It is a village under siege. From coal dust belching carbon plants to the asbestos spewing crusher and not to forget the tons of waste pigments that turn Sao Jose de Areal into Goa’s living hell. The Goan travels to a village that is dying.
A village whose protests against pollution have been forgotten by the government and civil society
Moll Waddo is a small picture postcard locale tucked away ina corner of Sao Jose de Areal. The normally silent neighbourhood is disturbedby an occasional car zooming past. Nobody waits here. Nobody even comes homefor Lourenco Monteiro. His eyes water everytime he recollects the past. Notmuch out of pain but more because of a health condition. As he looks at hisflock of goats grazing peacefully, the farmer retells his misery. “Antony wouldoften complain of breathlessness of pain. He died of lung cancer in 1998. Josedied six years later of severe lung ailments due to asthma” reminiscesMonteiro.The three brothers Antony, Jose and Lourenco would grow paddy, tended to theirorchards till an alien dust began to invade their lives, their eyes, theirlungs. Two brothers died. The third bides his time, waiting for coal dust toclaim another life at Sao Jose de Areal.
Way back in 1975, the Dempo Group of Companies set up a cokeand carbon plant to process graphite rods in the sleepy village of Sao Jose deAreal near Nessai Industrial Estate. The raw material loose powdered coke wouldbe imported from China via MPT, processed and exported back to China. Thevillage was excited with the prospect of jobs, of prosperity, of development.The entire process involved burning coke at high temperatures and extractinghydrocarbons in the form of oil out of the burnt coke. The solid portion ismade into calcined graphite rod while the waste oil is absorbed into cotton.Carbon particles, which flew out of the chimneys of the Goa Carbon Limited,had, according to health experts poisonous carcinogens that caused breathingproblems and even lung cancer in the village.
The village is unlike any other human habitation inGoa. It is sandwiched between a carbonand coke plant on one side and half a dozen stone crushers on the other. Thered black coloured coke particles and white coal ashes enter into the humanbody through the air that people breathe, through the water that they drink,through food just every part of their blood stream.
The village has lost everyone. From tender babies to theold, from young men to mothers. And no one is listening.
Nessai’s Amar Dessai loved his wife Sheila more than hislife. “She was so beautiful when she came into my life- full of life and somuch of energy. Then she started coughing one day” recollects Dessai, chokingback a sob. Sheila developed severe pulmonary infections due to repeatedexposure to dust. She would be suffering from perennial cold and coughproblems. "Our house always had carbon sediments. These carbon sedimentswould fly out of the chimneys and fall into our wells and water. Sheila kept onsinking”, says Dessai. He lost his wife soon after. But now, Amar has anotherworry, “My son used to go to Middle High School opposite the Goa Carbon Limitedfactory. I don’t know how much of his lungs have been affected”. Dessai andhundreds of people like him live in a village where there are neither healthfacilities nor a health center. Governance does not take Sao Jose de Areal intoconsideration.
Fr Clifton Fernandes, Assistant Parish Priest of, St AndreChurch in Vasco, was at Sao Jose Areal Church for over five years. “In Sao Josede Areal if I wiped my scooter clean, five minutes later carbon particles wouldsettle again on the vehicle. The rooftops of the houses in the area are blackwith carbon flying out of Goa Carbon’s Chimney and settling on their homes. Somany people would come to the church for assistance for medical problems likebreathing difficulties or cancer. The NGOs and the media, just everybody havecome, highlighted the issue of pollution, and disappeared” says Fr Fernandes.
As a welder from Igozewaddo, Neves Pereira is no alien tosmoke and dust but his family is literally going down suffering from cough andcold problems while the dust settles on the trees, the window sill, on theverandah. Even the flooring goes black when they wash their tiles. "Myseventy year old mother was weak and frail breathing the coke dust. But thepanchayat never supported my cause either because GCL would pay off the panchmembers or my neighbors were offered jobs in the company with higher pay,"says Pereira helplessly. His allegation debunked by Goa Carbon Limited’sCompany Secretary Purushottam Mantri. Mantri affirms that there is no cause forconcern as he had no such information“It is for first time that I have comeacross an allegation like that. We have lots of people from surrounding areaworking for us”
Abandoned and outraged Sao Jose de Areal suffers alone andunsung. Every year, there are a few protests, placards are created and marchesundertaken. But, no one really takes any notice.Then the weary villagers goback to their homes helplessly waiting for more disease misery. A Moll panchmember, Gabriel Oliveiro, explains that his relative suffered a terrible skinailment and that their vegetable cultivation was destroyed, since the pondbordering their field was black with floating carbon sediments. "Villagershave stopped consuming well water in the area and now only drink direct fromthe tap because of the carbon contamination. We can't imagine drinking waterfrom these contaminated wells. So many villagers have kidney stones problembecause of the coke contamination."
Even the nearby villages suffer. Jose Camillo, who livesfive kms away in Davorlim, explains how Goa Carbon has increased the height ofits chimney and release soot only at night, because of the opposition it facesfrom the villagers in Sao Jose de Areal. “The soot comes and settles on ourwalls, window panes and verandas despite us being over five kms away.Immediately after monsoons from November onwards Goa Carbons soot starts flyingaround and this is a perennial problem upto May. We dread the soot will beginfrom next month. The water, the wells are all contaminated in Davorlim, SaoJose de Areal and neighboring villages from the Goa Carbon soot.” GCL’s Mantridoes not agree. He told The Goan“I don’t think, I am not sure. This plant isconstructed and commissioned in 1975- 77 which is more than 35years old. Plantis there and people are staying and plant is contributing lot to thecommunity”.
Similar to Jose’s claims residents Antonette Saldanha andJuliet Mascarenhas take The Goan around their house showing us the soot thathas already settled on their walls in Davorlim even before November. Villagersare also more apprehensive of the contaminated cotton collected after absorbingthe oil from the coke at the factory. Reports suggest that the cotton is buriedin the factory itself which could be polluting the ground water. GCL’s Mantrihowever clarifies “I am not aware. It was some 7-8 years back we had receivedsome complaints. We had asked people that let us appoint a third party toconduct inspection and submit report. If there is any contamination then wewill take up purification of wells. But then locals did not come forward.Currently we are disposing off cotton under the norms given by board”.
The eleven ward Sao Jose de Areal panchayat which was partof the Curtorim constituency post delimitation is now a part of the Velimconstituency shifting allegiance from Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco to VelimMLA Benjamin D’Silva and hopes the new MLA will intervene since the villagersallege that the former MLA was hand in glove with the polluting industry andcrusher factories in Sao Jose de Areal. For the MLAs, Sao Jose de Areal is asmall almost miniscule pocket of votes that do not turn any fortunes. For thepeople in Sao Jose de Areal, a cycle of disease and then in cases a slowpainful death is as certain as the coal that engulfs them almost daily.
