Does TEA is an active stakeholder in the Tirupur water supply project?

K. Narayanaperumal,

The active and meaningful participation of stakeholders are very much important for successful implementation of any PPP project. In the Tirupur water supply and sewerage system project, TEA is one of the important stakeholders. The project was designed for the benefits of both domestic and industrial consumers specifically textile exporters. Out of the total designed quantity of 185MLD, 85MLD would be supplied for the municipality and balance 100MLD would be supplied to industrial units. As such, the requirement of TEA would have been fulfilled.

But all efforts were gone on vain; as the actual demand from the industrial units is (40MLD) far lower than the estimated demand (100MLD). The door-to-door survey shows that the industrial units are unwilling to draw water from the new facilities for various reasons like Ground water is free though it is illegal; the quality of water supply is not good; Global recession; technology and monsoon is good etc.

The above reasons spelled out are more artificial. The main reasons for the failure of financial model of the Tirupur water supply project could be due to the following;

Ø  The industrial units are not much committed to the project. Since their contribution to the investment is very low.

Ø  The industrial units are not much bothered about the environment. Large scale violations of environmental regulations are more common and these resulted with closure of 750nos of dyeing unit until zero discharge was achieved as per the Madras High Court order for polluting Noyyal river. This requires huge amount of investment.

Ø  Global recession is not a fact as it is no way affected the growth of the Tirupur garment export industry except a slight fall in the year 2008; Refer Figure: 1.

Ø  Claiming good monsoon is not a valid reason, as the garment industrial units would be required plenty of water; this could not be met with few days of rain water harvesting.

The following are the few possible remedies to redirect the project into success path;

Ø  Expand the water supply network to the nearby areas.

Ø  Strict enforcement of environmental laws

Ø  Government should assist the dyeing units for achieving zero discharge.

Ø  Government should work out a special discounted water tariff for the large industrial consumers which are obtained zero discharge.

                   Noyyal river before and after pollution