Visakhapatnam: Gas victims still find it hard to breathe easy

Visakhapatnam: Even a week after the poisonous styrene monomer leak at LG Polymers, inhabitants of the five villages still find traces of the vapour in air. While some of them reached home after getting discharged from the hospitals, few others arrived from their relatives' house.

Though efforts are on to ship styrene monomer inventory to South Korea, the company's headquarters, the smell of the gas continues to haunt the locals when they have finally made up their minds to return to their houses.

Close to 80 per cent of the villagers returned to Kamparapalem, Nandamuri Nagar, SC/BC Colony and Padmanabha Nagar. But several locked houses greet the eye at Venkatapuram as the neighbourhood has been largely impacted by the deadly vapour because of its proximity to the plant.

Even two-three days back, Venkatapuram residents were seen returning to their houses only to lock the doors again after completing the cleaning process as quick as possible."The moment we opened the door, we could still smell the odour of styrene monomer vapour. After keeping the doors and windows open for a few hours, we left to our relatives' house as our residence is not in a dwell-worthy condition," says Gantla Demudu, a resident of Venkatapuram. In a step to build confidence among the inhabitants of five villages, state Ministers, local MP and Rajya Sabha MP V Vijaya Sai Reddy stayed overnight in these villages. However, many residents were reluctant to return to their homes as they could still sense strong odour emanating from the closed enclosures.

To get rid of pungent smell of chemical from the areas, sanitisation measures are being taken up by the GVMC. It is not just that. A team of doctors has been deployed to reach out to the locals through medical camps facilitated to them after the gas leak incident. "It took us three to four days to dump all the edible stuff kept in the house. This apart, intensive cleaning exercise is carried out for the past few days followed by the instructions of the officials," says S Appa Rao, another resident of the colony.

A few villagers say that they wanted to meet LG Polymers' management. "We are facing several problems ever since the gas leak. We wanted to pour out our woes meeting the company's management," adds G Babu, who also stays in the area.

An official who interacted with the residents, visiting the area, says that it takes a while for the neighbourhood to return to normalcy as many could smell styrene monomer even now.

"At present, food and water supply are being taken care of by the plant's management. Even some of the streetlights have been replaced and made functional in the recent days. But many of us feel unwell even after a week and continue our medication," says P Suresh, a private employee from Venkatapuram.

Keeping the current scenario in view, residents here opine that it might take a week more for them to breathe easy sans the scent of the styrene vapour at Venkatapuram that killed 12 persons and left hundreds sick.