(a) whether it has come to the notice of the Government that several soft drink and
distillery companies are extracting large quantity of water and are causing environmental
pollution to the surroundings;
(b) if so, the number of factories against whom action has been initiated during the
last three years, State-wise; and
(c) the steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Government to ensure these factories
do not cause environmental pollution?
MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS (SHRI JAIRAM RAMESH)
(a)to(c) The soft drink and distillery units abstract groundwater, apart from using surface
water as per its availability and quality for production purpose, and discharge effluents
as a result of their manufacturing processes.
These units are required to conform to effluent standards prescribed under the provisions of
Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974. Polluting industries are also required
to set-up appropriate water pollution control systems to treat their effluents. In this
regard, a large number of distilleries have set-up facilities like reverse osmosis (RO),
digesters and evaporators or concentrators to reduce volume of effluents. CPCB has supervised
trial runs for co-processing of spent wash generated from distilleries, in cement kilns to
achieve ‘Zero Liquid Discharge’.
There are about 650 soft drink and 400 distillery units in the country. During the last three
years, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has carried out inspections and issued
‘Closure Directions’ under Section 5 of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 to 18 distilleries
apart from directing respective State Pollution Control Boards under Section 18 of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 for taking necessary action against 19
non-complying distilleries.