The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) of India is a statutory organisation under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. It was established on September 23, 1974 under The Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 as a technical arm of Central Government for environmental research, monitoring, regulation and enforcement in the country. 

Features

    • It is entrusted with the powers and functions under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

    • It serves as a field formation and also provides technical services to the Ministry of Environment and Forests under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

    • It Co-ordinates the activities of the State Pollution Control Boards by providing technical assistance and guidance and also resolves disputes among them.

    • It is the apex organisation in country in the field of pollution control, as a technical wing of MoEFC.

    • It is responsible for maintaining national standards under a variety of environmental laws, in consultation with zonal offices, tribal, and local governments.

    • Some of the pro-active actions of the Central Board include 

        ◦ setting sector specific standards (86)

        ◦ real time surveillance of more than 5,000 industries

        ◦ river basin studies, which led to genesis of Ganga Action Plan

        ◦ multi-city source apportionment studies

        ◦ establishing extensive monitoring network and data management for public dissemination

        ◦ setting national ambient air quality standards

        ◦ fixing water quality criteria.

    • On the 46th Foundation day celebration, a Sewage Treatment Plant(STP) reporting Mobile Application for smooth data collection and rapid reporting from 1,641 STPs in the country was also launched.

Functions of CPCB

    • Air quality

        ◦ CPCB runs nationwide programs of ambient air quality monitoring known as National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP).

        ◦ The monitoring of meteorological parameters such as wind speed and wind direction, relative humidity (RH) and temperature were also integrated with the monitoring of air quality.

    • Water quality

        ◦ CPCB in collaboration with concerned SPCBs/PCCs established a nationwide network of water quality monitoring, which has running 1019 stations in 27 States and 6 Union Territories.

        ◦ Being a riverine country India has 14 major rivers, 44 medium rivers and 55 minor rivers besides numerous lakes, ponds and wells which are used as primary source of drinking water even without treatment.

        ◦ The inland water quality monitoring network is operating under a three-tier program i.e. Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS), Monitoring of Indian National Aquatic Resources System (MINARS) and Yamuna Action Plan (YAP).

    • Urban area programs (EcoCity Program): CPCB programs for urban areas, also known as EcoCity Program comes under X Plan to improve environment through implementation of identified environmental improvement projects in the selected towns and cities.

    • Municipal Solid Waste rules: CPCB collects necessary information form municipal authorities who are responsible for collection, segregation, storage, transportation, processing and disposal of municipal solid and provide them technical assistance.

    • Noise pollution

        ◦ Various sources like industrial activity, construction activity, generator sets, loud speakers, public address systems, music systems, vehicular horns and other mechanical devices have deleterious effects on human health.

        ◦ CPCB has the responsibility to regulate and control noise producing and generating sources with the objective of maintaining the ambient air quality standards.

    • Environmental Data Statistics

        ◦ CPCB manages environmental data statistic.

        ◦ In the case of air quality data, it measures the level of SO2, NO2, RSPM and SPM.

        ◦ Quality level of river and ponds are the major fields which comes under the water quality data criteria.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)