A report just released by India's Comptroller and Auditor General finds massive shortfalls in implementation of the country's Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.
According to the appraisal, the net result is that river quality generally is deteriorating due to the unchecked discharge of domestic sewage and polluting industrial effluents. Drinking water supplied in many towns is also failing to meet the set quality standards, with consequent health risk to residents.
These end results stem from a failure on the part of the regulating authorities to do their job in ensuring that all dischargers have the mandatory consents to discharge. At the head of this system is the Central Pollution Control Board which, in the light of the emerging information, is reported to have directed its boards and committees in July this year 'to do their job'.
Failures on this score are said to be apparent in almost every state. In some cases discharges without consent had been ongoing for up to 16 years--30 textile mills and dye manufacturing units in Gujarat were in this position.
In eastern India, none of the 102 urban local authorities in Orissa had consents from the State Board and in Rajasthan over 1300 of 1700 'highly polluting units' were similarly without consent.
Further documented omissions of many state boards included failure to identify polluting units and failure to act against those that failed to install or operate pollution control measures.
The Auditor General described state board inspections as 'far from satisfactory' and falling far short of specified targets.
So far as municipal sewerage systems were concerned, many, like the receiving treatment plants, were old and inadequate. Municipalities were said to have insufficient resources for necessary remedial work.
In many cases this was leading to contamination of water supplies. More then half the urban population of Patna in Bihar had been using bacteriologically unsafe water since 1998 and several other urban areas were using polluted groundwater sources, but these were only examples of similar situations in many states.
Source: International Water Association
