Sukinda Valley of Orissa one of most polluted places	RSS

KalingaTimes Correspondent Bhubaneswar, Sep 14: Orissa has been in news time and again for wrong reasons. Here is one more. Sukinda Valley in Jajpur district of the state has figured among the Top Ten worst polluted places in the world. US-based Blacksmith Institute, an independent environmental group, in partnership with Green Cross Switzerland, issued their To

p Ten list of the world's most severely polluted places on Wednesday. According to the report of the Blacksmith Institute, Sukinda Valley contains 97 percent of India's chromite ore deposits and one of the largest open cast chromite ore mines in the world. “Twelve mines continue to operate without any environmental management plans and over 30 million tonnes of waste rock are spread over the surrounding areas and the Brahmani riverbanks. “Untreated water is discharged by the mines into the river. This area is also flood-prone, resulting in further contamination of the waterways. “Approximately 70 percent of the surface water and 60 percent of the drinking water contains hexavalent chromium at more than double national and international standards and levels of over 20 times the standard have been recorded. Full Story