Bloomberg BNA, quotes me on new draft notifications for industries issued by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India
Tighter Pollution Standards Pending in India
— India is proposing new standards to reduce water and air pollution across a range of industries. Many of the revisions, proposed by various ministries during the past year, are now up for stakeholder comments.
Significant proposals are pending for these sectors:
• Paint: Currently only wastewater discharge is regulated for the paint sector, but the proposed notification seeks to set air pollution-related emission norms for particulate matter and solvent loss through evaporation, Sanjeev K. Kanchan, deputy program manager for sustainable industrialization at New Delhi-based Centre for Science & Environment, told Bloomberg BNA.
• Paper, Pulp: For the water-intensive paper and pulp sector, the draft notification proposes to introduce limits on water consumption for various kinds of paper manufacturing and makes effluent norms stricter. One- and two-year deadlines have been proposed to phase in the new standards, which will be made stricter with time.
• Fertilizer: The proposed notification introduces a third category—phosphatic fertilizer—to those already covered by existing standards—nitrogenous and complex fertilizers. It proposes standards that would apply to all three.
• Cement: New benchmarks would apply to cement-making units used for co-processing and set the maximum allowable particulate matter at 30 milligrams per standard cubic meter.
• Sugar: The draft norms prescribe stricter standards for effluents and emissions. “The sugar industry is a water-intensive industry,” said T. Sundar Ramanathan, a joint partner with law firm Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan. “The minimization of use of water will significantly reduce the amount of liquid effluents generated by it.”
In addition, draft notification standards are proposed for:
• Textiles: All large textile plants would have to achieve zero liquid discharge, even if they send effluents for treatment to common effluent treatment plants.
• Slaughterhouses: Large abattoirs and meat-processing units slaughtering more than 200 large animals or more than 1,000 small animals would have to meet stricter standards. Slaughterhouses also would have to ensure scientific disposal of organic waste using prescribed technology. Biochemical oxygen demand of the effluents generated by slaughterhouses is proposed to be reduced by more than two-thirds.
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