Villagers protest against proposed hazardous waste disposal facility in Surendranagar

As per the draft environment impact assessment (EIA) report submitted by the company to GPCB, the company has acquired 4.85 hectare land in Ralol, one kilometre off the National Highway 8 that connects Ahmedabad to Rajkot. The company proposes to set up a TSDF having the capacity to treat and store 2.75 lakh metric tonnes of hazardous industrial solid waste and dispose of it as landfilling material at the site. The company proposes to develop the facility at the cost Rs 30 crore of which Rs 2.74 crore will be earmarked for environment management scheme, including prevention of pollution of land, water and air.

“However, people residing in Ralol and the nearby villages vehemently protested against the proposed project at the public hearing. They said they do not want this hazardous waste disposal facility in their vicinity. In the eye of the protests, we accepted letters of objections submitted by six to seven village panchayats of nearby villages and wound up the proceedings,” ND Zala, resident additional collector (RAC) of Surendranagr told The Indian Express Friday.

The RAC was appointed as the presiding officer for the public hearing.

“As the locals are aggressively objecting to the proposed project, it is for the project proponent to convince them and then approach GPCB again for rescheduling the public hearing,” Zala added.

RGWMPL acquired the private land in the village for setting up the TSDF with an annual capacity to handle 204 metric tonnes of hazardous industrial waste. As per the draft EIA, the facility will remain active for seven years and once its capacity of 2.75 lakh metric tonnes has been utilised, it will be covered and that land, water and air quality would be monitored in its vicinity for the next 30 years to prevent any leachate, etc causing pollution. The project will generate employment for around 100 people during the construction phase and for around 20 persons during its operations.

The project proponent further claims in the EIA that besides member industries, the proposed TSDF, around 100 km away from Ahmedabad and 21 km east of Limbdi town, will attract industries to the district.

“However, the proposed project site is 3.5 kilometres away from the Bhogavo river. The project also envisaged drawing 30,000 litres of water from Narmada canal, which also passes by the project site. Given the poor record of monitoring of such TSDFs by the state government, the dumping of hazardous industrial waste in the TSDF will pollute agricultural land, aquifers and air in the area and make life difficult for the locals,” said Mudita Vidrohi, an activist with Gujarat Lok Samiti, an NGO working for rights of people.