The Nashik Nature Club invited representatives from Nashik Thermal Power Station, Nashik Fly Ash Cluster, Brick makers, Dirk India and other environmentalists to receive a presentation of Mr. Georg Dirk on the current
water wastage scandal.
The presentation triggered suggestions from various parties. Main suggestion was that NTPS and DIRK should reopen talks to stop the water wastage.
The following is a letter written by DIRK India to thank the Nashik Nature club:
Dear Friends......
It was a pleasure for us to be invited to your meeting yesterday and to see so many people dedicated to the protection of environment.
As the time was tight we would like to clarify some items which were raised during the session and could not be answered.
1. Some participants were of the opinion, that the dispute between MSEB and Dirk should not be resolved by court, that we should sit together and clarify our differences, because only the environment suffers through our dispute.
Comment: We tried to avoid going to the court by all means as we knew that it would be a very long and expensive procedure. We were even tolerating for 6 years that MSEB had not fulfilled their contractual obligations and even trespassed on exclusivity of our 30 years contract signed in 2000 by giving part of the ash to the unqualified traders. However, MSEB stopped supply of raw material to us for the first time already 2006 in attempt to destroy our company – with the state of the art plant already standing and most of our investement in educating the construction fraternity as well as educating the local brick and block makers done, what would you do? What options did we have? Only the court (which at that time reinstated us by preliminary order very quickly)
2. Some participants thought that even now it would be not too late to amicable solution which would stop the wastage of water.
Comment: We tried to come to an agreement many times, we gave amicable proposals directly and through the court. We even suggested to build the mechanical ash collection system (pipeline) which would bring the fly ash to the silos in the power station which was MSEB´s contractual obligation at our cost estimated to be 28 cr IRs.. They refused it – because once the pipeline would lead to our silos they would have to give us all fly ash as contractually signed – and that is what they do not want.
3. There was a comment from the gentleman from the Association of brick makers that they did not have enough ash because of us.
Comment: From the very beginning we were offering 20 % of all received ash to brick and block makers, they could come to us and collect it whenever they needed and many of them do. At that time NTPS gave nothing free of charge. A recent court order compelled them now to give 20% of the dry PFA for free and they launched a tender accordingly still charging 50 Irs /MT for so called road usage.
4. The same gentleman was praising the Fly Ash Cluster in Chandrapur as a functioning model.
Comment: We are proud that it was Dirk who made various industries aware what could be done with fly ash and how it could be safely used, be it in concrete or in bricks and blocks, therefore we would be supportive to any solution which do not damage environment. But the mentioned solution of many takers works only because there is availability of lime stone in the surroundings of the power station and therefore the big chunk of the fly ash can be taken by cement industries for grinding and producing their PPC. The rest can be then taken by smaller users e.g. for bricks. In Nashik there is no lime stone and such a solution would not be economical for cement production. Nevertheless some clinker grinding instalations are planned in the Nashik region which will at least take some part of the Nashik Fly Ash Tsunami I mentioned in my presentation.
5. There was also a remark that the lagoons where the fly ash is pumped under huge wastage of precious water, are good for birds.
Comment: We are no specialists in bird or animal life and in what they need to prosper. But we could imagine that it would be much healthier not only for humans but also for birds and other animals if they could live in the landscape which is not poisoned by remnants of heavy metal which can get through the chain from animals to people. I had suggested in 2004 to build a large park on the slopes of the Fly Ash lagoon but permission was not given. If all Ash is consumed ( i.e. by us ), the lagoon could be capped with liner and topsoil and vegetation, animals and humans would enjoy a healthy life. We have been carrying out such work in England and I attach a brochure detailing the work which was done.
We would appreciate very much if you would take the cause of water which has been wasted every day, polution of the ground water by fly ash and risks to human health as a noble cause worth fighting for.
Kind regards,
Georg Dirk
Enclosure: Ash in Landscape