The Hindu 03.12.2010
‘Nellore a dumping yard for polluting thermal plants'
| HRF seeks cumulative environmental appraisal of all the coal-based projects |
VISAKHAPATNAM: Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore district seems to have become the State's dumping yard for intensely polluting coal-based thermal plants. This was the finding of a four-member Human Rights Forum (HRF) team that visited several villages in the Muthukur mandal recently and interacted with farmers, fishermen and agricultural labourers in and around the villages of Nellathur, Musunuruvaripalem, Painampuram, Devaradibba ST Colony and Nellathurupalem.
The HRF has demanded a thorough cumulative environmental appraisal of all the coal-based thermal projects that are coming up along the coast in Muthukur and Chillakur mandals of Nellore district and called for putting on hold these projects till a comprehensive and integrated environmental appraisal on the impact of these projects on land, livelihoods, ecology, water bodies, the sea and health of people and vegetation is done .
“It is shocking that so many coal-based plants with such a staggering capacity have been accorded clearances by concerned authorities. We hear that the cumulative coal-based capacity of these plants at the moment is a whopping 24,540 MW and there are several other projects in the pipeline. . This is a recipe for a human and ecological disaster in the area,” HRF State general secretary V.S. Krishna said.
Generating electricity on this scale would involve burning of about four lakh tonnes of coal every day and the spewing of 1.45 lakh tonnes per day of toxic ash into the environs. Given the nature of coal combustion, significant amounts of sulphur, zinc, mercury and other dangerous elements will be released into the environment. Moreover, running of all these plants will involve drawal of 79,00,000 cubic meters of water, mostly from the sea and its pumping back at higher temperatures, he said.
He alleged that the ongoing construction by some of the projects in and around Nellathur and Painampuram has already resulted in a steep drop in fish and prawn catch for the Yanadis, who eke out a living by fishing in the Buckingham Canal and local water bodies. There is a lot of apprehension in the area that the ash ponds that will come up will have serious ill-effect on human health, farming and the groundwater table, the HRF leader said.
