Groundwater contamination around the SIPCOT Industrial Growth Centre at Perundurai in Erode district, Tamil Nadu, has emerged as a serious public health and environmental concern. Official tests by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board confirmed that water from 37 sources across 25 villages is unfit for drinking. While a major treatment plant is under construction, a comprehensive long-term solution to restore the aquifer and affected waterbodies remains pending.
Scale of Industrial Activity at SIPCOT Perundurai
The SIPCOT Industrial Growth Centre was established in the early 1990s over approximately 2,700 acres. It has grown into a significant industrial cluster hosting more than 250 units. These include a large number of textile dyeing and processing units, bleaching units, and earlier tannery operations. Of the textile processing units, many operate individual effluent treatment plants, while others were linked to common facilities.
Industrial activity has brought employment and economic activity to the region. At the same time, residents of surrounding villages have long alleged that the handling and disposal of industrial effluents have degraded local water resources. Streams, tanks, and the groundwater table that once supported drinking water needs and agriculture have been severely affected over three decades.
How Contamination Spread
Residents and local associations maintain that untreated or inadequately treated effluents from textile and tannery units found their way into the environment through multiple pathways. These included discharge into oxidation ponds, unused borewells, and open drains. A key conduit has been the Nalla Odai stream, which carries runoff from the industrial estate during rains and connects to downstream waterbodies.
Polluted water is reported to have reached the Odaikattur tank and the much larger Punjai Palatholuvu tank, both located within a roughly 12-kilometre radius of the estate. Once contaminants entered surface water systems and the soil, they percolated into the shallow and deeper aquifers used by villages for domestic and agricultural purposes. High levels of total dissolved solids, sometimes claimed to have exceeded 15,000 mg/l in earlier years, rendered the water unusable.
Tannery units and certain common treatment facilities were closed in 2021 following sustained complaints. Local groups state that TDS levels have since declined somewhat but remain far above safe drinking water standards.
Official Confirmation of Unfit Water
The most definitive official assessment came in a letter dated 7 March 2025 from the TWAD Board to the Chennimalai Block Development Officer. Laboratory tests on samples collected from 37 sources — including electric motor pumps, hand pumps, open wells, and overhead tanks — in the village panchayats of Mukasi Pidariyur, Vaipadi, Varapalayam, and Ingur showed that the water was unfit for human consumption.
The tests detected elevated levels of total dissolved solids, nitrate, iron, and total hardness. In response, authorities were directed to install warning boards at the affected sources, prevent the operation of electric motors drawing from contaminated points, and ensure that residents rely on drinking water supplied through the Combined Water Supply Scheme, which draws from the Cauvery river system.
Similar findings by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board in the same period reinforced the assessment, leading to the installation of red warning boards declaring the water unsafe.
Impact on Communities
For residents of the 25 villages, the contamination has meant the loss of a traditional and accessible water source. Many households that once depended on local wells and hand pumps now rely entirely on piped supply from distant schemes. Agriculture has also suffered. Farmers report that irrigation water quality has deteriorated, reducing crop viability and forcing changes in land use.
Health concerns have been raised repeatedly. Residents link prolonged exposure to contaminated water with kidney-related ailments and other chronic conditions, though systematic epidemiological studies specific to the area remain limited. The psychological and economic burden of living with permanently compromised local water resources has fuelled years of protests and petitions by farmers’ and residents’ associations.
The Common Effluent Treatment Plant Project
In response to prolonged demands, the State government sanctioned a Zero Liquid Discharge-based Common Effluent Treatment Plant designed to handle contaminated seepage water. An initial proposal for a 2,000-KLD seepage water treatment plant estimated at ₹40 crore was later revised. A work order for a Design, Build and Operate ZLD-based CETP costing ₹136.76 crore was issued in 2025. Construction began in February 2026.
The facility is intended to collect polluted seepage within the industrial estate, treat it to high standards, and maximise recovery of water for reuse by industries. By reducing the volume of contaminated water that can escape into drains and nearby waterbodies, the plant is expected to limit further pollution. It does not, however, directly address the already contaminated aquifers and surface water systems outside the estate boundaries.
Gaps in Long-Term Remediation
While the CETP represents a significant investment in controlling ongoing industrial discharges and seepage, experts and local stakeholders note that it is only a partial solution. Restoring groundwater quality in an already contaminated aquifer is technically complex and time-consuming. Contaminants that have migrated through soil layers may persist for years even after the source of pollution is controlled.
No comprehensive remediation plan for the affected groundwater or the impacted tanks and streams has been finalised. Questions remain about the scientific assessment of the full extent of plume migration, the feasibility of aquifer rehabilitation techniques, and the allocation of responsibility and funding for long-term cleanup. Continuous monitoring of both industrial compliance and environmental quality will be essential.
Balancing Industry and Environmental Health
The Perundurai case illustrates a recurring tension in industrial development. Concentrated industrial estates can generate employment and economic growth, yet inadequate effluent management can impose lasting costs on surrounding communities and natural resources. Zero Liquid Discharge norms and modern treatment infrastructure are necessary but not sufficient without rigorous enforcement, transparent monitoring, and mechanisms for redress when harm occurs.
For the residents of the 25 villages, the immediate priority remains reliable access to safe drinking water. The Combined Water Supply Scheme has provided a temporary lifeline. Sustainable recovery of the local water environment will require sustained regulatory oversight, completion and effective operation of the new treatment plant, and a clear roadmap for addressing the legacy contamination that has already occurred. Only then can the balance between industrial activity and the right to clean water be meaningfully restored.
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