Physico-chemical characteristics of untreated and treated effluent of a paper industry

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an environment, these contaminants cause instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the physical systems and living organisms. Clean environment and water are precious and essential natural resources. Everyone has a duty to keep it clean and pollution free. It is now universally realized that any future developmental activity has to be viewed in light of its ultimate environmental impact. The tremendous increase in industrial activity during the last few decades and release of obnoxious industrial wastes in the environment, have been of considerable concern in recent years from the point of environmental pollution. The increase in pollution level is of great concern, in all over the world. The increasing pollution due to effluent generation from industries is also bringing a challenge to scientists. The menace of water-borne diseases and epidemics still threatens the well-being of population, particularly in underdeveloped and developing countries. The effluent generates from the conventional paper mills generally contain more lignin compounds, Absorbable Organic Halide and Total Organic Chloride which even after treatment have much more BOD (bio-chemical oxygen demand), COD (chemical oxygen demand), suspended solids and other effluent parameters. A number of studies have already been carried out on the effluents of paper mills. During literature survey and discussions it was obtained that no detail study has been performed on the paper mill using cotton based raw material in India at the bank of river Narmada. The raw material used for manufacturing the paper not only polluting the water but also poisoning environment by cutting trees.