhpur, India: Increased cases of water-borne encephalitis confirmed

GORAKHPUR: When Mahendra Kumar had a little money saved, over 10 years ago, he installed a handpump outside his small house in Badhariya village. The first he heard of the handpump being too shallow was when his nine-yearold daughter Saloni died of encephalitis this year and the grieving father was told it was because of the water she had drunk from the handpump. With water-borne acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) now making up close to 95% of the encephalitis cases across eastern Uttar Pradesh, there is a renewed focus on the water the area’s children are drinking. “The big problem in this area is that since it is low-lying and surrounded by rivers, the water table is very high, which makes contamination easier,” says Gorakhpur’s district magistrate Ravi Kumar NG. Read article