Zubeda Hamid | IN a tiny laboratory of the physics department in Lady Doak College, a project is on to map eye infections that cause blindness among children in Pudukottai district. Started last year, the three-year initiative is using the Geographic Information System through remote sensing to help predict areas where the infection possibly abounds. The project began when Aravind Eye Hospital started to receive several cases of similar eye infections from a belt of villages in the district. "We took patient data from the hospital and integrated it on to government toposheets and imagery obtained through remote sensing. Using this methodology , we predicted areas where there could be an incidence of the infection,'' said G Vasanthi, lecturer in the physics department of the college and principal investigator of the project. The infection, trematode-induced granulomatous, is believed to be c a u s e d by a p a r a s i t e (worm) that uses snails, which are found in ponds and rivers in certain coastal regions, as host bodies. "The infection affects mainly children as they spend a lot of time in the water,'' said Dr S R Rathinam, professor of ophthalmology at Aravind, and co-investigator of the project. She has seen over 600 cases of these infections over the last several years. "If left untreated, nent loss of vision,'' she said TILL about four months ago, both adults and children of the Kottaipattinam village in Pudukottai district used the central pond to bathe in. Even back then, villagers say it was filthy. Strewn with garbage, the water green and slimy, it is hard to imagine how anyone could bathe in it. The villagers though had no choice: it was their only source of water close by. This year, a scarcity of rainfall has partially dried up the pond. To have a bath, Rukia Biwi, 50, now has to walk around 1.5 km to another pond, which, she says, is not much better. With the population of the village growing over the last decade, ponds, which had once been pristine, are now barely usable after being used for cattle watering and by fishermen to wash their catch from the sea, Biwi says. Almost all the people complain about water: not just the lack of availability but also the effect on their health. "Almost all the village children have had some sort of health problems. Usually it is severe itching or rashes on their skin. Sometimes it is in their face and eyes. We know it is the water but what choice do we have? There is no other water source here,'' frets Siddha Bashiri, another resident. For drinking and cooking purposes, people buy water at Rs 2.50 a can. Those who can afford it, use it to bathe as well. But for the rest, bathing entails either using the village pond or walking a long distance to find another, also an unclean one. Most of the ponds have not been cleaned up in the recent past and villagers say it is too expensive a task for them to take on. The village pump, according to another resident, works once in 15 days or so. "And even when it does work it is just for a few hours at a time. There is a rush as all the people try to fill their buckets and then the water is over,'' she says. At a pharmacy on the main road near another nearby village, the chemist is used to dealing with cases of severe itching and skin infections. "It is very common here and usually happens in the summer months. I give them a general ointment or powder to help with the itching,'' he claims. Ponds dot the landscape of Pudukottai. As per a 1960s government toposheet, there were 3,400 ponds in the region, the largest number in any district. Though many have dried up over the years or have been encroached upon, there are still a substantial number of them in use. (To be continued)