Waste water from fish meal plants to power steel mills

Panaji: Treated wastewater from fish processing plants, which was being released outside the industrial estate, could soon be put to more productive use at steel rolling mills at the Cuncolim industrial estate.

The interesting water conservation solution suggested by Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) could not only reduce groundwater consumption by industries but also bring down water purchase costs for the steel mills. According to a study conducted by GSPCB, seven fish processing plants and exporters together consume 567 kilolitres of water per day (KLD) and generate 494 KLD of wastewater.

Meanwhile, the steel industries require 749 KLD of water per day for cooling, slag crushing for the furnace tank, and other processes. “In Cuncolim, the fish processing and the fish meal units, and steel rolling mills consume a lot of water. We did a detailed audit of the fish meal plants and their treatment plants. We found that they were having excess water and did not know what to do with it. Now, we allowed them to give this water to the outside units,” said GSPCB chairman Mahesh Patil.

The fish processing units and steel industries were sourcing water from borewells and through water tankers. The cost of each tanker is estimated to be Rs 1,600 for a 10,000-litre tanker.

“We studied this issue in detail and now we have given permission to the fish processing plants to transfer this water to the steel rolling mills. The water will have to be treated first, of course. This Tuesday, we are holding a meeting with Goa Industrial Development Corporation and other stakeholders to discuss this proposal,” said Patil. While initially, the water will be supplied to the steel industries by tankers, Patil has recommended that pipelines can be laid to transfer this water from the fish processing plants to the steel industries. The cost for laying the pipelines will have to be shared by the industrial units.

Cuncolim Industrial Estate has fish handling plants that freeze, can, and export marine products. The firms are Sagar Feeds, United Marine Products, Quality Foods, Joecons Marine Exports, Pintos, and IndoTech Ice Cold.

The steel rolling plants are Shree Balaji Re-rolling, Sunrise Electomet, Global Ispat, Orange Fox Steel, Pioneer Alloys, Kartik Inductions, Shraddha Ispat, and Shirdi Steel Re-Rollers. Some of the fish processing plants are adjacent to these steel industries. Recently GSPCB lifted the suspension imposed on three fish meal plants at Cuncolim Industrial Estate which were found discharging untreated wastewater into surrounding areas and thus raising environmental concerns. “Steel mills require around 7 lakh litres of water per day. With this process, the fish processors will not pollute the land and water, and the cost of purchasing water will come down for the steel industries. The cost will be worked out by the fish meal processing plants and the steel mills,” said Patil.