Tag: CPCB

Patna Air Turns ‘Severe’; Supreme Court Issues Notice to All States on Pollution.

Source – weather.com

In an unprecedented step, the Supreme Court issued a notice to all Indian states and Union Territories on Monday, seeking their response on why they should not be held accountable to pay compensation to people for not providing clean air.

Even on the day of the hearing on air pollution, November 25, two cities from the state of Bihar recorded the highest AQIs as reported in the Daily Air Quality Index (AQI) Bulletin by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Patna was the most polluted city in the country with ‘severe’ 24-hour average AQI of 404.

Are authorities neglecting environmental issues in cities?

In a three-hour hearing, a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra and comprising Deepak Gupta said: “The AQI is extremely poor in many cities and towns. We also need to know how they are managing garbage. It appears that these issues have lost priorities for the authorities.”

Pollution levels in the country, particularly in the northern half of the state, consistently rise during the post-monsoon season. While the air quality worsens in almost all the regions, some states and union territories have persistently recorded the poorest air quality since the past few years.

Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Punjab are some of the regions where unhealthy air has lately become the norm.

Eastern cities most polluted on Monday

Patna and Muzaffarpur were the most polluted cities on Monday with AQI values of 404 (severe) and 393 (very poor) respectively. They were followed by West Bengal’s Howrah (329) and Asansol (324).

While the entire Indo-Gangetic plain is often the most polluted region in the country mainly due to geographic and meteorological reasons, so far this season, northwestern cities from Delhi NCR and Haryana had remained the most polluted cities. On Monday, only cities from Bihar and West Bengal remained the most polluted with ‘very poor’ air quality.

Bhiwadi (Rajasthan), Lucknow and Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), Jorapokhar (Jharkhand), Vapi (Gujarat) and Narnaul (Haryana) occupied the rest of the spots on the list of top 10 most polluted cities.

Endangering right to life

Apart from air pollution levels, the bench also pointed out the emerging issue of unavailability of clean drinking water in many cities and towns. “Yamuna river has turned into sewage. River Ganga is also in the same condition. River water pollution is a major issue,” said the court.

SC observed that the right to life has been endangered by the states due to lack of response on most pressing issues.

“We have noted that every year, and year after year, the process is worsening…time has come to protect the right to life. Why should they (state administrations) not pay compensation on air pollution, not lifting garbage etc.? Time has come to rewind the state machinery,” said Justice Mishra.

Jharkhand to pay Rs10-cr as ‘performance guarantee’ to anti-pollution body

Source: hindustantimes.com

Following the direction of National Green Tribual (NGT), the state government is set to pay Rs10 crore as performance guarantee to the central pollution control board (CPCB) with assurance of lowering down biochemical oxygen demand below 3mg/litre in seven rivers’ stretches in three years, officials said.

The NGT recently asked the state government to deposit the said amount to the central pollution board as performance guarantee so that the issue could be dealt with serious efforts in a time bound manner.

“Jharkhand is not alone. The performance guarantee was asked from all states having polluted river. The NGT has fixed the rate of guarantee on the basis of pollution level in rivers. Since Jharkhand has seven stretches of seven rivers, the state was asked to pay Rs 10 crore as performance guarantee,” said Jharkhand state pollution control board (JSPCB) chairman AK Rastogi. Rastogi, however, claims Jharkhand stands at four in the river pollution category, which means pollution level is less in rivers of the state.

The stretches of seven rivers Garga, Sankh, Subarnarekha, Damodaro, Jumar, Konar and Nalkari – would go under rejuvenation drive in next three years. The JSPCB has submitted its action plan to the CPCB suggesting ways to reduce pollution level in the stretches.

According to the action plan report, highest BOD level at 8.4mg/litre was found at 10-km stretch of Sankh river, while 6.2mg/litre was recorded at eight kilometre stretch of Garga river along Telmuchu. BOD level at 3.4mg/litre to 10mg/litre was found at 120-km stretch of Subarnarekha river, while 3.9mg/litre BOD found at on 12-km stretch of Damodar near Phusro, Bhandaridah and Dhanbad. Similarly, the BOD level from 3.3mg/litre to 3.8 mg/litre was found on stretches of Jumar, Konar and Nalkari. “We have been given three-year timeline to bring down the BOD level from the stretches below 3mg/litre,” said JSPCB member secretary Rajiv Lochan Bakshi.

Experts say BOD causes a serious threat to the aquatic life due to the depletion of dissolved oxygen. They blame large-scale mining operations in the state for river pollution.

A JSPCB official said about 130 million litres of industrial effluents and 65 million litres of untreated domestic water are released to Damodar drainage system.

The JSPCB suggested hordes of measures in its action plan to reduce the pollution in rivers.

The measures suggested for industries are setting up effluent treatment plants, adaption of zero liquid discharge concept by industries, tailing ponds management plans such as dewatering and drying, water recovery and re-use and discharge legislation compliance.

Pollution abatement measures at domestic source suggested under the action plan included sewerage systems to capture raw sewage flowing into the rivers though open drains and diverting them for treatment and setting up sewage treatment plants for treating diverted sewage.