TIRUCHY : The blast in a factory manufacturing industrial explosives near Thuraiyur on Thursday is just the tip of an iceberg, according to residents of T Murungapatti village where the factory is located. The factory has reportedly caused contamination of drinking water in the village and the surrounding places.
A couple of months ago, the laboratory tests on water samples taken by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) in the one km radius of the factory revealed that the water in the open wells were unfit for consumption as many chemicals in the tested samples were found to be exceeding the permissible levels.
Villagers lamented that they were kept in the dark about the results of the laboratory tests.
According to villagers of T Murungapatti and Vairisettipalayam, located close to the Vetrivel Explosives Private Ltd, the factory has been functioning for the past 15 years. In the early years, villagers had complained that the factory was letting out effluents into the then empty borewells, thus contaminating the water.
The villagers further said the discharge from the factory led to a drop in the yield of turmeric crop over the past few months. They said they have urged the TNPCB and the district administration to conduct a field study of waterbodies around the factory.
According to the TNPCB, as many as five water samples were collected from a private borewell, an overhead tank and an open well in T Murungapatti in September to detect if there was any seepages from the factory.
The TNPCB maintained that the firm was manufacturing explosives that were nitrate-based, and the chemical levels disclosed in tests conducted for drinking water sources were found to be within the permissible limits. However, the water samples taken from open well and the water being used for irrigating turmeric crop were found to be having excessive levels of nitrate, chlorine and sulphate.
But the drinking water sources were safe, according to District Environmental Engineer V Nalina.
But the villagers claimed that an effluent treatment plant (ETP) was set up in the factory only recently and that water contamination in T Murungapatti was caused prior to the setting up of the ETP.
“Eight of my goats died after consuming water from an open well. Though an FIR was registered at Uppliyapuram Police Station, the result of autopsy on one of the animals was not made public,” said K Periyasamy, a farmer from Thalugai.