Experts say that having fraternal twin children is possibly hereditary, but not identical twins which involves splitting of a fertilized egg which happens randomly.
But because of the high number of twins in the Chinese village of Banshang in Hubei Province, residents explain the phenomenon to their source of water. According to the Chutian Metropolis Daily, the village has 16 pairs of twins from 50 families, making twin birthrate in the area 12 times the global average.
For this, the village earned the name “twin town” as Banshang residents witnessed the number of twin babies being born from one pair in 1964 to 15 more sets. At present, the area has 16 sets, broken down into nine female twins, four male twins and three male-female sets.
By age, the eldest pair is 51 and the youngest five, but more of them are identical that even the parents admit having them confused which is which. This resulted in one baby bathed twice by mistake, admitted Chen Mingyuan, father of twin daughters and party secretary of Banshang.
Now that his daughters are grown up, the confusion continues among their children who could not distinguish if it is their mother they are talking to on the phone or their aunt, added Chen.
Since the bulk of the twins were born in the 1980s, which was when village residents sourced their drinking water from a well, they attribute having twins to their water because in the last 10 years when there was already tap water, only two sets of twins were born in Banshang. However, since many of the twins were born to the Jiang, Shen and Chen clans, some believe it is a genetic thing.
But Baby Center explained that it could only be genetic if the newborns are fraternal twins who are developed from two different eggs. It is the tendency to release more than one egg in a single cycle that is a genetic trait that could be passed from mother to child, stated the website.
Banshang’s equivalent in India is the town of Mohammedur Umri.