Case Study: What percentage of Indian industries treats wastewater?
Wastewater is the water that has been used for diverse purposes from domestic, industrial, agricultural, or business activities and incorporates pollution that make it not worthy for reuse or discharge into the environment. Wastewater treatment is the method of removing or lowering the contaminants from wastewater to make it appropriate for reuse or discharge in to the environment. Wastewater treatment could have multiple benefits which include conserving water resources, protection of public health, stopping of environmental degradation, and enhancing monetary development.
About Industrial Wastewater Treatment in India:
India is one of the fastest growing economies, with a huge and diverse industrial sector that contributes to approximately 30% of India’s GDP. However, this speedy industrialization additionally comes with a massive environmental price, as most of the industries generate huge volumes of wastewater that include diverse pollution which includes organic matter, heavy metals, toxic chemical compounds, pathogens, and nutrients. According to a latest record by using Central Pollution Control Board (March 2021), India generates approximately 61,948 million liters per day (MLD) of wastewater, out of which 22,242 MLD (36%) is from industrial sources. However, the treatment ability for industrial wastewater in India is only 8,665 MLD (39% of the whole industrial wastewater generation), because of this that more than 13,500 MLD of untreated or partially treated industrial wastewater is discharged into our water bodies every day. This poses a severe threat to the water sources, in addition to the fitness and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of folks who depend on them.
Why most industries in India do not treat their waste water?
The commercial wastewater treatment situation in India varies widely across unique sectors and areas. Some of the most important industries that generate sizeable amounts of wastewater are thermal electricity plant life, iron and steel, pulp and paper, textiles, meals and beverages, chemical compounds, pharmaceuticals, leather, and mining. The stage and form of treatment followed by those industries rely upon several elements consisting of regulatory compliance, availability of land and water, price-effectiveness, marketplace demand, and environmental awareness. Some industries have followed superior treatment technology together with revesre osmosis membranes, membrane bioreactors, sequencing batch reactors, zero liquid discharge systems, etc., to deal with their wastewater and reuse it for diverse functions which include cooling, boiler feed, irrigation, and so forth. However, those technology are often highly-priced and require excessive preservation and skilled manpower. Moreover, they will now not be appropriate for all styles of wastewater or effluent requirements. Therefore, many industries nevertheless rely on traditional treatment methods along with primary sedimentation, secondary organic treatment, tertiary filtration or disinfection, and so on., which might not be good enough to take away all of the pollution or meet the given parameters.
Another challenge faced by the industrial wastewater treatment sector in India is the lack of proper monitoring and enforcement of the existing regulations and standards. The main regulatory framework for industrial wastewater treatment in India consists of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974, the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Rules 1975, the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act 1977, the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, the Environment (Protection) Rules 1986, and the various effluent standards notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) for different categories of industries. However, we can see these regulations are often not implemented effectively due to various reasons such as lack of coordination among different agencies, inadequate infrastructure and manpower for monitoring and testing, corruption and political interference, non-compliance and evasion by industries, etc. As a result, many industries either do not treat their wastewater in any respect or deal with it under the desired standards before discharging it into the nearby water bodies.
A Case Study of Tiruchirapalli City in Tamil Nadu:
To illustrate the economic wastewater treatment practices and challenges in India more concretely, we are able to take the example of Tiruchirapalli city in Tamil Nadu. Tiruchirapalli is one of the principal commercial hubs in southern India, with extra than 1.2 million population and over 3.5 lakh workforce. This city hosts a number of industries together with engineering, boiler manufacturing, leather tanning, textiles, sugar, cement, and so forth, which generate about 100 MLD of wastewater. However, the town has most effective one Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) with a potential of 25 MLD for treating the wastewater from small-scale industries. The CETP makes use of number one and secondary treatment techniques which includes screening, equalization, aeration, rationalization, and sludge dealing with. The treated effluent is then discharged into the Cauvery river, that is the principle supply of water for the town and its surrounding regions.
The CETP in Tiruchirapalli faces several problems which include inadequate ability, poor operation and renovation, low restoration fee, high power intake, and non-compliance with the effluent requirements. The CETP is unable to treat the complete wastewater generated by using the small-scale industries inside the city, and subsequently a lot of them discharge their wastewater directly into the storm water drains or open lands with none treatment. Moreover, the CETP does now not have any provision for tertiary treatment or option for reuse of the dealt with effluent, which results in wastewater and pollutants finding their way in the river. The CETP also consumes a generous amount of electricity for its operation, which adds to its operational fee and environmental impact. Furthermore, the CETP frequently fails to meet the prescribed effluent standards for parameters together with biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), overall dissolved solids (TDS), pH, and many others. This affects the excellent of the river water and poses a threat to the aquatic life and human health.
The case of Tiruchirapalli city highlights the want for enhancing the industrial wastewater treatment sector in India via adopting extra efficient and sustainable solutions. Some of the viable measures that may be taken are:
· Increasing the potential and insurance of CETPs and STPs to treat the wastewater from all forms of industries in a centralized way.
· Upgrading the present CETPs and STPs with superior treatment technologies such as membrane filtration, reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, etc., to acquire better elimination performance and meet stricter effluent requirements.
· Promoting the reuse and recycling of dealt with wastewater for diverse functions such as irrigation, commercial strategies, landscaping, and so forth., to conserve water sources and decrease discharge into the nearby water bodies.
· Implementing powerful tracking and enforcement mechanisms to make sure compliance of industries with the regulatory norms and requirements for wastewater treatment and discharge.
· Encouraging public-private partnerships (PPPs) to mobilize resources.
· Creating awareness and many incentives among industries and consumers to adopt green practices and technology to lessen wastewater generation.
Summary:
Wastewater treatment is a very important and essential issue in water management in India, especially when it comes to industrial improvement and environmental safety. However, the modern-day popularity and tendencies of industrial wastewater treatment in India aren't that much, as a large quantity of untreated or partially treated wastewater is discharged into the water our bodies each day, causing water shortage, pollution, health hazards, and monetary losses. Therefore, there is an urgent need to enhance the economic wastewater treatment sector in India via adopting more green and sustainable solutions that could address the challenges of capability, technology, law, reuse, and consciousness. This will not only help in maintaining and improving the water assets, but also in attaining the wider dreams of social welfare, financial boom, and environmental sustainability.
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