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  Ankleshwar, Gujarat, India     

 Site Description
 Human Exposure & Health Impact
 Site Progress

Site Description 

Location & Size of Site
The Ankleshwar industrial estate is Asia's largest industrial estate and is comprised of approximately 3000 individual units, half of them chemical units manufacturing dyes, paints, fertilizers etc. It has been estimated that between 250-270 million liters/day of effluents and 50,000 tons of solid waste/year are generated from the estate. Although the larger industries have there own effluent treatment plants, many of the medium and smeller units have been reported to directly dump their waste into open ditches or into the rivers without prior treatment.

Amla khadi (a rivulet flowing through the industrial estate) in Ankleshwar carries extremely toxic, often acidic, dark brown or black effluents around the year.

Contaminant Type, Source & Quantity
Air:
• sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, heavy metals

Water:
• heavy metals like copper, manganese, cadmium, chromium, nickel, zinc, mercury

Human Exposure & Health Impact 
According to press reports, skin ailments, respiratory diseases, and headaches are commonly reported.  

Number of Potentially Affected People
150,000

Health Impact of Pollutant
Cancer cases related to blood, urinary bladder, reproductive tracts, lungs, breasts and the digestive track have shown an increasing trend in these areas. Experts also indicate a phenomenal rise in the number of active leukaemia cases in children below 10 years. Even the mortality rate in specific cancer cases is being noticed by experts. For instance, for lung cancer it is 80 per cent, leukaemia varies between 20 to 30 per cent while mortality rate for bladder cancers has gone up by three times.

Site Progress

August 2004: Site reviewed by the Technical Advisory Board. Blacksmtih Institute will visit this site.