Toxic trap
Cut one: 1989-90: a factory manufacturing h-acid freely dumps iron-sludge, which contaminates the groundwater of Rajasthan’s Bichchri village. Forced to depend entirely on water tankers, villagers begin, and finally win, a prolonged legal battle to get the factory shut down.
Cut two: 2004. Pollutants from an oxalic acid plant renders the groundwater of Chipri village in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district unusable for drinking and irrigation. Following strong protest by villagers, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (mpcb) orders the closure of the plant for a month in 2002. mpcb then allows it to resume production, on the promise that it would follow certain norms. Today, the plant’s management claims these norms are being followed since then. Today, the effects of pollution visibly stamped on crops and people’s health, Chipri has relaunched its agitation to force the plant to close down. mpcb, say villagers, is not co-operating.
In 1998 Star Oxochem Private Limited (sopl) started producing oxalic acid at Chipri in 1998. It currently produces 25 tonnes of oxalic acid and five tonnes of diethyl oxalate annually. Nitric acid and sugar are the raw materials used. Diethyl oxalate is used to make bulk drugs Oxalic acid has various uses: in the leather industry for cleaning purposes, in the textile industry for dyeing and bleaching, in the pharmaceutical industry for manufacturing sulpha drugs. But it is very poisonous. It can cause kidney damage, abdominal pain, low blood pressure, tremors, convulsions.
This star didn’t twinkle Star Oxochem set up its plant with a promise to increase the village’s prosperity by generating employment. But all it actually generated was devastating pollution. Groundwater, the only source of drinking water in Chipri, has been completely contaminated. This has also lead to severe crop loss. “The plant is at a height and the village falls on its slope, which is why all pollutants percolate to the village,” says Chipri resident Sanjay Patil.
According to sopl’s manager Suresh Patekar, the plant generates 15,000 litres of acidic effluent daily, along with two to four kilogrammes of solid hazardous waste (of category acid residue and distillation residue). An effluent treatment plant (etp), set up as per mpcb’s directions, treats the acidic effluents. Patekar claims the plant reuses 50 per cent of the treated effluent and the rest is evaporated through solar ponds. But villagers allege that sopl continues to illegally discharge effluents outside its premises.
They also rubbish the claim that 7,500 litres of effluent can be evaporated through solar ponds daily. “Solar evaporation sounds unrealistic. What about the monsoon season, when there is no sun? Where does the effluent go then?” questions Ramesh Kisnsing Rajputh, a resident of Chipri who is leading the agitation. Agrees Y B Sontakke, mpcb’s regional officer at Kolhapur, “There is no denying that Star Oxochem had been disposing its effluent indiscriminately, which has polluted Chipri’s groundwater. Though it took some measures recently, it is unable to treat all its waste.” He adds that solar evaporation is only a stopgap solution and suggests adopting membrane technology for water treatment instead (see Down To Earth, ‘Pollution Pays’, April 15, 2004). Regarding the solid hazardous waste, Patekar says all of it is stored within the plant’s premises. Sontakke explains that nothing can be done about this untreated waste because though the plant is not allowed to discharge effluents outside its compound, it can store it inside it.
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Apprehensive Chipri was apprehensive about the chemical plant from the very beginning: an acid factory can contaminate water sources. So, villagers had the water tested at Karad-based Government College of Engineering in 1998 itself. The results said the water was of good quality. But when the tests were repeated a year later, with samples from same water source, the results shocked them (see table: Within a year). “All fingers pointed towards Star Oxochem’s plant, save which there was no other industrial unit in the vicinity. Also, all pollution related problems surfaced only after the plant was set up,” Rajputh reasons.
Villagers say that when the plant began operations, it didn’t have the required pollution control devices. A make-do etp was set up in 2000 and upgraded in 2002, but effluents continued to be discharged outside. Despite repeated requests, the authorities concerned did not take any action.
So: a movement
Put under pressure by continuous protests, mpcb sent a show cause notice to sopl on April 30, 2002 and ordered the plant’s closure on May 13, 2002. The plant was reopened on June 7, 2002, on the condition that it would follow certain norms (see box: MPCB’s conditions). Public pressure forced the mpcb to collect effluent and emission samples from the plant and its investigation confirmed villagers’ doubts. In its letter to the mpcb’s member sectretary, dated May 21, 2002, the mpcb’s Kolhapur unit wrote: “The effluent was found to be highly acidic in nature and emissions exceeded the limits of NOx by six times the prescribed value.” For instance, the NOx reading of stack emission on April 3, 2002, was found to be 370 milligramme per normal cubic metre (mg/Nm3): the specified standard is 50 mg/Nm3.
Pollution continues
Bhupal Dyanu Yadav of Chipri tested the water of his well twice: in November 2003 and January 2004, at the District Public Health Laboratory (dphl), Sangli. The samples were declared ‘not suitable for drinking and irrigation’ and ‘chemically unpotable’ on both occasions. The November 10, 2003 test result of water collected from the tubewell of Dada Tadgonda Patil, another resident said: “Higher content of salts and sulphates in the water has impaired its utility for agricultural purposes.”
The Kolhapur office of mpcb and the dphl conducted fresh tests in July 2004. The mpcb tested three water samples and found one failing the desirable limit for total solids, as specified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (bis). The dphl tested 15 samples and found all of them failing the bis drinking water specification of total hardness and total solids: 300 milligramme per litre (mg/l) and 500 mg/l respectively. Eight samples also failed the chloride limit of 250 mg/l. More tests were conducted by Jaysingpur-based Puru Laboratory in the same month. The cost of these tests was borne by the villagers, who paid Rs 500-700 per sample. This report also branded the water “not suitable for drinking purposes”. On the basis of these studies, the total dissolved solids in Chipri’s groundwater range between 1,312 mg/l and 3,104 mg/l and the hardness is between 634 mg/l and 1,426 mg/l.
“Earlier we used to drink water directly from the wells, but now we have to fetch it from a long distance. If we drink this contaminated water, we cough, develop sore throat and have upset stomach. My agricultural field is right next to the factory and for the last few years, I have failed to harvest any good crop. The paan crop, too, failed this year,” laments Shakuntala Bhopal Yadav. Kidney problems are also on the rise. “Why are people getting kidney infections after the factory has come up?” questions Sarjurao Bhosle. Both kidneys of Bhosle’s brother failed; he had to donate his own kidney to him.
The village also faced a major gastrointestinal disease epidemic in June 2004, which affected 1,000 people and killed two children. “The epidemic could be due to the factory’s pollution, but we are not sure. Our understanding is that effluents have leached into the ground. Every time it rains, they get mixed with the rainwater and further leach into the groundwater, which is the major source of drinking water,” explains Sontakke. C D Awalekar, a doctor and member of the Indian Medical Association, Jaysingpur, points out that cases of water borne diseases, hepatitis and enteric fever have gone up in the village in the last four-five years. But Patekar blames scanty rainfall in the last four years for the spurt in diseases.
Amid this mounting crisis, Chipri villagers organised a sit-in on August 16, 2004, in front of the police office at Kolhapur, where mpcb officials were also present. They reiterated their demand for closing the plant. “ mpcb officials promised that action would be taken within a month. But it is well past one month and we have not heard from them,” complains Raju Suryavanshi.
The battle goes on. Will Chipri villagers manage to win, a la Bichchri?
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