Norms relaxed for establishing industrial effluent treatment plants in India: MoEF

New Delhi: The Union Environment Ministry on Wednesday eased the regulatory norms for setting up common effluent treatment plants for the industry, claiming such relaxation - needed for industrial expansion - would not harm the environment.

India currently has 222 common treatment plants, of which 53 are zero liquid discharge units. “But the number and capacity of CETPs are significantly below what is required to manage effluents generated by expanding industrial clusters,” the ministry said.

Typically, the CETPs treat industrial wastewater from polluting industries like textiles, tanneries, electroplating, pharmaceuticals, and other types of industrial units. They are needed for small and medium scale units that are too financially constrained to set up individual units.

With delays in establishing such treatment plants having an unintended consequence of untreated or poorly treated effluents entering the environment, the CTEPs have been exempted from obtaining prior environmental clearance before construction.

The exemption has been granted, according to the ministry, because CTEPs are already subject to existing pollution control laws, including Consent to Establish and Consent to Operate norms, periodic inspections, continuous online monitoring and statutory reporting requirements.

“The requirement of prior Environmental Clearance was found to be duplicative, adding procedural complexity with avoidable delays,” the ministry said in a statement, noting that the reform would enable faster creation of CETPs, improving environmental outcomes.

The exemption is accompanied by enhanced safeguards, including mandatory conveyance of effluents exclusively through closed pipeline systems, prohibition on the use of treated effluents for agricultural purposes, and continuous online monitoring.

But in the last three years when the Central Pollution Control Board inspected the online effluent data of 366 units, it found 192 units were not complying with green norms, official sources said. The CPCB inspection was for 17 types of highly polluting industries.

The exemption was accorded after an expert panel recommended the same and a draft notification was published seeking comments from the public.