Protestors comprising men, women and children chanted slogans and even threatened to close down the mill from Wednesday if their concerns went unheeded this time also. [break]
Emptying of polluted water from the mill into the Chapani river has been tainting the water outlets in Ghurkauli VDC, in spite of regular protests by locals. No corrective measures have been taken by the mill management.
“We have informed the mill management about the situation a couple of times but there has been no positive response,” said Rajdev Sah, chief of a struggle committee that has been formed to confront the problem. “We will take to the streets and adopt stern measures during this round of negotiations,” he added.
Locals carrying polluted water in bottles stage protest. (Photo: Santosh Singh)
However, addressing the gathered protesters, Bijayakant Jha, general manager of the mill, said a positive dialogue had taken place with the struggle committee members.
“They have agreed to bring clean water via water tanks to the villages where pollution of water sources is rampant,” said Surendra Lama, a protestor. “But the talks were halted, saying that consensus would be reached in the presence of Rajesh Kediya, director of the mill, within a week,” added Lama.
During the talks, locals restricted the disposal of liquid effluent from the mill into the Chapani and suggested to the management to collect the water in a dam.
According to a local, the reckless act of liquid effluent disposal in the river all these years has tainted more than 100 water pumps in Ghurkauli VDC.
“Many people have become ill after drinking water from the tainted pumps, skin infections have spread in the village, and clothes and cooking vessels become tarnished during washing,” complained Jagdish Sah of Ghurkauli VDC-1.
Locals said that they have been forced to travel two kilometers to fetch clean water. “Even though each house has a water pump, we have been going to another neighborhood every day to fetch our water,” said Jamiya Devi, 55, a local of Chera in Ghurkauli VDC.
“Not only local people, but even domestic animals at my house don´t drink water from the pumps,” said Jiri Maya Jimba, another local.
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