Fifty-year-old Sadhani Kalita who resides in Nagaon district of Assam, says, “I face constant pain in my body, and my feet get swollen. I also have fever, high pressure, and diabetes, for which I have to take medicines.” Kalita lives with skeletal fluorosis, caused by prolonged consumption of water that has high fluoride content, above the prescribed safe level.

Fluoride enters the state’s groundwater through mineral-rich rocks, at levels that are dangerously high for consumption. Its presence in Assam’s water was first detected in 1999. As a result, citizens who consume the water for long durations develop irreversible dental and skeletal fluorosis, which have no known cure. Surface water, on the other hand, is safe from the contamination.

While many tubewells and borewells have been abandoned across the state, unreliable piped water supply often leaves residents with little choice but to revert back to groundwater usage.

Dharani Saikia is a 62-year-old social worker who has been gathering evidence of fluorosis cases in Assam — largely in Nagaon, Hojai and Karbi Anglong districts — for over two decades. He meets with children and adults who have developed fluorosis in its many forms, documenting their symptoms and how the condition affects their daily lives.

Read the full story: In rural Assam, fluoride in groundwater is bending bones