Cauvery river turns toxin dump yard

Many factories claim to have achieved zero effluent status but the real story is that many companies actually dump toxic wastes into rivers and the biggest casualty is the River Cauvery in Tamil Nadu. It's turning into a dump yard of toxins.

It is the lifeline of Tamil Nadu but the Cauvery River could be carrying tonnes and tonnes of toxic wastes.

Workers from a company in Kerala were caught red handed while releasing 16,000 litres of toxic ferrous chloride into the river in Mettur. This has allegedly come from the Kerala based Cochin Minerals and Rutiles limited.

Cauvery irrigates nine districts and remains the chief source of drinking water for lakhs of people. According to the environmentalists, this could pose a serious health hazard in the long run.
Nityanand Jayaraman, Advisor, Community Environmental Monitoring said, ''Lead leads to a low IQ in children, chromium is carcogenic and cadmium can cause renal failure and ferrous chloride has all these chemicals.''

Only last year, the Supreme Court's monitoring committee had recommended shutting down of CMRL charging it with dumping effluents into the river Periyar. But the company denies the charges and claims the tanker was only being cleaned near the river.
Mani, AGM of CMRL said, ''My product is most suitable for controlling pollution in paper indsttries.''

Although disposal of effluents is the responsibility of the companies, ironically the police have registered a case just against the driver of the hired tanker. Environment and pollution control board officials were not available for comment.

Courtesy:ndtv.com
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