NECTAR Enforcing Environmental Compliance through Strategically Randomized Factory Inspections

The leather industry is a multi-billion dollar industry (Mwinyihija, 2011), and in many developing countries such as India and Bangladesh the tanning industry is a large source of revenue. Unfortunately, the chemical byproducts of the tanning process are highly toxic, and the wastewater produced by tanneries is sent to nearby rivers and waterways. As a result, the Ganga River (along with many others) has become extremely contaminated, leading to substantial health problems for the large populations that rely on its water for basic needs (eg, drinking, bathing, crops, livestock)(Blacksmith Institute, 2011). Tanneries are required by law to run wastewater through sewage treatment plants (STPs) prior to discharge into the Ganga. In many cases, however, the tanneries either do not own or run this equipment, and it is up to regulatory bodies to enforce compliance. However, inspection agencies have a severe lack of resources; the combination of tanneries’ unchecked pollution and inspection agencies’ failure to conduct inspections forced India’s national environment monitoring agency to ban the operation of 98 tanneries near Kanpur, India while threatening the closure of approximately 600 tanneries (Jainani, 2015). It is our goal to provide agencies with randomized inspection plans so tanneries reduce harmful effluents and an important facet of India’s economy can operate.