Districts to be at heart of new anti-pollution drive
KOLKATA: With parts of the northern plains, including Delhi, in the grip of severe air pollution, and with many other parts of the country facing challenges related to pollution, garbage, and the emerging climate crisis, the Union environment ministry is preparing a National Environmental Plan, which will be ready by January 2020, and will address issues related to waste management and pollution.
“We are coming up with two national plans. While one is the National Action Plan for Climate Change, the other is the National Environmental Plan (NEP). NEP will focus more on solid waste management — plastic and biomedical waste among others. Districts in all states have been asked to come up with district environmental plans. We have already received plans from 102 districts,” said CK Mishra, Union environment secretary.
What makes the upcoming plan unique is that this will be the first national environmental plan with a bottom-up approach, with inputs coming from the districts. Experts have welcomed this approach.
“Considering that cities across India are struggling with pollution concerning air, water, sanitation and waste, among others, the formulation of a national
environmental plan is a good move. Also, the bottom-up approach by taking inputs from district authorities will aim for more localised action and areaspecific pollution abatement approaches,” said Swati Singh Sambyal, programme manager of environmental governance (municipal solid waste) at the Centre for Science and Environment in Delhi.
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has directed magistrates (DM) of all districts across India to prepare District Environment Plans (DEMs). These DEMs will be compiled to prepare State Environmental Plans, which in turn will be put together to prepare the National Environmental Plan.
CPCB has developed a model that DMs may use for preparing DEMs.
The model DEP covers seven thematic areas by capturing basic information on 64 parameters through 220 data points such as the state of various waste treatment facilities, encroachment on rivers and floodplains, incidents of stubble burning during winter, and how noise pollution is being tackled at the district level.
“You can say this is the first bottom-up approach plan which we intend to come up with to tackle nearly all kinds of pollution, be it noise, air and water and various kinds of wastes starting from domestic waste and sewage to hazardous and industrial waste,” said Prashant Gargava, member secretary, CPCB.
While the state environment plans are likely to be finalised by the end of December and monitored by the chief secretaries of the respective states, the national plan is expected to be compiled under the supervision of the Union environment secretary and chairman of CPCB by January.
“This is a very good move. Involving the districts from the start is the right approach because ultimately action would have to be taken by agencies working at the ground level,” said Sagnik Dey, associate professor at Centre for Atmospheric Sciences in Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
THE CENTRAL POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD (CPCB) HAS DIRECTED MAGISTRATES OF ALL DISTRICTS TO PREPARE DISTRICT ENVIRONMENT PLANS