CITIZENS CONCERNED OVER NAYACHAR AND CHEMICALHUB : PRESS STATEMENT 17.03.08
In view of the appalling lack of transparency pertaining to various aspects of the West Bengal Government’s proposal for, and efforts towards, setting up a Chemical / Petrochemical Hub at Nayachar and the numerous urgent issues of public interest thrown up by such a project, a Citizens’ Expert Committee was constituted to look into the desirability and viability of the said project. The Committee comprises of eminent specialists drawn from various disciplines – geology, chemistry, physics, river science, medicine, economics and fisheries Presented below are the preliminary observations of the Committee.
Preliminary Observations of the Citizens’ Expert Committee
Geological, Hydrological, Hydro-Morphological and Related concerns
q Nayachar is an estuarine
q Such a premature island emerged above water during the 1930s and still continues to evolve by the processes of erosion and accretion. The island / bar may, therefore, be identified as an area of incomplete morphogenesis. Historically speaking, such estuarine shoals appear and disappear in active littoral tracts in connection with the hydrodynamics of the delta. Any major structural intervention would obviously imperil the delicate hydro-morphology of the estuary. It is to be noted that such areas are the major sources of nutrients to various aquatic life forms.
q It may further be noted that the island is geographically proximate to and has close similarities with the region of the Sunderban biosphere, which survives on the unique juxtaposition of sweet and saline water regimes. This hydro-geomorphology of the Sunderbans and also that of the Purba-Medinipur coast support a marine fishing population of more than two and a half lakh.
Our Environment, Coastal Resources and the Chemical Hub
q However the livelihood of this vast population and the food and nutrition security of tens of millions of people stand threatened as fish stocks are facing severe depletion. Fishers in coastal
q The most important causes of this biocide are global warming and the pollution of our waters. We may here note that a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report (entitled In Dead Water) has already identified the
q Worldwide experience shows that chemical industries are potentially as dangerous as nuclear plants, as the effluents are highly toxic and disastrous to the environment causing irreversible damage to air, soil and water and pose serious threat to public health. The toxic chemicals released into the environment often have immeasurably long half lives.
q Even within the currently “permissible pollutant limits”, the effluents and discharges can cause long lasting damages to environment and human health – evidences for this are well documented.
q The increased port activities would lead to regular spillage of crude in the port and adjacent areas and that is bound to destroy local marine ecology affecting the fishing communities as have been the experience of other similar production zones where MNCs and TNCs operate.
q Thus, selecting a coastal/estuarine site for the purposes of chemical / petrochemical industrialization is in essence a declaration of war against coastal resources and livelihood – spelling disaster for marine life, livelihood of fishers, food and nutrition security.
q Note that the proposed site is across the passage of tidal intrusion and also along the passage of the S-W monsoon. Further, the ‘coast’ as defined by the Govt. of India does not corroborate with the explanation of coastal geomorphology. The area enclosed within the line delineating the limits of tidal intrusion is generally identified as the coastal region in the geomorphological literature. A line joining Bandar on the bank of the river Rupnarayan, Shantipur on the bank of Bhagirathi and Benigopalpur on Ichhamati may distinctly be identified as the northern limit of tidal intrusion. This entire area happens to be the most densely populated area in the state of WB. The southern limit of tidal intrusion would include vast areas of the Sundarbans. Any spillage of toxic chemicals in Nayachar and its adjacent location is bound to affect all these areas. Similarly, any leakage of the toxic gases in the Chemical Hub is bound to be carried to densely populated areas of WB by the monsoon wind.
q The WB Govt. in one of its policy papers in 1994 declared its commitment to protect the 220 km coastline of the state. And the West Bengal Coastal Zone Management Authority is bound, as per the order through which it was constituted, is to take all measures necessary “for protecting and improving the quality of the coastal environment and preventing, abating and controlling environmental pollution in coastal areas.”
q However it is abundantly clear that the West Bengal Government is being disloyal to its declared commitment. And the West Bengal Coastal Zone Management Authority, by recommending reduction and dilution of the CRZ status of the island, has betrayed the responsibility with which it had been entrusted.
The Economics of the Chemical Hub
q As regards the proposed chemical hub, the technology is not ours, the raw material is not ours and the investments will be made by the foreign multinational and transnational corporations. Our country will only provide cheap labour, land free of cost and lax environmental regulations. Hence the hub would, in effect, lead to net drainage of national wealth.
q Chemical industry is a highly automated knowledge based industry and the employment generation cannot exceed few thousands. In the case of
q If the island of Nayachar, the proposed site, is embanked and elevated, the intervention is likely to impair the navigational channel that will, in turn, adversely impact the import of crude and raw materials as well as the export of finished goods from the island, thereby affecting the claimed ‘economic viability’ of the hub itself.
q It is now known that the chemical giants, particularly after the adoption of REACH (registration, evaluation and authorization of chemicals) in Europe and similar stringent laws of EPA in USA, have been trying to shift their production units in low cost countries (LCC) to take the advantage of their lax environmental laws and ineffective regulations.
q The logic of low per capita consumption (about 4 kg) of plastics has been offered as a ground for setting up of chemical / petroleum hub. This argument does not hold water once we look at the poor indigenous demand and an actual slowdown in growth of the demand for plastics. The government is thus adopting a programme for export of the bulk of production at the cost of our natural resources. This is anything but development.
Therefore
In short, the setting up of a chemical hub, according to the considered view of the committee, would only benefit the foreign multinationals while degrading our environment and ecology and leading to the net drainage of wealth from the country. The generation of jobs on which the Government is harping as its cardinal selling point, is incorrect.
Therefore it is recommended that the Government should drop the present proposal and set up a committee to explore the possibility of setting up of environment friendly indigenous industries including chemical manufacturing or processing units for the benefit of the people and nation as was originally envisioned by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy. And instead of destroying Nayachar and other ecologically sensitive sites in our coastal and estuarine waters, the Government should try to envisage
i) Projects that preserve and nourish such sites and
ii) Economic activities that can draw on the ecological wealth of such sites without annihilating it.
Citizens’ Expert Committee on Nayachar and Chemical Hub
1. Dr. Rabindranath Majumdar, Professor of Chemical Technology, University of
2. Dr Kalyan Rudra, River Scientist and Member,
3. Prof. Kalyan Kumar Bandopadhyay, Department of Applied Physics, Department of Marine Science,
4. Dr. Tapan Chakrabarti, Associate Professor, Indian Statistical Institute
5. Dr. Subrata Sinha, Former Deputy Director General, Geological Survey of
6. Dr. Mandindra Narayan Majumdar, Former Professor of Chemistry and Dean, Faculty of Science,
7. Dr. Partha Sarathi Ray, Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of
8. Dr. Subhendu Dasgupta, Former Reader, Department of South and South East Asian Studies,
9. Dr.
10. Dr. Abhee Dutt-Mazumder, Associate Professor, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
11.
12. Harekrishna Debnath, Member, National Fisheries Development Board, Government of
13. Abhijit Sengupta, Former Principal Scientist, Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
14. Dr. Siddhartha Gupta, Senior Medical Officer,
Nayachar Features – A Note for the Editor
Nayachar is an island / bar near the confluence of the Hooghly and
Submitted on behalf of the Citizens’ Expert Committee on Nayachar and Chemical Hub and Citizens Concerned over Nayachar and Chemical Hub by:
Bhaskar Gupta Santanu Chacraverti
Teachers and Scientists against Maldevelopment Society for Direct Initiative for Social and Health Action
8, Lenin Sarani, Kolkata-700013 Phone:
Amitadyuti Kumar
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