Water changes hue in Ankleshwar

Villagers admit that they are partly to blame. They used to water their farms with effluents, thinking it contained manure. Nanubhai Ahir of Ankleshwar says that every monsoon, standing crops are ruined by effluents when the tributary overflows.

Kunyabhai Shanabhai, a farm labourer, says that his master, like many owners, has been forced to give up farming as the land is no more suitable for cultivation. Villagers allege that the industries release acidic effluents in the night.

Another farm owner Ikrambhai Patel claims that a Central Industrial Security Force township has not been built so far because jawans do not want their families to be affected by Amlakhadi pollution.

Help is in sight. Only it won8217;t take the villagers far. The Gujarat High Court recently asked the Gujarat Pollution Control Board to fix norms in keeping with the Water Act for allowing release of effluents into Amlakhadi, and consequently the Narmada. While no new units will be allowed to release effluents, treated or otherwise, existing ones will have to follow norms when they come into effect. But considerable damage has already been done, and it may still be a long time before rules are implemented.

The judgment has, however, sent panic waves among industrialists. An industrialist says that the problem has been compounded by some new units. 8220;How could the GPCB allow them to set up shop if they had a bad track record elsewhere?8221; he asks.

The problems created by the Ankleshwar estate correspond with its giant nature. In areas like Sarangpur, groundwater has been contaminated. Villagers say it turns colour within minutes. 8220;Earlier it used to take 24 hours, now five minutes of sunshine is enough,8221; says a woman at a handpump.

President of Ankleshwar Industries Association N K Navadia says that colour is not a parameter and dismisses the villagers8217; claims as blatant exaggeration. He says that though treated effluents may never look like drinking water, they fulfil pollution norms. 8220;How is it that over 5,000 animals living within the estate don8217;t die?8221; he questions.

He claims that while the association has taken up 8220;moral pressurising8221;, GPCB often punishes polluting units. He says the proposal to lay gravity flow pipeline to prevent water from seeping into residential areas has been hanging fire.

But Ashok Rathi of the Centre for Environment, Science and Community CESCOM, whose PIL brought about the recent judgment, says AIA8217;s claim that the situation has improved is untrue.

In fact, the plan suggested by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute NEERI to lay a pipeline for carrying effluents 14 km into the sea, remains on paper. The AIA has sought subsidy from both the Centre and Gujarat Government for the proposed Rs 125-crore project.

Member Secretary of GPCB G B Soni says the Board will have to appoint a consultant to study and fix norms for releasing effluents. 8220;We are already putting pressure on industries. We will have to impose stringent norms in light of the recent High Court judgment,8221; he says.

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