Chemplast Sanmar - Mettur

Mettur

Chemplast Sanmar owns five plants in Mettur, a small town located around the dam which controls the entry of the River Kaveri into Tamil Nadu. The river is the lifeblood of the state's agriculture and provides water to the heavily populated districts of Salem, Trichy, Thanjur and Nagapattinam amongst others.

In response to a series of allegations by locals, in particular concerning a serious chlorine gas leak on 18 July 2004, the Indian People's Tribunal on the Environment and Human Rights conducted a three-day investigation. The IPT report of July 2005, headed by Justice Akbar Basha Kadri, listed as its findings:

"that Chemplast Sanmar Ltd. has indeed indiscrimately disposed toxic wastes in and around its facility"

"that contamination was caused by a downward spread of contaminants from Chemplast's waste facilities. We also find that the farmers, landless labourers an residents dependent on these lands and water have not been compensated. Neither has any effort been made to remediate the environment"

"that there had been many gas leakages in the past and that the survivors of the 18th July chlorine release have not received even their legally entitled relief"

"that the company is found to have violated labour safety laws and practices. It has placed its workers in harms way, and done nothing when they were harmed"

These findings also went on to suggest that Chemplast Sanmar had been responsible, alongside the State and the Chemplast workers Unions, for "downplaying serious incidents" and followed this up by suggesting that the Government had been "neglient in fulfilling its duties of ensuring, at the very least, safe drinking water to the people."

Sanmar has set up zero effluents discharge mechanism in its Mettur plant to curb pollution. For this effort, the company won the CII Water Award for Excellence in Water Management organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Hyderabad.