Poisoned Water an Ongoing Tragedy in Jaffna, Sri Lanka
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- Towards environmental justice. [email protected] - Company number: 09451041 Poisoned Water An Ongoing Tragedy in Jaffna, Sri lanka NATURAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FORUM 6 Peterborough Road, Carshalton, Surrey, United Kingdom, SM5 1EH 1 | P a g e Poisoned Water - An Ongoing Tragedy in Jaffna. Subject issue: Oil Contamination in water Cause: Discharging the crude oil directly to the ground Doer: Northern Power Plant (suspected) How: By spilling the crude oil directly to the ground & Discharging to the earth core by drilling holes on the Earth’s crust Purpose: Not Known and doubtful District: Jaffna – Northern Part of Sri Lanka Areas: Chunnakam and surrounding villages Back Ground of the Issue: It is apparent that the Jaffna district is totally depending on the ground water for all its water needs. There are four major aquifers existing in the Jaffna peninsula and Chunnakam aquifer is one among them. Up to 1990s many areas from KKS to Madawachchi were provided water supply from Chunnakam by train services. The water source in Chunnakam has been mainly used for domestic and agricultural usage. Since 1958, there have been power plants in Chunnakam area. The first power plant was owned by the Ceylon Electricity board and installed in 1958. The fuel for power plant was oil. Later in 1964, the power plant was connected to the Laxpana which is more than 350 kilo meters away from Jaffna where the electricity was produced by hydropower. The existing generators were used only as backup. The laxpana – Jaffna electricity connection had gone off from 1990 due to the military operations in the North. The government completely cut off the power to the Northern Province. After 15 years, in the year of 2005, Chunnakam power station was reopened with three generators and Aggreko Limited was the sole supplier for the provision of the electricity in Jaffna Peninsula. After four years, that means in 2009 the Chunnakam power station got 6 additional generators and the power station had been taken over by Northern Power company from Aggreko. Again in 2013, the power station connected to Laxapana National grid. 2 | P a g e Waste Oil Treatment: From 1958 to 1990 the waste oil was disposed and treated in a proper way. The waste oil has taken to Southern part of Sri Lanka by train for disposal. Until 1990, the power station did not cause any environmental issues as everything was carried out in the right way. Almost 15 years the power station was shut down and reopened in 2005. Since 2005, the disposal system of waste oil has been doubtful. The above said two companies ( Aggreko & Northern Power) did not have proper mechanism to dispose the waste oil. The power station has 31 acres of land for its usage and the waste oil has been discharged directly to the open ground. The oil discharging area gradually began to change as an oil pond. That area later covered by concreting and generators were installed over it. It is believed that in 2009, there have been 12 holes were made in the earth crust and the waste oil has been injected. The depth of the holes is 150 feet depth. It is strongly believed that due to this injection of waste oil directly to the earth crust cause the oil contamination in the water. That means the injected oil goes to the ground water level and does the spoiling. Also within the power station area the authorities made wells with 20 feet depth and 10 feet radius to discharge the waste oil. When the wells are filled, then they were concreted and hidden from the view. We cannot merely say that those power stations did not have proper plan to remove the waste oil. It was preplanned and structured with the help of the previous government to annihilate the Tamil Population in that area silently. The oil contamination in water was firstly observed in 2007 in a villager’s well at Chunnakam. She reported to the local village council but no action had been taken or prominence given to this issue. In 2011, the National Water Supply and Drainage Board decided to start a project to initiate water supply unit in the Valikamam area. They started to dig a well around 1.5 miles away from the power station. When they were doing the excavation they observed and smelled the oil contamination in the water. Immediately they stopped their work and the project was shut down. That was brought to the attention of Chunnakam water board but as usual no action taken place. Though it was observed in different areas in 2012, the public did not have proper awareness about the phenomenon as they do now. 3 | P a g e Current Situation: Now the oil contamination has spread 10 km of radius from the power station. The oil contamination has been observed in many wells not only in Chunnakam area but also in the surrounding villages. It is confirmed that more than 1200 wells have oil contamination and proved that water contains lead and chromium. National Water Supply and Drainage Board has examined some of the wells in these areas and confirmed that the water has oil and grease contents itself. ( We have all the proves to be submitted on request). They have done the experiment on the 1st of October 2014. According to their report, they say that the waste removal of the electricity production has not met the standard. Secondly it was observed that the oil has been discharged directly to the ground without any purification. Thirdly the oil layers were observed in the water within the boundary of the Northern Power. Now a case has been filled against the Northern Power and Ceylon Electricity Board (Uthuru Jananai)company at Mallakam Magistrate Courts. The courts suspended the activities of Northern Power temporarily. It is noted that the electricity for the Jaffna Peninsula is provided from the National Grid. The electricity from Northern Power is used only for voltage maintenance. Also this company did not get any approval for the establishment from the relevant authorities in Jaffna. It has not done any environmental impact assessment. Since the observation of oil contamination in water, it has been reported to all the authorities but nobody has taken any action to protect the people from the danger but very actively involving in protecting the Northern Power Company and its personnel. When the case was taken for hearing at Mallakam Magistrate Courts, the lawyers who were there on behalf of Northern Power Company connected this life existence issue with the LTTE. It is really regrettable. The consequences: As the water has oil and grease contamination, when it is drunk, it will cause many diseases for human as well as the domestic animals. According to the International Research Reports, this contaminated water causes kidney disease, cancer, skin disease, miscarriage, infertility, stillbirths and abnormal child births and respiratory problems. Further the brain development of children will go down. According to the data obtained from relevant medical authorities in Jaffna there are 24 stillbirths, 52 miscarriages and 5 infant deaths occurred in one village ( from 2012 to 2014) which is very closed to Chunnakam power station. The people in these areas begin to feel the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, microscopic haematuria taste, headache, fatigue, 4 | P a g e insomnia etc. ysdr When the animals drink this water, it will cause dangers to the animals and the human cannot use the benefits from them such as milk and egg as they also have the same contamination. As this contaminated water is not suitable for crops and plants, gradually the area will change like a dessert without the vegetation. Due to all these impacts people will go for a displacement as they don’t have water for drinking and crops for feeding. The areas will be infertile without water source and people. The pathetic situation is now, the issue has been distorted by many parties for their own benefits and selfish motives. Water is one of the most fundamental needs of a living being. The suffering of not having good water for the domestic usage cannot be realized by outsiders and that is why our issue has been not given any prominence. There are so many groups are entering into the area in the name of experiment but their results are not trustworthy. Northern Provincial Council has appointed an “Experts Team” and that team informed no such contamination in the water. But the report is not available to the public. We physically see the contamination in the water and we smell it. Then on what basis the expert’s team determined that the water has no contamination? A plea to the International Community: We urge the International Community to get involved in this issue as early as possible to provide the best solution for the people. They are so tired with the long term ethnic conflict and now again they need to fight against the structured and deliberate act lead by the government and its authorities. Until the solution is provided, the victims have to be provided remedies such as the provision of good water for drinking and domestic usage, provision of medical treatment, assistance for the purification of contaminated water wells etc. The reason why we seek the help from the International Community is: the internal examinations and experiments will not be taken fairly if they are done locally. The results will be distorted by some local authorities and politicians. We believe that you can understand the need and urgency of our people. Considering the importance and necessity of this issue, we kindly request you to be involved in this issue and provide a speedy solution for the sake of the people in the hazardous area mentioned in this report.