From Nupur Bahl, All India Artisans and Craftworkers Welfare Association (AIACA), New Delhi
Posted 1 June 2009
I work for the All India Artisans and Craft Workers Welfare Association (AIACA, please visit www.aiacaonline.org for more details). AIACA carries out a range of activities including policy advocacy and market access initiatives to help expand the market for craft products and explore new and more sustainable models of livelihood promotions.
AIACA in partnership with Traidcraft, UK’s leading fair trade organization is working on a four year project - Switch Asia Project to explore environment, health and safety issues in the craft sector in India. The overall objective of the project is to promote sustainable production and consumption of environment friendly textiles in Rajasthan that positively impact the lives of poor artisans as well as their communities.
The textile industry involves water intensive processes that require large volumes of good quality water under various stages of production. The volume of wastewater released is also huge. The industry uses a lot of process chemicals generating about 3773 metric tons per annum (MTA) of hazardous waste of which only 3.25% is recyclable. Some of the small scale textile units are connected with Combined Effluent Treatment Plants (CETP). These CETPs have storage facilities for such hazardous waste; however, proper disposal facilities are not available.
Dying and printing (wet processes) emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These VOCs contaminate water sources, are harmful to the environment and cause grave risk to the health of local communities. The risk is aggravated with the pollution of drinking water sources. This is common in Rajasthan as these textile units are set up by small households and the artisans and their families live and work in these conditions. This makes the situation of these artisans and their families particularly vulnerable. It also goes against the decent work principle since they come in direct contact with harmful chemicals through touch, inhalation and intermixing with drinking water. The most effective way to resolve this situation is to reduce the effluents at source.
Within this context, AIACA seeks specific inputs from members on the following:
- What are the various technologies available for establishment of low cost effluent treatment plants (ETPs) for small scale industries?
- Information and contact details of organizations that are currently working in this area and would be interested in working with us.
The Switch Asia project will immensely benefit from the inputs of members. Suggestions and recommendations from members will help us to create a model of small scale effluent treatment as a best practice model. This can then be replicated by other SME’s in various textile clusters elsewhere in the country.
Please see attachment below for the responses.