Indian textile wastewater: The environmental hazards it causes
In India, the textile industry plays a vital role in the economic growth of the nation as well as employing skilled and unskilled workers. But it also produces a massive quantity of textile wastes that are damaging to the environment. As a result, researchers and industries are focusing on the reduction of textile wastewater and the formulation of environmentally friendly techniques.
The textile industry is one of the major industries in India, but there is a downside. The use of chemicals and dyes during the manufacture of textiles generates an enormous quantity of waste as sludge, fibres and chemically polluted waters.
The chemically polluted textile wastewater degrades the quality of the soil and water when it mixes with these natural resources and its dependent habitats and environment. As a consequence of such high quantities of solid and liquid waste, textile industries are now facing major problems in environment pollution.
To mitigate the problem, researchers and the textile industries are focusing on the reduction of textile wastewater and the formulation of alternative efficient treatment techniques that don’t damage the environment. Recent studies have concentrated on the various wastewater treatment techniques and their advantages. In addition, researches are searching for alternative methods to reduce textile waste.
In a review recently published in Reviews on Environmental Health, the authors demonstrate and evaluate the content of previously published reports on different treatment techniques for the recovery of wastewater as collected from textile industries.
Wastewater damaging to health
The studies showed that textile wastewater can cause haemorrhages, ulceration of the skin, sickness, stress and dermatitis. The chemicals present in the water can block sunlight and increase the organic pollution in the water thereby inhibiting photosynthesis and reoxygenation.
No imminent solution in sight
The authors found that insufficient research work has been carried out to-date. More research is required for the detailed analysis of the treatment process without using artificial chemical treatment processes to obtain a clean and pure environment. There is huge opportunity for research to develop knowledge-based networks to create new guidelines for the production of new products from the resulting waste sludge and wastewater.
After a detailed review of several published studies, the authors concluded that the current treatment techniques followed in the textile industry are not cost-effective, and therefore, an alternative treatment technique was discussed from the cost-effective point of view.
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