ANNOUNCEMENTS
India is a country where most of its population is dependent upon various MSME clusters for their survival and those clusters are the backbone of our economy. In India most of the MSME clusters are situated on the bank of river Ganga and its tributaries. These clusters are situated on the banks of the river so that they can have easy access to water. Excess utilization of surface as well as ground water has lead to water scarcity. Most of the industries on Ganga basin do not have proper waste water treatment facilities as well as the solid waste management facilities which are also a main concern. Industries without any adequate treatment discharge their effluents in river there by affecting its quality of river water thereby affecting the survival of aquatic flaura and fauna. There are various industries on Ganga Basin viz. are Sugar, Leather, Pharmaceutical, Paper & Pulp, Distillery, Food& Beverages, Dairy, Chemicals and etc which are putting a major impact on the river Ganga. These industries are exploiting the water quality of river Ganga and directly and indirectly approximately the life of 400 million individuals who are residing on Ganga Basin. Leather cluster in Kanpur is among the one of the most polluting cluster on Ganga Basin, followed by Sugar and Pulp & Paper. Leather cluster in Kanpur use excess of chrome for tanning purpose and its adverse impact can be seen on the health of the people, drinking water quality, crops grown by farmers. Most of the tanneries in Kanpur do not have chrome recovery units and discharging the effluents without any treatment into the river Ganges. The CETP which is there in Jajmau is also of inadequate capacity, the water released into a CETP is much beyond its specified capacity. Water foot print of a sugar industry can be more than that of Leather industry but the type of materials used in leather manufacturing is mostly of inorganic type and more harmful then the sugar industry. Waste water characteristics of Leather industry are more severe than the sugar industry. Most of the waste is non-biodegradable or inorganic type in leather industry. Thus efficient planning and management is required to maintain the water quality as well as quantity.
Keywords: Economy, Effluents, Ganga Basin, Industries, Water footprint.
