NEW DELHI: Businessmen call it the CETP (common effluent treatment plant) conundrum. It is nobody's baby, yet it is everybody's. It calls for joint action by industrial clusters. The problem is: who will bell the cat? Once again, goaded by the Supreme Court, the Delhi authorities, which had been turning a blind eye to the problem, have suddenly woken up: the Yamuna has got to be cleansed and the culprit checkmated. Invariably, Delhi officialdom points the accusing finger at the business community.

From day one, the CETP issue has turned problematic with the apex court ordering the 28 conforming industrial areas to go in for CETPs and the Delhi Factory Owners Association (DFOF) claiming that 15 will serve the purpose admirably. The logic is that adjoining industrial estates could share the CETP. "So, 15 CETP societies have been formed,'' says J R Jindal, President, DFOF. Each plant will cost about Rs 7.5 crore. Fifty per cent of this amount will be given by the Government (the Union Government will provide 25 per cent, the Delhi State Government 25 per cent); 30 per cent will be given by the World Bank as soft loan; and 20 per cent will be borne by industrialists.

The Delhi Government claims that it would be setting up the CETPs in the new industrial estates. ``We will acquire land to set up the CETPs,'' says Industry Minister Harsharan Singh Balli. Delhi Small Industries Development Corporation will be charged with the responsibility of the implementation. The Government has also appointed the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, to provide technical assistance and advice for which it will be paid Rs 4.5 crore. ``But we are not satisfied by the report NEERI has prepared on the effluents in various areas. Therefore, we are getting assistance from experts in the Banaras Hindu University and the Aligarh Muslim University,'' says Jindal.

There seems to be some confusion about the exact role to be played by the Government and the industrial bodies. It is not very clear who will do what. "In industrial areas,'' argues Jindal, ``there are shops, government offices, banks, police stations, residential colonies, etc. All these places also contribute to water pollution. We feel that they should also share the burden of CETPs.''

Often finding land for a CETP is difficult. Anand Parbat is one such industrial area. ``Working on the CETP is not easy,'' said Santlal Gupta, General Secretary, Anand Parbat Industrial Area CETP Society.``The problem is that nobody knows how this plant has to be built. There is no information about the amount of water to be treated. Industrial effluents get mixed up with sewage from the residential area. Even officials don't know how to handle the problem. They tell us that if the plant is too big or too small than required, it won't work; at the most, it can take 10 per cent more or less effluents.''

Not all industry bodies, however, seem to be bogged down by the CETP issue. ``We have completed all the formalities about the CETP as ordered by the Supreme Court last year,'' says Ashok Kumar Gupta, President, Dall & Besan Millers Association, Lawrence Road. ``It was essentially paperwork; there has been no progress after that. Even the site for the CETP has not been fixed. There is nobody to inform us about that. It seems that finally every unit will have to shell out Rs 1-1.5 lakh". In any case, in the Lawrence Road industrial area, the waste is not very toxic, most of the industries being in the food sector and the wastes being used as cattle feed, there is no water pollution; in fact, not much water is required for such units.

There is some measure of scepticism regarding the efficacy of CETPs. A K Kaul, President, Badli Industrial Association, says that there is no provision for outflow of water in the area. Not only that, ``the working of CETP societies is going to cause a few headaches, as in India the co-operative movement has not been a great success, notwithstanding the success of Amul.'' About the particular problems of his area, Kaul points out that the suitable piece of land on which a CETP could have been built has been encroached by slum dwellers.

It is felt that it would have been better had the authorities decided to build CETPs near the mouths of drains, like Najafgarh Drain, which outflow into the Yamuna; this would have also taken care of the sewage, another major source of the pollution of the river.

Several industrialists point out that they as well the authorities are forced to tackle the problem of water pollution; nobody is acting on his free will; therefore, only the incorrigible optimists can afford to be hopeful. Besides attitudinal stumbling blocks, there are a number of practical problems. For one, not many are aware about the magnitude of water pollution and the regional fluctuations due to the existence of a variety of industrial units in the Capital; the available database is scarcely satisfactory.Entrepreneurs have been wondering whether the Government has perfected the technology required for running CETPs. Is the equipment readily available? Will running a CETP be financially feasible? These are genuine concerns. It has also been pointed out that NEERI, being a research body, is ill-equipped to assist in the setting up of CETPs. u

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.