Joint committee report on Dahej industrial area, 10/06/2022
Joint committee report on Dahej industrial area in the matter of Aryavart Foundation Vs Hemani Industries Ltd. & Others in compliance to the NGT order, February 2, 2022.
The matter related to wastewater management by the industries and Gujarat Infrastructure Development Corporation (GIDC) in the Dahej industrial area.
The joint committee formed to look into the matter carried out three rounds of sampling, monitoring and analysis of soil, surface water, groundwater, sediment and ocean water samples.
GIDC has started the work of providing express discharge lines for the member industries connected with pumping station A and pumping station C. The work of providing express lines for industries discharging to pumping station A is almost complete
Samples of soil and groundwater were collected from following villages located in the Dahej PCPIR (Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemical Investment Region) - Luvara, Pakhajan, Atali, Dahej, Jolva, Ambheta, Saykha, Vilayat, Bhersam, Bhensali, Vadadala, Kadodara, Samantpor, Suva and Lakhigam villages from the available locations by Gujarat Environment Management Institute (GEMI) under supervision of the joint committee. All these villages are located near the coastline.
In addition, soil samples were also collected from 6 locations (out of 11 identified locations where spillages/deposits in the industrial area). It was found from the comparison of analysis results of ground water samples with the drinking water standards that all the groundwater samples were non-compliant for one or other measured parameters and are not fit for drinking water. The concentration of almost all measured parameters including heavy metals like chromium and copper was found maximum from the soil/sediment samples collected from the industrial area.
The monitoring results from December 2021 to April 2022 showed that the condition in terms of flow and non-compliance was still continuous as the samples collected from the final pumping stations still have a varied degree of non-compliance. The joint committee has also reassessed the Environment Damage Compensation (EDC), for all the industries in the area discharging into the GIDC drainage network, CETP and GIDC.