Factual and action taken report by joint committee comprising the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board, District Magistrate, Indore Commissioner, Indore Municipal Corporation and Member Secretary, Central Ground Water Authority in compliance to the National Green Tribunal order, March 29, 2022.

The matter was taken by the Green Tribunal in the light of media reports to the effect that toxic effluent generated from Sanwer Road Industrial Area, district Indore is resulting in contamination of surface and groundwater.

The Sanwer Road Industrial Area is basically developed for small scale industries and there are 514 industries - out of these 137 are red, 162 are orange and 215 are green. Out of 514 industries 188 are water polluting in nature. The Municipal Corporation Indore has installed a common sewage and effluent treatment plant (CSETP) of capacity 4 MLD for treatment of industrial effluent along with sewage of the area.

All the water-polluting industries of the area are connected with the above CSETP. The inspection report found that all the water polluting industries are having primary treatment plant facilities. The ETP was found running. After treatment, the wastewater is sent to CSETP installed by IMC, Indore.

Analysis of the ground water samples collected during inspection found that dissolved solids are more than prescribed standards. This may be due to land application of the treated effluent for a long time by the industries in past when CSETP was not installed. As well as discharge of untreated domestic waste water from residential colonies located upstream of industrial area into Narvar nallah which passes through the industrial area. Other parameters in ground water of the industrial area are within prescribed standards.

It was observed that maximum industries are extracting ground water without obtaining the ground water NOC from Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA).