E-Paper
Swift action required to stop oil spill in Chennai: NGT
National Green Tribunal (NGT) asked the state authorities to take swift action to stop the further spread of oil into the Ennore creek
Authorities have to take action on war footing to prevent further spread of the oil into the Ennore creek, leading to sea and to remove the same from the oil spilled area, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had said in a hearing on the disaster in Chennai on Tuesday, the orders for which were released on Wednesday.
“Secondly, to undertake remediation measures for treating the oily water in a scientific/safe method,” said judicial member, justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and expert member, Satyagopal Korlapati of the NGT. “Thirdly, the Authorities have to assess the situation and initiate measures for restoration of the livelihood activities of fishermen in the affected backwaters and for resumption of fishing in the seas/backwater as well as deep sea, in case the Fisheries Department has advised the fishermen not to fish due to the Oil Spill.”
The court had taken up the matter suo moto and a fisherman R L Srinivasan had also filed a petition seeking a direction to the government authorities to complete and clean all the impacted areas.
The Pollution Control Board concluded that because of the huge quantity of oil used and the inadequate storm water management and storm water storage ponds, there is clear evidence that the oil has leaked from Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited CPCL into the Buckingham Canal reaching the Ennore Creek, the court said.
The Pollution Control Board has also submitted to the court that an industry Toshiba-JSW was found to have not properly handled the waste oil which could have also caused discharge into the Buckingham Canal and they are under investigation. The report of the analysis of the water samples collected by the Pollution Control Board at Kosasthalaiyar River, Ennore Creek are exceeding the norms prescribed, the board noted.
Since local fishermen are also deployed for restoring the activities, the NGT directed the government and the CPCL to take care of their health and safety by supplying safety gears like gloves, masks. “So far CPCL has not filed a report/counter, they are directed to file a report regarding the action taken by them with photographs and aerial pictures taken using drones,” the court said.
The next hearing for the case has been posted for December 14.
A review meeting of the State Oil Crisis Management Group, Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena and the CPCL Authorities was held on Wednesday to take stock of the mitigation work. Around 75 boats involved in the suction of oil from the surface and transporting it safely to the shore have been deployed. An additional four gully sucker machines are being used to absorb the oil from the water surface.
