(a) whether the Central Pollution Control Board monitors the water quality of rivers;
(b) if so, the location earmarked for monitoring points and for sample collection in
Kerala along with the total number of working monitoring stations; and
(c) the details of preventive steps taken by the Government to control the quality of
river water?
MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS (SHRIMATI JAYANTHI NATARAJAN)
(a)&(b) The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has established the National Water Quality
Monitoring Network (NWQMN) of stations on aquatic resources across the country. The present
NWQMN comprises of 445 Rivers at 1275 locations.
The CPCB is monitoring water quality at 128 stations in Kerala out of which 73 are on rivers,
16 on lakes, 2 on ponds, 3 on canals and 34 are ground water stations. All these water quality
monitoring locations are being functional from their date of sanction. The list is of these
stations is given at Annexure.
(c) The CPCB and State Pollution Control Boards are implementing the Water (Prevention and
Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 to restore the water quality. The steps taken to check the
water pollution are as follows:
# Control of Industrial pollution under the provision of Water (Prevention and Control
of Pollution), Act, 1974;
# A mutually agreed time targeted programme implemented under Corporate Responsibility
for Environment Protection (CREP);
# Special Drives in 17 categories of highly polluting industries;
# Identification of action plans for 43 Critically Polluted Areas as per Comprehensive
Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI);
# Establishment of Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) for cluster of Small Scale
Industrial units;
# Promotion of low-waste and no-waste technology;
# Steps are being taken to augment flow in rivers for maintaining their ecological balance
including desired water quality;
# The rain water harvesting practices are being implemented in various regions of the country
to augment the depleted water table.