Defying norms, units spew toxins

VAPI, December 30: It is the second biggest industrial estate in South Gujarat. It is also ``one of the 10 most polluted places in the world...

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VAPI, December 30: It is the second biggest industrial estate in South Gujarat. It is also “one of the 10 most polluted places in the world” and has been in the eye of a storm ever since the Gujarat High Court asked the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) to monitor effluents discharged by chemical units there.

That air and water pollution have wrought havoc in Vapi is known the world over the High Court has issued directives to the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation and GPCB, the Centre has sent a parliamentary sub committee to study the ground reality. To top it all, at an international conference in Japan, Vapi and Ankleshwar were rated among “the 10 most polluted places in the world”.

Residents of Vapi and 50 villages around it have been forced to put up with toxic waste and emission from 900-odd chemical units set up over the last 25 years in utter violation of pollution norms.

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However, despite all the hype, things have worsened. A senior GPCB official admitted, on condition of anonymity, that no factory “met the standards”.Whatever measures have been taken until now, were the result of continued complaints, by residents of surrounding villages, regarding contaminated and coloured water flowing out of bore wells and of animals perishing.

The Vapi Industries Association `woke up’ to the threat after industrial pollution became a recurrent theme of public interest litigations and Vapi chemical units were served show cause notices by the High Court.

It has committed to the court that pollution control measures would be monitored and set up a Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) for secondary treatment of effluents. Plant manager Ramesh Shinde claimed the problem of water pollution has been solved with the setting up of a 55 MLD capacity treatment plant.

A year later, the `treated’ water is still toxic and has left Daman Ganga unfit for fisheries. A senior scientist at GPCB said, on condition of anonymity, that the toxic content in the discharged water exceeds permitted limitsby nearly two-fold, a fact denied vehemently by CETP officials.

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Meanwhile, the GPCB recently asked 12 chemical units located in Vapi Industrial Estate to close down for causing air pollution. Air samples from these units revealed that they were violating norms prescribed by the board.

Action was taken against the 12 units after railways authorities complained of the possibility of accidents as train drivers were unable to see the signal at night while passing through Vapi. “Two months ago, the Rajdhani Express had to be stopped at Vapi as the driver could not sight signal due to pollution,” station manager K K Parmar said.

GPCB Scientific officer C N Nair, however, maintained that visual impairment was because of humidity as Vapi is a coastal area and not due to pollution.