Leather tanneries take to reverse osmosis

Target zero water discharge status by year-end

The leather tanning industry in Tamil Nadu aims to improve its environmental safeguards to the level of no discharge of water used in the tanning process by the end of the year.

The aim is to be achieved by helping clusters of tanneries get reverse osmosis systems to treat the water that is used in the tanning process, and recycle the same.

The Council for Leather Exports (CLE) today held a press conference where it outlined the steps it would take to safeguard the environment. M M Hashim, head of CLE's initiatives in environmental management, said that the cluster of tanneries in Ambur-Vaniyambadi belt would soon have a reverse osmosis system to treat water.

The Ambur-Vaniyambadi belt's reverse osmosis system needed an investment of Rs 67.33 crore, said Hashim. This would be followed by an investment of Rs 50 crore to install a reverse osmosis system in the Ranipet cluster. This system would need to deal with 5 million litres of water a day, he added.

Tanneries in other parts of the state such as Pallavaram, outside Chennai, and Dindigul would be a part of the municipalities efforts to deal with environmental issues.

The Tamil Nadu tanneries' decision to install reverse osmosis systems has been influenced by the State Pollution Control Board's stringent norms. Hashim said that the state pollution control board's norms for total dissolved solids (TDS) were the toughest in the country.

A CLE press release said that the leather industry recently made a presentation to the Planning Commission to help the industry deal with environmental issues by creating a corpus fund to facilitate eco-sustainable development of the leather sector.

The CLE's environmental management committee has prepared a project proposal at an outlay of Rs 400 crore for environmental management in the leather sector. The proposal has been submitted to the government seeking financial assistance.