Where Does a European Manufacturing Facility That Contaminated Drinking Water Move On? To India

The dense tropical forest and rust-red hills of Lote, situated along India’s west coast, give way to a small hill where a industrial facility stands against the sky.

The factory is almost brand new, but its equipment is far from new: it comes from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 following one of the worst ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for contaminating water sources in an region inhabited by 350,000 residents. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the local tribunal of environmental damage and other charges and given prison sentences, with appeals anticipated.

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And yet, the entire operational setup, its patents and methods – all required components to produce forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between villages and wooded areas. And the factory has just started to resume PFAS production.

A Toxic Legacy

Once known for its specialism in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the toxic legacy it bequeathed. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high concentrations of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of residents had been subjected through potable water.

The most impacted were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its fluorinated chemical department, showed one of the highest concentrations of PFAS documented in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a list of medical conditions related to Pfas, and discovered I had them all,” says Ermetti.

High levels of Pfas in the blood are associated with higher chances of cancer, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, fertility issues and additional ailments. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after discovering her children’s blood indicated high levels of persistent pollutants. When she learned that Miteni’s patents and machinery were being transferred to India, she was shocked.

“As mothers, as women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Since our kids are everyone’s children.”

Business Shift

After Miteni went bankrupt, its holdings were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a subsidiary of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the public auction. By the start of 2023, the complete machinery was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to shareholders. Transcripts of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s executives downplayed ecological worries, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “operating lawfully according to EU regulations”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the directorate of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company founded in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was convicted of ecological offenses and false accounting at the June trial and given six years and four months in jail. According to a former mid-level manager speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India prior to the firm’s collapse.

While Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the ecological review for the building of the plant in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already planning to commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer inquiries.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy explicitly spelled out the objective to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the production of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Shipping records show that, to secure validation on the quality of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to companies with past business relationships with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, manufacturing substances that will be utilized for pesticides, medicines, colorants, cosmetics and other products.

Regulatory Context

Studies have shown that concentrations of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But even though global focus is increasing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is absent in such guidelines. It’s unacknowledged by the Indian government currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “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.”

Regional Consequences

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a poor ecological history”. After it was established in 1986, “the livelihood of fisher folk communities in this area completely collapsed,” she said.

The industrial area is dependent on a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been frequently criticized.

“Nearby communities have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the plant fails to operate and factories release contaminated effluent straight into the streams.” Environmental authorities have issued several warning letters to the site in recent years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a proposal to ban the production, importation and utilization of more than 10,000 persistent compounds. This scrutiny may be pushing the industry to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the academic institution. “I think that this issue should be investigated, because the reality that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and machinery have been transferred to a country like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the power that these global corporations have to move in nations where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects linked to Pfas production are expected to impact populations that are already struggling with an hazardous setting for generations.

“That region has experienced sufficient ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s always a risk.”