Thursday, June 22, 2006

Shift chemical units to safer places: forum

From THE HINDU

Shift chemical units to safer places: forum

CUDDALORE: Cuddalore District Consumer Protection Organisation general secretary M. Nizamuddin called for the shifting of chemical units (on the banks of the Uppanar) to safer places for the safety of residents near the industrial estate and marine life.

The premises of certain chemical units in the SIPCOT Industrial Estate were flooded with water up to five feet in height during the tsunami and the recent floods.

When the water drained, hazardous chemical waste dumped here was washed off into the Uppanar.

In a representation to the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, Mr. Nizamudeen alleged that certain units were producing chemicals not permitted by the TNPCB, and in certain others, the quantity produced was far more than that allowed.

Some units constructed additional buildings without the permission of the TNPCB. He said since they did not observe the zero discharge norms, untreated effluents were let into the Uppanar.

Employees handling the common effluent treatment facility were not given security cover. Mr. Nizamudeen said uncleared chemical dumps in certain units were potential hazards to human safety.

Primary health centre

The forum official appealed to the TNPCB to permanently post an assistant engineer in the industrial estate to deal with problem immediately.

He called for setting up a Primary Health Centre in the estate to provide medical attention to people in nearby villages.

Automatic equipment with computer backup should be set up in the estate to monitor the pollution level round-the-clock, Mr. Nizamudeen added.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am against outright ban of industries in Cuddalore.I think we are for too many years improvished by the politicians of economic & industrial growth compared to Vizupuram and Pondicherry.Being a historic town Cuddalore should have been in the forefront in many fields.

Instead of outright ban on industries,the right approach should be to implement Zero tolerence on pollution from these industries.There are techonologies available which could make the pollution issue a thing of the past and which is currently being used in many developed countries.The issue at hand is whether our government has the political will to carry out such drastic steps to eliminate pollution from our industries.It seems when a Multi National sets up an industry in India,they have two standards.One for the highly regulated in their home country and another set of very relaxed rules for India.This should change.In no way our people are lesser mortals than western nations.

Jean-Claude said...

You are correct, our governments don't bother about the people or the resources.