To Which Location Will a Western Manufacturing Facility That Contaminated Drinking Water Go Next? To India

The dense tropical forest and rust-red elevations of Lote, situated along India’s western shoreline, lead to a small hill where a industrial facility stands under the open sky.

This industrial unit is largely newly built, but its equipment is far from new: it originates from the former Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 following among the most severe environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the company’s management was prosecuted for contaminating water sources in an area inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the Vicenza court of causing environmental pollution and other charges and sentenced to jail, with appeals anticipated.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and processes – all required components to manufacture Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between villages and wooded areas. And the factory has just started to resume PFAS production.

An Environmental Burden

Previously recognized for its specialism in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now infamous for the toxic legacy it bequeathed. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high levels of Pfas in the plant’s wastewater. Numerous of inhabitants had been exposed through potable water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, displayed one of the highest concentrations of Pfas ever recorded in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a catalog of health issues associated with Pfas, and found out I had them all,” states Ermetti.

High levels of PFAS in the blood are associated with increased risk of malignancies, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, fertility issues and additional ailments. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent surgical operation.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and activist with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests showed elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she learned that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being transferred to India, she was shocked.

“Being parents, as females, our concern has grown,” she said. “Since our kids are the children of all.”

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its assets were acquired in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By the start of 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was boasting of its recent purchase to shareholders. Transcripts of investor gatherings show that Laxmi’s executives minimized ecological worries, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to EU regulations”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the directorate of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a entity established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was found guilty of environmental pollution and false accounting at the June trial and given six years and four months in prison. Per a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was traveling for work to India prior to the company went bankrupt.

Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already intending to commence manufacturing fluorochemicals matching Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to inquiries.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the production of PFAS and fluorochemicals. Shipping records show that, to secure validation on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out samples to firms with previous commercial ties with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, producing chemicals that will be utilized for pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, beauty products and other products.

Environmental Oversight

Studies demonstrate that concentrations of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are alarmingly high, especially near production sites. But even though global focus is growing, in India the matter is not yet a policy priority.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s unacknowledged by the national authorities currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Independent research groups across India have conducted studies in various regions. But this work are limited in scope, and there are still only a handful.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, head of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was set up in 1986, “the livelihood of fisher folk communities in this area totally deteriorated,” she said.

The industrial area is dependent on a shared effluent treatment facility that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the facility cannot function and industries discharge polluted water straight into the streams.” Environmental authorities have issued multiple notices to the plant in recent years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a plan to prohibit the manufacture, import and utilization of more than 10,000 persistent compounds. This scrutiny may be pushing the sector to the global south, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I think that this issue should be investigated, because the reality that Miteni’s production, patents and machinery have been transferred to a nation like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the power that these multinationals have to relocate in countries where there is clearly a race to the bottom in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has closed down, but the firm’s harmful impact lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact communities that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for generations.

“That region has experienced sufficient environmental destruction already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s always a risk.”