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1. Zero discharge on the Periyar River. Immediate and concrete steps need to be taken towards clean production technologies at Eloor now.
2. A moratorium on all new industries. The regulatory mechanisms put in place for this purpose must be transparent and made available to the public.
3. Closure of Industries with obsolete and polluting technologies and industries which produce / emit persistent organic pollutants, such as the infamous Hindustan Insecticides Limited.
4. Absolute and complete enforcement of the environmental norms and laws.
5. The Industry and Government must Make Public All Information regarding pollution, health risks, emergency preparedness and related dangers, to the local communities. Companies must ensure that all workers have access to their medical records.
6. Immediate punitive action needs to be initiated by the Government on the companies that are poisoning the communities and workers in and around the Industrial Estate.
Implications for Policy and Practice
The campaign at Eloor and all related findings have direct implications on industrial planning policy globally. The paradigm of designing Industrial Estates recklessly with no regard for the effects on public health needs to change. The formula of "chemicals out of control" needs to be stopped. When there are a complex group of chemicals in the air, water and land it becomes almost impossible to predict and remedy the human diseases that may be caused by them, not to mention the near impossibility of treatment and clean-up of the contaminated air and water. Industrial Estates must be allowed to exist only in the rare exception, when they are planned like ecological neighbourhoods, where the inputs (non-toxic) used within the estates are self contained using closed loop systems and zero-discharge is effectively implemented. The new planning paradigm must accommodate clean production technology as an integral part.
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