The industrialization has not been done uniformly throughout the country. In order to have well balanced industrial development, several concessions are being given to those who are interested to put up their industries in backward areas.
These incentives include loan at reduced rate of interest. This could be defended on the basis of socio-economic considerations. But there is a scientific basis for having much higher standard in backward area which is practically more than half of the total area in every state of this country, due to the fact that total pollution load whether organic or inorganic or both is much less than the assimilation capacity of receiving stream.
On the other hand, there are several places, viz., Kanpur, Bombay, Madras, Delhi, Calcutta and Varanasi, where pollution load is much more than the assimilation capacity and, consequently, the receiving streams are badly affected. Such places should be declared as restricted area for any further industrial development.
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There should be an inbuilt provision for a time-bound action-programme. It is, therefore, obvious that a distinction has to be made between the region where there is practically no industrialization, e.g., Gazipur, Jaunpur, Gonda, Chamauli, Garhwal, etc., from those which have several industries, contributing to a large amount of industrial effluents such that assimilation capacity has been surpassed.
The world management congress at its last meeting at New Delhi projected the concept of eventual sharing of resources that are available. This would amount to possible exploitation of all the available resources as far as possible.
For example, both distillery and tannery have fairly high BOD content in their effluents. Hence, their collective discharge always leads to serious consequences from pollutional point of view. The ideal location for distillery/tannery will be a remote place, where there is no additional effluent containing high BOD. There is no dearth of such suitable locations in India.
Combination of Industrial Effluents:
The characteristics of effluents from different industries are different. The characteristics of effluents from some selected industries are given in which clearly indicates that their characteristics also could be used as a suitable basis for planned industrial development, e.g., liquid effluents of tannery are acidic in nature while the effluents from Textile and Jute mills are alkaline.
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Secondly, BOD of tannery effluent is between 6000 and 10,000 ppm, depending upon whether the effluents are coming from chrome tanning or vegetable tanning or a combined unit of both, while the BOD effluent from cotton textile is only about 350.
Hence a combination of these two effluents would involve much less investment. Similarly, the effluents from pulp and paper craft process are generally alkaline and BOD is about 375.
On the other hand the BOD of distillery is about 40,000 to 70,000 and is acidic in nature. Therefore, a combination of these two could require much less investment. Even a combination of these two could require fertilizer and that of distillery would result in considerable saving.
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Low Pollution Technology:
There has been shift from high technology to low technology which could be used for development of village and small scale industries in developing countries but in view of the deterioration of environment even in developing countries, it is imperative to go in for development of pollution technology which could be adopted without much contribution to environmental pollution.
Use of Process Chemicals:
There are several chemicals including heavy metals which are used in industry. The degree of harm that can be caused and the nature of pollution are different in different areas. The contribution of some of the important pollutions is given in each process in operation should be reviewed with a critical evaluation on substitution of every chemical by a low pollution chemical including solvent, heavy metals, etc. Efforts have been made successfully to develop substituent chemicals used as solvents with low pollution level in a tannery.
Disposal of Industrial Effluents:
It is a general observation that most of the industrial effluents either join the river directly or through an aqueduct. Hence, the introduction of an effluent into any natural stream is only through laminar sub-layer, where the flow is practically longitudinal which does not permit any axial mixing.
This is the only reason why a large number of fish found dead with the input of concentrated amount of effluent either organic or inorganic. A suitable arrangement for disposal of effluent, especially away from the bank of river, which is accessible for drinking purposes, would definitely eliminate the possibility of such a large scale killing of living beings.
Even those animals, which provide milk, also consume water for drinking purposes from such polluted sources. During festive days, tens of thousands of people use river water for drinking purposes, from this laminar zone, which is heavily polluted. Hence, proper disposal of industrial effluents, at appropriate points, in the receiving stream could go a long way to fully utilize the assimilation capacity.