BULK DRUGS AND PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES

India currently supplies about 20% of the drugs produced worldwide. About half of drugs exported from India are manufactured in Hyderabad, in the state of Telangana. Pantancheru-Bollaram is an industrial zone located approximately 32 km outside Hyderabad. In the early 1980's many bulk drug, chemical, pesticide manufacturing plants were established there. Today Pantancheru-Bollaram is home to more than 100 industries including more than 30 pharmaceutical drug manufacturers that supply nearly all leading pharmaceutical companies in the world. Until a few years ago, the effluent from PETL(write full form) was discharged into the Isakavag creek, which feeds the Nakkavagu, Manjira and eventually Godavari rivers. Following a public interest petition in 1997, the Indian Supreme Court ordered the pollution control authorities to channelize effluents from PETL through an 18km pipeline to the Amberpet mega sewage treatment plant in Hyderabad, so that the effluents could be diluted with sewage. The PETL outlet was connected to the pipeline 12 years later, in July 2009. Since then, the final treated wastewater has been discharged into the Musi river. 28 samples were taken which are subdivided into 4 tap water, 4 bore hole water and 23 environmental samples. All 23 samples contained beta-lactamase bacteria as well as carbapenems producing bacteria. It is clear that the bacteria in the waste water are developing resistance to all the antibiotics present there. The bacteria are quickly mutating and are able to attack and destroy the antibiotics, thus giving rise to super bugs which may one day be in every treated water we use. These super bugs cannot be destroyed by any antibiotics, thus the need to find a method to destroy these superbugs has to be made. The starting step is to prevent disposal of effluents from pharmaceutical industries into the sewer.