FAISALABAD: Close liaison between developed and developing countries is imperative to share the benefits of modern technologies in order to face emerging challenges, said Embassy of Denmark Deputy Head of Mission Bente Schiller.
Speaking to members of the All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association (APTPMA) on Friday, she pointed out that the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) was installing a waste water treatment plant to recycle textile effluent.
This plant will recycle 45 million gallons of waste water daily, which could be utilised for irrigation, she said, adding a memorandum of understanding (MoU) had already been signed while physical work on the project would start very soon.
She underlined the importance of clean environment and told the millers that the industrial community of Faisalabad should adopt latest and environment-friendly Danish water treatment technology to overcome the potential hazards and challenges posed by the heavy discharge of untreated industrial effluent.
APTPMA Chairman Engineer Rizwan Ashraf said the association had 400 textile processing units as its members from across the country.
He said the processing sector was water-intensive and most of the textile processing units were paying aquifer charges and almost all units had dedicated sedimentation tanks for primary treatment of their effluent.
He welcomed the Punjab government’s initiative of installing a joint waste water treatment plant and using the recycled water for irrigation.
Almost all processing units used skin-friendly dyes and chemicals while most of them had already been shifted out of the thickly populated areas, the chairman claimed and added now the Punjab government had established the M-3 Industrial Estate with support of the Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company.
“Most of these units will shift to this well-planned industrial estate as work for the allotment of land has already been completed. Now, work on providing utilities like electricity, gas, sewerage and water treatment plants is in full swing,” he said.
The government had assured that all these facilities would be provided to the processing units immediately after their relocation to the M3 Industrial Estate, he added.