Read this essay to learn about Industrial Pollution. After reading this essay you will learn about:- 1. Meaning of Industrial Pollution 2. Sources of Industrial Pollution 3. Measures.
1. Essay on the Meaning of Industrial Pollution:
Pollution has seeped into the very fibre of human society all over the world. One is reminded of Wordsworth’s memorable words, “What man has made of man!” The entire body of the earth is sullied today. The air we breathe in, the water we drink, the food we eat, the soil on which one sleeps contain some kind of poisonous chemicals which adversely affect the human and the non-human on this boiling planet of ours.
Even the human mind, it seems, is polluted to the extent that it has endangered the very existence of the human race, the animal kingdom and the vegetation world. Nature is mutilated and given a slow poison for no fault of hers.
Every evening clouds of polluted smog born of used-up petrol, diesel, chemicals and such substances descend on our earthly plane when the orange orb disappears in the western horizon.
Are we really aware of this hellish pollution? Have we so dulled our sensitivity that we are unable to hear the rattling sounds of the oncoming doomsday? We no longer mourn the loss of Chaucerian April which is replaced by one of Elliot’s “Wasteland”.
Pollution is of all sorts. There is the political pollution; there is the commercial pollution; there is the industrial pollution; there is pollution in the world of medicines which we have perforce to take; even milk is polluted; the fields of fruit, flowers, vegetables and corn pulsate with pollution.
On the top of all these the society itself is polluted. The very conscience of Man is polluted! In-fact this is all due to industrial pollution.
Do we remain silent sufferers and mute spectators? Everyone must put in his mite to eradicate this evil. A small step from each of us in that direction would go a long way in making this world a beauteous place to live in. In spite of the undreamt of fantastic scientific and technological achievements, there is a “Chernobyl” in tooth and claw lurking in one field or the other.
Today we breathe in the industrial pollution every moment. And we have become indifferent to that. Nay, on the other hand, we add to that in one way or the other. We have slums cropping up like mescaline tops side by side the sooty chimneys and take pride in our industrial progress!
Let us create an awareness of this environmental pollution among us all. Let there be a crescendo of protest-uproar silencing the very thunders of the polluted rainy clouds. A full-throated cry from each of us for removing this fatal AIDS-like virus at any cost is the need of the hour.
Millions of voices together can sound the death-knell of pollution-spewing agencies. If we do not act now, the future generations of mankind and the mute animal and vegetation worlds would never forgive us.
The gods of industrial and technological revolutions possibly never foresaw the horrible by – products which would accrue from their creations. Perhaps, they thought Man would be sensible enough not to endanger his own life. Even the instinct of self-preservation it seems, has been pulverized by the iron soles of the so-called progress. Even the great religions of the world have failed to do any constructive work in this field.
Almost all rivers of India are polluted due to industrial effluent. Our most pious rivers Ganga and Yamuna are today worst polluted. The ponds of villages, the streams and tanks near the roads are full of dirty waste of industries and if this state continues then one day every drop of drinking water will have a foul smell of industrial waste.
According to latest data hundreds of millions of litres of polluted water enter the River Ganges every day. It is one of India’s dirtiest rivers.
By its sheer size and volume of water, it still has a marked capacity of self- purification. Coliform bacteria that causes intestinal diseases are disposed off in a short time. But the river’s natural defences are breaking down and urgent steps are needed to halt the degradation.
There is now a plan – a US $ 250 million project to clean up the Ganges and bring its waters to a least 80% of its pristine purity by 1990. It’s a dream that is being cherished by every warm-hearted Hindu. But is it going to remain what it is – just a dream?
Since the project took off in June 1985 there has been hardly any progress. Out of 80 schemes in West Bengal, 47 have been delayed and in 33, no work had begun till March 1. In Calcutta, where the Ganges pollution is the highest, construction had not started on even a single scheme till the end of February this year. And in Bihar and Varanasi work is only crawling. The Ganges is still as filthy as it was two years ago.
Foreign governments and companies, international agencies and voluntary organisations have expressed interest in assisting. The Thames Water Authority of England is advising the Indian government on wastewater treatment, monitoring, pollution control and the training of technical staff.
A Dutch company is recommending how the 400-km stretch downstream from Allahabad to Patna can be developed for inland navigation. The French signed a memorandum of understanding with India amid a lot of fanfare and submitting a proposal for the Rs. 21 crore Dinapur treatment plant at Varanasi.
Only 16 of the 98 cities and towns along the river banks have anything resembling a sewage system forcing most of the waste water to fall into the river directly. Almost 250 million a third of the country’s inhabitants live in the Ganges basin. Experts say if sewage discharge from the human settlements could be stopped, pollution levels would drop by 75%.
Project proposals call for the sewage to be diverted directly to treatment plants, which will then transform the waste into energy and automatically send the effluent for irrigation. Along the banks will arise public latrines, electric crematoriums, cattle sheds and ghats. Project Director K.c. Sivaramakrishnan said, “Our progress has been satisfactory.”
The Project Director disclosed in January 1987 that the Ganges Action Plan was yielding some unexpectedly good results. The sewage recovery was becoming a benediction as the solid waste was providing energy from biomass.
“In some places we can generate as much as 2.5MW power, sufficient to operate pumps in the treatment plant,” he said. The methane recovery, the source of energy, was possible because of the tropical conditions.
Meanwhile the French proposals for the treatment plant in Varanasi has been put into cold storage and a global tender was called instead, on which a decision still has to be reached. After untreated sewage, the worst offenders are industrial plants, tanneries, DDT, rubber and textile factories, petrochemical and fertiliser complexes, jute and paper mills and distilleries.
The Ganges is constantly fed by surface run-off-water from cultivated lands which have been treated with excessive amounts of pesticides, insecticides, fertilisers and manure. The Board for control of Water Pollution revealed that 1.5 million tonnes of chemical fertilisers were applied to the Ganges Basin.
Soil erosion caused by deforestation, particularly in the foothills of the Himalayas leads to siltation of the river and subsequent flooding. During the monsoon season flooding has more than doubled in the last 15 years. A raging torrent when the monsoon rains fall, the river is often reduced to a trickle in the dry months. Sometimes the river possesses too little water to dilute urban and industrial wastes.
Considered to minor importance as far as pollution is concerned is the disposal of cremated bodies in the Ganges. In Varanasi alone, 35,000 human bodies are cremated on funeral pyres every year. As the holiest city in India (pop. 600,000) Hindus believe that anyone who dies within the boundary of the 2,500 year old city, is transported straight to heaven. This leads many people to end their days in Varanasi.
Traditionally Sadhus or Hindu holy men and babies are never buried. Of the 35,000, about 10,000 are only half burnt when they are pushed into the Ganges. They belong to families too poor to buy enough of scarce firewood to burn the bodies completely. Thousands of animal car-cases are also dumped into the river.
The volume of filth that devotees pour into the Ganges has not daunted them from bathing in its water. People who talk about the holiness of the Ganga have not the slightest guilt about her sullied state. The blindness which can defile a river and then drink its dirty water with faith that the defiler will become pure, is as audacious as it is mystifying.
The quality of water:
Which is a crucial test for the success or failure of the project has shown no improvement. If anything it has become worse. The Biological Oxygen Demand which is a measure of the organic matter present in the water and which ideally should not exceed 3mg per litre for healthy water was 9.7 in May 1981-1982 in Varanasi. After the Ganges project was taken up, it increased to 12 mg, according to Dr. Kudesia.
Of some concern now is that no one knows where the money is going to come from once the Ganga Action Plan stops pumping into it. “We are looking into the matter” said Sivaramakrishnan. “Something like a national or state level company for maintaining the infrastructures is being envisaged.”
And D. S. Bagga, divisional commissioner of Varanasi, in charge of the Ganga city task force said, “All these infrastructures can be maintained only when funds are available from the state or the centre.”
Meanwhile scientists associated with the different schemes of the project are beginning to lose their patience because of the delays with more and more bureaucrats moving in to do all the decision making. Alternative pollution control measures are not being considered at all.
The Central Ganges Authority is to set up a group of nongovernmental organisations, like Varanasi’s Swatchh Ganga, to secure public involvement in the various stages of the clean-up drive stretching over the next 10 years. Prof. Mishra, a strong campaigner for the clean-up of the Ganges said the problem is essentially a scientific one: how to manage the water resources of the entire Ganges basin.
“What is missing is comprehensive thinking,” he said. “Suppose you clean the waste water of the five cities of Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna and Calcutta, will the Ganges be clean? There are 100 towns and they will grow and start polluting the river over the next five years.”
Everyone is agreed that the problem of depolluting the Ganges is too great in terms of finance. But does this mean it cannot be done if a sincere effort is made to understand how for example, the tribals who were the original inhabitants of India, have lived for millenia in good relations with the forces of the river gods.
At those periods of time, the Ganges was clean, pure and benign. Only three years are left to transform it from its disgusting condition. Plainly there will be no wonderful miracle to clean up the Ganges by 1990 unless we make treatment plants.
It has been estimated that over five million chemical substances produced by industries have been identified; about 12000 of these are marketed, may be only half of them in quantity. Several thousand new ones are found every year, and about a tenth of the new discoveries reach the market. For example, the total production of synthetic organic chemicals rose more than 50% in the past decade.
Those industrial chemicals have brought immense benefit to society, but they have also brought new dangers, largely through the wastes generated in their manufacture. Tens of millions of tons of toxic or otherwise hazardous substances enter the environment every year. One of the most worrying features of the problem is that very little is known about the long term consequences of exposure to the chemicals.
We know now that over longer periods some can cause cancer, delayed nervous damage, malformations in unborn children, and mutagenic changes. Many other chemicals are likely to have similar effects, but because these take time to show and their causes are hard to pinpoint, we do not yet know which substances are the dangerous ones.
The situation is made even more difficult because, once they are in the environment, chemicals spread in a very complex way and may be converted into other substances which have different effects.
Until recently, many hazardous wastes were disposed of without proper evaluation of the environmental consequences such as fires, explosions, air, water and land pollution, contamination of food and drinking water, damage to people and harm to plants and animals.
In practice, most of the things that could go wrong have indeed occurred, and in fact, the incidents that have hit the headlines are probably only a few of those that have actually taken place.
Perhaps one of the most notorious incidents was that of the “Minamata Disease” in Japan, where discharge of methyl mercury to the sea caused the contamination of the fish, which in turn caused neurological disorders to nearly two thousand people; about 400 of them have died.
In the USA an area of at least 30 square miles was contaminated with wastes from manufacture of defoliants, pesticides and chemical warfare agents, causing irrigated crops to die. In India the mile of land in Bombay, Ahmedabad, Delhi & Kanpur has become infertile and desert is increasing with fast pace.
2. Essay on the Sources of Industrial Pollution:
The sources of industrial pollution are as follows:
(i) Pulp and Paper Factory:
The chemicals used in the:
(1) Alum (2-3 tonnes),
(2) Tale (0-10 t),
(3) Rosin (1-1.25 t),
(4) Chlorine (1.5 – 3.5 t),
(5) Caustic soda (150-250 kg),
(6) Soda ash (150-180 kg),
(7) Dyes (2-50 kg),
(8) Magnesium bi-sulphite and sulphurous acid, besides clay (2-15 t).
Inference:
1. The lignin should not be allowed to discharge as it completely destroys the fauna and flora and impairs the productivity.
2. Heavy suspended material should be brought to minimum level through settling tanks which reduce B.O.D.
3. The taste and odour producing substances can be removed by treating waste water with activated carbon.
(ii) Distillery:
Bengal distilleries near Hooghly produce approx. 0.145 mgd of wastes and are directly disposed into the river Hooghly. In India, annual distillery discharge figure approximate between 100- 110 million litres and this can afford to produce 100-250 tonnes nitrogen, 1000-2500 tonnes potash and 50-100 tonnes phosphorus, besides amino-acids, nitrates and microorganisms like Phytoplankton and Zoo plankton.
Inference:
The distillery wastes are highly organic in nature and because of its high biochemical oxygen demand (B.O.D.) quickly removes the oxygen from the water and unless waste is diluted can produce pollution hazards in the aquatic ecosystem. Both BOD and COD were indicating high values as a result of which oxygen was mostly absent.
The diluted distillery effluent (1: 200) dilution gives birth to number of following green and blue algae.
Table 3 —From Distillery effluent:
(iii) Steel Industry:
The major pollutant effects in the waste waters from ordinary steel plants can be summarised as follows:
Inference:
Water containing 0.002 mg/1 of phenol gives unpleasant taste to water when chlorinated. Iron and manganese if more than .1 mg/1 give rise to bad taste in drinking water. The effluent is toxic to aquatic life as it contains high values of B.O.D., C.O.D., phenol, cyanides and other constituents and a very low value of dissolved oxygen.
The high pH value also causes toxicity in the water. When dissolved oxygen is depleted to zero anaerobic conditions set in giving ugly conditions and foul odour. At low value of dissolved oxygen fishes also die out.
(iv) Cane Sugar Industry:
The sugar industry in India is playing an important role in the economic development of the country. The industry is of a seasonal nature and operates for about 200 days in a year. The effluents are discharged during manufacture of sugar and they contain high polluted contents.
As generally the sugar mills are in rural areas where effluents pollute small rivers and give foul smell in the nearby places of the mills. The following are the characteristics of the effluents.
Table 6 – Characteristics of waste of sugar industry
Inference:
As the effluent contains a high degree of organic pollution hence if effluent stagnates in an area for a few hours biological action starts and septic condition gives H2S gas imparting black colour to the effluent. Moreover the oxygen is also exhausted giving death of fishes and other aquatic life. The water is extremely harmful to the plants. To get rid of this pollution, the effluent should be treated with trickling filter.
(v) Radioactive Wastes:
In the atomic age, radioactive substances are used for power industry, heating the home, preserving food, fuelling transport and as medicines in curing the diseases. They can also be used to prepare bombs etc.
The wastes from atomic reactors, hospitals etc., are most dangerous because their radioactivity cannot be destroyed at man’s will. These wastes destroy the aquatic plants and animals to a great extent. They generally cause gene mutations, ionization of body fluids and chromosomal mutations.
3. Essay on the Measures to Check Industrial Pollution:
In developing countries there are problems of industrial pollution because the countries are in a hurry to industrialize in order to meet the basic needs of their burgeoning population. In industrial field there are a number of pollutants such as gas, particulate matter etc. and in social category there are domestic refuses and obnoxious gases emitted from garbage heaps and open drains.
The most common pollutant today is the automobile exhaust which releases metals, metal oxides and poisonous gases like carbon monoxide which reduces the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood stream. Recently WHO has set up 34 air pollution monitoring stations throughout the world with internal centres in London, Washington, Moscow, Tokyo and Nagpur (NEERI) have been chosen as WHO’s regional centres.
Rapid urbanisation and increasing concentration of industries in cities have wreaked a havoc to the environment, resulting in an unparalleled deterioration of the quality of life. Air, water and soil have undergone tremendous changes not only in metropolitan areas but also in the far reaches of the rural ecology.
In a broad sense, the vast coastlines, particularly near major cities, rivers, streams and lakes are polluted; massive criminal deforestation in the Western Ghats, Assam and the Himalayas is in rampage; air in most of the metropolitan areas is contaminated and foul; and the noise level in most of the cities has made living disquieting.
Thus it is clear that industrial pollution, as a negative and harmful element in environment, has become a serious and insidious problem in India. It is only lately that the growing concern about protection of the environment has been expressed. There are a large number of citizens’ groups and professional organisations that are campaigning for better environment and pollution control.
In 1974 the Water Prevention and Control of Pollution Act were passed. Under this Act standard the effluent discharges by different industries and enforcement machineries have been set up. In 1981 Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) act and in 1983 Air rules were passed.
Fortunately now we also have the Ministry of Environment at the Centre, which means, at least it will be possible to co-ordinate all the environmental efforts in a unified manner. The Government of India has also formulated the National Environment Policy for the protection of environment, conservation of nature, planning human settlements and managing resources.
Poverty or Pollution?
It is tragic that the living environment in cities and towns is being made unfit for human living. The situation is immensely serious. Of course, there are cynics who question: What is more important—poverty or pollution?
According to these cynics pollution is inevitable for the sake of industrial development in the Third World. That is the price to be paid for economic progress. Pollution and poverty are contradictory and accordingly the worst form of pollution is poverty. This developmental confusion is at the root of the environmental crises facing developing countries.
The quality of surface and ground water on which 90 percent of the rural population depend continues to deteriorate because of industrial and urban pollution. Although the Water Pollution Act was passed in 1974, very few areas are free from the problems of water pollution.
The industrial pollutants discharged in rivers, streams and even on the land have destroyed aquatic life in many parts of India, as have also threatened rural communities utilizing river and ground waters around the country.
Unfortunately we still do not have inventories of types and quantities of industrial discharges, not to speak about the detailed account of their impact on human health and on the intricate and fragile ecosystem.
Major Polluting Industries:
It is important to measure these discharges by such parameters as biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and suspended solids. The major industries polluting waters are identified as tanning, chemicals, fertilisers and allied processes, refineries, papers and pulp, sugar and distilleries, textile dyeing and bleaching etc.
During a recent survey in Bihar, U.P. and Maharashtra author was shocked to notice a high degree of water pollution due to several types of industries like sugar and distilleries, paper and pulp, chemicals and fertilisers despite efforts by the Maharashtra Pollution Board to control pollution.
In Tamil Nadu, where the water resources are limited, large scale industrialization with limited control of discharge of effluent, has damaged not only the aquatic life in the river Cauvery but also the ground water sources due to seepages.
The toxic waste from dyeing, printing and chemical industries is disposed of without any planning, creating health hazards. Some of the waste may take centuries to degrade. Many a time solid waste is washed away polluting ground water and other surface water bodies.
The problem of organic waste, collected in open refuse dumps is uniquitous. When these organic materials decompose, they become breeding grounds for rodents and insects, posing serious threat to health as well as severe nuisance of odours.
High Level of Noise:
Some industries, including engineering and machine-tool plants, create a high level of noise, which threatens the health of workers when they are exposed to it for long time. Now it is well recognised that noise pollution can lead to deafness, insomnia, hypertension, dilation of eyes and to many other risks to the workers health.
Again, no significant changes have been made in industries for the benefit of workers as devices for the check of noise have not been installed even in big industries today.
Central Ganga Authority:
With the establishment of Central Ganga Authority (1985) by the P.M., Govt. of India, we can have hope that the pollution load on Ganga will be reduced by 75% provided the money is spent in right direction and the actual scientists are taken for carrying out the task with full zeal and vigour.
A new question arises that why not the formation of Central Yamuna authority has also been declared by the Govt. when it is a known fact that Yamuna is more polluted than Ganga today?
Control:
Pollution control costs money so every effort must therefore be made jointly by control agencies, industries and public to evolve least cost solutions for the present problems and sound policies for long term air quality protection, author the following methods strategies and priorities can reduce the pollution:
(1) By means of equipments, apart from disposal of pollutants, recycling of waste could also be done. In case of automobile exhaust system, suitable gadgets could also be provided which will not only arrest pollution but will also reduce fuel consumption.
(2) The generated pollutants from industries must be arrested before they are passed into the air. This involves selection of proper equipment for treating waste as well as arresting pollutants. The heat generated in the process should also be channelized to useful purposes.
(3) There are some industries which collect the dust and convert the same into saleable goods. There are others which produce the waste which could be converted into useful by products. We have in hand example of gobar gas plant where gas is converted into energy.
(4) The metal oxides and metals such as Cr, V, Cd, Cu, Fe etc. can be easily absorbed by serpentine mineral or bark of some trees and thus effluent can be free from metallic species.
A process has been developed in Water Pollution Lab., D. N. College, Meerut in guidance with Dr. V.P. Kudesia using serpentine mineral + bleaching powder + calcium chloride which can reduce 80% metallic elements and also about 75% B.O.D. of industrial effluents.
(5) For the treatment of odourous air, the sketch of a plant has been suggested in ‘Air Pollution’ by Kudesia.
(6) For reducing the noise pollution, suggestions given on in ‘Air Pollution’ should be adopted at once.
(7) The Govt. should be persuaded to provide cleaner fuels for manufacture of smokeless coal briquettes by low temperature carbonisation of poor quality lignite’s available locally.
(8) The Govt. should provide facilities to increase hydroelectric power wherever possible and bio gas production for rural areas to reduce pollution. The contribution of nuclear power is at present about 3% and it should be increased slowly by taking all precautions.
(9) The garbage in big cities should be treated with cobalt rays. This can reduce the pollution load to about 60% in cities.
(10) Incorporation of improved process design will increase the longevity of equipment. There should be deeper investigation in the process designs not only to achieve cost reduction or waste saving, but also the more important obligation to the society and the environment resulting in safeguarding the inhabitants’ health as well as the greeneries etc. in and around such industrial setups.
(11) Govt. should encourage scientific societies and scientific newspapers to create awareness among people about pollution and environment
(12) Organic waste solid can be composted. The poisonous waste should be buried in the well-protected areas.
(13) Massive research and development effort should be instituted in the institutes of higher learning and by the Govt. so that appropriate, low cost and effective methods of pollution control can be achieved.
(14) Extensive training programmes should be set up to prepare technicians and scientists in pollution control for different types of industries.
(15) Encourage industries to avoid pollutant formation at the very source by use of cleaner fuels, and adoption of less polluting materials and technology in manufacture.
(16) Localize the spread of pollutants in the indoor working environment as far as possible.
(17) Allow discharge of pollutants to the ambient environment to the extent possible to benefit from disposal by dilution. (This involves proper site selection; availability of meteorological and other data, etc.).
(18) Require installation of control equipment only if possible; encourage installation through tax benefits.
(19) Prompt development of supporting infrastructures.
(20) Adoption of least polluting technology:
A similar strategy must be followed with regard to process emissions in order to reduce the formation of pollutants by adopting the least polluting technology wherever possible. It is here that the various industry associations can best help themselves.
The USA, Japan and other OECD countries of Europe are currently actively engaged in reviewing their technology and are even undertaking process changes wherever feasible to reduce pollutant formation, or finding suitable methods for its dilution and treatment.