Effluents mixing in River Noyyal, action sought

COIMBATORE: River Noyyal, which was once a pride of Coimbatore, has now turned into an eyesore in tail-end areas due to the mixing of sewage and effluents.

“Sewage shouldn’t be released into a water body directly without processing, but most of the local bodies flout these norms and pollute the river without any concern,” said A Eswaran, executive member of Tamil Nadu Science Forum and environmentalist from Tirupur.

In a positive development, the discharge of effluents from textile dyeing units in Tirupur have mostly stopped the practice as they have set up a common effluent treatment plant (CETP) to process and reuse the water.

“This change towards zero discharge came after the year 2015. Still, some of the other industries in Coimbatore continue to pollute the river. The water flowed blackish in Tirupur, soon after rains, as stagnant sewage was washed away following downpour,” he added.

The public expressed concern over the fate of the water, which frothed at Nallamman check dam near Mangalam area in Tirupur following rains a few days ago. They sought to take up the long pending Noyyal River rejuvenation works, proposed at a cost of Rs 230-crore project covering a stretch of 158.35 km in Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode and Karur districts.

In Erode district, which has a large number of dyeing units, the district administration has been constantly cracking the whip on units polluting the Kalingarayan canal and Cauvery River.

Currently, there are around 543 dyeing, printing, and laundry units, besides 22 leather industries in the district. “Since 2016, the district organising committee chaired by the district collector has penalized and disconnected power supply to a total of 243 laundry and printing units for violation.

In addition, power has been disconnected for 101 dyeing units and 24 leather industries during the same period. Separately, the TNPCB has disconnected the power for six dyeing units and another 14 laundry and printing units in the last seven years,” said an official.