Opencast chrome mines in Orissa’s Sukinda valley and the chemical hub of Vapi in Gujarat are among the world’s 10 most polluted places, according to a new report by the Blacksmith Institute, a US-based independent environmental watchdog.

The Sukinda valley, spread over Orissa’s Dhenkanal and Jajpur districts, and the site of India’s largest chrome ore deposits, ranks fourth in the ‘Blacksmith Institute Pollution Report for 2007’ released on September 12. The 400 km industrial belt of Vapi -- one of India’s largest -- in south Gujarat’s Valsad district is fifth on this year’s list.

Home to 97% of India’s chrome reserves, Sukinda’s opencast mines, the largest chromite ore mines in the world, are an environmental hazard, says the Blacksmith Institute. The report says: “Twelve mines continue to operate without any environmental management plans, and over 30 million tonnes of waste rock are spread over the surrounding areas and the Brahmani riverbanks. Untreated water is discharged by the mines into the river. This area is also flood-prone, resulting in further contamination of the waterways… Approximately 70% of the surface water and 60% of the drinking water contains hexavalent chromium at more than double national and international standards, and levels of over 20 times the standard have been recorded.”

The report adds: “The Brahmani river is the only water source for the residents and treatment facilities are extremely limited. The State Pollution Control Board has conceded that the water quality at various locations suffers very high levels of contamination. The air and soils are also heavily impacted.”

The report goes on to say that chromite mine workers in Sukinda are constantly exposed to contaminated dust and water. “Gastrointestinal bleeding, tuberculosis and asthma are common ailments. Infertility, birth defects, and stillbirths have also resulted.”

Sukinda, the report says, is a classic example of pollution where the wastes are spread over a large area and residents are affected by the chromium through multiple pathways. “The pollution problem from the chromite mines is well known and the mining industry has taken some steps to reduce the levels of contamination by installing treatment plants.” However, according to state audits from Orissa, these fail to meet agency regulations. The Orissa government has said: “It is unique, it is gigantic, and it is beyond the means and purview of the (Orissa Pollution Control) Board to solve the problem.”

“Various organisations have carried out studies proving the debilitating health impacts of the toxic pollution. However, remedial action remains piecemeal with no decisive plans to provide for effective health monitoring and abatement programmes.”

Environmentalists say this report is damning evidence of the impact rampant mining has had on Orissa’s ecology. According to Biswajit Mohanty of the Wildlife Society of Orissa, the government, in its eagerness to please the mining lobby, has opened up sanctuaries like Hadagada in Keonjhar to companies.

As for the major chemical industry hub of Vapi, the report says that high levels of mercury in the groundwater and effluents from industries in the Vapi Industrial Estate being discharged into the Damanganga river, are what elevated it to the top 10 list. Located at the southern end of the Gujarat chemical belt, known as the ‘Golden Corridor’, Vapi supports 1,402 industries, of which chemicals, dyes, pharmaceuticals, paints and plastics make up the majority, along with several engineering, glass and paper industries. The Golden Corridor is also made up of the Ankleshwar Industrial Area and the Nandesari Industrial Estate, which have come under the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) scanner several times in the past.

According to the Blacksmith report, hazardous compounds such as heavy metals, cyanides, pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls are regularly discharged as waste from these industries. The report states: “Mercury in Vapi’s groundwater is reported to be 96 times higher than WHO standards. Effluents drain directly into the Damanganga and Kolak rivers; water downstream of the Kolak is now unable to support much biological life.”

Sources in the CPCB say that the main problem in Vapi is the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP), which does not presently comply with CPCB or GPCB norms. This has forced both pollution control bodies to take the industrial association to task about pollution levels in the area. According to the GPCB, the Vapi Industrial Association, the umbrella body for all industries in Vapi, has said that work is underway to modify the CETP.

Sukinda and Vapi are new entrants to the infamous top 10 list. Tamil Nadu’s Ranipet Industrial Belt is out of the top 10 but still figures in the list of top 30 most polluted places on earth along with Maharashtra’s Mahad Industrial Estate.

The 2007 top 10 list also includes Sumgayit in Azerbaijan, Linfen and Tianying in China, La Oroya in Peru, Dzerzhinsk and Norilsk in Russia, Chernobyl in Ukraine, and Kabwe in Zambia.

The ‘Blacksmith Institute Pollution Report for 2007’ names 65 other sites in India (nine of them in Gujarat) that are critically polluted. Clearly, the price that the state has paid for massive industrialisation has been a heavy one, and unsustainable.

Source: Hindustan Times, September 15, 2007