From Bioethics in Asia: Proceedings of the UNESCO Asian Bioethics Conference (3-8 Nov 1997, Kobe and Fukui, Japan) ed. Neno Fujiki & Daryl RJ Mauer (Christchurch, NZ: Eubios Ethics Institute, 1998) pp. 191-195.

by C. Thomson Jacob and Jayapaul Azariah
Dept. of Zoology, University of Madras, India

Source: (Carta Textile)

*Value in million yen., % in 97/96.

Source: Japan Textile Importers Association. Tokyo

In the global market Brazil is one of the largest producers and consumer of cotton materials From information available from ABIT, for 1996, China stands first in production and consumption in Asia India stands third in production and consumption. The ten largest produces of cotton and their consumption are given in Table 2 (AEPC, 1997)

2. Ground Water Pollution

Untreated textile effluents released from the industries on open land seeps into the aquifer and increase the concentration of EC, TDS, Na & Cl Contamination of ground water in India has been reported in various places because of large number of dyeing and printing units within the city of Mathura (U.P) (Rastogi & Gaumat 1990) and in Pali (Rajasthan) (Gupta and Jain 1992) In Tamil Nadu ground water pollution is reported in Ambur, Ranipet, Pernampet, Vaniyambadi, Karur and Tiruppur

The water used in the process is almost entirely discharged as waste, the average being 150 to 175 liters of wastewater for every kg of fabric processed. This poses a great demand for ground water Untreated effluents contain substances that could endanger the aquatic life. Some of the dyes present in the wastewater and carcinogenic and harmful not only to human beings but also to plants and animals (Rugunatha, 1977). The ground water in Tiruppur is highly brackish (Jacks, et al 1994). The ground water quality in this vicinity has resulted in damage to agricultural crops and has caused skin disorder (Prabakaran, 1994).

The total water consumption of Tiruppur is 93 mld (million litres per day) from which the industry alone consumes 91.6 mld of water. It is reported that only 33 mld of water is supplied by the municipality and private lorry supply is around 60 mld of water per day. The cost of water payable by a industry is about Rs. 2.50 per litre. Therefore, the demand placed by industry and households has forced the conversion of agricultural lands for commercial private market supply amounts to 50-60% of water used in Tiruppur. The buying price from wells ranges between Rs. 40 and 80 per tanker. The average price for a 12,000 litre capacity tanker is Rs. 240,300 (Blomqvist, 1994)

The dependence on cart supplies continues as the municipal supply is not adequate to meet household, industrial & commercial needs. The textile processing units still continue to purchase water, spending Rs.1500/ day. Each processing unit spends about Rs. 1 Lakh/ every month on the purchase of water. If such a trend continues then the availability of portable fresh water will be one of the major limiting factor to future growth and will emerge as a constantly growing source of conflict (Shane cave, 1993).

More than one third of India's population consists of children aged between 1 and 14 years. Children are denied their basic right, the right to childhood. The plight of India is very grim, 60% of young children are underweight, 30% are malnourished and 65% of school-going children are out of school and child workers toil in unhygienic and hazardous occupations and processes with long working hours for meager wages in very vulnerable environments (Aloysius 1996). The Factory Act 1948 prohibits the employment of child labour in industries, but in Tiruppur 30.000 to 60,000 Children are employed in under exploitative conditions that are harmful to their physical, mental, and moral development and it is violation of human rights.

The textile industries use synthetic organic dyes like yarn due, direct due, basic dye, vat dye, sulfur dye, nepthol dye, developed dye and reactive dye. The large variety of chemicals used in bleaching and dyeing process render them very complex. These chemicals are used in an attempt to make more attractive popular shades of fabrics for a competitive market (Rajagopalan, 1990). The textile industries are to satisfy the ever growing demands in terms of quality, variety, fastness and other technical requirements, but the use of dye stuffs has become increasingly a subject of environmental concern. Therefore, it is essential to evolve regulations designated to improve the health and safety and the human and natural environment. In India different textile processing units in Tiruppur use a number of chemicals that are likely to be from the Red List Group which is said to be harmful and unhealthy (Ravi Kumar and Dutta, 1996). It is recommended that these industries must accept ISO 9000 & ISO 14000 series put forward by the European Community and international Standards for better management of industries and ecology of Tiruppur.

6. Ethics and Law

1. The Water Act 1997. The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has set tolerance limits for various pollutants present in the effluent depending upon the mode of disposal of effluent either into inland, surface water or into irrigation.
2. The G.O. Ms No. 213, imposes a total ban on setting up of highly polluting industries within 1 km from the embankments of public drinking water sources, reservoir and rivers.
3. Environmental Authority The Supreme Court has ordered the Government of Tamil Nadu to set up an Environmental Authority to assess the extent of damage caused to the Environment. "The authority should compute compensation under two heads, namely reversing the ecology and payment to individuals. The Collector/District Magistrate shall recover the amount from the polluters, if necessary, as arrears of land revenue. He shall disburse the compensation awarded by the Authority to the affected persons/families" (Section 3) "An industry may have set up the necessary pollution control device at present but it shall be liable to pay for the past pollution generated by the said industry which has resulted in the environmental degradation and suffering to the residents of the area". (Section 5)

The Supreme Court has been unequivocal in its judgment that industries are liable for past damages caused to the environment or to individuals. With regard to remediation following order was passed. "The Authority shall frame scheme (s) for reversing the damage cause to the ecology and environment by pollution in the State Government under the supervision of the Central Government. The expenditure shall be met from the Environment Protection Fund and from other sources provided by the State Government and the Central Government" (Section 7). The Supreme Court was equally clear that remediation (i.e. reversing the damage) must be undertaken whenever possible by the State Government. (Appasamy, & Devanathan, 1997).

Though there has been a multitude of regulations, many of the older and smaller units are not implementing the pollution control regulations, due to financial, technical or space constraints. The regulations are rather weak, in the long run self regulation, the use of pollution pay principle strategies and transparent environmental quality reporting system would be effective.

7. Ethical Restoration

1. Strict enforcement of law to the industries to meet the standards
2. Efficient cleaner technology should be introduced to meet the effluent standards
3. Industry should practice waste minimization, recycling, recovery and reuse of waste from the processed chemicals
4. Green marketing with eco-friendly products and with eco-labelling or eco-mark for their products
5. Exporting industries should get ISO 14000 certification
6. Abolish child labour
7. Ethical Committee to be formed locally

8. Conclusion
The relationship between the buyer and seller and economy that has controlled the demand projection can be depicted as a 4-pointed pyramid with the points, Economy, Demand, Seller and Buyer. When the demand of the Textile industries becomes high, the buyer and seller are concerned about the economic gain resulting from the damage of the ecology. The statistical figures show that the developed countries are interested in buying products from developing countries to save their own ecology and economy affecting the ecology of the developing countries. To overcome this problem the developed country buyers should have some ethical concern, so that they pay back the money which damages our ecology. To restore our ecology the developed countries should pay to import suitable technology and also to restore the historical damages caused to the Ecology. This type of give and take policy will be beneficial to the economy and ecology of both the buyer and seller.

To create better environment and protect the ecosystem from further degradation the developing countries need to apply their well designed policies from the start, cleaning up past mistakes. Developed countries once neglected this industry now favour the growth of the industries. The ecological concerns and economic developments are not contradictory but complementary to each other with a single common goal of sustainable development without depleting the natural resources.

AEPC, (1997), Apparel Fortmightly, Volume IV, issue No 12, September 15th pp 1-11 Appasamy, P and P.S. Devanathan (1997), Method of Damage Assessment A Case Study of the Palar Basin (pp 1&2)

Blomquist, Annat (1994), Association of water users in Tiruppur - The development of local user groups initiatives in urban water management A research proposal, MIDS, Madras, pp 56

Gupta, I.C., and B.L. Jan (1992), Salinisation and Alkalisation of ground water pollution due to Textile hand processing Industries in Pali Curr, Agri, 16(1-2) 59-62

Jacks, G., M. Kilhage and C. Magnusson (114), The Environmental Cost of T-Shirt Sharing Common Water Resources, Background paper, pp, 1-7

Prabakaran, 1994, Sources and classification of water pollution, Ed. N. Irving Saxed, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.

Ragunathan (1997), EPTS - Textile Units Face Hobson's Choice, The Hindu, April 27th

Rajagopalan, S (1990), Water pollution problem in Textile Industry and control. In Pollution Management in Industries Ed. R.K. Trivedy, Environmental Pollution, Karad, India pp 21-45

Rastogi, R. and M.M. Gaumat (1990), Pollution of groundwater in Madura city, Uttar Pradesh Bhujal- News, 5 49-51

Ravikumar and P.K. Dutta (1996), Are Textiles Finishing The Environment? IJEP 16(7), 499-501

Shane Cave (1993), Poor Water Poor People Poor Water, Our Planet, Volume 5, Number 2

Subramaniam (1997) Origin and growth of Textile dyeing Industries and Impact of closure due to pollution control on labour at Tiruppur, pp 1-8, (Unpublished)