Critically polluted areas are not just an environmental challenge, but they are a public health challenge. Inaugurating a one day workshop for Environmental Pollution Index (EPI) for indemnification and assessment of critically polluted areas here today, Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Environment and Forests (I/C) asked Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to identify critically polluted areas based on scientific criteria and design Action Plans for each area. The Minister did not agree with 24 critically polluted areas identified by CPCB and suggested to include those areas which have not been covered in the list. He added there is a need to do the exercise in measurement, monitoring and modeling in some states to know how the course of pollution is going to evolve. Mr. Jairam said prior to this we need the base level information so that a robust methodology can be developed after this exercise. He expressed a view that various dimensions of pollution should be captured.

We can record Air Quality Index, Water Quality Index and Land Quality Index as well, the Minister added. He explained there is always a danger in the uni-dimensional index approach and we might loose some information embedded into it. Shri Ramesh talked about a practical suggestion to evolve an EPI index like western countries where literacy, life expectancy, per capita income etc. are included.

Referring to his visits to most critically polluted areas, the Minister said the problem is highly serious. The effluent from industries is discharged at night. Referring to most polluted areas of Vapi and Ankleshwar in Gujarat, the Minister said a large number of villages have not seen clean drinking water since a long time and water in Vapi Town is not potable. High degree of asthma cases and irritation, particularly in eyes are prevalent among people. He said common effluent treatment plants are there but they have been design in such a manner that they do not meet the standards, hence do not serve the purpose to the fullest. Large number of small scale units are outside the ambit of CETPs Facilities. He appealed to use advanced technology for industrial effluent disposal system. Other cities with highly polluted areas are Panipat, Tirupur, Singrauli, Thalcher, Ratlam, Kanpur & Bhopal. The Minister said once rankings are known, we can identify areas for intervention on priority bases.

Shri Gautam, Chairman, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) earlier informed that CPCB initiated a programme to identify problem area from pollution point of view for taking concerted action and for being centrally monitored at the national level to improve the environment such as air and water quality data, public complaints, ecological damage, and visual environmental conditions Central Pollution Control Boards (CPCBs) and Sate Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) prepared a list of the potential area. The issue was discussed in depth in the 29th Conference of Chairmen and Member Secretaries of SPCBs/PCCs held in May 1989, and 10 critically Polluted Areas (CPAs) were identified to evolve a comprehensive time bound programme for each of the problem areas with respect to improvement of air and water quality. 14 more areas got added subsequently making the total number of identified CPAs as 24. CPCB has identified another 36 clusters/ areas which have been reported as having significant industrial activities and related environmental pollution problems. He said the purpose of this workshop is to facilitate the definition of critically polluted area based on the Environmental parameters index and prioritization of economically feasible solution through adequate action plan formulation for environmental sustainability problem area faces. Shri Gautam informed an Action Plans will be prepared for the industrial clusters/ areas which would be identified as CPAs. These Action Plans will help in prevention and control of pollution and to restore the environmental quality of CPAs. Action Plans shall be prepared with the help of all the stakeholders and after determining the comparative effectiveness of alternate plans and policies.

Explaining EPI , Prof Mukesh Khare, IIT-Delhi, said this is a rational number to characterize the quality of the environment at a given location following the algorithm of source, pathway and receptor. He said as the EPI increases, an increasingly large percentage of the population is likely to experience increasingly severe adverse health effects. Talking about the role of Environmental Pollution Index in identification and assessment of environmental Health of critically polluted area he further said we expect to identify environmental aspects and create asset of core pollutants adopted for each industrial cluster, develop monitoring programme for set of pollutants selected, develop the database for EPI and process it and develop the EPI for industrial clusters.

CPCB, Ministry of environment and forests, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute ( NEERI) and experts from various organisations, institutions, universities ,industries and NGOs participated in this workshop.

The initial response of the study will be ready by middle of the next month and after peer review State Governments, SPCBs, financial institutions etc. will be involved in the process.