Residents allege industrial effluent discharge into water bodies after rains in Sangareddy district

Following four electrocution deaths, TGSPDCL has launched a special maintenance and safety drive across its network. The utility has deployed emergency teams, modern equipment and tree-trimming operations to ensure uninterrupted power supply and improve public safety during the monsoon.

Sangareddy: Come June, it’s not just the farmers would eagerly look at the sky to see the first spell of rains to start the farming operations, but also the bulk drug companies. The companies store on their premises huge amounts of harmful industrial effluents in underground storage sumps apart from overhead tanks.

As not many industries have established treatment plants, they would see an opportunity to release these effluents into rain water drains immediately after the rains begin. The harmful effluents would eventually flow down into local streams and merge into Manjeera, Godavari, Musi, Krishna and other rivers.
After the rains during the last one week, several citizens, and farmers have raised complaints of industries releasing effluents. In IDA Bollaram town, which was a hub for the bulk drug companies, multiple industries have released the effluents.

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Meanwhile, the villages of Bonthapally accused a pharma company of releasing the effluents into Nalla Cheruvu, a minor irrigation lake. The bulk drug companies are also known to carry the harmful effluents in tanks and dump them in Nakka Vagu, Nalla Vagu, river Manjeera and other streams as there was no mechanism to control the practice from government side.
In fact, the villagers of Bonthapally accused the officials of all the departments concerned supporting the bulk drug companies. The Bonthapally villagers were diagnosed with various skin diseases as they came in touch with the effluents flowing through the fields.

It is not only the story of Bonthapally, all the lakes and agriculture fields across Patancheru, Sangareddy and Narsapur assembly constituencies were polluted due to release of effluents produced in bulk drug companies. While several heads of cattle died after consuming the polluted water, it had also posed a serious threat to biodiversity and soil health.
Since the effluents were eventually flowing into river Manjeera and then into Godavari, which were major sources of drinking and irrigation water, the indiscriminate release of these harmful effluents poses a danger to human life as well.

Not many industries had set up effluent treatment plants since there was no effectiv enforcement mechanism from the government side. The citizens of Patancheru industrial area have demanded that the government protect them by controlling the practice.