In a novel effort to integrate the treatment of wastewater from tanneries, textile dyeing units, and from within the Corporation limits, the district administration, along with various stakeholders, is taking up a feasibility study.
The proposed ‘Integrated Combined Effluent Management’ project envisions combining to treat wastewater from tanneries in Dindigul, textile dyeing units in Chinnalapatti, and out of Corporation through the existing Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP).
The technical committee comprises nine members including chief scientists from the Chennai-based Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), and Karaikudi-based Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CECRI).
“This is the first time such an integration of a multi-industry treatment plant is being tested out in the country. The feasibility study will help us know the possibility and limitations of the model in the Indian context as it is functional in a few foreign countries,” said P. Shanmugam, chief scientist, of CLRI, and the committee’s chairman.
The project aims to bring down the cost of treating industry effluents as it will be a “centralised” treatment plant that will adopt Zero Liquid Discharge Technology.
According to official data provided by the district administration, the existing CETP treats 2.5 million litres per day (mld) of industrial effluent from tanneries. While treated sewage water from the Corporation is 5 mld and the proposed quantity of effluent from textile dyeing units stands at 0.4 mld.