Vizag sitting on pollution bomb

Visakhapatnam With industrial pollution touching all-time high and the talk of third party check and social audit of hazardous units located in and around Visakhapatnam remaining on paper, the city popular as Vizag, the largest industrial hub of Andhra Pradesh, is sitting on a powder keg.

Going by its track record on industrial front, with several fatal incidents occurring at HPCL Visakh Refinery, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, LG Polymers, Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City (JNPC), the largest pharma cluster in AP and the frequent complaints on fish-kill caused due to release of untreated effluents into the sea, the pollution bomb may explode anytime.

Following the vaporization of styrene monomer due to intense heat and leakage from a storage plant located at Venkatapuram here on May 7, 2020, the plant has been shut down. The incident resulted in a vapour cloud spread over a radius of three km claiming 11 lives and injuring an estimated 1,000 people. The nightmarish experience is still fresh in the memories of several Vizagites.

A huge explosion at newly commissioned oxygen plant of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, collapse of cooling tower and leakage of LPG causing a major accident killing many at HPCL Visakh Refinery, had sent shock waves in the entire region in the past. Leakage of poisonous gas in the vicinity of Brandix India Apparel City (BIAC) at Atchutapuram, and frequent accidents at the units located at JNPC have also put a question mark over safety apparatus of the city.

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had earlier given most polluted city status to Vizag imposing curbs on brownfield and greenfield industrial investments for sometime. Coal and dust pollution have also remained a cause of worry for the green activists for quite long in the city.

Vizag also earned the dubious distinction of being the most polluted city in South India, a recent study made by Greenpeace India, stated last year. Next in the list is Hyderabad, another developmental showpiece. Both cities have exceeded the permissible limits set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in terms of two key atmospheric air quality parameters, PM10 and PM2.5 by seven to eight times.

The air in Vizag has become so lethal that one cannot breathe-at any hour of day or night without harming oneself. “It will be no exaggeration to say we are slowly but surely choking to death,” an activist said.

Social activist and former IAS officer E A S Sarma said “the industrial clusters around Vizag have become symbols of toxic pollution and examples of lack of safety. The APPCB which is required to enforce the environmental laws has become totally ineffective, resulting in contamination of air and water bodies, adversely affecting people’s health.”

He told Bizz Buzz that the concerned authorities have not learnt lessons despite scores of industrial accidents in which several people have lost lives.

“Not a single promoter of such accident-prone units has been prosecuted nor have those who have failed to enforce the safety norms proceeded against. It points to an unholy nexus between unethical promoters of industry, the officers and the political parties in power. Only civil society pressure on them can bring positive changes,” he observed.

Human Rights Forum (HRF) viewed with deep concern the increasing levels of air pollution shrouding the city of Visakhapatnam. “This toxicity is unremitting, but the government appears to do little about it. The government’s failure to protect from exposure to hazardous air in the city violates the citizens’ human rights to life and health. Time and again authorities concerned have fallen short of adequately and meaningfully addressing the crisis,” K Sudha, HRF AP State general secretary and V S Krishna, HRF AP & TS Coordination Committee member, said.

They said the citizens have a right to clean air. “However, we do not seem to have a choice but to breathe noxious fumes every day amidst a sense of utter helplessness. When our lives are in peril, what are elected representatives doing,” they asked.

CITU State president Ch Narsinga Rao alleged that the authorities due to reasons best known to them have failed to enforce the pollution control measures and some of the managements despite deplorable track-record have been permitted to go for expansion ignoring the safety concerns of the people living in the vicinity.

Industrial Pollution

• 11 dead and 1,000 injured on vaporization of styrene monomer
• CPCB had given most polluted city status to Vizag
• CITU alleges management with deplorable track-record permitted expansion
• HRF views authorities failure to enforce the pollution control measures