New treatment plant may bring relief for tanneries in Kanpur
NEWDELHI: KANPUR’S TANNERY INDUSTRY, IS FACING A LEGAL BATTLE FOR DUMPING EFFLUENTS INTO THE GANGA
AND POLLUTING IT
The centuries-old tannery industry of Kanpur, which is at the centre of a legal battle for dumping effluents into the Ganga and polluting it, may get some relief if the National Mission for Clean Ganga’s (NMCG) plans of a treatment plant live up to their promise.
According to government officials familiar with the developments, NMCG is planning to establish an industrial effluent treatment plant for over 400 tanneries which discharge untreated effluents directly into the river. “Shifting of an industry takes years,” said Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, director general of NMCG. “For the river, pollution of even a single day is bad. So while shifting of the tanneries can be a long term plan, the treatment plant can take care of the immediate problem.”
The industrial treatment plant will be separated from the current sewage treatment plant (STP) in the area. “The STP currently treats the domestic sewage as well as the industrial waste, but the new plant will be just treating the industrial effluents,” Mishra said.
While pollutants from paper, pulp and distilleries as well as the domestic sewage water are pushed into the river, tanneries are singled out because they discharge chromium, said a report by the Centre of Science and Environment. Chromium turns the water black.
The treatment plant will clean 20 million litres per day (MLD) of waste. The common effluent treatment plant (CEPT) will have a separate chromium recovery plant and separate pipelines for industrial waste.
The stretch of Ganga in the Kanpur-Varanasi area is said to be one of the worst polluted parts of the river. In Jajmau industrial area, where more than 200 tanneries are located, the Ganga looks black because of pollution.
In 2016, the National Green Tribunal ordered the closure of about 100 of the 402 registered tanneries along the Ganga and advocated shifting the rest. The decision led to a long political and legal battle because about two million people employed by the industry would be affected.
The previous state government, led by Samajwadi Party, had said the tanneries could not be shifted due to lack of available land. However, chief minister Yogi Adityanath has told the NGT that land has been identified. While the NGT has left the decision of shifting the industry to the state government, it has ordered the NMCG to make sure CEPT and effluent treatment plants are set up.
Besides the establishment of sewage treatment plants, NMCG has encouraged cleaner technologies be introduced to help tanneries reduce the negative impact on people’s health and environment, while optimising water and energy costs.