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

The lush tropical forest and reddish-brown elevations of Lote, located on India’s western shoreline, give way to a small hill where a factory looms under the open sky.

The factory is almost brand new, but its machinery is not: it originates from the former Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 following one of the worst environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing Pfas forever chemicals, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for polluting water resources in an region home to 350,000 residents. In June, previous company leaders were found guilty at the local tribunal of environmental damage and other charges and sentenced to jail, which they are expected to appeal against.

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Nevertheless, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and methods – everything needed to manufacture Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, sandwiched among villages and groves of trees. And the plant has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.

A Toxic Legacy

Previously recognized for its specialism in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found exceptionally elevated 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 was employed for years in its specialty chemicals division, showed among the top levels of Pfas documented in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a catalog of health issues related to PFAS, and discovered I had them all,” says Ermetti.

High levels of PFAS in the blood are associated with higher chances of malignancies, heart conditions, organ impairment, fertility issues and more. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and campaigner with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after discovering her children’s blood indicated elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she found out that Miteni’s proprietary information and machinery were being transferred to India, she was stunned.

“As mothers, as women, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Since our kids are the children of all.”

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its assets were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a subsidiary of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the public auction. By the start of 2023, all the equipment was being shipped heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was boasting of its new acquisition to investors. Records of investor gatherings indicate that Laxmi’s management downplayed environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “operating lawfully in compliance with European standards”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the board of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company established in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and financial misreporting at the recent court case and sentenced to six years and four months in prison. According to a former mid-level manager speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the firm’s collapse.

Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the construction of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already intending to commence manufacturing fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the goal to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and become a leader in the manufacturing of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Shipping records indicate that, to secure validation on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out test batches to companies with past business relationships with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, producing chemicals that will be utilized for pesticides, medicines, colorants, beauty products and additional goods.

Environmental Oversight

Studies demonstrate that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the environment are alarmingly high, especially near manufacturing facilities. But even though global focus is growing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent in such guidelines. It’s unacknowledged by the Indian government as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have conducted studies in different states. But these studies are limited in scope, and there are still very few of them.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, head of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a poor ecological history”. After it was set up in 1986, “the income source of fishing populations in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

The chemical district is dependent on a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a frequent event in rural Maharashtra state, the facility cannot function and industries discharge polluted water straight into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have sent several warning letters to the plant in the past few years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is examining a plan to prohibit the production, importation and utilization of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This attention may be driving the industry to the developing nations, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I believe that this matter should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and equipment have been relocated to a nation like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the influence that these multinationals have to move in nations where there is evidently a race to the bottom in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has closed down, but the firm’s harmful impact continues – at the polluted location 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 already,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”