Numerous dyeing facilities in Ludhiana break environmental protection regulations intended to handle the hazardous wastewater they produce. Such units are not connected to the Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs), which have been built in locations where such units are concentrated, because they are dispersed around the city and not in a single industrial pocket. Officials claim that these facilities continue to discharge their highly toxic effluents into the main sewer lines.
In the city, two Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETP) are in operation to handle highly polluted effluents produced by dyeing operations. These serve 150 dyeing units, roughly. The scattered units were instructed to switch to a zero-liquid discharge approach by March 2023 because they are not connected to CETPs. An official explained, “This was to ensure that units not connected to CETP do not generate any effluent at all.”
According to reports, about a dozen of these units have been given a one-year extension to switch to the new technology as the deadline to transition to zero liquid waste in March 2023 lapsed. According to PPCB representatives, the units are dumping untreated water into MC sewer pipes.
Officials were questioned about the state of dyeing operations that pollute Buddha Dariya or discharge untreated waste into MC sewer lines during a PPCB meeting organised to review the Buddha Dariya project.
A senior PPCB official said, “A delegation of scattered dyeing units has asked for more time to make arrangements and we are still considering the same.”
