Lok Sabha Question No. 1859 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-12-21
Subject: Disposal of Hazardous Industrial Waste into Rivers
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: PARVESH SAHIB SINGH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOKSABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1859

TO BE ANSWERED ON 21.12.2018

## Disposal of Hazardous Industrial Waste into Rivers

## 1859. SHRI PARVESH SAHIB SINGH:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of rivers where any kind of hazardous industrial waste are being disposed;
- (b) the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  during  last  five  years  to  prevent  untreated  heavy metal waste and hazardous waste from being disposed directly into rivers in and around Delhi; and
- (c) the new technologies adopted by Government for treatment of hazardous wastes from industries before being disposed into rivers?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND CLIMATE CHANGE (DR. MAHESH SHARMA)

(a) to (c) Central Pollution Control Board  (CPCB)  in  association  with  the  State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs)/Pollution Control Committees (PCCs) monitor the water quality  of  rivers  across  the  country  through  a  network  of  monitoring  stations  under  the National  Water  Quality  Monitoring  Programme.  As  per  the  report  published  by  CPCB  in September 2018,  351  polluted  river  stretches  have  been  identified  on  323  rivers  based  on Bio-chemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) levels, a key indicator of pollution. The major source of pollution of these rivers is discharge of untreated and partially treated sewage from cities/ towns and industrial effluents.

As per the Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Trans-boundary Movement) Rules,  2016  notified  under  the  Environment  (Protection)  Act,  1986,  industrial hazardous wastesare required to be disposed off in an environmentally sound manner.Compliance with these rules is monitored by the CPCB and SPCBs/PCCs and action is  taken  in  cases  of  violation  by  industries.  With  respect  to  the  industries  in  Delhi,  regular inspections are undertaken by Delhi Pollution Control Committee to ensure compliance.

Steps taken by the Government, in addition to the notification of the aforesaid rules, to  implement  environmentally  sound  management  of  hazardous  wastes, inter  alia, include availability  of  42  Common  Hazardous  Waste  Treatment,  Storage  and  Disposal  Facilities (TSDFs)in  18  States/Union  Territories;  establishment    of   1733  authorized  recyclers  of commonly recyclable hazardous wastes having authorized capacity of 6.99 million tonnes; permission  for  65  cement  plants  for  co-processing;  development  of  224  facilities  for utilization  of  various  categories  of  hazardous  waste  as  a  resource/for  energy  recovery;

development  of  guidelines  and  manuals  for  hazardous  waste  management  in  various industrial sectors; notification of industry specific effluent standards; issuance of directions to SPCBs/PCCs  to  ensure  compliance;  installation  of  Online  Continuous  Emission/Effluent Monitoring  Systems  (OCEMS)  in  17  categories  of  highly  polluting  industries,  etc.Further, CPCB has developed 46 Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) to enable waste processing industries to utilize various streams of hazardous wastes such as spent solvent, spent catalyst, vanadium sludge, coal tar, aluminium dross, phenolic wastewater, spent carbon, etc.and these SoPs have been circulated to all SPCBs/PCCs for granting authorization to industries after verification of minimal requisite facilities stipulated under the respective SoP.

*****