1.

Industry:

Leather tanneries industry in Sialkot

2. Area:

The tannery units are well dispersed in the four tehsils (Sialkot, Pasrur,Daska and sambrial) of
the Sialkot district, with uneven distribution in urban and suburban areas. The area concerned
with our study is Khalid tanners in Sialkot (Owner: Sheikh Khalid) and local areas.

Sialkot has become a major industrial town of Pakistan since independence. Every fifth house in
the residential area is a factory with all its evils i.e. contaminating water, air and soil through the
discharge of volumetric hazardous effluents. In Sialkot city there are 250 tanning unit.

3. Environmental aspects and their impact’s :

 Beam house

A tannery section where hides are prepared for tanning.

Solid waste generation

The leather processing industry produces large amounts of solid organic wastes in the form of
un-tanned (trimmings , fleshing’s, splits) and tanned (trimmings, splits and shavings) waste from
raw hides and skins, semi-processed leather, as well as sludge as a result of wastewater
treatment.

 Tannery effluent discharge in water bodies

Heavy discharge of wastewater from the tannery causes many problems to tanners and local
community of the Sialkot. The toxic heavy metals from industrial units in Sialkot are entering in
food chain and drinking water supplies that ultimately pose serios illness in human residing near
these industrial units.

The major tannery effluents are listed below:

 Chromium
 Lead
 Cadmium
  Zinc
 Arsenic

In Sialkot, the disposal of tannery wastes either in solid and liquid is generally done in natural
water streams, open lands or municipal sewers. • If we talk about the channel of waste water
discharged from the tannery industry in Sialkot the waste water is dumped into the ground and
also in streams that further moves towards

 Impacts:

Water pollution

Nuallah Aik and Pulkhu and then into Chenab river. • These effluents increase the amount of
BOD and COD and change the pH of water by increasing its toxicity. • Such disposal practices
are against the environmental safety and waste disposal protocols.

Soil pollution

As this polluted water is then used for irrigation purposes and cause a grdual fall in agriculture
production. • From the past decade due to the rapid increase in the number of tanneries in Sialkot
there is a gradual decrease in the agricultural production of nearby areas.

 Leather finishing

The purpose of leather finishing is to embellish the leather, to give it a specific color and shine.

Air pollution

One of the main environmental drawbacks of the leather finishing process is the emission into
the atmosphere of organic solvents considered as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as well as
water pollution.

 Exposure with internal pollution and different heavy metal’s

Health risks

Waste discharge from tanneries pollutes the air, soil, and water, causing serious health problems.
Exposure to such contaminated environmental milieu has been seen to culminate in a multiple
array of disease processes such as asthma, dermatitis, hepatic and neurological disorders, and
various malignancies.