Industrial pollution in India

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Industrial pollution in India

• What are we learning?
• Indian oil refineries
• Shipyards in Alang
• The relationship between industrial pollution and
  crop yields in India

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1. India refineries told to clean up

• Authorities in India's north-eastern state of
  Assam have threatened local oil refineries with
  closure unless they stopped polluting local
  rivers.
• Assam's Pollution Control Board has given five
  refineries a year to stop discharging effluents
  into rivers.
• It says the refineries were dumping effluents at
  levels much higher than acceptable federal limits.

• Experts say the older oil refineries were the
  main polluters.
• As it was more difficult to install pollution
  control equipment in their old equipment

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The Effects of the oil refineries

• The refineries have damaged to the rivers in the
  past 40 years.
• A lot of marine life, like fish, tortoises and
  the river dolphin, has almost disappeared.

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2. Shipyards at Alang

• Another example of industrial pollution is
  Alang, the largest shipbreaking yard in the
  world.
• The 11-km coastline of the yard has been
  severely polluted due to scrapping of hazardous
  ships
• The shipyards at Alang recycle approximately half
  of all ships salvaged around the world. The yards
  are located on the Gulf of Khambat, 50 kilometres
  southeast of Bhavnagar.

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Why is it located in Gujarat?

• The industry has low running costs - it uses
  almost no electricity or machines - and labour is
  cheap.
• India's environmental and safety standards are
  much more lenient than those of its customers,
  like Japan, Korea, Russia, Germany and the United
  States.
• Alang is perfect for shipbreaking because the
  high tides carry the vessels up the beach and
  wedge them into the sand. There's no need for dry
  docks or jetties

• The labourers are migrants who have come to
  Gujarat from the poorest states in India - from
  Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh
• It could be argued that workers were earning well
  by Indian standards. Also, the shipbreakers were
  providing jobs for the poorest of India's poor
  and bringing valuable income to Gujarat.

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• Greenpeace says scrapped ships contain a wide
  range of toxic paints and substances which are
  hazardous to workers' health .
• Alang represents a dilemma for India and the
  West. The worker exploitation and environmental
  contamination of the shipyards has to be weighed
  up against their economic importance.

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Future changes at Alang shipyards

• Owners of India's Alang ship breaking yard are
  looking into hiring an outside firm to conduct
  asbestos removal in an attempt to improve their
  image among environmental groups, such as
  Greenpeace and increase business which has
  declined following negative reports about working
  conditions and disputes with other countries.
• The move could save the lives of workers by
  reducing their exposure to toxic materials but
  thus far asbestos is the only material among
  lead, PCBs and others that would normally require
  special handling procedures elsewhere.
• The move is aimed at generating revenue that has
  been lost to competing shipyards in Pakistan and
  Bangladesh as well as a drop in steel prices.

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3. The relationship between industrial pollution
and crop yields in India

• Pollution-laden clouds may be partly to blame for
  India's dwindling rice harvests, according to
  research.
• A US team found brown clouds, which cloak much of
  South Asia, have a negative impact on rice output
  by reducing sunlight, making it cooler.
• The models they used suggest the haze may reduce
  rain and snow over parts of western central Asia
  by between 20 and 40.

Environmental Pollution over
India
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• These layers of air pollution, which contain soot
  and other fine particles, are primarily created
  from burning fossil fuels.
• The study only looked into farming regions which
  primarily used rain to water their crops. The
  researchers said the effect would be less
  pronounced on areas which relied on other
  irrigation methods.

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India should reduce dependence on fossil fuels
to reduce industrial pollution

• March 16th, 2009 in Thaindian news said
• If India has to continuously grow at eight to
  nine percent, then it should reduce dependence on
  fossil fuels, the Prime Ministers Special Envoy
  on Climate Change Shyam Saran said here Monday
• Saran referred to the fear that industrialised
  countries would use intellectual property rights
  and trade competitiveness in the race to develop
  and use greener technologies. He said these would
  be major obstacles for environmentally friendly
  technology adoption.

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• According to Indias Integrated Energy Policy, by
  2030 India will be importing more than 90 percent
  of oil and about two-thirds to three-fourths of
  coal, and the energy cost will increase.

• In this regard he reflected upon the National
  Solar Energy Mission, which is a project by the
  government to reduce Indias dependence on
  non-renewable energy sources.

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Thanks to the following for the use of the images

• www.flickr.com
• www.pollutionarticles.blogspot.com/2008/01/polluti
  on
• www.spaceandmotion.com
• www.stockvault.net
• www.cia.gov