Nagpur: In a major development, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) sent a notice to Khaperkheda Thermal Power Station (KTPS) to immediately stop disposing and dumping ash slurry into the Nandgaon ash pond. This move is all set to bring a huge relief to residents of Nandgaon, located 40 kilometres away from Khaperkheda in Nagpur district.
For months now the local residents along with Zilla Parishad members from Nandgaon have been protesting against the illegal dumping of ash slurry in their farmlands, which is in a complete violation of all environmental rules. Fly ash was also being dumped without a no-objection certificate (NOC) from local residents.
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Meanwhile, in a parallel development, Maharashtra Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray is also slated to visit Nagpur where he will also be undertaking a site visit to the thermal power stations around Koradi-Khaparkheda to assess pollution concerns soon.
According to the Direction Notice issued by MPCB regional officer (Nagpur) AM Kare to the Chief Engineer KTPS, the MPCB office had received various complaints regarding disposal of ash slurry into Nandgaon ash pond without permission or without providing any precautionary measures resulting in water and air pollution in the vicinity, which amounts to a violation of various environment norms.
“Accordingly, Boards official had inspected the Nandgaon ash pond and verified the disposal of ash slurry in the Nandgaon ash pond without providing any pollution control arrangements…Now, therefore, in view of the above, you (KTPS) are hereby directed to comply with the following directions: You shall stop disposal/dumping of ash slurry into the Nandgaon ash pond, immediately. You shall comply with fly ash notification for utilization of fly ash,” the notice read.
The notice also warned the KTPS Chief Engineer that incase there was a failure to comply with aforesaid directions, the board would have no option left but to issue appropriate legal action against the power station.
Affected villagers had requested the MPCB, Maharashtra State Power Generation Company (MAHAGENCO) as well as Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray to curb the disposal of harmful pollutants keeping in mind the deteriorating health of local residents affected by pollution.
Sonali Manoj Varkhade, Sarpanch from Nandgaonexplaining the impact of pollution from KTPS said that the whole village was suffering due to the ash pond, which is located near the Pench river in the village. “The ash slurry was destroying our farms, polluting our water bodies, drinking water and having severe health impacts and the fly ash was spreading all across causing air pollution. Our Gram Panchayat had not issued any No Objection Certificate (NOC) to this Ash Pond. We can now heave a sigh of relief as finally our plea has been heard and MPCB has asked them to stop the disposal of ash slurry in Nandgaon,” she said adding that however, they would like to reiterate that their demand is on a complete ban on disposal and not a temporary one.
Aaditya Thackeray, Cabinet Minister (Environment, Tourism and Protocol), Maharashtra, who highlighted that he had personally been receiving several complaints from this region, said, “The safety and security of citizens of Maharashtra is our primary concern and if any amount of pollution is impacting them, we will ensure abatement at the earliest. Through successive review meetings with MPCB, MAHAGENCO, representatives of the state power ministry, and researchers, we identified, deliberated and restricted further pollution from affecting local residents around Nandgaon due to fly ash deposition from the Khaperkheda thermal power station.”
The Minister added that the Environment and Energy Departments of the State government are coming up with a detailed mitigation plan. “The idea is to ensure proper control of both air and water pollution around coal-fired power stations around Koradi Khapedkheda in Nagpur district, and the mitigation plan will be further implemented around other thermal power stations in Maharashtra,” said Thackeray.
On November 18, 2021, a report titled “Polluted Power: How Koradi And Khaperkheda Thermal Power Stations Are Impacting The Environment” was released by Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, Centre for Sustainable Development (CFSD) and Asar that called for an immediate halt to the discharge of pollutants from the power plants and ash ponds. The research also strongly suggested that all prior pollution-related harm be cleaned up among several other recommendations.
Nagpur-based Leena Buddhe from CFSD who has been helping the locals in filing complaints and creating awareness through their study said that this whole project of disposing fly ash should be scrapped and the land should be handed back to the villagers. “Mahagenco’s commercial interest needs to take a back seat now. Acquiring land to pollute and build their own assets at the cost of peoples lives and livelihoods must stop. We will keep an eye on the ground and keep reporting the ground realities to the Environment Minister and MPCB,” she said adding that they were grateful to the Environment Minister for not only taking up this issue but also ensuring action on the ground.
Shripad Dharmadhikary, Coordinator, Manthan Adhyayan Kendra said this order by MPCB was an important first step in controlling the rampant air and water pollution being caused by Khaparkheda and Koradi thermal power plants. “The Nandgaon ash pond was made operational without any proper measures to protect the environment. Not only that, the area of the existing ash pond of Khaparkheda TPS is itself already in excess of the Central Electricity Authority norms for the size of ash ponds given the installed capacity at KTPS. So a new ash pond at Nandgaon was never required,” said Dharmadhikary adding that he hopes Mahagenco will comply with the directions forthwith.
