Once known as the vegetable basket of western India, Luna village and surrounding areas in Padra taluka of Gujarat's Vadodara district are now famous for borewells that spew reddish brown water. These are referred to as “Thumbs Up borewells”, named after an Indian brand of cola drink. Laboratory tests by the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) earlier this year shows that nearly half the borewells in the region are contaminanted by effluents produced by the neighbouring pharmaceutical and industrial dyes, which give the water the reddish brown hue.
To keep the villagers from protesting loud, the polluting industries are doling out cash and cheques as ad hoc payments for the damage they are causing.
Industrial effluent in acquifers
Ghanshyam Patel of Luna, a pioneer of organic farming in the region, owns 30 hectares (ha) of land. Two of Patel’s borewells have been contaminated due to their proximity to the Metrochem Dyestaff unit (now owned by Huntsman Chemicals). Patel alleges that Metrochem used reverse boring to pump effluents into the aquifers, from which he used to draw fresh water for farming. His borewells have the highest chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the whole region as per the GPCB survey (see 'What Gujarat Pollution Control Board found'). COD indicates the presence of organic chemical compounds in water and is a measure of water dissolved oxygen consumed by contaminants during decomposition; it is used as an indicator to determine water pollution. Patel was growing vegetables such as drumsticks and brinjals, without using fertilizers or pesticides since 1989. He started suffering losses from 1998. Patel claims that the effects of the pollution started showing around then. His borewells were contaminated by the neighbouring industries.
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GPCB's officer in-charge for Vadodara, Manoj Patel, says the Seismological Institute from Gandhinagar is conducting survey and that experts from the Indian Institute of Technology at Roorkee have been roped in to study the effects of the effluent channel on farming. Health survey of the people is yet to be conducted.