More than three months after the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board asked over 250 electroplating industries to shift out of Hyderabad for flushing their untreated effluents into the Hussainsagar, most of the units are still located in the city, still flagrantly flouting pollution control norms. The Board had ordered 71 of these units to close down due to constant violation of norms regarding discharge of untreated effluents, while 10 units were ordered permanent closure.
Officials said these units continue to operate in the city, and most of them do not send their effluents to Jeedimetla Effluent Treatment Limited, as they were directed, despite getting a 75-per cent subsidy on the cost for transportation and treatment of industrial waste. In the Ganesh festival season, the focus is back on pollution of Hussainsagar due to immersion of thousands of ecologically unsound idols.
However, experts said the lake’s water is threatened far more by the heavy metal flushed into it by the illegal electroplating units. According to APPCB officials, effluents from these units contain heavy metals like cadmium, chromium, lead, copper, zinc, nickel and poisonous cyanides, besides acidic solutions and solvents, among others. All these find their way into the lake in the absence of regular checks and due to flouting of norms by these units. Air emissions also contain volatile organic compounds and, in some cases, mixing of cyanide and acidic wastewater can generate lethal hydrogen cyanide gas, experts said.
Idols, such as those of Ganesh, contain heavy metals in paints, such as mercury, cadmium, nickel, chromium, lead, manganese and other metals like copper, iron and zinc from the idols’ frames and other decorations. Officials said several studies have pointed out that the concentration of mercury in Hussainsagar, already dangerously high, increases by hundreds of times over the permissible limits, in addition to other heavy metals, during the annual immersion. Plastic accessories and clothes on the idols are non-soluble and lead to pollution, they said.
“While in a smaller magnitude, immersion of Ganesh idols does cause water pollution, both due to Plaster Of Paris and paints on those idols,” APPCB member-secretary M. Ravi Chandra said. “This (threat posed by idols) cannot be ignored. At the same time, we are not letting other major sources causing pollution go scot-free, or without checks. “In case of Ganesh idols, we are only requesting people to switch over to eco-friendly idols,” he said.