Women breaking into an Oppari (song
of lament) during a mock funeral for the hydrocarbon project at Neduvasal |
Express
The New Indian Express
By Ram M Sundaram
07th March 2017
CHENNAI: If anyone has even an iota of doubt about the
kind of environmental damage a hydrocarbon project will cause, read Yojana (a
Central Government publication) in which two senior IAS officials from NITI
Aayog penned a research article calling spade a spade nearly six months before
the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave its nod for the
controversial project in Neduvasal village, which is fast becoming a hotbed for
protests.
However, officials said the project can be taken up,
provided certain capacity measures were taken up to ensure health and
well-being of local communities.
Anil Kumar Jain, Adviser (Energy, Climate Change and
Overseas Engagements), NITI Aayog who is now heading a team to frame the new
National Energy Policy and earlier prepared long-term energy demand and supply
projection tool, IESS, 2047 and is an expert on upstream and downstream
development of the gas sector in India, has highlighted serious environmental
impact of hydrocarbon projects and necessary preventive measures to be taken.
Rajnath Ram, who is the Joint Adviser (Petroleum),
Energy and International Cooperation Vertical at NITI Aayog and involved in
policy framing on oil and natural gas and renewable energy (excluding large hydro
projects), is the co-author.
In the article, the two say that the hydraulic
fracturing (the procedure to be used in Neduvasal) contaminates water and poses
serious threats to the environment. This stand contradicts the Union Petroleum
Ministry’s claim that the fracturing was clean and safe.
Sand, ceramic and other chemicals are generally used
with high pressure water to fracture shales and keep pores open for gas to leak
into wells.
The authors fear that the resultant chemicals may mix
with groundwater if these fractures are to take place at a shallow depth along
a fault (a crack in the earth’s crust that moves from time to time) and there
are also chances of gas escaping through these fractures, contaminating the
aquifer further.
The study based on global experiences in fracturing
points out that in advanced procedures involving large quantities of proppants
(sand-ceramic mix to keep the fractures open and ensure continuous flow of the
target resource) during the later stages may even result in an earthquake as gas
flow rate of gas wells tapers after first two years…
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