The villagers here – mostly small farmers, fisherfolk and labourers – are protesting the setting up of the Godavari Mega Aqua Food Park Pvt. Ltd (GMAFP). They see this project as polluting both air and water in the region and wrecking their livelihoods. The food park aims to process products such as fish, prawn and crab for export to markets in the European Union and USA. The ‘Committee for agitation against the GMAFP’ that has sprung up here asserts that the process “involves using at least 1.5 lakh litres of water daily.” They say it will “also discharge – every day – around 50,000 litres of water filled with pollutants.” The discharge will be released into the Gonteru drain which empties out into the sea from this district.
Besides potentially devastating agriculture, says Barre Nagaraju, a leader of the fish workers community in this region, the polluted water going into the Gonteru drain will devastate 18 fishing dependent villages nearby. “This factory will impact around 40,000 of us,” he says.
— source ruralindiaonline.org | Sept. 21, 2022