Indian SC bans discharging factory waste into Jamuna

NEW DELHI, Jan 24: India's Supreme Court today banned thousands of factories from discharging untreated industrial effluents into the Jamuna River in New Delhi and the neighbouring state of Haryana, reports AFP.

Judges BN Kirpal and S Rajendra Babu said river pollution in north India had reached an "alarming proportion" and had to be checked.

"We direct every industry in Delhi not to discharge their effluents either into the river or into drains leading to the river which have the effect of polluting the river."

The judges added that factories in the neighbouring state of Haryana would also have to heed the ban.

State-run pollution control boards welcomed the move.

"It is a major victory for us," said RC Trivedi of the Central Pollution Control Board, which has been waging a three-year-old campaign to reign in factories polluting the Jamuna, one of the main rivers in north India.

"We supplied the apex court with studies to show the dangerous level of toxins released into the Jamuna every day by some 15,000 to 20,000 factories in Delhi alone," said the senior scientist.

Trivedi said small to medium size soap and detergent, textile, electroplating, small engineering, and auto factories were the main culprits.

"Tests conducted in our laboratories on water samples collected from the Jamuna show that toxin levels are dangerously high and as a result, the water unsafe for drinking."

Rajat Banerjee, from the Centre for Science and Environment said the ban would give "more teeth" to pollution-control agencies.

"State pollution control boards and the police can now crack down and seal thousands of hole-in-the-wall workshops and factories that are spewing poison into the Jamuna," said Banerjee.

"It cannot be business as usual for them. This ban, if seriously implemented, will force businessmen of medium size factories to invest 500,000 rupees (11,820 dollars) to 100,000 rupees in water effluent plants."

Banerjee, however, said implementation was the tough part.

"It will not be easy to track down small-scale industries who discharge effluents slyly into municipal drains. Their whole business is covert," said Banerjee.

"Most of them are not registered establishments so they can close shop for a month or so if there is a crackdown and resurface later when the heat is off."

India's Water Act, 1974 has been amended several times to give government agencies powers to deal with growing river and ocean pollution. Almost all Indian rivers are polluted by untreated factory and human waste.