District administration has allotted ten acres of land at Malkapuram village in Chowtupal mandal to establish a Fluoride Mitigation Centre here. National Institute of Nutrition, and Central Public Works department officials recently visited the area and expressed their satisfaction.

The centre will initiate the construction with an amount of `100 crore. An additonal amount of `250 crore will be pumped in later. According to official sources, in the Nalgonda district, 975 of a total 1,135 villages have been identified as fluorine affected.

In a litre of water, the normal fluorine percentage ranges from .5 ppm (part per million) to 1 ppm. However, according to government officials’ analysis, in Marriguda mandal of Nalgonda district, the percentage of fluorine in the water is 28 ppm, while in the other mandals of Chandoor, Nampally, Narayanapur, Munugode, Gurrampode, Devarakonda and Narketpally, the percentage is 10 ppm.

In August last year, assembly speaker Nadhendla Manohar visited the fluoride affected villages and released first phase of `6 crore as funds for supplying drinking water to schools and nutritious food to women and children through Anganwadi centres.

The speaker promised to establish a fluoride mitigation centre in the district. Keeping this in mind, the district administration allotted ten acres of land in survey number 486 at Malkapuram village of Chowtuppal mandal, and handed over the land to the National Institute of Nutrition centre.

The centre will construct laboratory buildings, order equipments, and have an auditorium too. The Centre is linked with Fluoride affected states in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, West Bengal and Assam. The centre is being established with the primary aim of conquering the problems of fluoride victims, besides research on diseases emanating from fluoride water.