Siblings C. Surekha, a third standard student, and C. Livana, a pre-kindergarten student, are just out of hospital. They had suffered dysentery, earache, throat pain and breathing difficulty. And, as they got out of the hospital, the paediatrician had recommended that they shift their houses.
Finally the doctors had acknowledged what they had all along been complaining about, said J. Daniel, an activist seeking the shifting of the Coimbatore Corporation’s dump yard from Vellalore.
The girls, who were from Kanjikonampalayam, a place next to the dump yard, had frequented the hospital every week or 10 days in the recent past.
Finally as things turned for the worse, they had to be hospitalised, said their grandmother N. Amudha.
There was not a day the girls would not complain. They would take them to the doctors, who would administer injection, give pills and syrups. Things would be okay for only a week or so. The girls would resume complaints and the whole thing would repeat.
As long as the remedy and relief for the girls’ ailments were pills and syrups, they could afford the same but when the remedy suggested was shifting of the house to a place with better standard of hygiene what could they do, Ms. Amudha asked.
Mr. Daniel said that in the past six months the area around the dump yard that had polluted water had increased to a km. The groundwater was frothy, yellow and bad. There was no alternative, either.
To once again highlight the residents’ plight and reiterate their demand for shifting out the Vellalore dump yard, he and three others sat on a fast on Friday morning. The Podanur Police later removed them from the venue.
He said that after problems in Tiruchi, the municipal corporation there had agreed to shift out the yard. The Coimbatore Corporation should follow suit. It should move the yard to a place far away from human settlement. This area was thickly populated and was most unsuited for a dump yard.
Corporation officials said that they were trying to improve waste collection, segregation and processing process as to better the condition in Vellalore.
