Increasing industrial pollution, a cause for worry

By Akila Dinakar

CHENNAI, JULY 8. The Residents of Valayapathy Street in Mugappair East, including a civil servant, have filed several complaints with the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) of noise, air and water pollution, caused by industries in the Mogappair East Industrial Estate area.

Mr. A.G. Balasubramanian, a resident of Valayapathy Street, in a complaint to the TNPCB cited three companies in the vicinity, said the noise pollution caused by a company dealing with iron and scrap caused deafening noise during peak hours of operation giving a tough time for the residents.

There was also a foam and rubber industry which dumped its waste in a deep pit within the compound of the unit. Though the unit claimed that it did not set fire to the wastes, frequent fires were often caused by a wayward lighted matchstick which lead to a big conflagration.

A couple of months ago, the fire turned out to be a major one, calling for fire tenders to douse the flames. ``Situated between two transformers, such fires were not only hazardous in terms of toxic fumes but also dangerous to the residents nearby,'' a resident said.

Along with noise and air pollution came ground water pollution. Some of the leather units in the area dispose off bits of their leather wastes in the open ground and set fire to it. The burning of leather along with carcass and bird wastes on the banks of the Cooum are cause for noxious smell and the leachate spoils the area's ground water, said the residents.

The TNPCB's reply to the problems of pollution caused by the over 100 industries in the estate is that, ``the municipality is at fault in sanctioning permit for construction of houses around existing industries without a buffer zone.''

While they advised the forging and a dyes industry to be shifted, closure was recommended for the rubber foam industry, if they failed to comply with the pollution control norms.

``It is surprising how even the Tamil Nadu Housing Board is constructing its houses in an industrial area,'' asks an official.

The Chairperson, TNPCB, Ms. Sheela Rani Chunkath, said the Board had asked the Centre for Environmental Studies (CES), the Anna University, to do an inventory of all industries in Chennai and give a long-term plan on the industries that needed relocation.

Besides residential apartments situated in industrial estates, the problem caused by industries coming up in residential areas was also on the rise, she said pointing out that on Nungambakkam High Road, there were complaints from the Reserve Bank of India Quarters about industries stuffing pillows and beds with cotton.

While residents, who complain about polluting industries in the vicinity, said their repeated appeals to the TNPCB were in vain, with the Pollution Control Board itself finding it in a piquant situation in handling the problem of increasing residential houses in industrial areas.

Smoke billowing out of the Mogappair East Industrial Estate area when an industrial refuse heap caught fire a couple of months ago.

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