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VAPI, INDIA
Potentially Affected People: 71,000
Type of Pollutants: Chemicals and heavy metals
Source of Pollution: Industrial estates
The Problem:
The town of Vapi marks the southern end of India's "Golden Corridor", a 400 km belt of industrial estates in the state of Gujarat which includes Nandesari, Ankleshwar, and Vapi. There are over 50 industrial estates in the region including more than 1,000 individual industries that extend over more than a thousand acres. Many of these are chemical manufacturing estates producing petrochemicals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, textiles, dyes, fertilizers, leather products, paint, and chlor-alkali.
The waste products discharged contain heavy metals, cyanides, pesticides, complex aromatic compounds (such as polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs), and other toxics. Vapi and the Ankleshwar area were declared "critically polluted" by the Central Pollution Control Board of India (CPCB) in 1994. This followed a survey that revealed that there was no system in place to dispose of industrial waste at these estates. Down to Earth, an environmental magazine based in India, conducted an analysis on the groundwater and found exceedingly high levels of mercury, lead and zinc. Mercury in Vapi's groundwater is reported to be 96 times higher than WHO health standards. Effluents drain directly into the Damanganga and Kolak Rivers; water downstream of the Kolak is now unable to support much biological life. Active dumping is also reported in at least one industrial site. Air pollution results from emissions due to the improper handling of chemicals by industries.
Local produce has been found to contain up to 60 times more heavy metals (copper, chromium, cadmium, zinc, nickel, lead, iron) than non-contaminated produce in control groups. Heavy metal analyses have revealed that both the effluents and sediments collected were contaminated with cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc. Sediment samples were found to contain 17 organohalogen compounds, including chlorobenzenes and PCBs as well as a range of other organic compounds including benzene derivatives and pesticides.
Health Impacts:
Many residents have no choice but to drink contaminated well water as other clean water sources are more than a mile away. The Indian Medical Association reported that most of the drinking water supplies are contaminated, because of the absence of a proper system for disposing industrial effluents. This has resulted in very high incidences of respiratory diseases, chemical dermatitis, carcinoma, skin, lung and throat cancers. Women in the area report exceedingly high incidences of spontaneous abortions, bleeding during pregnancy, abnormal fetuses, and infertility. Children's ailments include respiratory and skin diseases and retarded growth.
Status of Clean-Up Activity:
In the late 1990s, Vapi Industries Association incorporated the Vapi Waste and Management Company to set up and operate a common effluent treatment plant to collect and purify effluents from the major plants. However, the operation of the plant has been determined to be unsatisfactory by the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee. The efforts to improve the local river and water quality are hampered by the haphazard dumping of sludge from the treatment plant and the widespread dumping of various industrial and hazardous wastes in the general area. There has been considerable NGO activity and efforts by environmental authorities effective cleanup at the various sites remains limited.
Several treatment, storage and disposal facilities (TSDFs) are now coming into operation in the area and can deal with some of the ongoing wastes but in the absence of a comprehensive and commited clean-up effort, the problems in Vapi will remain.
Blacksmith Institute Response to Vapi Industrial Estate
Resources:
D. C. Sharma. "By order of the court: Environmental Cleanup in India". Environmental Health Perspect. (2005) June; 113(6): A394-A397.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1257623
A. Agarwal. "When will India be able to control pollution?" CSE Washington. (2000) Jan.
http://www.cseindia.org/hindu.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/92657.cms
http://www.gujaratplus.com/environment/vapi.html
http://www.toxicslink.org/docs/06038_CETP_Report.pdf
Integrated Environmental Epidemiology Study in Identified Critically Polluted Areas in the Country: Report on Vapi (Gujarat), Sponsored by Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India
Additional Photos:
Mercury levels in Vapi's groundwater are 96 times higher than the health standards of WHO.
Photo Credit: Lampu Bhutia/Blacksmith Institute
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The pollution activities in Vapi has caused respiratory diseases including chemical dermatitis, carcinoma, skin, lung and throat cancers.
Photo Credit: Lampu Bhutia/Blacksmith Institute
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In Vapi, over 50 industrial estates comprising at least 1,000 individual factories produce byproducts from petrochemical, pesticide, pharmaceutical and textile manufacturing.
Photo Credit: Lampu Bhutia/Blacksmith Institute
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Toxic waste containing heavy metals -- cyanide, pesticides and other carcinogens are haphazardly dumped throughout the environment.
Photo Credit: Lampu Bhutia/Blacksmith Institute
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Approximately 71,000 people in Vapi use contaminated well water for lack of a safe alternative.
Photo Credit: Lampu Bhutia/Blacksmith Institute
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