INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION AND
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
PART -4
Industries contribute significantly to India's
economic growth and development.
Increase in pollution of land,water,air,noise and
resulting degradation of environment.
AIR POLLUTION
Caused by the presence of high proportion of
undesirable gases,such as sulphur dioxide and
carbon monoxide.
Air-borne particulate materials contain both
solid and liquid particles like dust,sprays mist
and smoke.
WATER POLLUTION
The main culprits in this regard are
paper,chemical,textile and dyeing,petroleum
refinaries,tanneries.etc.
Fly ash,phospho-gypsum and iron and steel
slags are the major soild wastes in India.
THERMAL POLLUTION
When hot water from factories and thermal
plants is drained in to rivers and ponds before
cooling.
Waste from nuclear power plants,nuclear and
weapon production facilities cause
cancers,birth defects and misscarriages.
Soil and water pollution are closely
related.Dumping of wastes specially
glass,harmful chemicals,industrial
effluents,salts and garbage renders the soil
useless.
Rain water percolates to the soil carrying
the pollutants to the ground and the ground
water also get contaminated.
SOURCE
Industrial and construction activities,factory
equipment,generators,saws and pneumatic
and electric drills also make a lot of noise.
CONTROL OF ENVIRONMENTAL
DEGRADATION.
I. Minimising use water for processing by
reusing and recycling it in two or more
successive stages.
II. Harvesting of rainwater to meet water
requirements.
iii)Treating hot water and effluents before
releasing them in rivers and ponds.
Treatment of industrial effluents can be
done in three phases.
(a) Primary treatment by mechanical means:
This involve
screening,grinding,flocculation and
sedimentation.
process by which fine particulates are caused to clump together into a floc. The floc may then float to the top of the liquid (creaming), settle to the bottom of the liquid (sedimentation), or be readily filtered from the liquid.
• (b)Secondary treament by biological
process.
• (c) Tertiary treatment by bilogical,chemical
and physical processes.This involves
recycling of wastewater.
Controlof Environmental degradation
I. Ground water resource to be regulated
legally.
II. Particulate matter in the air can be reduced
by fitting smoke stacks to factories with
electostatic precipitators,fabric
filters,scrubbers and inertial separators.
• A smokestack, stack, or chimney is a tall
vertical pipe or channel used by power
plants to exhaust combustion gases into the
air.
• Fabric filters (also called baghouses) are
devices that remove particulate from a gas
stream by passing the dirty air through a
layer of cloth filtration.
• Scrubber systems (e.g. chemical scrubbers, gas
scrubbers) are a diverse group of air pollution
control devices that can be used to remove some
particulates and/or gases from industrial exhaust
streams.
Inertial separators
iii) Smoke can be reduced by using oil or gas
instead of coal in factories.
iv)Machinery and equipment can be used and
generator should be fitted with silencers.
v)All machinery can be redesigned to increase
energy efficiency and reduce noise.
vi)Noise absorbing material may be used apart
from personal use of earplugs and earphones.
NTPC
National Thermal Power Corporation is a
major power providing corporation in India.
It has ISO certification for EMS(Environment
Management System)14001
The corporation has a pro-active approach for preserving the natural
environment and resources like water,oil and gas and fuels in places
where its is setting up power plants.This has been possible through---
a) Optimum utilisation of equipment adopting
latest techniques and upgrading existing
equipment.
b) Minimising waste generation by maximising
ash utilisation.
c) Providing green belts for nurturing ecological
balance and addressing thequestion of
special purpose vehicles for afforestation.
d)Reducing environmental pollution through ash
pond management ,ash water recycling system
and liquid waste management.
• e) Ecological monitoring, reviews and online-
database management for all its power
stations.
