Burning of industrial waste in open on the rise in city

SURAT: It seems the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) and Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) have been turning a blind eye to the industrial units including powerlooms and dyeing mills located in Pandesara GIDC and other industrial areas that violate pollution norms by burning the industrial waste in the open ground.
The incidents of burning of the industrial waste including plastic has become a common phenomenon in and around the industrial estate located at Pandesara, Udhna, Sachin, Limbayat, Udhna-Magdalla and Katargam.
Huge quantity of industrial waste including waste polyester fabrics, plastic drums, plastic bobbins, polythene bags, chemical drums, wastage dyes and chemicals and yarn are dumped in the open ground and burnt.
Sources in the fire and emergency service department said that they have been receiving frequent calls from the industrial areas when the fire in the industrial waste material goes out of control. Every week the fire control room receives one or two such calls.
On Tuesday, the fire department received a fire call from Pandesara GIDC. A huge quantity of industrial waste was burnt by some unscrupulous elements and later the fire went out of control. It took more than two hours for the fire tenders to control the fire.
S K Acharya, in-charge chief fire officer, told TOI, "It is illegal to burn industrial waste in the open. Strict preventive actions should be taken against those involved."
Acharya added, "The small fire goes unnoticed. We believe there must be many such fires in the industrial areas of the city."
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) in its recent judgment had stated that the burning of garbage and other materials are not only source of air pollution but amount for 29.4 per cent of air pollution.
"We do not have any waste collection system in the industrial estates and GIDCs. It is the respective associations who are responsible for the collection of waste and burning it in the incinerators. It is because the members have to pay charges for burning their waste, they prefer disposing the hazardous waste in the open and burn on their own," said solid waste manager, E H Pathan.
Despite of repeated attempts, regional officer of GPCB, J K Patel was not available for comments.