The textile units have been facing difficulty in complying with zero liquid discharge (ZID) norm as it is mandatory for all the registered units to go in for effluent treatment plants with ZID system as stipulated by the Madras High Court. Some of them that release untreated effluent come under adverse notice at periodic intervals.

As 90 percent water is recovered through reverse osmosis system, solar-evaporation treatment of the remaining 10 percent with high concentration of effluent turns costly.

According to official sources, locations in Chennimalai and Bhavani have been identified for establishing CETPs for pollution mitigation in the Western districts, under State Government’s Rs.700 crore proposal. There are 36 units in Chennimalai and 51 in Bhavani.

In Erode and Perundurai, there are over 600 textile dyeing, bleaching and printing units - 568 in Erode Taluk and 127 in Perundurai Taluk.

Those in Erode taluk are mostly concentrated in the city limits and all the units have individual effluent treatment plants (IETP).

While the units in Perundurai taluk are spread over SIPCOT Industrial Estate, and Chennimalai and Bhavani blocks. Among the 40 units in the SIPCOT Industrial Estate five units together operate a common effluent treatment plant (CETP). The rest have IETPs.

The textile units in SIPCOT Industrial Growth Centre has made plea for establishing a common facility for reject management. The sludge generated by the effluent treatment plants are utilised by cement industries for co-processing.

Also as the same ZLD norms are not enforced in other clusters in the country, they are becoming increasingly uncompetitive cost-wise. Their competitors still enjoy the privilege of not having to fully treat the effluents before discharging them into the water bodies.