Report of the Committee on Pollution of surface and ground water caused by Simbhaoli sugar mill and distillery

Abstract

The Ministry of Water Resources (MOWR) took a note of the news article “Ganga chokes a sugar mill dumps waste” published by Akash Vashishtha in “Mail Today” from New Delhi on 19 July 2010. The MOWR, after scrutiny of the report, sought comments from NIH, CWC and CPCB, through its Water Quality Division. The comments/observations of National Institute of Hydrology were sent to MOWR. The MOWR constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Director, NIH, to look into the pollution of surface and ground water caused by Simbhaoli sugar mill and distillery, with other members of the committee as (1) Director (RDD), CWC, and (2) Regional Director, CGWB, NR, with option to co-opt member from CPCB and UPSPCB. The other term of reference of the committee is to look into the various aspects of ground water pollution and Ganga water pollution in the industrial areas downstream of Simbhaoli up to Puth village about 30 km from Garhmukteswar in Gahaziabad district. A team comprising of officers of NIH surveyed on 15 June 2011 the area surrounding Simbhaoli sugar mill and distillery plant with particular emphasis to the survey of the unlined drain carrying the industrial waste from the Simbhaoli sugar mill and distillery plant to river Ganga at Puth. Director NIH and chairman of the committee convened a meeting on 20 June 2011 at NIH Roorkee with the nominated members by MOWR. In the meeting, it was decided to make a joint visit of the area of concern by NIH, CWC and CGWB to collect water samples from key locations for chemical analysis. Officers and staff from NIH (Roorkee), CWC (New Delhi) and CGWB (NR Office Lucknow) visited the concerned area on 28-29 June 2011 and collected water samples from surface and ground water sources from key locations, for chemical analysis. The samples were analyzed by NIH, CWC and CGWB in their Water Quality Laboratories and a comprehensive report has been prepared using the results of the analysis. Sri R. D. Singh, Director, Dr. S. K. Singh, Scientist F and Dr. M. K. Sharma, Scientist C from NIH, Roorkee; Sri Anupam Prasad, Director (RDD) and Dr Zakir Hussain, Incharge, NRWQ Lab. from CWC, New Delhi; Sri K B Biswas, Regional Director, Dr. S. K. Shrivastava, Scientist C and Sri Sant Lal, Scientist B from CGWB NR, Lucknow contributed to the field survey and preparation of this report.