Published On : Fri, Apr 22nd, 2016

Black and white soot posing health hazard to lives of citizens

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Black dust from WCL Mines and white soot from Koradi and Khaperkheda Thermal Power Plants

White Soot
Nagpur:
The Black dust from WCL Mines and white soot from Koradi and Khaperkheda Thermal Power Plants are definitely posing a health hazard for the citizens of Nagpur.

The manner in which the civic authorities and the Health officials are ignoring the health hazard and turning a blind eye toward this grave health hazard tantamounts to committing a crime.

Sources claimed that the residents living within 10 kilometer radius of the Koradi Thermal Power Plant and the Khaperkheda Thermal Power Plant are affected by white soot consisting chemicals.

White Soot (1)
The soot from the Koradi Thermal Power Plant is sent through pipes and collected near Koradi Dam, while the soot from Khaperkheda Thermal Power Plant is sent through pipes and collected near Varegaon Dam.

When strong winds blow, a blanket of white soot covers many villages with white soot posing health hazard to the residents of the villages. To add to this some of the fine soot (fly-ash) which is transported through trucks and smaller vehicles to brick-kilns (Eit Bhatti) and road-paving contractors get flown out of the truck and into the air making it difficult for the other road users. Technically, the norms dictate that the fly-ash whenever is being transported has to be sprayed with water and covered with tarpaulin to avoid inconvenience to other road users. However, this rule is never followed.

black soot1
On the other hand, the black dust or soot emanating from the WCL coal mines too is posing a health hazard to the residents of nearby villages and parts of the city.

The residents of villages living near the Coal Mines and Koradi Thermal Power Plant and the Khaperkheda Thermal Power Plant should provide free coal and power as a compensation for living in the dust and soot emanating from their plants. The Koradi Thermal Power Plant, Khaperkheda Thermal Power Plant and WCL should also provide free health care services to the residents of these villages.

Black Soot
The residents of soot-dust affected villages have sent demands of free health care services many times to the authorities of WCL, Koradi Thermal Power Plant and the Khaperkheda Thermal Power Plant. However, even these applications seem to be gathering dust.

The civic authorities should seriously ponder over the health hazard that these Power Plants and mines are posing.

By Rajeev Kushwaha