Introduction

Industrialisation plays an important role in the economic development of a country and often industrial growth has been pitted against environmental conservation. Employment opportunities, goods and services for meeting essential human needs and a better standard of living are important. In India, since independence, the economic policies followed by the central government—as well as at the state level—have promoted industrial development through many measures. During industrial growth, natural resources have been used and they have often been at the receiving end especially when used for private gains.

Of the natural resources, water seems to be an important and irreplaceable input for industrial processes, and water pollution is one of the main resulting outputs in addition to waste heat, air pollution and solid wastes. The country is currently facing its worst ever water crisis. According to the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) report released by the National Institution for Transforming India (or the NITI Aayog) in 2018, 21 major cities in the country will run out of groundwater by 2020—this will have an effect on water access for 100 million people (NITI Aayog, 2018a). Urgent and improved management of water resources has thus been highlighted. So serious is the situation that a separate water ministry, Jal Shakti Ministry, was set up in 2019. The major factors contributing to water scarcity are poor management of the water resources, lack of governance and pollution of the available resources.

The environment can absorb the pollution to its assimilative capacity, beyond which it leads to degradation of the receiving water bodies. In the environment-development debate, economists believe that ‘growth and development’ should be the overriding goals, while ‘environmental concerns’ are considered as impediments to growth and development (Iyer, 2014). Iyer suggests reversing that proposition by asking: Can we have developed at the cost of the environment?

There has been a steady rise in the number of polluted river stretches in the country. The number has risen from 150 in 2012 to 351 in 2018 (CPCB, 2012; CPCB, 2018). The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has also reported pollution of the water resources in its performance audit report (CAG, 2011). The heavy metal pollution in certain river stretches has also been reported in a study conducted by the Central Water Commission (CWC) in 2014 (CWC, 2014). These studies are based on a limited number of samples and present a macro picture of the problem of water pollution and do not delve deeper into the problem at the local level.

There have been numerous instances in the country where industries have caused excessive damage to the environment. For example, the pollution of the river Chaliyar by Grasim Industries in Kerala, the pollution of the Ganga by tanneries in Kanpur, the pollution of the Noyyal by tanneries in Tamil Nadu, the pollution of the Sabarmati by industries in Ahmedabad and the pollution of the Damanganga by industries in Vapi and Daman and so on. A constant deterioration in the quality of water resources, owing to investments in industries and rapid urbanisation trends, has been observed. Industrial operations are the source of some of the most toxic pollutants and the most seriously polluted environments (Adams, 2001; Parthasarathy & Raja, 2013). The reason is aptly summarised in a quote from Rachel Carson (1962) in the book titled Silent Spring'. ‘It is an era dominated by industry, in which the right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged’ (Carson, 1962). The environmental costs are passed on to society and are not internalised by the producers (Tietenberg, 2004: 142).

The pollution of water resources with biological and chemical contaminants is a serious issue affecting the availability of an already scarce resource. The presence of trace and toxic metals in the water bodies receiving industrial discharges further adds to the complexity of the situation. These are highly persistent and have the potential to bio-accumulate and bio-magnify in the food chain. These metals have serious implications for the health of human beings, livestock, aquatic life and ecology. Lack of clean water influences not only communities but industries too. Some companies have had to close down their manufacturing operations due to lack of available water (TOI, 2019).

In the book titled Greening India's Growth, edited by Muthukumara Mani (2014), the ecological consequences of economic growth in the form of cost to society, ill-health, income lost and increased economic vulnerability on account of specific forms of environmental abuse have been examined. The study estimated that in the year 2009, the cost of environmental degradation in India was about Rs. 3.75 trillion, equivalent to 5.7 per cent of the GDP. T.N. Ninan, as quoted in a recent article (Guha, 2014), has arrived at similar conclusions. Thus, conventional monetary estimates of national income that neglect the impact on resources present a misleading picture of growth.

Environmental losses once suffered are difficult to reverse or restore. For example, due to the damage done to the ozone layer, it will take another 50 years to restore it to the levels of ozone concentration prevalent in the 1980s.

The pollution in the Ganga could not be reversed despite several plans to clean up the river, such as the Ganga Action Plan I and Ganga Action Plan II and the setting up of a special authority called the National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection and Management of River Ganga (Dwivedi, Mishra & Tripathi, 2018). Thousands of crores of rupees have been spent on cleaning the river, but it continues to be polluted (Mishra, 2014).

Realising the negative consequences of economic growth, contrary to the economic growth discourse, a de-growth discourse emerged in the late 2000s with the first international de-growth conference held in Paris in the year 2008. The de-growth movement argues that economic growth cannot be endless in a world of finite resources. De-growth advocates would like to push for downscaling the economy stating that endless growth would lead to unsustainable consumption and production, putting the well-being of the planet and human beings at risk. The de-growth movement promotes a less-materialistic and less-consumerist society. The de-growth movement almost resonates with the ‘limits to growth’ theory of the 1970s. De-growth is a radical philosophy but may not be an option just now for a country like India, as it is still a developing economy with a lower—middle per capita income and a large population below the poverty line.

This book focuses on highlighting the need and importance of industrial development and argues for the sustenance of such developmental efforts, given the environmental impacts of such activities. Attention needs to be focused not only on economic growth and industrial development but also on protecting and improving environmental quality. Realising this, the concept of sustainable development was put forward in the global conference on environment and development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, to which India is a signatory. Sustainable development goals (SDGs) were launched in 2015, with an implementation window of 2016—2030. India has committed itself to achieve the SDGs. SDGs are not subjective and each goal has its own listed targets. Measurable indicators have been defined to measure progress under each target. The targets and the corresponding indicators are interconnected and the performance under one impacts the performance of the others. There are specific goals and targets relating to the following: economic and industrial development; waste generation; waste treatment; water quality of the rivers; marine pollution; deaths and illnesses from pollution and so on. These are discussed further in the following sections of this chapter.