Nearly 20 families living on the side of a drainage channel that carries releases from Coimbatore Corporation’s sewage treatment plant at Ukkadam have a rare livelihood – filtering traces of gold from the sludge. Waste water generated from hundreds of jewellery manufacturing units in the city are the source of gold particles in the sewage.
Though these families have been into this job for several years now, the crude method of processing gold from the sludge is now a cause of concern for adjacent residential areas -- Anbu Nagar, Rose Park, Rose Avenue, Reshma Garden, Nila Garden and N.S. Park to name a few. The gold filtering process involves burning of dry cakes made out of the sludge from the sewage which looks similar to cow dung cakes. While the workers claim that they burn the cakes with coconut husks and waste materials, residents suspect that they might be adding some chemical agent to boost the burning of the sludge cakes to break into fine dust.
“The burning is happening round the clock, and increases at night. The noxious smoke released during the process is spread through wind. We fear that regular inhalation of the smoke could lead to serious health hazards,” says Kovai Syed, a resident of Rose Park.
Following a complaint lodged by residents, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) sent a letter to the Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner on May 12. The TNPCB, in its letter, said that the place where the crude method of gold scavenging is undertaken falls under the jurisdiction of the local body. It forwarded the petition to the Corporation for taking action under the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act, 1920 and the Tamil Nadu Public Health Act, 1939.
“As the activity is happening on the encroached areas of the drainage, the Public Works Department and the Corporation are authorised to take action,” said P. Manimaran, District Environmental Engineer, Coimbatore south.
A field visit done by The Hindu found that those involved in gold scavenging had blocked the course of the drainage to get the sludge accumulated. Round cakes made of the sludge are sun-dried along the side of the drainage for about 100 metres. The next process involves burning the cake to generate fine dust. This fine dust is washed using sewage water on wooden trays in a slanted position. The fine sediment drained from the trays is collected in large vessels, repeated filtering of which leaves gold particles at the end of the process.
“I get ₹500 per day as wage,” said a worker who did not want to reveal the whereabouts of his employer.
A woman said that she filters at least 1 gram of gold particles a day. Some children from the families were also found helping their parents in the work.
“Those who run the treatment plant are supposed to sell the treated water to buyers at rates fixed by the local body. But, the water is being released and it has become a big drainage, on the sides of which the gold scavenging thrives. The plant mostly releases sewage as it is, untreated, to reduce power consumption and other expenses,” alleged A.M. Sirajdheen, another resident of Rose Park.
Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner P. Kumaravel Pandian said that the local body will take necessary action on the issue.