Agencies and Institutions Involved in the Environmental Management

Though various provisions in the form of regulations, laws etc. exist for the management of environment, their enforcement and implementation requires a network of agencies, their coordination, monitoring, amendments or improvements from time to time.

14.6.1 The Central Pollution Control Board

The Central Pollution Control Board was constituted in September 1974 under the provisions of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974. Its main functions spelt out in the Water and Air Act are promotion of cleanliness of streams and wells and improvement of air quality by prevention, control and abatement of pollution. It has various responsibilities which are mentioned below:

(1) To advice the Central Government on any matter concerning prevention and control of water and air pollution and improvement of air quality.

(2) To plan and execute a nationwide programme for the prevention, control or abatement of water and air pollution.

(3) To provide technical assistance and guidance to State Pollution Control Boards, carry out and sponsor investigations and research on water and air pollution.

(4) To collect, compile and publish technical and statistical data relating to water and air pollution and the measures for its effective prevention, control or abatement.

(5) To prepare manuals, codes and guidelines relating to the treatment and disposal of sewage and trade effluents.

(6) To disseminate information related to water and air pollution and their prevention and control.

(7) To lay down and modify the standards for stream or well and air quality in consultation with the concerned State Governments.

(8) To organize training programs.

(9) To perform any other function as and when prescribed by the Government of India.

The Central Pollution Control Board functions as the State Board for various UnionTerfitories.

The Central Pollution Control Board has established 784 stations all over the country in collaboration with State Pollution Control Boards which monitor the water quality of the surface water on monthly or quarterly basis and of ground water on half-yearly basis.

It also monitors the water quality at 784 stations. The trends in the data indicate the effectiveness of the control measures or the need for better methods for pollution control. It has identified ten problem areas and ten polluted river stretches for focusing the pollution control efforts. This has led to the formulation OfRiverAction Plan of the National River Conservation Directorate. The water quality data for more than 70 rivers has been obtained and analysed. Similarly, water quality for 15 lakes and tanks was assessed. The water quality of wetlands has been also studied by the Central Pollution Control Board. The Board also carries out ground water monitoring in various cities such as Lucknow, Ludhiana, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Agra, Meerut, Jaipur etc. It also monitors the coastal pollution due to various activities. Regarding the air quality assessment, monitoring is done at 183 locations in 64 cities/ towns out of which 83 locations are residential, 98 are industrial and 2 are other sensitive areas. The number of air quality monitoring stations was about 300 in the year 2001.

14.6.2 State Governments

Under the Indian federal system, the environmental management powers are shifting to the States. The States have significant authorities over water supply, solid waste management, sanitation, environmental protection and land use which it can further delegate to the municipalities. The State Pollution Control Boards are India’s primary pollution control board enforcement systems.

There are a large number of small-scale industries whose monitoring is an important task. Also, there is a greater need to build technical capacity for monitoring hazardous wastes streams. Over and above this, there is a slow response from the Courts on enforcement actions which slows down the effectiveness of the regulatory agencies.

14.6.3 Role of Non-Governmental Organisations

There are nearly 1,000 Non-Govemmental Organizations (NGO’s) actively working in the area of environment and the related issues in India. They play a very important role in the environmental management throughout the nation. Traditionally, they were mainly concerned with agriculture and forestry, but since the Bhopal disaster, increased industrialization and technology change, they are actively participating in raising various environmental issues. Their presence have been felt in recent years quite significantly because of the enthusiasm and activism shown by them. These are real grass root level organizations. Their main concerns are addressing the national needs for self­sufficiency, equitable resource distribution and use of cleaner technologies and environment friendly alternatives for the sustainable development.

14.6.4 Other Bodies

In addition to the institutions and organizations mentioned above, there are several other organizations and institutions attached to the different Ministries, Government of India which work in the field of environment. These are as follows:

• The Central Ganga Authority established in 1985 to implement the action plan for the prevention of pollution of the River Ganga.

• The Bureau of Indian Standards under the Ministry of Civil Supplies.

• The Council on Scientific and industrial Research (CSIR) was founded in 1942. It is a government agency with over 40 national laboratories. It is involved in the research and development activities related to the fields of physical, chemical, biological, engineering and information sciences. The latest on its agenda is the protection of intellectual property and patents.

• The National Environmental Engineering Laboratory at Nagpur and other similar laboratories which focus their efforts on industrial sectors such as electronics, leather, food processing, mines, drugs, petroleum, steel etc.