Politician says state funding will help tanners bring in lyophilisation
16/09/2011
Ms Tandon, who represents voters in Unnao, an important tanning industry location in Uttar Pradesh, said she had been campaigning throughout her political career (which started in 2009) for raw materials suppliers and tanners to stop using salt. Instead lyophilisation uses very low temperatures to preserve the material, but critics have pointed out that the expense of the technology will make it impossible to use for many in the hide and skin supply chain in many parts of India.
Annu Tandon claims that leather-processing units located primarily in the Ganga river basin in Jajmau and Unnao are using around 3,000 tonnes of salt per day to preserve 5,000 tonnes of raw hide. “This salt finds its way into the Ganga and is polluting our national river and a number of other rivers in this area,” she adds.
The MP has said that scientific analyses she has commissioned from the Institute of Toxicology in Lucknow and the Central Water Pollution Board (CWPB) have confirmed the problem. “Forty-five water samples were collected from different sources and they were all found to be polluted,” she claimed.
He acknowledged that, at an estimated outlay of more than $100,000 per unit, the cost of the technology is high, but said the federal ministry of commerce and industry was willing to provide subsidies to help finance the move. At the same time, Ms Tandon insisted that the cost was not beyond the region’s tanners. She said: “This price is something the tannery owners can afford because their profits are running into millions.”
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