WATER WOES -VWater units strike against green panel order

Chennai:Adrinking water crisis looks imminent in the state. Members of the Tamil Nadu packaged drinking water manufacturers on Wednesday declared an indefinite strike in protest against the National Green Tribunal’s order directing the pollution control board toclosedown 252water units. 

The units were found to be in areascategorised as‘over-exploited’ for groundwater in an assessment by the state ground and surface water resources wing of the public works departmentin 2009.About570water unitsin ‘safe’ blockswere allowed to continue operations. Another 33 units were also permitted,butwith a ‘noobjection’ certificatefrom the agency. 

Traders are aggrieved over the order, as the units are licencees of the Bureau of Indian Standards, a premier national standardsbody whichoffersISI certification. “As a mark of protest, all 901 BIS-certified units havebeen shutdown. “Wewant thestateto allowustodrawwater in the existing places,” Tamil Nadu Packaged Drinking Water Manufacturers Association patron VMuralitoldTOI. The southern bench of the tribunal was passing orders on asuo motu petition on pollution in packagedwater. 

K Ambikapathy of Rain Aqua Minerals said his plant was in the ‘safe’ block when he commissioneditin 2001 against the backdrop of a severe drinking water crisis in the region. But now the PWD finding suggests his unit falls in the ‘overexploited’ area. “The authorities never insisted on the level of extraction per day. Thus we continued our business,” he said. The over-exploited and critical blocks are those where groundwater extraction is more than 90%. Of the 385 blocks in the state, 138 blocks fallin over-exploitedblocks. 

There is no impediment for these 252 units to purchase water from safeblocks.Thebench, led by justice M Chokkalingam and technical expert R Nagendran ordered these units to approach PWD to obtain ‘no objection’ certificates in respect of safe blocks, from where water shall be purchased.Theunitsshould also move the food safety and drugs administration departmenttoconductsampletestsin two weeks. Subsequently, the units will have to get a consent order from the pollution controlboardto resumeoperation.