During my Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) in a textile factory, I witnessed a troubling reality that many people may not be aware of. I saw large amounts of untreated wastewater, full of dyes, chemicals, and toxic substances, flowing freely from the factory outlets. These textile effluents, which are the by-products of processes like dyeing, bleaching, and printing, are often released into nearby ponds, rivers, and other water bodies.
This disturbing sight left a lasting impression on me and raised many questions. The once-vibrant water bodies were now contaminated, posing a serious threat to the environment and our health. This eye-opening experience sparked my desire to understand the deep impacts of textile effluent on our health and the environment.
Understanding textile effluents
Textile effluent is made up of various synthetic dyes and toxic chemicals, including acids, heavy metals, sulphur, and alkalis, which are often released directly into water bodies. This wastewater, filled with numerous pollutants, can contaminate drinking water, making it unsafe for human consumption. Cotton mills, which use large amounts of water in their wet processing stages, produce effluents that are heavily contaminated, especially in the dyeing and printing processes, due to the presence of dyes and toxic chemicals that are not easily broken down by conventional treatment methods.
Health impacts
The discharge of wastewater from textile industries has become a growing global concern due to its negative impacts on health and the environment. Research has shown that textile dyes can enter the food chain, build up in organisms, and disrupt photosynthesis. They also have the potential to cause toxic, mutagenic, and cancerous effects if the wastewater is not treated before being released into water bodies. Because of these risks, managing toxic textile dye wastewater is an urgent need.
The wastewater discharged from the textile industry is often dark in colour and has a high pH, biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total organic carbon (TOC), total suspended solids (TSS), and total nitrogen (TN). This type of wastewater has a harmful effect on water bodies because it reduces sunlight penetration, which decreases the dissolved oxygen levels in the water. This, in turn, affects the aquatic environment and disrupts the ecosystem.
According to the World Bank, around 17-20 per cent of wastewater from dyeing to finishing processes is discharged into the environment. Textile dyes have significantly degraded the quality of water bodies, with large amounts of unfixed dyes being dumped into nearby water sources as untreated effluent. Most factories discharge this wastewater directly into canals that lead to lagoons and rivers, contaminating water, soil, and air, which results in higher disease rates and ultimately reduces life expectancy.
Exposure to these pollutants has been linked to various health problems in humans, including allergies, dermatitis, skin irritations, blurred vision, cancers, and genetic mutations. The chemicals can evaporate into the air we breathe or be absorbed through our skin, causing allergic reactions and potentially harming children even before birth. Heavy metals in textile industry effluents are not biodegradable, meaning they accumulate in the body’s primary organs and, over time, can lead to various diseases. For example, chromium, a heavy metal, can cause asthma, rhinitis, laryngitis, pulmonary fibrosis, severe gastrointestinal pain, liver and kidney damage, necrotic diarrhoea, nausea, lung cancer, prostate cancer, urinary system cancer, and bone cancer. These heavy metals build up in living organisms, causing severe negative impacts.
Recycling as a solution
Textile effluent can be recycled, and in recent times, various technologies have been developed to address this issue. Recycling this waste, which poses a threat to our health and environment, has many benefits. It helps conserve water, which is a scarce resource heavily needed in the industry, minimises environmental pollution, and reduces health risks. Instead of allowing wastewater to become a nuisance, this essential but scarce resource can be recycled.
Recycling textile effluent is challenging because it requires advanced treatment to remove contaminants and dissolved salts, making the treated effluent suitable for reuse. Recycling and reusing water is an effective way to make use of water and reduce the dangers posed by textile effluent. This effort aims to use the fully treated wastewater for industrial use again or for less critical uses. This strategy will help reduce water pollution, save water, conserve nutrients, and prevent the overuse of water resources.
In recent years, there has been a significant focus on removing dyes from wastewater due to their hazardous properties. Efforts in treating effluents will have a positive impact on both human health and the environment.
