Bihar
State Pollution Control Board (BSPCB) is organizing a public hearing on proposed
biomedical waste incinerator on November 10, 2018 at Nitish Laloo Samudayik
Bhawan, Ramchak Bairiya, Sampatchak, Patna district. This is a mandatory
requirement under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 and rules made under it.
The proposal entails setting up of a Common Bio Medical Waste Treatment Facility” at Village- Ramchak
Bairiya, Tehsil and District –Patna, Bihar by Allahabad based M/s Sangam
Mediserve Pvt. Ltd.
This
Common Bio-medical Waste Treatment Facility (CBWTF) is proposed to be setup by
Sangam Mediserve Pvt. Ltd. with Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences
(IGIMS)-Raja Bazaar Sekhpura, Patna on Public Private Partnership (PPP) Mode
where bio-medical waste, treated from healthcare units, from currently approx.
850 Hospital that’s include all Govt. and private health care facilities
operational in Patna division i.e. Ara, Buxar, Rohtash, Kaimur, Bihar Sharif
and Patna districts of state of Bihar.
The study of the Draft Environment
Impact Assessment (EIA) report and the Pre-Feasibility report of the proposed
project reveals that the project proponents are ignorant about the verdict of Delhi
High Court in a case concerning biomedical waste incinerator in Sukhdev Vihar,
Okhla, New Delhi. The Court observed that “Residents living within 10 km of an
incinerator, refinery, and waste disposal site” showed “Significant increase in
laryngeal cancer in men living with closer proximity to the incinerator and
other pollution sources”. It observed that the “Residents living around an
incinerator and other pollution sources” showed “Significant increase in lung
cancer related specifically to the incinerator”. The “People living within 7.5
km of 72 incinerators” displayed “Risks of all cancers and specifically of
stomach, colorectal, liver and lung cancer increased with closer proximity to
incinerators”. (Source:
The Draft Environment Impact
Assessment (EIA) report and of the 27 page long Pre-Feasibility report has been
prepared by Fulgro Environmental & Engineering Services India Pvt. Ltd, Sangam company’s
environmental consultant. The Pre-Feasibility report states that “The proposed
facility is located on an area of 1.5 Acre which is allotted by Nagar Nigam,
Patna.” Prior to this it states that “Govt. of Bihar allocated land for
establishment of Common Bio-medical Waste Treatment Facility (CBWTF) to IGIMS-
Patna.” It states that as per legal requirement, “No untreated bio-medical
waste shall be kept stored beyond a period of 48 hours”. The proposed facility is
supposed to treat approx 30000 Beds for the district Ara, Buxar, Rohtash,
Kaimur, Bihar Sharif and Patna and other nearby district. The total cost of the
project is Rs 4.93 crores.
The Draft EIA report states that
Ganga river is 5.7 km in north direction, Barmullah Nala is 6 km in South East
direction, Punpun river is 6.2 km in South East direction, Gandak river is 9.7
km in North of North East of the proposed biomedical waste facility. This reveals
that aerial distance (as the crow fly distance) will be quite nearer to the
facility (if the measurement of distance in a straight line). It is noteworthy
that the report does not disclose what is situated in the nearest vicinity of
the proposed site. It misleadingly only refers to landmarks situated after 5
km. it does not provide information about the kind of human habitation or
ecologically sensitive landscape within the 5 km radius.
In the 254 page long Draft EIA
report, it is admitted that incineration technology will be used to burn the
waste to ashes through a combustion process. It claims that “The gases would be
completely burnt and safe gases then shall be let out of the incinerator unit”
while admitting that persistent organic pollutants like Dioxins will be
admitted at page no. 28. It states that its monitoring will be done by a third
party but does not disclose the name of the third party. It is significant
because Bihar does not have a lab which can test Dioxins. Its pre-feasibility
report states that the both the primary and secondary burners proposed are
imported Italian burners. It makes a claim that “The system is environmentally
safe without any hazard” and “The entire system shall be a zero liquid
discharge system in terms of wastewater discharge from the process as the
entire wastewater is re-circulated and most of the water used is in terms of
make-up water. This water also will meet the wastewater discharge standards for
on-land disposal. Domestic wastewater will be disposed through septic tank
fallowed by soak pit.” It is estimated that about 5 MT of the waste would be treated
per day.
A similar biomedical waste
incinerator plant which was proposed in the flood plains of Son river by M/s
Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd was successfully opposed in Koilwar, Bhojpur. At the
public hearing held on 16 October, 2014 at Ambika Sharan Singh High School,
Jamalpur, Post- Naya Mohammadpur, District- Bhojpur, the villagers said that
they will pay any price to stop waste from hundreds of factories and thousands
of hospitals from coming to Koilwar due to imminent public health crisis the
present and future generations of residents of villages on the Babura-Koilwar
road in Bhojpur, Bihar. The public hearing had raised the question of
adverse health effect of the proposed plant in the 10 km radius of its
location.
The villagers had submitted the
judgment of the Delhi High Court to the presiding officer of the public
hearing. The judgment refers to ‘The summary of “Epidemiological Studies on
Adverse Health Effects Associated with Incineration” would show that medical
waste incinerators are a leading source of dioxins and mercury in the
environment and there is link between incinerator emissions and adverse health
impacts on incinerator workers and residents living around the incinerators.’
(Source:
The Court’s judgment reads: “Both
older and more modern incinerators can contribute to the contamination of local
soil and vegetation with dioxins and heavy metals. In several European
countries, cows’ milk from farms located in the vicinity of incinerators has
been found to contain elevated levels of dioxin, in some cases above regulatory
limits. Increased levels of dioxins have been found in the tissues of residents
near to incinerators in the UK, Spain and Japan. At an incinerator in Finland,
mercury was increased in hair of residents living in the vicinity. Children
living near a modern incinerator in Spain were found to have elevated levels of
urinary thioethers, a biomarker of toxic exposure. “ It notes that “After 2
years of operation of incinerator, dioxins levels were found increased by about
25% in both groups living between 0.5 to 1.5 and 3.5 to 4.0 km away (201
people) of people. In the repeat analysis, the increase was in the range of
10-15%”.
The judgment records that “Mothers
living close to incinerators and crematoria from 1956 to 1993” showed
“increased risk of lethal congenital abnormalities, in particular, spinal
bifida and heart defects, near incinerators: increased risk of stillbirths and
anacephalus near crematoria”.
Ramky's EIA report is quite
misleading. It ignores the nearest schools, hospitals, CRPF camp and the Koilwar
railway station. It refers to Ara railway station as the nearest railway
station. BSPCB does not have the capacity to test and monitor dioxins
emissions. It came to light that BSPCB is not enforcing environmental laws in
the 99-125 factories from which hazardous industrial waste is generated which
requires disposal and treatment at the palce of their generation.
The proposed plant at Ramchak,
Sampatchak, Patna-Gaya Road, district Patna is irresponsible, insensitive,
anti-people, ant-environment and anti-health initiative. ToxicsWatch has
undertaken the study of the Draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report
and of the Pre-Feasibility report of the proposed project. The treatment
facility existing at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), Patna
is proposed to be dismantled and shifted to Ramchak, Sampatchak, Patna-Gaya
Road, district Patna by the Allahabad
based company. The nearest railway station
is Rajendra Nagar Terminal (approx. 4.35 Km towards North- West direction from
the proposed site), Patna Sahib (approx. 5.54 Km towards North-East direction
from the proposed site), Patna Junction (approx. 5.78 Km towards WNW direction
from the proposed site), Parsa R.S. (approx. 6.4 Km towards WSW direction from
the proposed site) and nearest Airport: Jai Prakash Narayan Airport, Patna
(approx 9.3 km towards NW direction from the proposed site).
The nearest State Highway (SH), SH-1
is ( approx. 5.8 Km towards South direction from the proposed site), SH-78
(approx. 12.6 Km towards South direction from the proposed site) and SH-93
(approx. 13.0 Km towards NE direction from the proposed site) and National Highway
(NH)-98 is (approx. 2.1 Km towards ESE direction from the proposed site), NH-83
(approx. 5.5 Km towards West direction from the proposed site) and NH-30
(approx. 7.0 Km towards East direction from the proposed site). The Sanjay
Gandhi National Park is located 8.5 km towards WNW direction from the project
site.
For
Details: Dr Gopal Krishna, LLB, PhD,
ToxicsWatch, E-mail: krishnagreen@gmail.com,
Web: www.toxicswatch.org
No comments:
Post a Comment