The story of Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) in India:

An interesting development happened in a small place in the South of India called Tirupur in 2010. Known as the ‘Knit City’, due to the plethora of T-Shirt processing and garmenting units located here, Tirupur’s 700–odd dyeing units were ordered to be shut down by the Madras High Court in 2011 on a petition moved by the Farmers Association in the area. The petition claimed that these units were discharging hazardous dyes and chemicals into the Noyyal River and into the surrounding farmlands and this had caused the river water and farmlands to become toxic – resulting in children developing skin problems, livestock dying after drinking water from the Noyyal River and field cultivation getting impossible due to the highly colored groundwater. The Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) of the effluent being discharged by these units was 4000- 5000 ppm, well above the legal limit of 2100 ppm.