Stricter standards for sugar industry to check water pollution

With an aim to minimise water pollution, the Centre has notified ‘stricter’ environmental standards for sugar industry operating in various parts of the country.

The Environment Ministry said that the revised standards will lead to improved operational performance of these industries through implementation of wastewater discharge and conservation standards and pollution control management protocol.

“The government has notified stricter environment standards for sugar industries operating in various states in the country. The primary aim of these standards is to minimise water pollution. The Environment Ministry has notified the standards on January 14, 2016 in Gazette of India,” an official statement said.

Elaborating on the revised standards, the ministry said that specific wastewater discharge standards have been made stricter by limiting the discharge to '200 litre per tonne of cane crushed' against the earlier limit of '400 litre per tonne cane crushed'.

"This will ultimately result in less consumption of raw water at operational level. The final treated effluent discharge has been restricted to 100 litres per tonne of cane crushed and waste water from spray pond overflow or cooling tower blow down to be restricted to 100 litres per tonne of cane crushed.

"Only single outlet point from unit has been allowed to encourage operational efficiency and treated effluent recycling practices. Further, only one outlet or discharge point will be allowed, which will be covered as per the '24x7 online monitoring' protocol," said the statement.