Case Study Of The Textile Industry In Tirupur

A Resource Flow Analysis (RFA) was undertaken for the town of Tirupur, in the south of India, It demonstrated how a Regional Resource Flow Analysis could be effectively used. Water is scarce in the area and the wet processing of textiles has rendered the ground water unusable. A large quantity of salt is used in the dyeing process and the process wastewater (90 million litres per day) is highly saline and is contaminated with a variety of chemicals. As there is hardly any source of fresh water nearby, water is brought in by trucks from ground water sources (which are yet to be polluted) as far as 50 Kms away at an enormous cost. A detailed Resource Flow Analysis was carried out for the town. Only when the figures were aggregated did the industrialists realize that they were collectively spending over US$ 7 million annually on buying water and in addition, the annual maintenance cost of the effluent treatment plant would be an enormous burden. The aggregate figures immediately showed that water could be recycled profitably. The second outcome of the study was that the study highlighted the fact that the calorific value of the solid waste (garbage) was high as it contained large quantities of textile and paper wastes. This could be used effectively to partially replace the 500,000 tones of scarce firewood being used in the town (there is grave concern over rapid deforestation in India).

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