With effluent treatment in place, knitwear industry hopes for revival

The knitwear cluster of Tirupur is set for a revival as production units are close to ensuring zero liquid discharge (ZLD) from their effluent treatment plants, as demanded by the Madras high court.According to the Dyers Association of Tirupur, 16 out of the 18 Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETP) are now engaged in the process and the remaining two are expected to commence trial runs some time in December. Two treatment plants are now functioning at 70% of capacity while another one is presently operating at 40% with zero liquid discharge. "We are upgrading the common effluent treatment plants with the help of the government and are enhancing the capacity of the common effluent treatment plants in the cluster," said S Nagarajan, president, Dyers Association of Tirupur (DAT).

The Madras high court had come down heavily on the knitwear cluster for upsetting the ecological balance of the region by releasing untreated chemical effluents into Noyyal river and its tributaries since January 2011. The court ordered the state administration to close down more than 700 dyeing and bleaching units in the region until measures were put in place to ensure ZLD from the treatment plants. At the moment CETPs at Arulpuram, which has 15 units connected to it, are functioning at 70% of its total operation capacity. "Our total capacity is to treat 55 lakh litre daily and now we are treating 38 lakh litre and will further upgrade the facility as we expect to achieve total ZLD within the next three months," said S Selvakumar, managing director, Arulpuram CETP, Tirupur.

Similarly, the Park CETP in Tirupur is presently operating at 70% capacity and the treatment plant at Veerapandi is operating at 40% capacity. The state government had also announced financial aid amounting to Rs 179 crore for the cluster owners to upgrade equipment and machinery at the treatment plants. Work towards that is underway in the district. "Mangalam CETP has approached us to start trial run and one more at S Periapalayam is also expected to follow suit. The units that are presently running at 70% will be allowed to go to the next stage after they upgrade their machinery and reverse osmosis reject treatment facility," said R Kannan, district environmental engineer, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, Tirupur.