TOYANATH BHATTARAI | ILAM

The number of heart, kidney and cancer patients in Ilam district of eastern Nepal has shot up due to the regular consumption of food grown by using excessive pesticides. According to the District Public Health Office, excessive use of car­cinogenic pesticides has turned Ilam into a district with a disproportion­ately high number of cancer patients relative to its population.

 

In the fiscal 2015-16, 73 cancer patients had sought government help for treatment. In the last fiscal year, 152 cancer patients were rec­ommended for government help. Similarly, in the same year, 89 heart patients, 29 kidney patients and two patients with spinal injury had been the beneficiaries of govern­ment assistance.

 

This year, with still a few more months to go before the fiscal ends, 134 cancer patients have already been recommended, according to Jeevan Kumar Malla, head of the District Public Health Office, Ilam. He adds that these figures only include those who request the Rs 100,000 government aid for cancer treatment, and that the number of people who don’t seek government help is also high.

 

Malla has no doubts that the pes­ticides are to be blamed. The prev­alence of cancer, as well as of other diseases, is particularly high in four local units: Suryodaya municipality, Ilam municipality, Mai municipality and Chulachuli rural municipality. These are areas that engage in exten­sive commercial vegetable farming.

 

Suryodaya is a pocket area for vegetable cultivation where most pesticides consumed in the district goes, while pesticide use is also high in Mai and Chulachuli.