Karnataka: Villagers drain 36-acre lake after HIV-positive woman ends life

Dharwad, Dec 5: Residents of Morab have drained the 36-acre lake after an HIV-positive woman allegedly committed suicide by jumping into it.

Her body, found floating in the lake on November 29, was bloated and half-eaten by fish. Villagers refused to drink water from the water body, believing that it was contaminated with HIV.

The lake is a source of water for about 15 thousand people in Navalagunda taluk's Moraba village. When the villagers came to know that the woman who had allegedly committed suicide in the lake was infected with HIV, they informed the officials that they would not draw the water from the lake.

HIV is usually transmitted through sexual intercourse, infected blood and from an infected mother to the baby in her womb or through breastfeeding, but the villagers' alarm at the discovery a week ago drove the demand for the lake to be drained.

Even after a lot of persuasions, the villagers have refused to buy the arguments of the officials who visited them.