Subhash Pathak

Villagers and farmers residing around Kahalgaon super power thermal station are reeling under the constant fear of damage to their health and standing crops owing to improper management of fly ash generated in course of production of electricity.

Research organisations Asar Social Impact Advisors, Research on Energy and Clean Air and Manthan Adhyay Kendra recently released a study, titled “Lest We Forget - A status report of neglect of coal ash accidents in India (May 2019-May 2021)”. Fly ash is also known as coal ash.

The report stated that residents living around power plants such as Kahalgaon and Bokaro power stations were at the receiving end of the casual approach in handling fly ash, despite penalties and fines being levied on coal-based power plant operators. “Despite clear-cut rules for fly ash management, villagers and farmers are exposed to suffer,” the report said.

While people face health issues due to heavy concentration of small particles in the air, crops on around 80 hectares of land were damaged late last year and early this year, as the station’s ash dyke breached its embankment and a pipe of ash slurry burst near Chaitola and Masdaha.

Scores of houses had also been flooded with ash slurry in Bokaro after a pond built to store the fly ash near the Bokaro thermal power station overflowed in September 2019. Power station authorities attributed the accident to excessive rain.

The study maintained that fly ash still remained in fields and a few wells in the villages rendering them unfit for use even several months after the incidents occurred. “About 200 acres of farmland was left covered in ash slurry, destroying standing rabi crops,” the report said.

Balkrishna Kumar of Masdaha village said that it takes four-five seasons to grow crops on any farmland once they are covered with fly ash. “Hundreds of people in villages like Ekchari, Bholsar, Chaitola and Masdaha suffer from respiratory diseases and tuberculosis. But, neither the NTPC nor the state government took any initiative to identify the ailing people and provide them with adequate treatment,” said Kumar.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/environment/fly-ash-from-power-stations-in-bihar-wreaks-havoc-on-human-health-crops-study-101626339847523-amp.html?