NEW DELHI, April 11: Despite receiving reminders from pollution authorities, the Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) has steadfastly refused to take the flyash problem seriously. Their officials were not available for comment.According to the White Paper on Pollution in Delhi issued last year, not one of the three thermal power plants has an action programme for mass scale utilisation of flyash. It estimates that the total flyash produced by the Badarpur, Indra Prastha and Rajghat plant is about 6,000 tonnes per day.The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has issued directions to the power utility under the Environment Protection Act to submit detailed plans in order to achieve a minimum of 20 per cent utilisation. The plans were supposed to have been prepared by October 1996.Sources in CPCB said that their deadline was later extended to December 1997, but even that deadline has gone by. ``The DVB has submitted some proposals but they are nowhere near satisfactory,'' they said.Even the electrostaticprecipitators installed at these plants, especially those at the Indra Prastha plants have been malfunctioning. Precipitators are devices that trap the ash from escaping through the chimney. By and large, most of the ash is disposed in ash ponds located near the Yamuna river. In summer, the ash adds to air pollution in the capital, during the monsoons runoff from the ash ponds contaminates the river.Another problem which very few people take into account is the leaching of heavy metals from these ash ponds into the ground water. According to CPCB scientists, ash contains trace elements of heavy metals and these seep right through the ponds as they are not lined.According to pollution norms, new thermal power plants, like Rajghat, should make provisions for utilisation of at least 20 per cent of the flyash generated within their first year of commissioning.This has to be increased by 10 per cent every year with full utilisation in the ninth year of operation.The environment ministry hasrecommended that entrepreneurs collaborate with the power plant to ensure that this aim is realised. With the ministry prohibiting the use of top soil for brick manufacture, it foresees an increased demand for flyash bricks.In addition, the ash can be used in Portland pozzolana cement, cement concrete, cement mortar, building components, landfill embankments and pavements.
