Bund proposed to check salinity ingress in Dahej

Bharuch: With the salinity ingress in tube wells supplying water to the industries reaching alarming proportions, the representatives of Dahej Industries Association (DIA) and Vilayat units met the top government officials to discuss an immediate solution to the problem.
In the meeting with chief secretary GR Aloria, additional chief secretary, industries & mines, Arvind Agrawal and GIDC's managing director, Manoj Agrawal, it was decided that a temporary bund near Mangleshwar is the immediate solution to check the ingress.
Sunil Bhatt, DIA's joint president, said, "The chief secretary has asked Bharuch collector to call a meeting of all concerned departments including irrigation and Sardar Sarovar Nigam on Tuesday to chalk out a plan for constructing the bund."
Sources said that the government is not willing to release water from the Sardar Sarovar dam into the Narmada river.
DIA has also agreed to bear the entire cost of the bund. However, the proposal is likely to be met with a fierce opposition from farmers living in the downstream of Mangleshwar who claim that their fields will turn completely saline due to the structure.
Industrial units located in Dahej and Vilayat GIDC estates have suffered production losses to the tune of Rs 250 crore with chloride levels in the water from tube wells going up 300 times due to heavy influx of sea water. The situation has worsened since April 19 when sea water gushed 40 km deep inside from the Narmada estuary and contaminated GIDC's tubewells in Angareshwar and Nand. The chloride level has gone as high as 1,600 ppm against the limit of 50 ppm, leaving the water highly contaminated and unusable for industries. The raw water in tube wells is supplied from Narmada but the dam water is being release only for irrigation at present.
The industrial units have halved their production and all tube well pumping stations have closed for over week twice in past one month.
GIDC sources said that at present the entire Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Region (PCPIR) requires 100 MGD water of which around 40 MGD is supplied from tube wells in Angareshwar and Nand that are located on the Narmada river bed. The remaining 50 MGD is planned to be supplied via a pipeline from Karjan canal to Dahej. This project also has been stuck up due to right of use issue in several villages in the stretch of 17 km out of the total 114 km.
On May 20, chief minister Anandiben Patel, who was in Bharuch for the Lok Samvaad programme, had assured that the government will spend around Rs 50 crore immediately for the Bhadbhut causeway, which industries say would be the permenant solution to the problem. However, this project would take time.
"Those severely hit due to the problem include Reliance, Hindalco, Grasim, Gujarat Fluorochemicals, Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd, Torrent Power and Pharma and several units located in Dahej SEZ -I and II," said Bhatt.