Environmental Management : An Economic Approach to Pollution Control in Sago Industry

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Review of Literature. 3. Environmental Profile of Salem District. 4. Growth of Sago Industry in Tamil Nadu. 5. Primary Data analysis and discussion: Economics of Sago Production and pollution control. 6. Analysis and discussion: Environmental implications of Sago industry. 7. Summary, conclusion and suggestions. Bibliography.

Economic development entails environmental cost. Industrial pollution, no doubt, causes negative externality. Research in the field of environmental economics has come a long way in identifying problems pertaining to industrial discharges into the air, water and soil. Environmental policies, reinforced with economic perspectives, have been endeavouring to abate environmental pollution through regulatory measures. Market instruments are rudimentary as far as India is concerned in giving flexible options for polluting industrial categories.

Environmental Management takes a holistic stand by combining socio-economic and natural science perspectives towards finding solutions to environmental problems. In this backdrop, an attempt has been made by the authors to the environment issues relating to sago industry in India and Tamil Nadu in particular. Tapioca cultivation is predominant in districts around Salem and Nammakal in the State of Tamil Nadu.

The effluents from sago units contained many harmful contaminants like hardness, sulfates, chlorides, TDS. Hydrogen cyanide, calcium, magnesium, fluorides, mercury, cadmium, magnesium, fluorides, mercury, cadmium, lead, zinc, phenolic compounds and the levels tested positive but not significant. Even the health implications are apparent but data were inadequate to correlate both.

Contrary to expectations, the sago industry stands to gain from pollution control. Recycling the waste from the sago processing has generated methane gas, which in turn was used as energy for the same units. This shall be an eye opener for polluting industrial units to take cue that investment on pollution control pays back to the units.

Economics of pollution control has seen several methodological advancements over the last three decades. This book updates the methodology and improvised the same by incorporating environmental quality of effluents, cost of pollution control and benefits of revenue from recycling. This book will be of immense use for those desirous of achieving sustainable development.(jacket)