CHENNAI: Expressing concern over the threat to the Chembarambakkam lake from the dumping of toxic industrial waste, environmental experts have called upon the State government to take immediate measures and stop effluents polluting the freshwater reservoir.
Noted environmentalist Nityanand Jayaraman said the government should not allow setting up of polluting industries on the critical watershed area, as it would be very difficult to contain the contamination from them.
Reacting to the findings published in the Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research, he pointed out that the industries in the region have already been ticked as early as on May 8, 2002, by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board about the alarming level of lead and phosphates in the effluents discharged.
In his view the presence of high levels of lead and cadmium in the lake could be due to the heavy metal industries as well as the paint shops situated in the vicinity.
Another activist, R Ilango, who has launched a movement to save the water body, blamed the conditions on a huge industrial park situated just a kilometre away from the reservoir. “The park has multiple types of industries. Nowhere in the world would one set up an industrial park so near a reservoir,” he reasoned.
“The State has to act now, or in the next five to 10 years, the city would lose its drinking water reservoir as it will be too polluted and beyond repair,” Ilango warned.
Whether the water is being used for irrigation is another cause of concern according to Nithyanand.
“Lead can get into plants and could pose a threat to health,” he said.
Presence of heavy metals in the lake, Nithyanand said, would add to the cost of treatment of water by Metro Water. Now, the challenge would be to treat the sediment and clean up the lake, said Jayaram.
Kannan, managing director of Klaro India, a private company engaged in waste water treatment, said to ensure the water free of pollutants, the government should identify the source. “Once it is identified, the cost of cleaning up the water body would be reduced,” he reasoned.
Explaining the dangers in the contamination of drinking water by heavy metals and other pollutants, dean of Stanley Medical College, P Karkuzhali, said consumption of lead could result in anaemia and other neuron-related diseases.
Dr Baraneedharan of Global Hospital said consumption of water containing cadmium could affect the kidneys. Similarly, consuming water contaminated by lead could affect children whose bones are under development as well as adults.
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