India is home to numerous textile manufacturing and dyeing units. With time, the impact of hazardous manufacturing processes can be seen on the nature. The latest to come in view is Bandi River in Rajasthan, an Indian state where Jaipur is the key manufacturing hub. A report claims that the blue river water is not at all the nature’s colour but the composition of effluents released by the units on its bank.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has already proclaimed the water of the river unfit for irrigation purposes. It has reportedly held responsible the textile dyeing facilities for polluting the groundwater as well as the river. Markedly, the contagion is there despite a ruling by Rajasthan High Court on no discharge of water by the units in Bandi.
Reportedly, the case is a major issue in other manufacturing hubs of India like Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) had even released a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) restriction for dyeing units that discharge more than 25 kl of wastewater a day. It was also instructed that all such units and Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPS) will have to recycle and reuse wastewater. The biggest reason given by the industry for the failure is that the technology required to treat wastewater is way too costly for them.
The report states that the cost of wastewater treatment is around Rs. 150 per cubic metres. Moreover, it is cheaper for the units to extract groundwater than to treat wastewater which is around 20 paise per cubic metres.
It is being said that a national-level policy is required for large-scale implementation of ZLD and to minimise the expense as well to increase it possibilities on ground level.
