Uttar Pradesh: Tanneries seek to reduce their environmental impact

DW (English)

Jajmau in Uttar Pradesh is the heart of India’s leather industry, which has a highly toxic environmental footprint. Efforts are now underway to ensure the industry minimizes usage of harmful chemicals and decreases water consumption.

Transcript

00:00Sunita needs clean water, but she knows that all too often the local water supply is contaminated.

00:08Sometimes the water seems clean, but more often it comes out dirty, even green at times,

00:13and sometimes it smells strongly of sewage. People here are always falling sick with coughs,

00:18fevers and illnesses that never seem to go away. People always have to take medicines.

00:24Rakhimandi is a district in the city of Kanpur in central Uttar Pradesh, the heart of India's leather industry.

00:31Toxic chromium sludge is dumped in landfills where it contaminates the groundwater,

00:36posing a health risk to the local population.

00:39Leather production is a dirty business. Animal hides are treated with chromium salts to make them durable.

00:45Chromium salt is a salt of hydrochloric acid which is corrosive.

00:50And the production process uses high quantities of this heavy metal.

01:00A fifth of India's leather production comes from this region.

01:03There are hundreds of tanneries in this area alone, and they don't just pollute the groundwater.

01:09Some tanneries dump their toxic waste directly in the river Ganges, deliberately.

01:14This is thought to be the best solution.

01:20Unfortunately, the growth of this industry around the world has been in and around the river bodies.

01:28Because this was considered to be one of the largest water consuming industries of all types.

01:33So over a period of time, the concept was that dilution is the best means of taking care of your pollution.

01:41And discharge it into the river and it will get diluted.

01:44But with the population increase, what has happened is that the river contamination has ended up contaminating our drinking water systems.

01:54Every day the workers here put their health at risk.

01:57They often work without any protection.

01:59Contact with chromium 3 chloride, the scientific name for chromium salt,

02:04can result in skin rashes, itching and respiratory problems.

02:0831-year-old Wasid Ali has been working with the toxic tanning agents for half his life.

02:23The salt makes the skin on our hands blister.

02:26Look at these burns.

02:27We have to work without safety gear and even small injuries can lead to serious infections.

02:33A friend of mine died recently.

02:35He worked with lime.

02:37Over time it damaged his lungs.

02:39Doctors said he developed a liver problem too.

02:47The city of Hannau is an hour's drive away.

02:49The tannery on the banks of the Ganges has been operating for 30 years.

02:54Managing Director Taj Alam is trying to make production more environmentally friendly.

02:59Meat scraps from the leather are sold to pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies to use in gelatin production.

03:06Here particles from the animal skins are used to make manure.

03:09The machine that separates all the substances is highly efficient.

03:16This machine is known as a lime water recycling machine.

03:20It recycles and reuses lime water for relining purposes.

03:26So we save about 600 Kg of water per annum by doing this.

03:36He has also dispensed with toxic chrome salt and other metals in the tanning process

03:40and only produces vegetable tanned leather.

03:45So we use tanning extracts from trees like cobracho, mimosa, chestnut, cambier.

03:51There are different extracts that come directly from the tree.

03:54They are treated by chemical companies.

03:57Most of them come from South America.

03:59So yeah, overall the quality of leather is enhanced.

04:03The disadvantage is that natural tanning agents are much more expensive than chromium.

04:08Tanneries in Kanpur are now also obliged to recycle wastewater.

04:13Taj Alam joined forces with other local tanneries to set up a wastewater treatment plant

04:18with the aim of making 80% reusable.

04:26This is our upgraded form of effluent treatment plant.

04:30It's a primary plant.

04:31And after the primary treatment, we do the electro-oxidation and electro-coagulation

04:39that further reduces the organic load of the pollutants in the effluent.

04:45And then it is discharged to the common effluent treatment plant,

04:49which is about two kilometres away from here,

04:51through the underground conveyance system.

04:55The government wants tanneries to become more environmentally friendly.

04:58But this means these businesses have to produce much less than they could.

05:02Otherwise, there are risk fines.

05:06Back to the many small tanneries on the outskirt of Kanpur.

05:09A state-sponsored sewage treatment plant for tanneries has just begun operating here.

05:14Now, the wastewater goes through a purification process before it reaches the Ganges.

05:27The unique aspect of this project is that the chrome,

05:30which used to mix with the effluent, is now separated within the tannery itself.

05:35It is then sent to a separate plant via tankers.

05:39And this plant houses India's largest chromium recovery unit

05:43with a capacity of 900 KLD.

05:50The Indian government is investing millions in making the leather industry more sustainable.

05:55But many small tanneries have given up,

05:57unable to raise the necessary financial investment

06:00and because they can't afford to work below capacity.

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