The Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association (BDMA) is organising a national seminar on 'Environmental Protection-Challenges Ahead For Process Industry' on September 18 at Hyderabad.

The seminar is aimed at dissemination of information and sharing of knowledge and experiences pertaining to treatment methodologies of effluents and environmental safety. It is expected to provide a platform to review the present systems in vogue and identify the bottlenecks to arrive at an optimum solution and mechanisms, while taking into consideration the trends and opportunities in the world in general and India in particular, Dr SS Vara Prasad, senior advisor, BDMA said.

Dr G Thyagarajan, chairman of SC Monitoring Committee and other senior officials from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Central Pollution Control Board, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and other experts from public and private sector will take part in the seminar. The seminar will be useful to managing directors, CEOs, senior and middle level officers from the industry engaged in the environment management systems of process industry.

The process industry generates a variety of heterogeneous effluents, which need to be treated in a proper way. Though the concept of Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) has been in vogue, the functioning and performance of such CETPs needs to be substantially improved. Following environmental concerns, Supreme Court of India constituted a Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Wastes under the chairmanship of Dr G Thyagarajan, an eminent scientist and science administrator, informed Vara Prasad.