CHENNAI: It is five years since the Palar Basin Management and Development Board was constituted to ensure integrated planning, monitoring, management and development of water and land resources in the basin with the involvement of all stakeholders.

It was supposed to meet twice a year, or more frequently if need be. All these years, it met only on a few occasions, the last in August 2004. The reason for the virtual non-functioning of the Board is not far to seek.

Headed by the Public Works Minister, it has 135 members. It comprises Secretaries of various departments, including Finance, Public Works, Agriculture, Municipal Administration and Water Supply, Industries, Forests and Environment. Members of Parliament and the Assembly, Collectors of the districts concerned, local body representatives and chief engineers are also among the members.

There is also a basin management committee with nearly 36 members. And both can co-opt representatives non-governmental organisations.

A senior official acknowledged that the Board was too large to be convened as and when required.

Another official said a proposal to prune the size of the Board was under the Government's consideration. Though the Board met only on a couple of occasions, the official did not agree that very little was achieved.

"We have collected data on industrial pollution, which is acute in the Palar. As there is scope for reuse of treated effluent, we are studying proposals. Two projects — one for a reservoir and the other for a multi-disciplinary approach to natural network information — have been initiated," the official said.

It was proposed to convene a meeting of the Board by the month-end.

Four years ago, the Madras Institute of Development Studies hosted a workshop for different stakeholders in the Palar basin to ensure sustainable development of water resources. A committee was formed and it met several times. In the last one year, it met over six times, said S. Janakarajan, professor of the institute, who is the coordinator. According to him, the committee unanimously agreed that the closure of tanneries, responsible for polluting the Palar, was not the solution. It decided that solutions be found not only for pollution control but also for restoring the basin's ecology.

Many tannery units found the option of common effluent treatment plants costly.

Hence, it was suggested that a refrigerated container van be used to transport raw hides and skins from slaughterhouses to factories for processing without applying salt. By this method, the process of pickling can be skipped, and the problem of total dissolved solids avoided.

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