Golden corridor turns to rust

Golden corridor turns to rust

FEBRUARY 19: Valsad is the southern-most district of Gujarat. Blessed with agood rainfall, the region has traditionally been the fruit basket of Gujrat.Besides the Valsadi teak and rice paddies, Valsad was and continues toremain a significant producer of mangoes, guavas, chikoos and coconuts.

Irrigated agriculture has a long history in this region. And, of late, manyof the farmers have converted to cash crops such as sugarcane.

Given its proximity to the Arabian Sea and the fact that five perennialrivers empty into the sea within the region, Valsad has also been home totens of thousands of people, most of whom are dependent on marine andriparian resources for a living.

However, the industrial boom in the late 1960s has transformed the regionfrom an area of pristine beauty and self-sufficient communities to anindustrial wasteland. The Vapi Industrail Estate was set up in 1967 toabsorb the industrial investment from the neighburing Mumbai. Today, thisestate has more than 1.950 industries in 1,117 hectares of land.

Vapi, in Valsad district, has around 1,800 factories, of which roughly 450are categorised as polluting industries 50 paper mills, 60 dyeintermediate producing units, 200 dye industries, 100 pharmaceuticalfactories, 25 textile dyeing units and 10 pesticide plants.

In the absence of any infrastructure to safely and adequately contain anddispose the wastes generated in the estate, factories have made it commonpractice to discharge their toxic effluents into rivers, creeks, streams andopen land, and dump their hazardous solid wastes on public land or withinthe estate.

In fact, the Vapi Industrial Association has allowed its members to dumpwaste on a 0.6 ha plot within the estate. These practices have seriouslycompromised the quality of life of communities in the district, and damagedthe life-support systems the water, the land and the air...

Apart from the pollution load placed by the industries on the environment,the sheer magnitude of water used by the industries has robbed other waterusers of their fundamental right to clean water. According to the CentralPollution Control Board, Valsad district has at least 17 medium- andlarge-scale paper and pulp mills. These are highly water intensive,consuming as much as 250-450 cu metres of water per tonne of pulp, and theydischarge their wastes into the nearby rivers, Kolak, Damaganga or Par.

That the industrial mode of development in Vapi has ignored local prioritiesis evident from statements made by local villagers that the state hasvirtually handed over common resources such as water to industries.

Sumanbhai Desai, a fruit grower from Valsad, explains: ``The River Par wasdammed in the 1950s to provide water for the Atul Complex (a largemanufacturer of hazardous chemicals). The river is diverted, used by Atuland the effluent released for consumption by the public. The Pariyari Khadihas been dammed by Rohit Pulp & Papers. Part of the water from Damanganga isdiverted to augment the water supply to Vapi GIDC.''

The people living around the Atul complex and those living around Vapi andSarigam estate have reported a significant loss in both horticulture andfarming. According to Sumanbhai Desai, a fruit grower from Valsad, yieldshave halved since the industries began operations.

Notwithstanding the damage done to fisheries due to the chemical effluentsfrom the industries in Valsad, the district remains a significant player infisheries. The 29 fishing centres in the district supplied more than 58,000tonnes of fish in 1994-95. Fisheries department statistics place the numberof fisher folk at 25,000.

Kolak, a village on the banks of the River Kolak, sits at the confluence ofthe river with the Arabian Sea. According to the villagers, the riverreceives untreated and partially treated effluents from several hundredcompanies of the Vapi Industrial Estate. ``Usually, the river is extremelypolluted and red in colour. But the factory owners must have heard that ateam is visiting; so they shut their discharge. The water has looked cleanthese last three days,'' says Haridbhai Tandel, ex-sarpanch of Kolakvillage.

The discharge of untreated effluents by the industry into Kolak river isborne out by statements made by a knowledgeable local journalist. The (Vapi)estate receives 18 million gallons per day (mgd) of water, but the CETPwhich went on stream in 1997 has a capacity of only 5.5 mgd. Most of theeffluent is released without treatment and flows through the North stormwater drains and water courses and enters the Kolak.

Villagers complain that the effluents have virtually decimated the fishstocks in the river and estuary. Mass fish kills are a frequent phenomenonalong the coast. In mid-1998, nearly 150 tonnes of dead fish was washedashore near Udvada...

The claims of the villagers are consistent with evolving scientific evidencethat pollutants of the kind that are known to be released by Vapi'sfactories can have long-term population level effects on fisheries. Takepulp mill effluents, for instance, Burnison et al report that pulp milleffluents comprise a myriad chemicals that have the potential to causedeleterious effects on aquatic biota in receiving waters.

Further, analyses by Greenpeace have revealed the presence of severalpersistent organic pollutants in the waste streams from Vapi'sindustries.

Although dioxins were not specifically identified, it is well-known thatbleached pulp mills are a key point source for dioxins and related compoundsto marine and estuarine sediments. Also, several studies link dioxin bodyburdens to decreased male sex hormones in fish; some reports found that fishexposed to bleached pulp effluents have smaller gonads than fish in controlsites.

Residents of Kolak and Warkhurd villages say that the effluents have alsocontaminated their groundwater, rendering some sources unusable. Accordingto Kolak fisherman Jagdishbhai Vallabh Tandel, the villagers are drinkingcontaminated water in the absence of an alternative...

The situation in Daman, a union territory on the banks of the Damangangariver, is no different. In both Daman and Kolak, villagers reported thatfisherfolk are giving up their livelihoods and migrating to other jobs aslabourers on merchant ships or in nearby areas.

Some reports indicate that the pollution has affected even the lifestyle andrecreation of the nearby communities. ``Our villages had brilliant swimmers.Swimming was a regular event during our festivals... All these celebrationsare now closed and our children no longer swim as well as we did,'' explainsPremabhai Tandel, secretary of BJP, from Daman & Diu...

Although unquantified, there is little doubt that the pollution-intensivedevelopment model adopted in Vapi has actually led to an overall decline inproductivity of the region. A 1996 study by the World Bank found that, evenwith very conservative estimates, the annual losses due to pollution andother forms of environmental degradation were the same as the annual rate ofgrowth of GDP for India. In effect, losses due to environmental degradationare nullifying the annual economic growth for India.