Coastly affair
Andhra Pradesh has chalked out ambitious plans for industrialisation of its coastal districts, which are being propagated by the state chief minister (CM), N Chandrababu Naidu.
Recently the CM announced the setting up of a special economic zone and a pharma city near Visakhapatnam. The main reason behind inviting industries to coastal districts such as Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram and Visakhapatnam is that the effluent from these industrial estates can be discharged into the sea.
But environmentalists in the state are worried. "Both the state government and the Andhra Pradesh State Pollution Control Board (APSPCB) are over-simplifying the problem of pollution by shifting the industries from land-locked Hyderabad to coastal districts,' says J Rama Rao, chairperson of Forum for a Better Hyderabad, a non-governmental organisation.
The state government is aiming to attract US $7 billion in foreign direct investment over the next 10 years, chiefly in the pharmaceutical and infrastructure sectors. Experts are, however, already raising eyebrows opining that these projects are not well planned. "Bulk drug industries are being set up along the coast with the sole objective of disposing of effluents into the sea,' alleges Rao.
Whereas the APSPCB contends that effluent would be "treated' before being discharged, environmentalists have dubbed such claims as hollow. "How will the state ensure that heavy metals and organic halogen compounds, likely to be formed during the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, are treated before being released?' asks a Hyderabad-based environmentalist.
On their part, the authorities feel that it is too early to conjecture that the upcoming industrial estate will cause pollution. "Larsen and Toubro Limited has already carried out an environmental impact assessment of the upcoming pharma city, which will attract 50 drug-making units. But the effect of their discharges on marine life can be gauged only after we know what type of effluents they would generate,' says Rajeev Sharma, member-secretary, APSPCB. "We plan to set up a common effluent treatment plant, which will treat industrial effluents before discharging them into the sea,' he adds.
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