Analysis of ground water samples in Polonnaruwa District to identify the possible contributors of CKDu

Abstract

According to the 2012 census report, the total the population of Sri Lanka was 20.3 million and about 85% of them live in rural and peri-urban areas of the country and agriculture is a major component of the economy [1]. Until the Covid 19 become a pandemic issue in the the year 2019/2020, the chronic kidney disease of Unknown etiology (CKDu) was one of the significant medical problems caught the consideration of Sri Lankan society at all levels. A large and developing number of rural Sri Lankans experience the effects of CKDu since the mid-1990s. Most of the CKDu patients were found in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, where farming is the primary earning for those inhabitants [2,3]. Polonnaruwa, in the north-central province, is one of the important districts, where the CKDu is prevailing significantly, in Sri Lanka.4 Paddy and Chena cultivation are common livelihood in these destitution-stricken regions. The paddy farmers always work with pesticides and composts and thus become definitive casualties of CKDu. Many studies have been conducted to find a possible aetiological cause for the disease and several hypotheses were generated. These include pesticides, fluoride [4,5], heavy metals such as cadmium and arsenic, and the hardness of groundwater, but none have brought forth convincing evidence regarding an aetiological factor. Because of the wide discrepancy of the causes stipulated, the objective of this study was to find any correlation of drinking water quality with no. of cases, prevalence, and trend of CKDu in four divisional secretariat divisions, namely Elahera, Lankapura, Medirigiriya, and Hingurakgoda DS divisions in Polonnaruwa district of North Central Province of Sri Lanka, which was the first province in which the disease was identified.