29 April 2007

 

For Immediate Release

 

Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat government machinery brokered a deal to transport waste from the old Union Carbide factory to Ankleshwar for incineration

 

Is ÒNirmalÓ Gujarat meant to be the National Hazardous Waste Disposal Capital of the country?

 

Dioxins (the most toxic chemical known to humankind), which were released during the original gas leak in Bhopal, will be released in Ankleshwar during incineration

 

Gujarat: Investment zone or dumping ground?

 

Gujarat prides itself as the most advanced and industrialised state in the country and has been publicly welcoming investment and tourists. But privately it has been courting the arrival of hundreds of tons of hazardous waste from the infamous and lethal Union Carbide factory in Bhopal.  We would like to inform 100 crore Indians and specifically 5 crore Gujaratis that these claims of being a leader in economic growth and opportunity ring hollow because in reality the Government of Gujarat is engaged in making sly deals to emerge as a sub-contactor to Union Carbide by disposing of its waste. The dark side of this so-called prosperity has been revealed through documents exchanged between the Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat governments.  The State is withdrawing from its constitutional duty of education, health, and social security of the people, but simultaneously voluntarily assumes the polluterÕs duty by requesting the shift of this waste to Gujarat for incineration ∆ which is outside of the purview of its constitutional powers and responsibilities.

Madhya Pradesh Government: Passive accomplice

 

Twenty-three years after the largest chemical disaster this planet has faced, Union Carbide (now Dow Chemicals) still absconds from duty.  Even the technical sub-committee of the task force appointed by the MP High Court originally recommended that the waste must be made sea-worthy and be exported back to the responsible party at the cost of the polluters, and non-compliance should warrant freezing of all Dow Chemical assets in India. However, the MP government is taking a drastically different action, and we see that it is also trying to hide the original recommendations and other such facts.  Whereas the Indian Government should have held this company responsible and prosecuted the guilty, it has instead chosen to accommodate the dereliction of corporate duty by cleaning up Union CarbideÕs mess at the cost of the Indian taxpayers.

 

346 MT : The tip of the iceberg

 

The GPCB is making a mockery of the states own ÒNirmal GujaratÓ campaign.  The total assessment of waste in the old Union Carbide factory is still unknown to the public and to experts.  Because thousands of tons of hazardous waste is lying in an unlined area of the company, unfathomable leaching into the soil and groundwater has been going on for the past 23 years.  The 346 MT of toxic waste that has been cleared to come to Ankleshwar is a mere drop in the ocean of the waste of the entire premises is still pending treatment.  The GPCB is now setting a precedent which will easily open the floodgates for waste from any corner of the world to arrive in Ankleshwar.  We have no idea of how much waste might make its way to Gujarat if the GPCB allows this first batch to be imported to Ankleshwar for incineration. The Bhopalis have been suffering for the past 23 years from untold health problems and environmental damage; now it appears that the state Governments of both Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat will allow the Gujarati public to suffer a similar fate.

 

We have learned that the composition of the waste is as follows:

 

 

In 2005, the MPPCB was granted one time permission for the transportation and disposal for 67 MT of waste. However, by 2006, B K Singh, Member Secretary of the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board in Letter No 594, MPPCB/BHOPAL, Dated  8/10/06, requested permission from the Gujarat Pollution Control Board to dispose of 346 MT of toxic waste, which is over 5 times the original quantity (see table above for full details). Mr. J. K. Vyas (Director, Gujarat Forest and Environment Department) finally granted permission for the same on 4 January 2007. Despite the fact that it is the GPCBÕs own admission Ankleshwar is a toxic hotspot, the state machinery is inviting even more hazardous waste to the city.

 

Throwing the wisdom of judicial reports out the door

 

The judiciary has express knowledge of the gravity of the situation in both Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and the entire Golden Corridor of Gujarat. Dr Tapan Chakrabarti & Dr Claude Alvares, members of Supreme Court Monitoring CommitteeÕs report dated 7^th April 2004 clearly states that the Òdumping of hazardous wastes or their neglect has resulted in the total unavailability of ground water suppliesÓ in Bhopal and Ankleshwar[1], and the Supreme Court has released an order based on this report[2]:  We would expect that the Madhya Pradesh and Central Governments would have taken legal action against Union Carbide (now Dow Chemical) and forced them to clean up the toxic waste that created the ground water situation described above. 

 

Adding fuel to a burning fire: importing hazardous waste to a toxic hotspot

 

Let us examine the choice of incinerating this waste in Ankleshwar. Ankleshwar has been acknowledged as a hotspot by GPCB. In a report released by Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti in August of 2005, Ankleshwar had the most hazardous array of chemicals in ambient air as compared with two other samples from the Golden Corridor. The air sample collected from Ankleshwar revealed the presence of four cancerous chemicals much higher than international standards (this, when the local populations did not complain of smell). The following chemicals were found in the ambient air at the Ankleshwar Industrial Estate: Hydrogen sulphide, methyl mercaptan, carbon disulphide, dimethyl disulphide, ethanol, acetone, isopropyl alcohol, methylene chloride, methyl ethyl ketone, n-hexane, benzene, carbon tetrachloride, trichloroethene, toluene, ethyl-benzene, m,p-xylenes.  These chemicals affect reproductive systems, the central nervous system, the kidneys and the liver, among other things. In spite of presence of such toxic chemicals in the air in Ankleshwar, GPCB still does not monitor for such pollutants, and thus health effects on citizens of Ankleshwar remains unknown.  Furthermore:

1.     The Treatment Storage and Disposal Facility (TSDF) and Common Incinerator Facility at Ankleshwar are not regularly monitored by independent experts and regulatory bodies.

2.     Moreover, GPCB neither seems to have the capability nor does it monitor the specific pollutants coming out of such Common Incinerator Facilities.

3.     The carrying capacity of the area is undeniably strained.

4.     We object to the concept of dealing with hazardous waste through incineration on scientific grounds, and do not believe in managing wastes by transforming one type of hazard into another form.

 

The Ankleshwar Incinerator: Waste disposal or smokescreen

 

There is serious doubt as to scientific soundness of incineration as a method to deal with hazardous solid waste. Moreover, this case, a relatively small batch-fed incinerator employed by BEIL allows cooling of the chamber and waste which creates conditions conducive to production of dioxins and furans (which contribute to various forms of cancer and was released in large quantity during the original Bhopal explosion), as well as incomplete destruction of other toxic heavy metals like mercury.  A GTZ (The German Technical Cooperation) study has shown many shortcomings of the common incinerator facility at Ankleshwar.  The most worrisome features of this design include:

 

1.     Waste will have to be repacked by hand to be fed in the incinerator, having an impact on workers health

2.     Half-hourly permit limit values may be violated because of thermal peak loads and inhomogeneous waste feed causing gaseous emission peaks in this design

3.     Heavy metals such as mercury that is not completely destroyed will then be caught in the flue gas dust, becoming highly leachable

4.     Special treatments and immobilization of ash and dust generated during incineration is required to prevent leaching, yet this is not done in Ankleshwar

5.     Waste should be stored in underground facilities according to international standards, but in Ankleshwar, the waste will be stored in above-ground landfills

 

Objection to this injustice

 

We strongly object to such an unethical, immoral action and the precedent that it would set.  We object to the permission given by GPCB for the incineration of this waste.  It strikes us as grossly unjust to physically transport more hazardous waste to that area from 640 km away.  PSS has already written a letter (dated 25 April 2007) to the GPCB registering our demand that this waste does not come to Ankleshwar and registering our belief that changing one type of toxin into another form through incineration is not the solution.  As a follow up to this letter, Michael Mazgaonkar (of PSS) called Sanjiv Tyagi (Member Secretary of the GPCB).  Sanjiv Tyagi indicated that the GPCB is taking the PSS letter seriously and has agreed to review the decision.  We plan on publicly fighting this move by the MP and Gujarat governments.  We demand to know why the state bureaucracy is shying away from the public debate that PSS has demanded.  We will oppose this tooth and nail.

 

Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti

 

Rohit Prajapati

Michael Mazgaonkar

Swati Desai

Badribhai Joshi

Trupti Shah

Krishnakant

Anand Mazgaonkar

Shivani Patel