To find a solution, the Government of India has set up a committee, which will be headed by Textiles Secretary Rita Menon, with membership that includes representatives from the textile industry, the Tamil Nadu State chief secretary and officials from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.

Its formation coincides with a positive initial assessment by the Pollution Control Board (PCB) of the Arulpuram Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP), which operates on the reverse-osmosis principle and which promises zero liquid discharge, with recycling of brine into the dyeing process. The plant is beginning a three-month trial, the success of which may be vital to the local industry. Its commissioning follows a record of failure in the region's existing 18 Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs), which were set up in with an investment of Rs10 billion (US$220 million) but have still not achieved zero pollution.

India is not alone in facing chronic pollution from the dyeing industry. Bangladesh's deep problems came under the spotlight at a recent conference organised by the Society of Dyers and Colourists (SDC) in Dhaka, while Greenpeace has repeatedly drawn attention to similar issues in China.

There is a clear need for all developing countries with export ambitions to tackle these problems by means of concerted investment. If environmental and public-health concerns are an insufficient motive, there is a more basic commercial one – if they fail to act, their Western customers will abandon them for fear of bad publicity. Greenpeace's latest campaign highlights pollution by textile factories of part of the Yangtze and Pearl River deltas in China, deliberately linking these suppliers to major brands including Adidas, Puma, Nike, Abercrombie & Fitch, Calvin Klein, Converse and H&M.