BANKE: The city is engulfed spreading pollution with smokes exhausted by about half a dozen of industries at the Nepalgunj Industrial area.
The smog exhausted by plywood and metal industries located at the heart of city near BP Chowk has affected the locals. The industrial estate spread at the area of 233 ropanies of land houses with 31 industries including metal, cable, plywood, plastic pipes, paints and herbs.
The industrial estate established 45 years ago is surrounded by dense human settlements owing to rapid urbanization. After the standards of opening industries were not set, high polluting industries such as plywood and metal were established. Nepalgunj Municipality permitted to open industries nearer to hospitals and schools in the past without setting any environmental standards.
While Nepalgunj Medical College is located just near from the industrial estate, a half dozen of schools are situated at the west side of the estate and four-lane road at the east side, linking to Kohalpur of Nepal and Rupaidiya of India. There are also several link roads. Despite acute pollution of sound and smog, no attempts have been made to minimize the pollution.
Nanda Lal Vaishya, president of Nepalgunj Federation of Nepalese Commerce, Chambers and Industries, claimed that the industries are operated by meeting the government standards. “The industries blamed for pollution have been operating for last 25-30 years. The schools and hospitals were open after industries. Industries produce dust and smokes commonly. But industries should not be targeted for it.”
President Vaishya blamed the government for not providing land for the estate thought it is not tired of talking about economic prosperity. A work is going on to set up industrial estate at Naubasta of the district. It is a bit far from the city and closer to the forest.
“After establishment of the new estate, the polluting industries will be shifted there. We have to ask them to minimize pollution until new zone is developed,” he said. “We don’t have other alternatives now.”
Violation of court order
Though the locals frequently urged the management of the Nepalgunj Industrial area to minimize pollution production, it became ineffective. Then, advocate Lok Bahadur Shah filed a writ petition at the high court on May 31, 2017. The court ordered to minimize sound and air pollution as per need of time.
Nepalgunj Municipality directed the industrial management on October 15, 2017 to follow the rules of environment protection regulations. The industrial management office called the municipality to monitor the estate after issuance of order from the municipality.
A four-member team including chemist Shila Khatiwada and environment inspector Nabina Maharjan of Environment Department inspected Modern Door and Wood Products Pvt Ltd, Rijawan Engineering Industry Pvt Ltd and Binayak Food Industries Pvt Ltd on November 12 and 13, 2017.
The report mentioned that Modern Door and Wood Products Pvt Ltd increased height of chimney and installed smoke filter and APH, which lessened the smoke production at other times except firing time.
The rule of examining smoke in each six months has not been obeyed by the Modern Door and Wood Products Pvt Ltd. The industrial estate has demanded to study on the provision of Height Standards 2069BS by hiring experts on its own expenses. Rijawan Engineering Industry Pvt Ltd was found not installing smoke filter.
The Environment Department recommended taking action against the industry for not abiding by the rules. Similarly, Binayak Food Industries Pvt Ltd was reported to have maintained standards.
The industrial estate management informed the court about their attempts to minimize pollution production. However, the court was not satisfied over the attempts of the industries to maintain environment and it formed a task force on May 16, 2018 and ordered the industrial management office to submit its report within a month.
The task force included chief of industrial management office as coordinator; members from High Court Bar Association, government appointed environment inspector, environment officer of the municipality, each representative from accused industries, environmental expert, and officer of district administration office.
Even after the three months of the court order, the task force is yet to begin its works. “We could not begin our work due to arrival of environment inspector from the Environment Department,” claimed Krishna Pun, chief of the industrial management office.
The Nepal’s Constitution (3, 30) has provisioned right to clean environment, ensuring rights to live in clean and healthy environment. It has also provisioned compensation as per laws if the rule is violated.
However, people are forced to face pollution due to lack of implementation of laws, said advocate Shah. The experts have suggested relocating the industrial estate away from the city and human settlements.
According to Pun, 300 bigha of land has been already acquired to establish new estate at Naubasta. Preparation of DPR has been completed. “EIA will be prepared by the end of 2018,” he added.
