Kerala - Kochi   

PCB's Save Periyar Action Plan raises fears of marine pollution

K.P.M. Basheer

WAITING FOR ACTION: The Periyar, polluted by industrial effluents. - Photo: H. Vibhu (See also Page 4)

KOCHI: The Kerala State Pollution Control Board's (PCB) proposal to pipe industrial effluents from the Eloor-Edayar industrial belt to the Arabian Sea has raised concerns of marine pollution and damage to fish population.

The PCB in its `conceptualisation report' on the Save Periyar Action Plan proposed that as a long-term solution to the worsening problem, industrial effluents could be piped to the sea after proper treatment. Industrial effluents, illegally let out to the Periyar, have already turned the tail-end regions of the river highly hazardous. The river water is unfit for human consumption, groundwater is contaminated and residents in the area suffer from a slew of diseases. Protests by the local residents and intensive campaigns by environmental groups have forced the authorities to think of new ways and places to dump the effluents.

The Government asked the PCB to draft a comprehensive Save Periyar Action Plan. The first draft, open for public debate, contains 19 short-term and three long-term recommendations.

The long-term proposal of piping the effluents into the sea has drawn flak from fishworkers' unions and environmentalists. The TUCI-affiliated Kerala Mathsyathozhilali Aikyavedi has said it will resist any such move. Charles George, its president, said letting out the industrial effluents into the sea would destroy Kerala's fish wealth and throw out tens of thousands of fishworkers out of job. He said many of the factories in the Eloor-Edayar belt produced highly toxic and hazardous chemicals. "In spite of all the restrictions and people's protests, even now these industries manage to let out the effluents into the Periyar," he told The Hindu . "You can imagine the damage they could do to the fish wealth if allowed to pump out the effluents into the sea." His union was determined to fight the proposal out, Mr. George said.

Open for discussion

However, S.D. Jeyaprasad, member-secretary, PCB, said the proposal was in an embryonic stage. It was just one of several proposals that had been formulated after a detailed Save Periyar seminar held at Eloor in December. The PCB had just thrown the ideas up for pubic debate and recommendations. Interested persons could send their views across to the PCB by end-February. He agreed that dumping industrial effluents was an expensive idea and that an in-depth study on the impact was essential. And, only treated effluents would be piped to the sea. He pointed out that such a scheme was operating successfully in Gujarat.

Need for detailed study

P.N. Parameswaran Moothad, a hazardous waste management expert, who was involved in the setting up of the Rs.133-crore waste management treatment scheme at Ankleswar in Barooch district of Gujarat, said such a project needed a detailed study.

Before the Ankleswar project got under way, the authorities had carried out a 10-year study on its feasibility and impact.

Mr. Moothad, a senior general manager of the United Phosphorous Limited, said the 60 mld (million litres per day) project was commissioned last month. It collects and treats effluents from three industrial estates (about 2,000 industrial units), pipes them 44 km on shore and 9.4 km offshore and dumps them in the sea. One of the offshoots of his company had carried out the construction.

Mr. Moothad, a Malayali, could not say such a project would be ideal for Kochi. It all depended on the impact, cost and the distance to the sea. Another offshoot of his company has won the contract for setting up a Common Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facility for Hazardous Waste on FACT land on a `build, own and operate' basis.

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