After four years of indecisiveness, the State government has begun efforts to safely dispose of 314 litres of banned endosulfan pesticide that has been stored in corroded barrels at a godown of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) at Mannarkkad. Nicknamed Operation Blossoms Spring, the process to transfer the corroded barrels into heavy-duty polythene drums will be held on October 12.
Mohammed Asheel, assistant nodal officer of Endosulphan Victims Rehabilitation Cell, has said the polythene drums would prevent the chemical from leaking and spelling doom in the region. The drums would be handed over to qualified international agencies for detoxification and disposal by December 12. The district administration would soon invite tenders for this. The selected agency would take the drums out of the locality to safer areas outside the State for disposal.
It was in the same way that the PCK had disposed of 1,600 litres of endosulfan at its estates in Kasaragod, he said.
The drums could keep the chemical safely for five years. The operation would be conducted in accordance with international safety standards and in a transparent way by video-recording the whole process. Mr. Asheel said meetings were held to educate the locals on the need to cooperate with the operation without anyone getting exposed to the killer stuff.
District Collector K. Ramachandran said the operation would be carried out in compliance with the guidelines of the World Health Organisation, Food and Agriculture Organisation, and the UN’s Stockholm Convention on handling persistent organic pollutants.
A move by the government in 2011 to detoxify and dispose of the banned pesticide, which has been kept at the godown for several years, was prevented by the locals as they wanted the stock to be shifted from their locality. The district authorities say that the delay was due to the failure of experts in suggesting a safe procedure.
