Thiruvananthapuram’s toxic lab

Reema Narendran
Indian Express
First Published : 04 Feb 2010 01:58:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 04 Feb 2010 11:39:45 AM IST

Citizens rejoice! Our city is developing at such a remarkable rate that the city ponds are becoming experimental grounds for pesticides and herbicides hitherto unknown in the country. And the cityfathers at the Corporation, either consciously or otherwise, have given a silent nod.

 What we are talking about is the Charachira pond right in the heart of the city and the herbicide is hydrogel-D, the D standing for diquat dibromide.

 Yes, the Charachira pond is infested with weeds. Yes, we need to clear it.

 But with a chemical that is not registered in the country?

 With a chemical whose safety standards have not been assessed in India?

 That too without an environment impact assessment?

 The Charachira experiment has been dubbed as a pilot project. The Australian company ‘Bettersafe’, which is clearing the weeds now at Charachira, is doing it free of cost. However, it is all set for a tie-up with the State Government for clearing up other water bodies in the State.

 Peter Harper, the Australian who brought the technology to India, said that the herbicide is a broad spectrum one, effective against a number of aquatic plants such as Eichornia, pistia, azolla, salvinia, ceratophyllum and Elodea, among others, in a scientific meeting at the Sasthra Bhavan.

 We asked him how can then it not harm the other living beings in the ecosystem like the phytoplanktons, zooplanktons, fish, frogs, ducks and other birds.

And he, in the same scientific forum said: "This herbicide is new to India but definitely it is safe. If it was not safe, how can I be using it for over 20 years? I have seen ducks wading in the treated water but I don’t know anything about what happens under water to phytoplanktons, zooplanktons and other organisms".

 What was even more interesting was his confession that this herbicide is not effective against the seeds of the weed. This effectively means that every time the weeds grow, the company will spray chemicals and the cycle will go on. But no one knows whether this chemical has any long-term effect on the ecosystem.

 But how did the company manage to bring into the country a herbicide that is not registered with the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee?

 S. Krishnaprasad, Peter Harper’s partner in the city, said, "We didn’t register it as it was only a pilot project. The Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) will help us get the registration."

 The CWRDM director K. Jayakumar said that they had been monitoring the water quality of the pond after treatment and that the result was positive. "But we will have to look into the environmental aspects," he said.

 The problem of such a large mass of vegetation sinking into the pond and decaying on its bed has been totally overlooked. Retrieval of this decayed matter would be more laborious than removal of the green live matter.

 But isn’t applying a new herbicide in a country, without understanding what might happen to the ecosystem, a crime, we asked the Corporation officials.

"They had a consent from the State Government," said Health Officer Dr Sreekumar repeatedly. But he had not even the vaguest idea as to which department gave the permission. "The Pollution Control Board officials were monitoring the whole procedure," he said.

 We asked S. Krishnaprasad if he could show us the environmental clearance that was given by the PCB for this and also the patent given to Peter Harper for hydrogel-D.

We are yet to see either of those.

 When we contacted PCB chairman Jayaprasad, he said it was the district office that was monitoring the work.

Santhoshkumar, environmental engineer of the district office, said that all they were looking at were water-quality and fish-kill and that they had not given any clearance at all.

 "There is no fish-kill but I can’t right now tell you about the water-quality," he said.

reema_narendran@expressbuzz.com