Non-profit Centre for Science and Environment evaluated the pollution status of two such places—Vapi in Gujarat and Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu. It found that pollution in these chemical hubs continues to exceed norms, putting a question mark on the ministry’s intent to tackle pollution. An analysis of pollution data by Sanjeev Kumar Kanchan. Ankur Paliwal reports from Vapi and Sumana Narayanan from Cuddalore.
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Over a year ago, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) undertook an exercise to assess pollution levels in some of the highly polluted industrial areas of India. It then released a list of 43 most polluted areas, terming them critically polluted, and imposed a moratorium on their expansion. The aim of the whole effort was to identify areas that required urgent intervention and pollution abatement measures. The exercise proved futile as these areas remain highly polluted and have brought no change in the lives of people living near them.
Take the case of 32-year-old Kisna, a fisher in the Daman district of Daman and Diu on the west coast of India. His source of living is threatened by pollution from nearby Vapi—the chemical hub of India in south Gujarat’s Valsad district. Vapi’s industries have severely polluted the Daman Ganga river, which is the lifeline of the fishers.
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“If the catch keeps declining like this, I may end up working as a daily wager in Vapi,” he says, untangling his fishnet and showing his meagre catch. “I have heard they pay just Rs 100 to Rs 150 for 12 hours of work,” says Ganesh, another fisher. About 1,500 fishers in Daman share the fate of Kisna and Ganesh.
Daman’s fisheries department confirms what the fishers say; fish catch in the area has reduced 50 per cent in the past decade.
In India’s east coast, people living near Cuddalore town in Tamil Nadu are facing a similar problem. The river Uppanar that flows through the area was used extensively for inland fisheries once. “When I was younger, fish were plentiful. Now we get only small fish; they don’t fetch much in the market,” says V Bhoopathy, a fisher from village Sangolikuppam. Cuddalore town has over 20 polluting industries. Their effluents are carried through a 2 km pipeline in the riverbed and discharged in the sea. Fishers say they can tell when highly polluting effluents are being discharged from the rising bubbles and the change in the colour of water.
New index for pollution
Both Vapi and Cuddalore figure prominently in the list of critically polluted areas released by MoEF in January 2010. Critically polluted areas are those where air, water and land pollution exceed the assimilative capacity of the environment, affecting human health. The exercise to identify such areas has been on since 1989 (see ‘First list released 23 years ago’ and ‘Timeline’). But it was based mostly on the observation data of state pollution control boards (SPCBs).
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For CEPI evaluation of the clusters, data on land, water, air pollution, ecological damage and waste management in these areas was taken into account. The industrial clusters were ranked on a scale of 0-100. A high score indicated high levels of pollution and environmental degradation. After the evaluation, 43 areas which scored 70 points and above were declared critically polluted (see ‘Pollution score card’ on left).
Vapi’s score was 88.09, next to Ankleshwar, ranked first with a pollution index of 88.5 points. Cuddalore scored 77.45 and was ranked 16th (see ‘India’s top 10 polluted areas’).
Activists and some of the state governments have, however, been critical of the evaluation. Delhi non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), which analysed the CEPI evaluation found that areas where mining is rampant, like Bellary in Karnataka and Jharia in Jharkhand, were not even assessed.
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Moratorium, a formality?
At the time of announcing the list of critically polluted areas, MoEF had put a ban on expanding existing industries or setting up new ones in these areas. The ministry also asked the respective SPCBs to submit mitigation action plans for these areas in eight months. All plans were submitted by October, 2010.
But before any significant change in pollution levels could be seen on the ground, the ministry lifted the moratorium on Vapi and four other critically polluted areas in October. Eighteen more areas were taken off the moratorium list between February and May this year. The ministry justified the decision, saying it was based on initiation of works mentioned in the mitigation action plans submitted by states. “The purpose of the moratorium was to sensitise the state governments and identifying the problem.
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The moratorium was lifted only after a review of the action plans,” says R S Cori, scientist with CPCB, who was closely involved in the CEPI study. While accepting that many of the areas where moratorium was lifted are not meeting norms, Cori says reduction of pollution levels is a long process and results cannot be seen overnight. Besides, there were other concerns—industry associations objected that the moratorium was affecting their growth and that they were being unfairly punished because of some polluting units in their areas. CPCB has formed a steering committee, which meets every two months to review pollution reduction.
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A K Nema, professor at IIT-Delhi, says if an area is already choked with pollution, allowing new industries can have serious impact on the environment and human health. “I think the ministry should consider re-imposing the moratorium in these areas, else the whole purpose will be defeated,” says Nema who was involved in the CEPI evaluation.
Questions have also been raised over the efficacy of the mitigation action plans of the states. CSE analysed two of the critically polluted areas—Vapi and Cuddalore. Vapi was chosen because it is second in the list of critically polluted areas after Ankleshwar. While the moratorium in Ankleshwar is still in force, the one on Vapi was lifted. Cuddalore was randomly selected from the list of areas where moratorium was lifted.
The CSE analysis shows pollution levels in the two areas are still way above the permissible limit.
.jpg "The common effluent treatment plant discharges toxic effluent into the Daman Ganga")
Vapi’s action plan inadequate
The Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation estate of Vapi has a total of 832 industries of which around 759 are polluting ones. Of them, 653 are in the red- category list of CPCB. Seventy per cent of the 759 factories include those making dyes, dye intermediates, pesticides, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The remaining are mostly paper mills, plastics and food processing units. The water pollutants from these industries include ammoniacal nitrogen, phenolic compounds, benzene, pesticides, heavy metals, cyanide, arsenic and organic as well as inorganic pollutants. Prolonged exposure to these can prove fatal.
.jpg "Vapi CETP was upgraded recently")
In its mitigation action plan, Gujarat PCB mentioned some works initiated to bring down the levels of these pollutants. These include reduction of pollutant load on Vapi’s Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) and its capacity upgrade because effluents entering and leaving the plant were not meeting the prescribed norms. In November last year, the Vapi Waste and Effluent Management Company (VWEMCL), managed by the industry association, upgraded the capacity of the CETP from 55 million litres a day (MLD) to 70 MLD. But this may soon prove inadequate as effluent reaching the CETP is increasing every year. It was 48 MLD in 2009; it is 60 MLD now.VWEMCL has also installed a Fenton (a reagent) Activated Catalytic Carbon Oxidation plant to oxidise wastewater having pollutants that do not break down easily. Such pollutants use up more dissolved oxygen in the water and are a threat to the fish.
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Other measures initiated under the mitigation action plan include installation of flow meters by every industrial unit to regulate effluent discharge to the CETP, and checking of illegal discharge of highly polluted effluents in open areas.But these measures have only marginally improved the effluent quality discharged into the Daman Ganga river; the pollution levels still exceed the norms. For example, CPCB’s periodical monitoring data shows the chemical oxygen demand (COD, measure of oxygen depletion in water caused by organic pollutants during decomposition) of the effluent discharge at the Vapi CETP outlet is 500-800 mg/litre; the maximum permissible limit for it is 250 mg/l. CSE’s Pollution Monitoring Laboratory tests found that COD level in the effluent at the CETP outlet was 1,500 mg/l, which is 600 per cent of the norm (see table: ‘Effluent quality at Vapi’s CETP outlet’). The tests conducted in April 2011 also show presence of heavy metals like mercury and poisonous compounds like arsenic and cyanide.
CSE also collected water samples 300 metres upstream and 300 metres downstream of the CETP outfall and five to six kilometres downstream of CETP at Kachigam dam (see satellite image p26). The results showed presence of high levels of mercury and oil and grease (see table above). High levels of organochlorine and organophosphorous pesticides were also detected.Vapi’s waste management utility, however, claims there is improvement in the effluent quality. For instance, COD level of treated wastewater has been reduced to 500-800 mg/l in 2010-2011 from 800-1200 mg/l in 2004-2009, says D C Sharma, chief executive officer of VWEMCL. “Vapi mostly has small industries. It is difficult for them to manage CETP inlet norms as most of them do not have high-end technology. When inlet norms are not met, water with high COD levels flows out of the CETP,” says Sharma. He adds that very soon the CETP will bring COD levels further down to 350-400 mg/l by upgrading effluent treatment plants of each industrial unit.
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Industry owners have, meanwhile, demanded that pollution standards should be relaxed for chemical industries. “We are doing our best. If CPCB has a magic formula for reducing pollution and COD levels give it to us,” says Mahesh Pandya, former president of the Vapi Industrial Association.Vapi’s waste management utility has a solution, as mentioned in the action plan. It has collaborated with the National Institute of Oceanography and has proposed a 22 km-long under-sea pipeline that will carry the treated effluent from the CETP and discharge it deep in the sea. “The effluents will be widely dispersed and we can achieve 100 per cent dilution of effluent this way,” says Sharma. Fishermen in Daman oppose the proposal. “We have already lost the fish in the estuary because of the toxic discharge into the river. The pipeline will kill the fish in the sea,” says Premabhai S Prabhakar, a leader of the fisher community.
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Groundwater contaminated
The mitigation action plan also gives a miss to the contaminated groundwater in and around Vapi. In 2005, a Supreme Court monitoring committee had ordered the Gujarat government to seal all contaminated wells and borewells and make drinking and irrigation water available to people. The committee identified indiscriminate dumping of hazardous waste in the open as the source of contamination.
The state authorities sealed many borewells, but are yet to make drinking water available to all. Water for agriculture is yet to be arranged. Vapi’s waste management company removed 10,000 tonnes of hazardous waste from the illegal dumping sites to the hazardous waste treatment facility in Vapi in November last year, but no action has been taken to decontaminate the water.| Ground water quality in villages of Vapi – as tested by CSE Lab | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source: Water quality tests performed by CSE Laboratories, New Delhi * O&G standard for Inland surface water **COD tests performed at Choksi Laboratories TDS- Total Dissolved Solids, TSS- Total Suspended Solids, Fe- Iron BDL- Below detection limit Some of the figures have been rounded off | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A visit to three affected villages revealed many people are still drinking the contaminated groundwater. Rata village near phase III of the industrial estate has around 1,100 families, but only 200 of them have easy access to safe drinking water.
“The rest are either forced to drink the contaminated water or walk at least one km to reach the nearest drinking water source,” says Jayendra Bhai Patel, sarpanch of Rata.
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To get rid of the solid waste, the Vapi administration has proposed a co-processing plant where plastic waste would be burnt in cement and steel plants. “But the industry waste is sometimes still found dumped at several illegal places like Bill Khadi, a rivulet,” says Rohit Prajapati, a Vadodara-based environmental activist. Sharma says VWEMCL has constructed a barrage to divert Bill Khadi’s water to CETP.
Concern over air pollution
Pollution in Vapi’s air is palpable. “In winters, we have to stay indoor because the air becomes suffocating and the eyes start itching,” says Devli Ben of Vathiavad in Rata village.
The Gujarat PCB is responsible for monitoring air pollution, but it does not have monitoring facilities for pollutants like volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls and vinyl chloride, released by industries. Many of these pollutants are carcinogenic and released by chemicals, dyes, paints, pharmaceuticals and other industries using organic chemicals. For monitoring VOCs, CPCB has given the contract to Vadodara-based Gujarat Environment Management Institute. Monitoring of PAHs, polychlorinated biphenyls and vinyl chlorides has been outsourced to a private firm. An official of the environment institute admits that the levels of VOCs, arsenic, nickel and ammonia exceed standards.
Gujarat PCB only monitors sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM) and suspended particulate matter (SPM). Air pollution monitoring data of the PCB shows that while SO2 and NO2 meet the permissible standards, RSPM levels hover in the range of 70-120 µg/m3 against the standard of 80 and SPM in the range of 150-200 µg/m3 against the standard of 100. Gujarat PCB says there is 80 per cent improvement in the ambient air quality over the past two years, but its mitigation action plan does not have clear cut proposals. It merely mentions “proper air pollution control measures, adoption of cleaner fuels, plantation and cleaner technology” as some of the broad areas, for which a five-year deadline has been set.
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CSE analysis of the action plan shows Vapi failed to give a clear plan on lowering levels of VOCs, benzene, PAHs and polychlorinated biphenyls, which is required urgently. Though the government and industry association have taken some measures to curb pollution, a lot still remains to be done. “If the government seriously cares about improvement in Vapi, it should re-impose the moratorium and not lift it till all parameters are met,” says Prajapati.
.jpg "Most residents of Desaivad area in Rata village are drinking contaminated groundwater")
Projections misleading
CSE also evaluated PCB claims that the mitigation action plan will reduce Vapi’s pollution index to 61.88 (severely polluted). It found that even if one goes by SPCB’s claim that air quality has improved and the affected population is less than 100,000, the CEPI index for air would reduce from 74 to 67 and not 39 as projected (see table above). The plan also ignores the impact of pollutants on health and ecology, despite visible water pollution. By skipping these vital factors, the indices for water and land were lowered to 56.25 and 33. CSE analysis shows even if all the measures mentioned in the action plan are factored in, Vapi’s CEPI score will reduce to 84 (critical), not 61.88 points. This means Vapi will remain a critically polluted area as it has been for the past 23 years.
Cuddalore flouts rules
.jpg "Victory Chemicals was once booked for dumping hazardous waste next to the Uppanar river. It is closed now (Photo: Sumana Narayanan)")
On the night of March 7, a thick pall of smoke enveloped Kudikadu village near Cuddalore. It made people ill; over 120 persons had to be hospitalised after they complained of nausea, giddiness and eye irritation. The white smoke was bromine gas and its source: pharma company Shasun Pharmaceuticals, which abuts the village.
The mishap underscored the perils of living near a chemical industrial hub like Cuddalore. What was more significant was that the incident happened within a month of MoEF lifting its moratorium on expanding or setting up new factories in the town’s SIPCOT (State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu) industrial estate. As in the case of Vapi, the moratorium on Cuddalore was imposed in January 2010. The reason for lifting the moratorium was the initiation of works mentioned in the mitigation action plan the Tamil Nadu PCB submitted to MoEF.
Effluents do not meet norms
The action plan makes it appear that pollution in Cuddalore is well under control, the industries are abiding by the norms, and there is no illegal discharge of pollutants.
The effluent monitoring data of PCB belies the claims. It shows high levels of pollutants in the effluents even at the time when the moratorium was lifted (see ‘Pollutants in outlet effluent’). The data was accessed by the SIPCOT Area Community Environmental Monitoring (SACEM), a community initiative to track pollution in Cuddalore, through Right To Information. The data shows the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and chloride level in effluent were beyond permissible limit.
The industrial estate, spread over 1,080 hectares, has 31 units. Of these, 20 generate effluents, 10 claim to be zero-discharge units, where no liquid waste leaves the premises. The remaining treat the effluent before sending it to the Cuddalore SIPCOT Industries Common Utilities (CUSECS). The utility managed by industries does not treat the effluent but merely mixes the treated effluent of member units, stabilises it at pH 7-7.5, and then releases it in the Bay of Bengal.
SACEM says the industries often illegally discharge untreated effluents into the river. “Of course when the industries get information of an official visit, they stop illegal discharges. But we have documented 15 incidents of illegal discharge of effluents between 2004 and 2009,” says Arul Selvam of SACEM. Shweta Narayan, coordinator with SACEM, says the waste utility has till date been issued five show cause notices by SPCB for flouting pollution norms. Media reports of SACEM’s findings led to the Madras High Court taking suo moto cognisance against industries. The case is still pending.
K Indra Kumar, secretary of Cuddalore SIPCOT industries association says all the effluent treatment plants of industries are performing well. Kumar says measures like zero liquid discharge and use of anaerobic digesters (where microbes are used to treat waste water in the absence of oxygen), for which trial runs were held in February, showed remarkable results. As for the solid and hazardous waste, it is sent to a waste treatment facility in Gummidipoondi in Thiruvallur district, says Kumar. People living in the surrounding area, however, say some of the closed units (there are 23 of them) have stored the waste within the premises. The waste includes chemical sludge, sludge from electrolytic cells, metal plating sludge and polyvinyl chloride lumps.
CEPI projections fudged?
In the CEPI list released last January, Cuddalore scored 77.45 points (air: 54, water: 65.25, and land: 64). SPCB’s mitigation action plan says with the pollution abatement measures it has proposed, the index score will fall to 54.5. A PCB official says the pollution control measures needed were minor such as filters and anaerobic digesters which the industries have installed. He offered no comments when asked to explain how such small changes could reduce pollution drastically and why these measures were not introduced earlier.
Kumar criticised the Centre’s evaluation: “The CEPI parameters are not proper. For example, the affected population in the area is not as high as shown. The population around SIPCOT is less than 10,000, whereas it was wrongly considered (by CPCB) as 100,000, which increased the CEPI score by 15 points. There are also some errors in the calculations for air, water and land.”
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CSE’s analysis shows that the projection in PCB’s mitigation action plan is misleading. Calculations show the aggregate CEPI score may reduce to 72, not 54.5 points as projected by the PCB (see table ‘Tamil Nadu PCB’s projected CEPI score misleading’). This is because like in the case of Vapi, the Cuddalore CEPI evaluation also gives a miss to important factors like presence of major air pollutants (benzene, volcanic organic compounds or VOCs), visible impact of pollution on groundwater and surface water and their impact on people; an estimated 20 villages are affected. An investigation by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute in January 2011 found Cuddalore’s industries release nearly 28 types of VOCs which are classified as hazardous.
The action plan is also silent on the impact of new industries coming up in SIPCOT phase III. This area will have the Nagarjuna refinery and a textile park with 15 processing units. The refinery under construction will have a captive jetty as well. “This site is hardly 10 km from Pichavaram, a mangrove-rich, eco-sensitive region. The government is not looking at the cumulative impact of these industries on the region,”says S Ramanathan, monitor with SACEM.
The industries have already contaminated groundwater used in irrigation; drinking water is also scarce as there is no municipal water supply. “Our fields are dry and look at the trees,” says Kuppu Raj, chief of Kudikadu village, while pointing at some shrivelled coconut trees. The going may become tougher once the new industries become operational.
Monitor and deter
The CSE study proves that MoEF was in a hurry to remove the critically polluted tag of Vapi and Cuddalore. Instead of applying a strict monitoring regime to assess pollution, it relied on promises made on paper to lift the moratorium. The ministry, in fact, threw caution to the wind—it did not even carefully assess the projections made by SPCBs that would have nailed the lies in the mitigation action plans.
MoEF is also guilty of not establishing benchmarks that should be achieved in a time-bound manner before the moratorium on critically polluted areas could be lifted. The ministry should demand comprehensive action plans from states, which should factor in all relevant aspects. In addition, the CEPI evaluation should be made a continuous process wherein the ranking of industrial areas is updated every two years, and all the related information should be made public. MoEF also does not seem to believe in the principle that polluters should pay. A tax or a monetary penalty on polluting industries would have a deterrent effect, and the money so collected can be utilised for pollution abatement. The moratorium was like a ray of hope for the industrial areas choking on pollution, but only a brief one..jpg)
Originally published in Down To Earth:
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