VELLORE: Even as experts opined that wrong usage of the Secured Landfill Facility (SLF) to store liquid waste could have resulted in the accident, environmental NGOs and trade unions here demanded a thorough probe into the incident.
N Gajapathy, executive member of the Vellore District Environment Monitoring Association demanded a white paper on the incident while A Asokan, secretary of the Organization for Environment Protection and Social Development, held the officials responsible for the tragedy.
District president of the CITU, MP Ramachandran said that it was the failure of the government machinery that allowed poor construction of the treatment plant without ensuring the safety aspects. ‘It is also highly deplorable that this industry hired contract workers without offering them any safety’ he added. He underlined the need for severe action against CETP operators and the officialdom. The families of the victims must be provided with `10 lakh compensation, he added.
An expert associated with the leather industry said, “SLF is part of the zero liquid discharge system. It is used to store treated effluents at the end stage. However, in this case, though it was meant for storing solid sludge, it was used to stock liquid sludge for more than four months. It would have weakened the structure resulting in the incident,” he said.
Soil test, structural design is given paramount importance while constructing SLFs. Permission from Inspectorate of Factories and Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board is mandatory before constructing the SLF. “The facility should be used after obtaining a structural sustainability certificate from the authorities,” he added.
Each SLF structure is designed differently. It takes into consideration factors such as whether the soil is suitable for the structure, capacity of waste to be stored, be it solid or liquid waste.
No comments:
Post a Comment