Surat lessons go unlearnt

SURAT, March 9: Thanks to a foul-smelling gas leak last October, the Surat administration woke up to ready a plan for similar emergencies...

SURAT, March 9: Thanks to a foul-smelling gas leak last October, the Surat administration woke up to ready a plan for similar emergencies. Since then that city has suffered yet another leak 8212; a fortnight ago 8212; probably of the same ethyl mercaptan gas. But the plan hasn8217;t been readied yet.

What is worse, the gas detection equipment with which the authorities had armed themselves turned out useless.

How long will it take to finalise the plan? The administration leaves that question unanswered. Also unanswered is another question: where did the gas come from?

The administration had blamed the Gujarat Gas Company Limited GGCL at first. It said the company had on the sly released ethyl mercaptan into the air. But a consultant GGCL engaged gave it a clean chit.

District Collector Sangeeta Singh is now hearing the dispute. It is a dispute that has seen a lot of eggs landing on the face of the administration and the Gujarat Pollution Control Board GPCB.

Without the means to pinpoint the source of the leak, the authorities asked the suspect industries 8212; GGCL and some units in Hazira 8212; to themselves nail the culprit. The industries pretended to play detective, and saved each other.

Only after wasting time on this arrangement, which could never have worked in any case, did GPCB and Central Pollution Control Board CPCB officials begin some sleuthing of their own. They trooped out with dagger tubes8217; for collecting air samples and said GGCL was the culprit.

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However, the company still maintains that it is not to blame.

While the hunt was on, there were several false alarms. On occasion, people called up newspaper offices complaining that residents of a particular locality were suffocating under the effect of some leaking gas.

One leak was reported even after GGCL was served a notice by then Collector R.M. Shah, pointing out operational dysfunctions.

After the rigmarole that followed the October leakage, GPCB officials have maintained that they were ready for action with dagger tubes8217; and gas bladders. But last fortnight8217;s leakage caught the pollution controllers on the wrong foot. When people started complaining of breathlessness and burning eyes, out came the sampling tubes and bladders. But the use-before dates stamped on them had gone by.

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October8217;s gas leak opened the public and the administrative eye to such emergencies. But without a disaster-management plan, that awareness will be futile.