India’s National Water Policy serves as a comprehensive framework aimed at sustainable development and management of the country’s water resources. With rivers like the Ganges bearing the brunt of pollution, strategies for water pollution control and management are imperative. The Ganges, revered as a sacred river, faces severe contamination from industrial effluents, sewage discharge, and agricultural runoff. To combat this, strategies such as stringent pollution monitoring, adoption of eco-friendly practices in industries, implementation of sewage treatment plants, and promoting community participation in river conservation are vital. Furthermore, promoting afforestation along riverbanks and creating buffer zones can help mitigate pollution and preserve water quality. Additionally, legal provisions play a crucial role in managing hazardous wastes. The Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016, outline regulations for the handling, treatment, and disposal of hazardous wastes in India. These rules mandate proper labeling, packaging, transportation, and disposal of hazardous wastes to prevent environmental contamination. Moreover, the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, empowers regulatory authorities to enforce measures for hazardous waste management, ensuring compliance with environmental standards. Collaborative efforts between government bodies, industries, and communities, along with strict enforcement of legal provisions, are essential to effectively address water pollution and hazardous waste management in India.
Tag: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
Decoding the Question:
- In the Intro try to write about India’s river pollution.
- In Body,
- Discuss the strategies for controlling and management of river pollution.
- In the second part of the answer legal provisions for management and handling hazardous waste.
- In Conclusion, try to write about the need for river pollution.
Answer:
The Ganga river holds deep religious significance in India with thousands thronging the Ganga’s ghats (banks) every year to bathe and offer prayers. But the alarming levels of pollutants and sewage waste that are discharged into it every day by over 1100 industrial units and several towns situated on its banks, have made it one of the most polluted rivers in the world. Water of river Ganga, which is considered as nectar in India, has become poisonous today. What to talk of drinking, it cannot even be used for bathing. A dangerous virus named Bacteriophage is found in the Ganga.
Strategies Need to be Adopted:
- Prevent Pollution Rather Than Treating Symptoms of Pollution:Although wastewater treatment facilities have been installed and improved over the years in many countries, water pollution remains a problem, including in industrialized countries.
- Use the Precautionary Principle: There are many examples of the application and discharge of hazardous substances into the aquatic environment, even when such substances are suspected of having detrimental effects on the environment.
- Apply the Polluter-Pays-Principle: The polluter-pays-principle, where the costs of pollution prevention, control and reduction measures are borne by the polluter, is not a new concept but has not yet been fully implemented, despite the fact that it is widely recognised that the perception of water as a free commodity can no longer be maintained.
- Apply Realistic Standards and Regulations: Unrealistic standards and non-enforceable regulations may do more harm than having no standards and regulations, because they create an attitude of indifference towards rules and regulations in general, both among polluters and administrators.
- Balance Economic and Regulatory Instruments: Until now, regulatory management instruments have been heavily relied upon by governments in most countries for controlling water pollution. Economic instruments, typically in the form of wastewater discharge fees and fines, have been introduced to a lesser extent and mainly by industrialised countries.
- Apply Water Pollution Control at the Lowest Appropriate Level: The appropriate level may be defined as the level at which significant impacts are experienced. If environmental impact affects a neighbouring community, then the appropriate management level is one level higher than the community level, for example the river basin level
The Hazardous Substances Management Division (HSMD) is the nodal point for management of chemical emergencies and hazardous substances in India. The Division is also the nodal point for the following four International Conventions viz.
- Basel Convention on Control of transboundary movement of Hazardous waste and their disposal.
- Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent Procedure for certain Chemicals and Pesticides in International trade.
- Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
- The Minamata Convention on Mercury and Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management.
National Inventory of Hazardous Wastes: The Ministry has also initiated a project on GIS Based National Hazardous Waste Information System.
- It is a web-based system, which has been developed to provide status of hazardous waste management in the Country. The database available on the web is required to be regularly updated by all State Pollution Control Boards to ensure updated status at all times. Through NHWIS, a survey of 33,000 hazardous waste industries and MIS data entry of about 27,500 hazardous waste industries has been completed.
However, in India still river pollution has been a very critical issue. All the components of physical environments must be protected from the pollution. Hence river pollution and hazardous pollution is the real problem which needs to be tackled very efficiently, which should make all the rivers a source of sustainable development. The key is to implement laws and regulations in their true spirit.
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