Call For Immediate Steps To Curb Uranium Contamination

Satyanarayana said that the seepage started from YSR Kadapa district and it spread to five districts in Andhra Pradesh. The spread can reach other areas in the state and lead to groundwater contamination, he noted.

He called for urgent steps to check the contamination, a cause he was fighting for the past five years. “There is no protective layer (bentonite lining) beneath the Tummalapalle Uranium tailings pond, allowing waste to directly seep into groundwater," he said.

According to him, uranium contamination led to jaw tumours among women, spread of skin diseases and the death of livestock. In 2021, even after he demonstrated how uranium waste was being washed away during floods, the AP Pollution Control Board failed to respond.

The JS leader demanded that the APPCB immediately focus on the Tummalapalle tailings pond and take steps to prevent the further spread of pollution. Some 16 pollution affected villages should be identified as hotspots and the affected people should be relocated to safer areas and provided with livelihood, education and health care, he said.

He offered to lead the governmental steps to curb the contamination.