Huaxi town is located in the southwestern section of Dongyang City. Since 2001, the Huaxi government has been leasing land for the Huaxi Industrial Park spread over 1,000 hectares with thirteen chemical industries. On April 1, 2005, the Dongyang Municipal Government ordered the closure of these thirteen industries as a result of intense public protest over pollution stemming from them. There are reports of drums of chemicals being abandoned inside the factory premises and untreated wastewater being covered with concrete slabs.

Berezniki is an industrialized town situated on the banks of the Kama River 176 kms to the north of Perm. The city was founded as a sodium plant in 1883 because the area is rich in potassium salts. This city is listed as one of the most polluted towns in Russia and is on the Federal Target Program list of towns with possible local areas of environmental contamination with dioxins or dioxin-like agents. Berezniki also suffers legacy contamination from the Second World War when the chemical factories actively produced toxic chemicals that still pose a significant health hazard to this day.

In 1949, the Soviet Union funded the Mayak plant intended for the manufacturing of weapon’s grade plutonium in Chelyabinsk, in the Southern Urals. All liquid waste products were dumped directly into the Techa river, and eventually high levels of radioactive waste settled along the riverbed. In 1952, 70% of the inhabitants of nearby village Metlino suffered from leukemia, and authorities finally made an appeal to rectify the situation. Resettlement of almost 100,000 people lasted until 1961, the river was dammed in two places, and waste was redirected towards lake Karachaj. Inexplicably, however, every 50 km one village was left behind. This has proven a poor decision, as the plant is to blame for two other nuclear disasters: the explosion of radioactive waste tanks in 1957, and the effects of nuclear fallout from the bottom of lake Karachaj in 1967.

The first of these villages is Muslyumovo, population 2,500. Because the riverbanks confirm high levels of radioactive pollution, the population undergoes chronic exposure and every fourth child is born with some form of genetic mutation. The population is aware of the radiation, but likely doesn’t understand its full implications, as the water is used for drinking, bathing, fishing, and irrigation.

Beginning in 1997, scientists were able to document the alarming fact that throughout the 1950s and ‘60s chemical weapons were dismantled, without proper environmental oversight, 10km northwest of the town of Leonidovka, in the Russian state of Penza Oblast. The polluted area covers 65,800 acres of forest, where the plantlife, soil, and water all tested positive for arsenic, dioxins, and heavy metals at levels that were hazardous to human health. Locals also fear that toxins have penetrated into groundwater supplies and can be pushed back to the surface after heavy rains.

A once-secret manufacturing center of the Soviet Union's defense industry located 450 kilometers southeast of Moscow, Dzerzhinsk (population 300,000) has hosted many chemical factories, including production facilities for Sarin and VX nerve gas. Lead additives for gasoline, mustard gas, munitions, and other highly-polluting products can also claim this city as their birthplace. While many of these factories are now closed, the chemical industry still employs over a quarter of local residents. The groundwater and soil around the city, about 250 miles east of Moscow, remain severely polluted with phenol, arsenic, dioxins, heavy metals, and a host of other toxins. Indeed, a dominant ecological landmark in the area is the “White Sea”, a 100-acre-wide lake of toxic sludge discharged from nearby factories.

Clearly, Dzerzhinsk faces huge challenges in managing this legacy of toxic wastes. It holds the ignominious title of "The Most Chemically Polluted Town" in the world. Greenpeace claims that the average life expectancy of city residents may have shrunk to a mere 45 years. The city's annual death rate, 17 per 1,000 people, is much higher than Russia's national average of 14 per 1,000. And, according to researchers at the Nizhny Novgorod Research Institute of Hygiene and Occupational Pathology, rates of reproductive health disturbances affecting women and fetuses, as well as rates of respiratory and pulmonary diseases in children, are dangerously high. In study after study, the health impacts of these chemicals continue to dampen enthusiasm and drain resources needed for economic and social recovery in Dzerzhinsk.

While there are many pollution-related issues that cry out for investment and remediation in the city, water quality is of paramount importance. The Dzerzhinsk Committee of Environmental Control, a local government agency dedicated to finding solutions for pollution-related problems, has highlighted the degree to which the quality of drinking water in some residential areas of the city, damaged by years of discharge of as many as 150 separate toxic chemicals, does not come close to meeting safety standards. Despite this assessment, the city still draws its drinking water from the same aquifers abused by toxic wastes and unused products over many years.

One area of particular concern is the residential sector of Pyra (population 4,000) where groundwater is also used as a major source of drinking water. The town is surrounded by swamps and the old local water treatment facility does not provide even an adequate level of groundwater cleanup. Drinking water tested was found to have ferrous-organic and fecal bacteria levels well above accepted safety standards. Compounding these problems, the aquifers that supply Piri also feed into groundwater that affects larger population centers as far away as St. Petersburg.

The region is flat, and liquid waste can be seen dumped in shallow lagoons near the villages. Villagers will not use certain tubewells, because of their chemical odor and known illness response. The State Pollution Control Board has tested the water for pH, hardness, conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids and chlorine but has not tested for any chemicals, their by-products or heavy metals. However IIT-Roorkee’s study found significant amounts of lead, aluminium, nickel and even cyanide in the water sources in the vicinity of the DCM group of factories at Daurala. Blacksmith had funded the Janhit Foundation to carry out investigative studies in the area in 2004-2005.

Bichadi is a small town located roughly fifteen kilometers east of Udaipur of the Rajasthan region, India. This site, which was a small industrial estate (791 acres) manufacturing dyes and dye intermediaries, was ordered closed by the government in 1990, though manufacturing appears to have continued in some plants till 1995. It remains a significantly polluted place due to inadequate remediation post-closure. Indiscriminate surface dumping of sludge, along with irrigation with contaminated groundwater since 1989-90, has contributed to devastating soil contamination.

According to the Center for Science and Environment, the groundwater of Bichadi is dark red. Over seventy wells have been rendered unfit for consumption, and around twenty two villages are without local drinking water. Some of the villages’ water needs are met by trucking in potable water, however the trucks deliver only about 10% of the villages’ needs, they can be unreliable, and the current system reduces local autonomy. Additionally, the contaminated water has since negatively affected agriculture through crop failure and permanent loss of fertility to soil.

Eloor is an island situated on the banks of the Periyar river. The largest industrial belt in Kerala is located at Eloor, with more than 247 chemical industries that discharge 17,35,00,000 liters of highly polluted effluents per day into the river.

The village of Nandesari (population 7,259) lies on the banks of the Mini River, a stone's throw from the city of Vadodara. Nandesari is in the middle of Gujarat's "Golden Corridor", a 400km belt of industrial estates that has helped make the state one of the most industrialized in the nation. Despite this, about two-thirds of the state's population still subsists on agriculture, tending crops like wheat, millet, and rice.

Sludge and sediments in the Mini River, which floods during the monsoon season, is highly contaminated with legacy heavy metals and other waste. The Mini River flows into the Mahi River, the second largest river in the state, directly upstream of the intake of water supply for the city of Baroda.

Throughout the Nandesari Industrial Estate, there are estimated to be 10-15 illegally hazardous waste dumpsites, most in residential squatter areas. It is clear that some chemical facilities within the estate avoid dumping at the hazardous waste disposal facility to avoid the Rs.450 dump fee. A review of several illegal dumpsites proved the difficulty of finding the primary source of the waste itself. Thus, responsibility for cleanup is likely to fall on the state and on the community.

The town of Vapi (population 71,000) marks the southern end of India's "Golden Corridor", a 400km belt of industrial estates in the state of Gujarat. Propelled by the development of these specialized economic zones, Gujarat is among the most industrialized states in India. Despite this, about two-thirds of the Gujarat's population is still involved in agriculture, tending to crops varying from wheat, millet, and rice to cotton, tobacco, and peanuts. Most of the local population living in or near Vapi relies on agriculture or fishing for subsistence.

In 1983, the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) acquired land in Sarigam for setting up an industrial estate. They originally announced that there would be only engineering units in the area but later declared it a chemicals zone. 450-odd industrial units, including 50 chemical units have contaminated the groundwater and villagers claim that some units even use bore-wells to pump untreated effluents into the ground.

A Greenpeace study shows that groundwater in Sarigam is contaminated with organic pollutants such as tri-chloroethane, benzene and several organochlorine compounds. Benzene is a known carcinogen and dichlorobenzene is a persistent organic pollutant, which remains in the environment for a very long period of time.

Hema Dyechem Private Limited, formerly Hema Chemicals, operated a chromium sulfate manufacturing unit in the Gorwa Industrial Estate of Vadodara (a city about 115 kilometers south of Ahmedabad) from 1965 until 2001. Despite the enactment of the Hazardous Waste Rules in 1989, the company disposed of approximately 77,000 tons (estimated by the Gujarat Pollution Control Board) of toxic chromium waste in areas neighboring the unit. The laborers working in the factory were unaware of potential health risks, and used the chromium-rich sludge to fill up low-lying ditches in the neighborhood. They also mixed the sludge with cement to construct their houses and spread it around the boundaries of surrounding fields.

The abandoned plant site itself covers about 15,000 square feet and is highly contaminated with chromate salts. Yellow discoloration, a sign of chromate contamination, is obvious throughout the site and on building structures. This site clearly is in need of remediation.

The illegal dumping areas may cover as much as seven kilometers of filled trenches along roads in the vicinity of the factory. A study of this region is being conducted under the direction of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) by the Delhi-based National Productivity Council.

Hema’s illegal dumping at this site has spurred the largest public interest litigation in Indian history. GPCB has sued the industry for Rs. 17 crores. The case is currently under appeal in the Supreme Court.

Sirumugai is a small village in rural India located in Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu, on the banks of the river Bhavani. In 2001, the local viscose textile plant, the SIV Industries Ltd, shut down. This is now a legacy site, with the river and groundwater continuing to affect the health of the residents.

There are still 450 tons of high density liquid carbon disulphide stored in 14 tanks on the factory premises. The chemicals are stored underwater at room temperature (30 degree centigrade) to prevent evaporation. Evaporation can lead to cloud formation, which can then explode with a spark or friction, said a report from a scientific officer submitted to the Superintendent of Police, Coimbatore Rural District, R. Dhinakaran. Recently both the water and electricity supply to the factory was cut off for non-payment of bills, exposing the chemicals and making them vulnerable to an explosion. A news report published 4/9/2005 entitled “A closed chemical factory in Tamil Nadu waiting to be another Bhopal’ mentions that even a gas leak will adversely affect a 4-kilometer radius but a gas explosion would flatten the entire village of Sirumugai.

According to the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee that visited the area, approx. 1,747 tons of hazardous sludge has accumulated at the Mahad Industrial Estate CETP. The Committee had directed Mahad CETP Association to replace pipelines carrying effluents from the industries but the work is progressing very slowly. There are also reports of hazardous wastes being dumped illegally in the premises of legacy industries like Raksha Chemicals Ltd. and Shree Mahesh Chemicals. The industrial premise of Shri Mahesh Chemicals Ltd. houses an abandoned H-acid plant and iron & gypsum sludge. At the Raksha Chemicals premises, in addition to hazardous waste abandoned from its operations, more toxic waste (probably spent caustic) from a factory in Karnataka has been dumped.

Tarapur Industrial Estate in Maharashtra has been identified as a problem area due to severe pollution from chemical industries. Despite the installation of a common effluent treatment plant and drainage to carry and dispose of effluents safely, hazardous waste is still being dumped illegally and there is poor maintenance of infrastructure causing pollution. It has been referred to as one of Maharashtra’s worst industrial estates and the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee has estimated there to be approximately 40,000 tons of hazardous wastes dumped here.

Since 1946 Travancore Titanium Products Ltd. (TTP) has been producing titanium dioxide and has become the leading manufacturer of anatase grade titanium dioxide in recent years. It has been operating close to a beach for several years without an effluent treatment plant. The factory has its own sulfuric acid plants and generates around 120 tons of concentrated sulfuric acid everyday which is dumped into the Arabian Sea directly without any prior treatment. pH of the effluent generated by TTP is always around 1 indicating very high acidity.

Muthia lies on the eastern periphery of Ahmedabad City. This village land has been acquired by the Naroda Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC). Approximately 60,000 tons of sludge from effluent treatment plants and other untreated waste have been dumped along the boundary between the industrial estate and the village over the last decade.

The legacy waste dumps at Muthia Village have been lying neglected for a decade with no cleanup activity. These hazardous wastes have leached into the groundwater, which has turned yellow and red. Monsoon rains wash and spread the contaminated sludge over wide areas.

Oswal Chemical and Fertilizer Ltd (OCFL) was set up in 1999 just five kilometers from the deep-sea harbor in the port town of Paradeep in Orissa. OCFL is a Rs 2,000-crore fertilizer plant, producing 2 million tons of Di Ammonia Phosphate (DAP) fertilizer per annum, 7,000 TPD of sulfuric acid and 2,650 TPD of Phosphoric acid – one of the largest producers in India.

Since production began in April 1999, OCFL has faced a host of complaints and agitation from local people over water and air pollution. It has a pollution lawsuit pending against it in the Orissa High Court. There were allegations of leakages of ammonia from the industry on May 24, 2000, November 11, 2000 and September 22, 2003. The industry was inspected several times by the Orissa State Pollution Control Board who observed that the unit was not complying with the environmental stipulations and discharging untreated wastewater to the nearby creek and the Mahanadi.

The golden corridor in Gujarat extends from Vapi in the south to Ahmedabad in the north. There are over 50 industrial estates in this region, most house over a thousand industries (some being chemical estates) and many are spread over a thousand acres.

M/s.Orichem Ltd. is located at the Balanda village near Talcher and in the district of Angul, Orissa. At Talchar, there is an abandoned hazardous waste dumpsite associated with M/s Orichem Limited (OCL). M/s OCL was engaged in the production of chrome salts such as sodium dichromate and basic chrome sulfate. The unit was operational since 1983 with an installed production capacity of 3300 TPA. It was closed down in 1998.