INDUSTRIAL WATER POLLUTION"Water and air, the two

essential fluids on which all life depends, have become

global garbage cans.“

GIRIDHARAN PGURUMOORTHY A

PSG Institute of Management, Coimbatore

WATER POLLUTION• Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies such as

lakes, rivers, oceans, and groundwater.

• All water pollution affects organisms and plants that live in these water bodies including the human race and in almost all

cases the effect is damaging either to individual species and populations but also to the natural biological communities.

• It occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove

harmful constituents.

SOURCES OF WATER POLLUTION

SOURCES OF WATER POLLUTION

Direct sources:

• These include effluent outfalls from factories, refineries, waste treatment plants etc.. that emit fluids of varying quality directly into urban water supplies.

Indirect sources:

• These include contaminants that enter the water supply from soils/groundwater systems and from the atmosphere via rain water. Soils and groundwater contain the residue of human agricultural practices and improperly disposed of industrial wastes. Atmospheric contaminants are also derived from human practices (such as gaseous emissions from automobiles, factories and even bakeries)

INDUSTRIAL WATER POLLUTION

Industrial water pollution constitutes the water pollution caused by industries either through direct or indirect means.

Industry is a huge source of water pollution. Industrial wastes runs into streams, rivers or lakes and can have serious effects on wildlife, plants and human beings.

Industrial pollution accelerated rapidly in the 18th century after the start of industrial revolution

Contaminants can be broadly classified into organic, inorganic, radioactive and acid/base.

EXAMPLES....

•Lead•Phosphorous•Nitrogen and other heavy metals

INORGANIC

•Starch•Detergents•Food processing waste etc

ORGANIC

•Reactor fuels•Nuclear waste

RADIOACTIVE

POLLUTANTS FROM INDUSTRIAL SOURCES INCLUDE

POLLUTANT EFFECTSASBESTOS CARCINOGENIC

LEAD INHIBITS BODY ENZYMES

MERCURY POISONOUS

NITRATES EUTROPHICATION

PHOSPHATES EUTROPHICATION

SULPHUR POISONOUS

OILS KILLS MARINE ECOSYSTEM

PETROCHEMICALS TOXIC

EFFECTS OF INDUSTRIAL WATER POLLUTION

The food chain is damaged

Disease can spread via polluted water

Pollutants in water will alter the overall chemistry of water

Marine food sources are contaminated

Alters water temperatures

PERILS OF INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION ON ENVIRONMENT

Common chemical pollutants can cause industrial hazards like miscarriage, low birth weight, birth defects and premature infant death and also cause cancer.

This as a result has an effect on the entire food web of the world and also has a lasting effect on the ecosystem.

The industrial pollution also affects the flora and fauna that has its life dependent on water. This has its effect on the entire ecosystem.

CAUSES OF INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION

The scale of unregistered small scale industries

Lack of pollution control system

Common treatment facility

Lack of awareness

Absence of stringent government laws

SOLUTIONS FOR INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION

SOLUTIONS FOR INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION

Establishment of industries only in industrial estates

Environmental auditing

Monitoring of water quality for all important water bodies

Government should provides incentives to companies adopting cleaner technologies.

Industries should take up proactive role in protection of environment

EFFLUENT BEFORE TREATMENT

EFFLUENT AFTER TREATMENT

SOME FACTS ABOUT INDUSTRIAL WATER POLLUTION

• 40% of America's rivers are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life. 46% of lakes are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life.

• Two-thirds of US estuaries and bays are either moderately or severely degraded from eutrophication (nitrogen and phosphorus pollution).

• Asian rivers are the most polluted in the world. They have three times as many bacteria from human waste as the global average and 20 times more lead than rivers in industrialized countries.

SOME FACTS ABOUT INDUSTRIAL WATER POLLUTION

• In 2004, water from half of the tested sections of China's seven major rivers was found to be undrinkable because of pollution.

• The King River is Australia's most polluted river, suffering from a severe acidic condition related to mining operations.

• Around 80% of the pollution in seas and oceans comes from land-based activities.

CASE

A study of industrial water pollution inTirupur , south india

Jennie MalmLinköpings University, SWEDEN

BACKGROUND• The town Tirupur is the center for hosiery manufacture

in India, produces clothes for exports to the first world market

• Process of dyeing and bleaching of fabrics produces a lot of organic and inorganic pollutants

• These effluents are let into the NOYYAL river

• As a result the ground water quality of the entire town is hazardous and unfit for useexample: the level of salinity is high.

SCENARIO• Other pollution problems are due to lack of waste

management; there are no collection, treatment and disposal of sewage. Untreated municipal water

that are discharged on land and water are also increasing the pollution load on Noyyal.

• The standard of water is not even suited for industrial purposes that the industries themselves

import the water they need from neighbouring places.

POLLUTANTS

• Some of the dyes also contain substances with Benzedrine structures and heavy metals

• Some processing plants let out starch which can affect the BOD to alarming levels thereby

decreasing DO content.

POLLUTION CONTROL IN TIRUPUR

• The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board was formed in 1982 and it posted an employee in

Tirupur 1989.

• Now the local PCB has five employees in Tirupur.

• The Pollution Control Board failed to tackle the growing environmental problems in Tirupur

during the beginning of the nineties.

POLLUTION CONTROL IN TIRUPUR• The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board thought of using

the idea of Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs).

• The pollution control board realized they could not force all the industries to join a CETP and it became allowed to

build Individual Treatment Plants(IETP) as well

• The bleaching and dyeing units had an incentive to join a CETP due to subsidizes from the Central and State

governments.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

• In order to increase the irrigation in the dry area, a large dam where constructed and ready in 1992, just in time for the big

export boom.

• Instead of irrigating the land, the Orathypalayam dam has become a storage tank of the industrial effluents from Tirupur.

• The highly saline water the farmers cannot make use of the water for irrigation purposes.

• The success of the farmers was in 1996 when the parties affected by the effluents from the industry, filed a Public Interest Litigation

(PIL)

RESULTS• It resulted in an order by the Green Bench, Madras High Court

in 1997. In short the order from the court said that industrial units without IETP, nor had become members of a CETP were

to be closed. It also made the polluting units liable for the past damages

• There are mainly four NGOs that are working with awareness among different actors in the local community.

REMAINING PROBLEMS• Even though ETPs are built there are still huge problems with effluents

from the industries among other sources as well. At present both IETP and CETP are not designed to meet all the standards from the PCB.

Standards not covered today are total dissolved solids (TDS) and chloride. This makes the water saline.

• The technique of Reverse Osmosis is seen as the solution to the problem with TDS

• Another problem is the huge amount of sludge, containing heavy metals, as a result of the water treatment. Today there is no other

possibility other then to store the sludge directly on the ground within the units’ property. The NGOs in the area and the farmers are still

protesting and making complaints to the PCB even though the biggest activity has gone down after the PIL.

ACTUAL SCENARIO

• Even if a unit has invested in a treatment plant, there is a continuous cost to treat the water. That is the reason why raw effluent

from the bleaching and dyeing units still is let out in the river even though treatment

facilities are installed

It costs about 890 paisa to treat 1 litre of water properly.

ACTUAL SCENARIO• In the individual treatment plant the owner is responsible for

treating the water. In the common plant it is more difficult for an individual to cheat because here the responsibility lies at the CETP board.

• Despite this, the board containing powerful industrialists, that are responsible for the treatment, take the money from the individual units while they do not treat the water.

• With the proper contacts it is possible to receive warnings before PCBs inspections. Several informants mean that the PCB in Tirupur is corrupt and it is possible for the industrialists to bribe them.

ACTUAL SCENARIO• In the past there have been protests about water and the untreated

effluents from industrial units but it have mostly concerned the lack of water supply caused by polluted ground water. If people get enough water for domestic use they are satisfied.

• The elected representatives explains that it is a peculiar situation in Tirupur. In other places there is less pollution than in Tirupur but more protests. That is because without the industry, Tirupur is nothing. He thinks it is about survival.

• Tirupur inhabitants are very proud of the industry and how it had changed the town. They are more seen as heroes than the bad guys.

EVEN THE NGOs

ACTUAL SCENARIO

When the Noyyal was living the people were not and now the people are prosperous and the river is dead.

The whole society is focused on economy and then it is difficult to give priority to environmental issues.

YOU THINK ITS PURE?

WELL, IT ISN’T

You Dump it... You Drink it....

What goes around comes around...

THANK YOU