CHENNAI: The most common question about coal fired thermal power plants is ‘how do we access the same level of electricity that supports approximately 80 lakh of the city’s population?’Standing on a sand embankment at the shore of Nallathanni Odai Kuppam in north Chennai, his eyes watched the massive metal cranes of the Chennai Port, visible at the skyline. “Nine months in a year, ocean tides move from the south to north. They carry silt and sand from the ocean floor with them. The Chennai Port is built in a way that restricts this movement by acting like a barrier. With nowhere to go, the sand gets accumulated at the Marina beach,” said Jayaraman, at the first stop of his Toxic Tour.
The Black City
“North Chennai has historically been subjected to racist and casteist suppression. During the colonial era, all the big bungalows belonging to the British and the high-born Indians were built in south Chennai, while the poor were pushed to live here. They called it the Black City. Today, all the factories and coal-fired power plants are built in north Chennai, subjecting the communities here to dangerous levels of toxicity,” he explained, on the way to Ennore, the next stop.
Fly-ash ponds
We got off at a playground. The chimney (gas stack) of the Ennore Thermal Power Station Annex stood a few 100 metres away. A railway track ran between us and the plant. Jayaraman rolled out a satellite image of the map of north Chennai. “This is where we are and this is what an aerial view of the Ennore Thermal Power Plant looks like,” he said, pointing at a section of the map. Next to the structure he was pointing at, was a waterbody. Its outline was visible. The grey part of the pond had almost consumed the blue water. “That’s a coal fly-ash pond,” he continued.
Fly-ash, a carbon-based particulate matter, is released by coal thermal power plants along with the water used to regulate temperature throughout the plant. A combination of the two is called slurry, which is deposited in man-made ponds, built close to the plant. “Layers of fly-ash go down as far as four metres deep before we hit sand,” Jayaraman said. As promised, our next stop was at a fly-ash deposit. Our feet sunk into the mulch-like-floor, as we made our way to its shore.
“The deposit had been blocking the flow of the Kosasthalaiyar river. The fishing communities in the area protested in 2013, demanding the ash be cleared out to allow the river to flow. After multiple efforts we were able to have it cleared,” he said pointing at mountains of fly-ash that lined the banks of the now-flowing river.
Coal versus Ennore
After a 10-minute drive, we arrived at the Ennore Creek bridge. The mouth of the Kosasthalaiyar river had now widened across a 100 metres and fishermen were throwing their nets in the shallow waters beneath us. Running across one side of the river was a coal conveyer-belt mounted on tall concrete pillars painted blue. He pointed to what looked like the remnants of a thin, incomplete brick road. It was almost submerged in the water but the top was still visible in the low tide.
“The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) power plant required more coal. The management had begun the construction of a parallel coal conveyer belt leading to another section of the plant. The fly-ash pond designated to the plant, had already broken its barriers once. Another breach would have been hazardous for neighbouring and residential fishing communities. Once again they resisted and we were able to stop the construction,” he said looking at the boats pass by.
Fighting for sand barriers
We stopped at different parts of the Kosasthalaiyar and Arani rivers. We drove past the Kora Kuppam fishing village, whose inhabitants had moved their houses further away from the beach because erosion had made the ground unstable. Showing us the entire stretch of land that Adani Power had purchased to build a port, he said, “A few metres away from the coast is a tall sand barrier at the ocean floor that stops the risk of storm surges in the area. To allow large containers to dock, the port will have to dig 25 metres deep, destroying the natural barrier we have against ocean waves.”
The story 68-km away
The tour ended at Pulicat. We drove past a line of wooden fishing boats with blue and white nets stocked in them. “This is where the Kosasthalaiyar river drains into the Pulicat lake. This town is ancient and had been a major trading post. I suspect that the Egyptians traded with us via this port,” Jayaraman said. A thriving fishing community, the town has a massive fishing market and is known to sell good quality prawns and crabs.
“The fishing grounds here are favourable and healthy for certain species. Although the rates are raised on the weekend because of demand they are still pretty subsidised and fresh,” he added. After an eye-opening tour of four-and-a-half hours, we returned home, knowing only too well that if attention is not paid to the magnitude of toxicity that has already spread to these areas, it won’t be long before Chennai is hit with a sudden bout of ‘stomach aches’ and ‘wheezing attacks’.