The cement factory in Dhulagarh
industrial hub. The pollution affects children as little as two years.
A cement factory set up in 2000, villagers
said, is the root of all evil. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
pandemic has worsened the situation, making villagers with already weak immune
systems more susceptible to the virus, said doctors.
As many as 15,000 people live across three
villages in Dhulagarh — Mohisgot, Bhagwatipur, Chaturbhujkati — barely 18 km
from Nabanna, the state administrative headquarters. The cement factory is
located in the vicinity. Farmers, too, have incessantly complained of a drop in
quality of crops due to the pollution.
Children affected
Moumita Ari (28), a resident of Mohisgot
village in Dhulagarh, has twin daughters aged 18 months. Both suffer from
respiratory problems. She told Down to Earth that she is planning to relocate.
“My daughters have been suffering from respiratory problems since birth. They need a nebulizer (an inhaler to clear airways and tract infection) to deal with the ailment. The dust from the cement factory worsens their condition. But the lack of livelihood opportunities due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has forced us to stay here,” she said.
Moumita Ari has 18-months-old twins,
both of whom suffer from breathlessness.
Nebulizers are essential commodities and
can be found in nearly every household of the village, said Manoj Patra (43), a
villager at Mohisgot.
“The dust emanating from the factory often
makes it difficult to breathe. Every inch of our house is covered with the
dust. Villages often turn into a thick cloud of dust with nothing visible
beyond a few metres,” said Patra.
“We get around seven fresh cases every
month of people facing breathlessness and skin allergy. It also includes
children. We refer the serious causes to big hospitals as we do not have the
requisite facilities to treat them here. The situation has become alarming
during the pandemic.”
Down To Earth contacted company officials,
who refused to comment on the matter.
Severe pollution
Environmental activists claimed that they
measured the Air Quality Index (AQI) of the area in January 2021 and found it
to be much higher than the normal levels.
“We found that particulate matter (PM) 2.5
was 479.4 and PM 10 was 2,576.07 against the normal levels of 60 and 100
respectively. The particulate matter is dangerous and causes severe health
ailments. We demand proper action to stop the pollution,” said Sourav
Prakritibadi, an environmental activist.
“The factory management gave us an assurance in written two years ago but nothing has been done so far. We have heard that they are now planning to increase the annual production of cement from 2.4 metric tonnes to 3.4 metric tonnes which would make the situation worse.”
The local Block Development Officer (BDO)
said he received a complaint from the villagers in this regard: “We will
initiate action once COVID-19 restrictions are eased,” said Naziruddin Sarkar,
BDO, Sankrail, under whose jurisdiction the area falls.
Respiratory ailments common
Villagers said respiratory diseases, skin
allergy and eye strain were common among them. “It is difficult to find a
person who has not been affected. But it often goes undiagnosed due to a lack
of adequate health facilities,” said Mira Patro (40), a homemaker in Mohisgot.
“Our clothes, food and utensils remain
covered with dust. Children are forced to eat the same unhygienic and polluted
food,” she added.
Locals said it all began in 2000, when a
private cement company set up their plant in 132 bighas of land.
“We were against the setting up of the
factory and launched a protest then. But the administration went ahead with the
project. We started facing the problem within two-three years of its
operations. But the work continued unabated,” said Sunil Das (42), a resident
of Chaturbhujkati. Eight-year-old Subhajit Makhal, a resident of Bhagwatipur,
concedes that he often faces pain in his stomach and breathlessness. “It often
pains in the stomach and rashes appear on the skin. I get some relief after
taking medicines, but it resurfaces in a few days,” he said.
Farmers also hit
The pollution has dealt a blow to the farm
produce as well, rued farmers. Sunil Mondal (51), whose land is a few metres
away from the factory, said his land used to be fertile and productive before
the setting up of the factory. “But the quality of the soil and production has
fallen drastically over the years. Earlier, I used to harvest 800 kg of paddy
from one bigha land. This has now dropped to 500 kg,” Mondal said.
“The vegetables don’t taste the same
anymore. We have to sell our produce at lower price in the local market despite
facing loses as consumers do not prefer it anymore. We had also made a poly
house for cultivation but it was blown away in the dust,” he added.
Both the photographs are taken by the
author Gurvinder Singh.
The article was first published in Down To Earth on Friday 21 May 2021.