Ethiopia is developing 10bmega industrial parks in different regions of the country. These industrial parks will see investments by global and Ethiopian companies in industries like textiles and apparels, industrial machinery, pharmaceuticals, footwear, and food and beverages. To reduce or eliminate any possible negative impacts on environmental and social sustainability as result of this industrialization drive, Ethiopia has decided to use the cleanest effluent treatment technology – zero liquid discharge technology– at these mega industrial parks. This technology ensures that the industrial parks use the minimum amount of ground water and have a zero liquid discharge outside the park.

Arvind Envisol, a subsidiary of Arvind, will provide water treatment technologies at these parks. It has already set up a zero liquid discharge water treatment plant at an industrial park. This plant has a capacity of treating 11 million liters of waste water a day and is one of the largest such plants in Africa.

Arvind Envisol provides end-to-end solutions for water treatment, industrial waste water treatment and sewage treatment. It is also working with Ethiopian universities to develop curriculum on environmental sustainability and technology transfer.

Ethiopia and Arvind will conduct a study on environmental sustainability in the textile and garmenting sector in Ethiopia. This study will establish the baseline on various sustainability studies and outline the future environmental impacts of the rapid industrialization drive of Ethiopia.