Campaign against pollution of the Aril river in Moradabad district, U.P

This pollution has been caused by a paper factory that was set up 16 years ago.  The noise, air, land and water pollution that are a direct result of the factory have changed a beautiful and peaceful rural area into one where farmers’ land and crops have been destroyed, the air is full of fine, crystalline ash, the local river is an evil-smelling, stagnant mire of foam-encrusted sludge and the water table has fallen by over 70 feet.

The factory owners are rich, powerful and totally without any social conscience.  We therefore need help from every possible source. We do not want to shut the factory down, for that would rob villagers of valuable jobs. What we want is for the factory to run its filtration plant regularly, dispose of its ash responsibly, stop pouring chemical effluents into the local river and compensate farmers whose livelihoods have been ruined by the damage to their crops.

These are our proposals, submitted to the SDM, Bilari on 12-2-2008 to be forwarded to the District Magistrate, Moradabad

1. Aggrieved farmers should be paid a compensation equal to five times of the damage to crops determined by a committee headed by the Tehsildar, Bilari in December 2005.
2. An Environment Impact Assessment should be carried out in the area by an expert committee from the Sardar Ballabh Bhai Agricultural and Technology University Meerut to assess the severity and extent of the damage caused already by the pollution of the river caused by the paper and other factories of the area.
3. An expert team from the Health Department should conduct the effect of the pollution on the health of the people and animal population of the area so that the dangers may be evaluated and solutions may be found to resolve the problem.
4. The underground water table is continuously going down in the area because of the excessive use of water by the polluting factories in the area. A  team of government and non-government experts should find out the rate at which this table is receding so that recharge tube wells and techniques may be set up.
5. Recycling of the polluted water and other effluents such as ash etc. must be done within the four walls of the polluting factories.
6. A welfare fund should be set up by the industries to help the aggrieved people of the immediate area so that good relations between the industries and the affected people may be established for sustainability of the environment and the industries as well. A tax not less than 5% of the turn over of these industries should be levied to help this fund.
7. The Task Force already set up by the government to deal with the problems of pollution in the Aril Nadi area should be extended to include members from the aggrieved farmers and non government voluntary organisations active in the immediate area.