How much is too much?

India is home to one of the fastest growing pharmaceuticals manufacturing industry in the world. Estimated to be worth at least $ 4.5 billion, it produces a combination of bulk drugs and pharmaceutical formulations. 60% of the bulk drugs produced are exported, the United States and Russia being the largest buyers. Over 20,000 registered drug manufacturers operate in India. Apart from the 250 large companies that control most of the drug formulation market in the country, the rest are all small and medium enterprises. The growth of India's pharmaceutical manufacturing industry is much reported in the international press and discussed with pride at global business and medical summits. While there is much to be proud of, a critical element threatens to become a major roadblock in the industry's long term sustainability - the damage to human life and environment from irresponsible manufacturing processes.

Only 28 km outside of Hyderabad is the 440 acre industrial estate of Patancheru. Home to some of the largest drug manufacturers in the state of Andhra Pradesh, it is also infamous as one of the 24 critically polluted areas in the country. Countless surveys of water bodies in the region, innumerable complaints from locals regarding the hazardous qualities of the water and after being classified as a polluted area, Patancheru was recently hailed as a 'Golden Land' by some state publications, for its contribution to the state's GDP and increasing real estate prices.

Recently, an extensive independent survey of the streams flowing near Patancheru by scientists from the University of Gothenberg, Sweden revealed some baffling conclusions. Treated waste water from the Patancheru Enviro Tech Ltd, a treatment plant where about 90 drug companies dump their residue was found to contain enough anti-biotics for a city of 90,000. Lakes upstream from the treatment plant contain similar levels of anti-biotics. Since so many drug manufacturers are concentrated in the region it is very difficult to monitor which companies are responsible for the dumping. The potent cocktail found in the water contains at least 21 different pharmaceutical ingredients.

Besides the obvious damage to human beings and animals who use the water from nearby streams (tributaries of the Godavari), there is also a growing concern that the prevalence of the concentrated ingredients in water bodies may give birth to drug resistant bacteria. Such bacteria can severely reduce the medical effectiveness of these drugs as they spread beyond the region. 'An ecological sacrifice zone', Patancheru now boasts of the highest concentration of pharmaceutical ingredients ever detected in the environment.

India has an outdated Environmental Protection Act, passed in 1986 based on guidelines set by a UN Conference on the Human Environment in 1972. According to the local head of the pollution control board, a Mr. R. Tiwari, the law in India does not require screening for pharmaceutical residue at the end of the water treatment process. President of the Indian Bulk Drug Manufacturer's Association, calls the survey spurious and recommends that locals use water transported from other parts of the state through pipes. Meanwhile, the manufacturing, dumping, polluting, killing goes on. Better regulation, concern for the human and natural environment and improved manufacturing standards remain the real problem.