The show-cause notice issued by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to Tata Electronics, pointing out groundwater contamination in agricultural lands around the company’s factory at Hosur in Krishnagiri district, has attracted international attention because components for Apple’s iPhone are made there.
The board’s communique is standard practice when a compliance failure is detected. Show-cause phraseology threatening a "forced shutdown" or "power disconnection" might impress the international media, but to Indian manufacturers, it’s but one step in a slow dance. Nationwide, evidence of action resulting from such notices is slight: According to the Union Environment Ministry, in the past five years, only 4.4% of more than half a million industries in India are in violation of environmental standards. If Indian industries were to pay heed to pollution control fiats, and if environmental watchdogs prosecuted their mandates seriously, we wouldn’t have widespread reports of groundwater contamination around most industrial clusters, including Hosur.
The TNPCB notice was based on complaints from farmers that the Tata Electronics facility was discharging wastewater into rainwater harvesting pits within its premises and into an open channel beyond, on account of which pollutants were leaching into groundwater in their fields. Multiple samples taken by TNPCB found that these complaints were justified: Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in the company’s rainwater pits was up to nine times above the allowed limit, chemical oxygen demand (COD) up to 10 times the normal, and total dissolved solids (TDS) up to 50 times higher.
The show-cause to Tata Electronics was issued on May 26, giving the company 15 days to respond. The notice itself was a follow-up to official instructions recommending corrective measures five months earlier. Now that the 15-day window has passed, it would be interesting to see the data furnished by the manufacturer, if any, and the action taken by the agency, if any.
Tata Electronics’ official response to media reports is rather opaque to the public. It says it commissioned “an independent environmental analysis through an accredited laboratory” and that it has submitted an official response to the state pollution authority. Since it claims to be committed to “responsible business practices and local community safety”, it would have been more fitting if the data of its inquiry were released to the public.
To really demonstrate its corporate responsibility, and because the issue concerns the health and safety of people in the community, Tata Electronics must go beyond regulatory filings and adopt a policy of public disclosure. It would reassure farmers much more if the findings of the “accredited independent laboratory” were published online, stating the exact dates, testing locations, and methodologies used and compared with baseline data for the neighbourhood.
Since Tata Electronics is a major supplier to Apple, it devolves upon the iPhone maker as well to ensure that the Hosur facility measures up to the lofty mandate laid out in the Apple Supplier Code of Conduct, which clearly states that its partners are required to monitor wastewater treatment systems to prevent illegal discharge and contamination of community water sources.
Preservation of the commons is too important a matter to be negotiated beyond the public eye by companies and regulators, who all too often advertise the process but hide the outcome.