One key component of industrial safety is industrial waste management, conspicuous largely by its absence in India. That 26 years after the world?s worst ever industrial disaster in Bhopal, hazardous waste dumped on and around the Union Carbide plant continues to contaminate everything from soil to ground water, reflects how industrial pollution can itself lead to grave human and environmental disasters. A CSE study released in December 2009 found that groundwater in areas even three kilometres away from the factory contains almost 40 times more pesticides than Indian standards and also high concentrations of heavy metals as well. While Bhopal continues to surface time and again in public memory, we are certainly guilty of wishing away many harsh lessons that the tragedy brought to the fore.
Take a look at these figures released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in a report in 2009. Every year, some 36,165 industries generate 62,32,507 metric tonnes of hazardous waste (HW) in the country, out of which recyclable portion of hazardous waste is in the range of 49.5%, while land disposable portion and incinerable portion stand at 43.7% and 6.6%, respectively. Quite descriptive of the immense amount of dangerous waste being discharged by industries and the urgent and desperate need to manage it.
However, India falls terribly short on the management part with huge deficits between the amount of waste being generated and the present capacity of waste management. While 27,28,326 MTA of land-disposable HW is generated annually, our disposal capacity stands at just 15,00,568 MTA, resulting in a deficit of 12,27,758 MTA. Common Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facilities (TSDF) for the disposal of land disposable HW are present at just 22 locations in 10 states only. The country is in dire need of TSDFs with waste handling capacities to the tune of 15,00,000 MTA to meet the present and future challenges land disposable HW. Similarly, while our industries generate 4,15,794 MTA of incinerable waste annually, we have the capacity to manage just 3,27,705 MTA.
Experts believe that it?s a system failure. ?The infrastructure dealing with waste management is not linked with its production in India. Secondly, all our legislation ends up being pieces of paper with little or no implementation,? says Ravi Agarwal, director of environmental advocacy group, Toxics Link. He also adds that the situation is bad and it is unfortunate that lessons have not been learnt from Bhopal in this regard. ?Around 35% of industrial hazardous waste falls beyond our handling capacity. Governance in this regard has been particularly poor in the last 25 years since Bhopal happened,? he says.
Another CPCB survey of 88 industrial clusters across the country in 2009 revealed a shockingly gloomy picture. According to the analysis, 43 industrial clusters out of the 88 were found to be critically polluted, with respect to one or more environmental component, based on the Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) scores. While 32 were deemed as severely polluted, 10 clusters had CEPI scores in excess of 80, 33 clusters had scores between 70 and 80, while 32 had scores between 60 and 70, falling under the category of critically and severely polluted clusters.
It?s a time-bomb ticking faster by the day thanks to the accelerating industrial growth of the country. Hazardous waste being discharged by industries is there and we have to deal with it, unless we want ourselves in great peril with high probability of industrial waste disasters staring us in the face.
Because we must not forget that although the Bhopal disaster was an accident, it was the contamination and improper waste management that added considerably to the woes of an already bleeding neighbourhood.