NEW DELHI: The empowered committee of Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, as part of India’s largest deep-sea disposal project, has recommended dumping 650 million litres per day (MLD) of treated industrial wastewater from the textile and chemical hubs in Surat in deep sea near the Gulf of Khambhat in Arabian Sea.
The effluents are proposed to be carried through pipelines to the landfall located near Danti Village in Navsari, and extend to the outfall point offshore in the Ubharat and Vansi regions of the Arabian Sea.
The project vehicle, Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation, said the onshore pipeline network will extend approximately 67.5 km, while the offshore pipelines will range between 15 km and 17.9 km from the landfall point to the respective marine diffuser locations.
Under the chairmanship of M S Negi, chief of the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) on Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ), the proposal has been recommended for CRZ clearance in line with the CRZ Notification of 2019, at a meeting on October 8, 2026.In its recommendation, the committee highlighted the saturation of existing effluent disposal systems from the CETPs into local creeks.
“The treated effluent is currently discharged into nearby creeks. Due to the limited carrying capacity of these creeks, further discharge of treated effluent is not permissible,” the committee said.
Environmentalists have criticised this approach. Local fisherfolk in Navsari and Surat fear a loss of livelihood. “They are concerned that releasing such huge daily volumes of industrial wastewater (650 MLD) will decimate local fish populations and push thousands of fishing families into financial hardship,” said MSH Sheikh of Brackish Water Research Centre, a Surat based non-profit.