Activists rubbish ONGC’s claim of remediation

On Wednesday, the Solidarity Group for Justice and Accountability, a state-wide alliance of individuals and people’s organisations, said that the claims made by the ONGC were false. Two soil samples were collected from a farm in Thirupunjai, Thiruvarur district, that was contaminated during an oil spill more than 10 years ago. 

The samples were tested at CVR Labs in Saidapet, a government approved facility. The samples contained 1760 parts per million (or mg/kg) and 2983 mg/kg of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) respectively. Given that uncontaminated soils should have no trace of TPH, the levels found in the Thirupunjai field are exceedingly high and they highlight the failure of ONGC to deploy remedial measures to restore the paddy lands. 

Environmentalist Nityanand Jayaraman said, “ONGC’s claims that abandoned sites are restored are not true, as is clearly shown by the scientific data. The oil contamination has been carried into the Velloor irrigation canal and ONGC has ignored the requests by landowners and farmers of surrounding lands to clean up the contamination.” The activists pointed out that hydrocarbon extraction and processing harm the environment, even as government claims that it is safe.

Chandramohan, a social activist, said that before embarking on the project, ONGC should have created awareness about it among the local population. “That was not done – people don’t know how to react in case of an oil spill. What are the safety procedures? Instead of pulling up ONGC that is polluting the environment, why are you imprisoning the people, who asked you questions, after their livelihoods were affected,” he said. Voicing their opinion on water source before ONGC began their operations, Kasthuri, a villager from Kathiramangalam, said, “Earlier, the water used to be clean. Now, it is so smelly that we cannot use it. Will you give such a water to your children? We want our children to grow up in a safe environment. We want ONGC to stop polluting our water and soil, which is ruining our livelihoods.”