The remediation of the contaminated Kuzhikandam Thodu in Eloor is likely to be delayed for want of funds.
Kuzhikandam Thodu, a 1.5-km-narrow creek, figures among the 12 priority hazardous waste-contaminated areas spread across the country as per a study by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. The remediation work was taken up under the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) project initiated by the Ministry with the support of the State Pollution Control Board.
The estimated cost of the remediation project is about ₹25.9 crore. The fund available now is only ₹11.79 crore. With the Centre shelving the NCEF project, the funding gap of ₹10.36 crore has to be met to implement the project as per the detailed project report.
The government had earlier decided that 60% of the total estimate had to be shared between the polluting industries based on ‘polluter pays principle’ and the State government while the Centre would provide the remaining 40%.
As per official records, Hindustan Insecticides Ltd (HIL) has to bear the remediation cost of ₹3.59 crore for soil and sediment at the area designated as ‘A1’ in the project document while the share of Merchem Ltd. was ₹1.41 crore. FACT, Udyogamandal, and Indian Rare Earths Ltd. had remitted their share of ₹1.25 crore each for remediation of surface and groundwater. The State Pollution Control Board is yet to receive the share from Merchem while HIL had paid ₹1.24 crore of its share of ₹3.59 crore.
The Environment Department has asked the board to bring clarity before giving technical sanction for the first phase of the work.
It has directed that the location of the effluent treatment plant for the remediation project has to be finalised.
The board, which had proposed setting up the plant on nearly 75 cents of HIL, should execute an agreement with the company for setting up the plant.
KITCO, which had prepared the estimate for the plant, has to submit a time schedule for the remediation of the three areas identified by the board. The board has to submit a report on other possible sources of fund that could be used for completing the project as the available fund would be sufficient only for remediation of the ‘A1’ site.
