Giaspura gas leak: Effluent treatment plants of dyeing units not sticking to norms, says Panel

Rajmeet Singh

Chandigarh, May 4

The Giaspura gas leak tragedy has again exposed the fact that Ludhiana common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) of textile dyeing units are not complying with norms. Located on the Bahadur-ke-road, Focal Point and the Tajpur road, the total capacity of the CETPs for dyeing units is 105 million litres per day (MLD).

Govt directions

To reduce water pollution in Buddha Nullah and the Sutlej, the state government had issued directions that the sewerage connection of the dyeing industries would be disconnected when CETPs conveyance system is established.

Flagging the issue, an NGT monitoring committee on environmental issues of Punjab, in its report submitted earlier this year, had recommended to the PPCB to monitor the performance of all CETPs and issue directions to make the treatment plants compliant.

To reduce water pollution in Buddha Nullah and the Sutlej, the government had issued directions under the Environment (Protection) Act that the municipal sewerage connection of the dyeing units would be disconnected when CETPs conveyance system is established.

In April, the PPCB shut many dyeing units for illegally discharging untreated waste into MC sewer lines. PPCB officials said they were carrying out night surveillance to check wrongdoing. Strict action against the units had been initiated.

A dedicated effluent conveyance system has been provided to carry the effluents from the industrial units to the CETPs. All units are required to operate a single outlet leading to the CETPs and the whole of their effluent is required to be discharged through this metered outlet. This year, the PPCB received complaints about coloured effluent coming into the collection tanks of the sewage treatment plant at Jamalpur. It is suspected that it was coming from a dyeing unit.