COIMBATORE: The once-gushing Noyyal river is now quite dead. And the lush lands around Noyyal have been dyed' barren. Can Noyyal and its farmlands be resurrected? The Tamil Nadu government is now considering a three-point solution to the textile pollution in Tirupur and to rejuvenate Noyyal and the arid lands of Tirupur and Karur districts.
The key villain in Tirupur's pollution tale is the sodium chloride salt used by dyers for fixing colours with the yarn fabric. Dyers mix 8 kg of sodium chloride salt and two kg of sodium carbonate in every 100 litres of water to ensure that the colours fix deep inside the yarn. And Tirupur's dyeing units use at least 10 million litres of water daily.
Over the last 30 years, until the Court fiat a few years ago, about 10 million litres of sodium chloride loaded effluents were being let into the farm lands, making the soil saline and futile. Now, the Tamil Nadu Planning Commission member Dr G Kumaravelu has proposed that using potassium chloride or potassium sulphate, which is a fertilizer, instead of sodium chloride would help improve the fertility of the soil. The potassium loaded effluents from dyeing units can be sold to farmers either in liquid or solid form.
"We are holding discussions with the dyers. The South India Textile Research Association has found that potassium sulphate is 10% more efficient in fixing colours to the fabric," Dr Kumaravelu told TOI. Moreover, dyers are hesitant to use effluent plants because the system presently used for evaporating the solid effluents is expensive and the process time-consuming. Instead, the Planning Commission member has suggested installing natural evaporators with German technology.
Besides, for the first time in Tamil Nadu, the State government will take up 25 acres of fallow lands in Kangeyam and Uthukuli, plant natural dye plants like indigo interspersed with salt-tolerant casurinas and circular water troughs to harvest water and give back the lost livelihood for the Tirupur farmers, district collector C Samayamoorthy told TOI.
The key villain in Tirupur's pollution tale is the sodium chloride salt used by dyers for fixing colours with the yarn fabric. Dyers mix 8 kg of sodium chloride salt and two kg of sodium carbonate in every 100 litres of water to ensure that the colours fix deep inside the yarn. And Tirupur's dyeing units use at least 10 million litres of water daily.
Over the last 30 years, until the Court fiat a few years ago, about 10 million litres of sodium chloride loaded effluents were being let into the farm lands, making the soil saline and futile. Now, the Tamil Nadu Planning Commission member Dr G Kumaravelu has proposed that using potassium chloride or potassium sulphate, which is a fertilizer, instead of sodium chloride would help improve the fertility of the soil. The potassium loaded effluents from dyeing units can be sold to farmers either in liquid or solid form.
"We are holding discussions with the dyers. The South India Textile Research Association has found that potassium sulphate is 10% more efficient in fixing colours to the fabric," Dr Kumaravelu told TOI. Moreover, dyers are hesitant to use effluent plants because the system presently used for evaporating the solid effluents is expensive and the process time-consuming. Instead, the Planning Commission member has suggested installing natural evaporators with German technology.
Besides, for the first time in Tamil Nadu, the State government will take up 25 acres of fallow lands in Kangeyam and Uthukuli, plant natural dye plants like indigo interspersed with salt-tolerant casurinas and circular water troughs to harvest water and give back the lost livelihood for the Tirupur farmers, district collector C Samayamoorthy told TOI.
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