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TMI Blog1988 (1) TMI 362X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... judgment dated September 22, 1987 in M.C. Mehta v. Union of India others, [1987] 4 S.C.C. 463, we issued certain directions with regard to the industries in which the business of tanning was being carried on at Jajmau near Kanpur on the banks of the river Ganga. On that occasion we directed that the case in respect of the municipal bodies and the industries which were responsible for the pollution of the water in the river Ganga would be taken up for consideration on the next date of hearing. Accordingly, we took up for consideration first the case against the municipal bodies. Since it was found that Kanpur was one of the biggest cities on the banks of the river Ganga, we took up for consideration the case in respect of the Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika. The Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika is established under the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Nagar Mahapalika Adhiniyam, 1959 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Adhiniyam'). Sub- section (3) of section 1 of the Adhiniyam, which is to be found in its 1st Chapter, provides that the 1st Chapter of the Adhiniyam shall come into operation at once and the remaining provisions in relation to a city shall come into operation from ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... aterial or apparatus either within or without the City or enter into any arrangement with any person for any period not exceeding twenty years for the removal or disposal of sewage within or without the City. .............. ... . .... ........... .. ... .. .. 388. Provision may be made by Mukhya Nagar Adhikari for collection, etc., of excrementitious and polluted matter-(1) The Mukhya Nagar Adhikari may give public notice of his intention to provide, in such portion of the City as he may specify, for the collection, removal and disposal by Mahapalika agency, of all excrementitious and polluted matter from privies, urinals, and cess- pools, and thereupon it shall be the duty of the Mukhya Nagar Adhikari to take measures for the daily collection, removal and disposal of such matter from all premises situated in such portion of the City. (2) In any such portion as is mentioned in sub-section (1) and in any premises, wherever situated, in which there is a water-closet or privy connected with a mahapalika drain, it shall not be lawful, except with the written permission of the Mukhya Nagar Adhikari, for any person who is not employed by or on behalf ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion, compensation shall be paid from the Mahapalika Fund to all persons interested therein for damage caused to them by such prohibition. 398. Power to require owners to clear away noxious vegetation-The Mukhya Nagar Adhikari may, by notice. require the owner or occupier of any land to clear away and remove any vegetation or undergrowth which may be injurious to health or offensive to the neighbourhood. ................................................. 405. Power to require removal of nuisance arising from tanks, etc.- The Mukhya Nagar Adhikari may by notice require the owner or occupier of any land or building to cleanse, repair, cover, fill up or drain off a private well, tank, reservoir. pool, depression or excavation therein which may appear to the Mukhiya Nagar Adhikari to be injurious to health or offensive to the neighbourhood: Provided that the owner or occupier may require the Mukhya Nagar Adhikari to acquire at the expense of the Mahapalika or otherwise provide, any land or rights in land necessary for the purpose of effecting drainage ordered under this section 407. Any place m ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... any other liquid, gaseous or solid substance into water (whether directly or indirectly) as may or is likely to, create a nuisance or render such water harmful or injurious to public health or safety, or to domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural or other legitimate uses, or to the life and health of animals or plants or of acquatic organisms; . . . . . .... . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. .. . (g) 'sewage effluent' means effluent from any sewerage system or sewage disposal works and includes sullage from open drains; (gg) 'sewer' means any conduit pipe or channel, open or closed, carrying sewage or trade effluent; . . . . . . .. ... . .. .. . .. ....... .. . . (j) 'stream' includes- (i) river; (ii) water course (whether flowing or for the time being dry); (iii) inland water (whether natural or artificial); (iv) sub-terranean waters; (v) sea or tidal waters to such extent or, as the case may be, to such point as the State may, by notification in the official Gazette, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of different regions and more especially the prevailing flow characteristics of water in streams and wells which render it impossible to attain even the minimum degree of dilution; and (vii) to lay down standards of treatment of sewage and trade effluents to be discharged into any particular stream taking into account the minimum fair weather dilution available in that stream and the tolerance limits of pollution permissible in the water of the stream, after the discharge of such effluents. The State Board has been given- certain executive powers to implement the provisions of the Water Act. Sections 20, 21 and 23 of the Water Act confer power on the State Board to obtain information necessary for the implementation of the provisions of the Water Act, to take samples of effluents and to analyse them and to follow the procedure prescribed in connection therewith and the power of entry and inspection for the purpose of enforcing the provisions of the Water Act. Section 24 of the Water Act prohibits the use of stream or well for disposal of polluting matters etc. contrary to the provisions incorporated in that section. Section 32 of the Water Act confers the power on the State Board t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the town is approximately 20 lacs. 3. The city is covered with piped water supply. 4. The city has developed between river Ganges on the north side and river Pandu on the south side. G.T. Road divides the city into two halves. In the north side most of the area is covered by sewerage system and the sullage/sewage is discharged without treatment into river Ganges through 17 nalas including sewerage by-pass channel at Jajmau. In the south side there is no sewerage system and the sewage/sullage are discharged without treatment into river Pandu through 5 nalas. River Pandu joins river Ganges near Fatehpur(Sketch enclosed). 5. The Kanpur Nagar mahapalika has not yet submitted any proposal of sewage treatment works to the Board. 6. Mr. Ikramur Rahman, A.E. Nagar Mahapalika told the Kanpur town is covered under Ganga Action Plan and following are the proposals- (A) U. P. Jal Nigam (1) Re-modelling of sewage pumping station at Jajmau and improvement to sewage farm. (2) Nala Tapping. (3) Sewage Treatment Plant. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lakhs. All this finds its way into the sewerage system and the nalas in the rainy season. It has also totally choked many branches of sewers and trunk sewers resulting in the overflow of the system. (iii) The night soil collected from the unsewered areas of the city and thrown into the nalas. (iv) There are more than 80 tanneries in Jajmau whose effluent used to be directly discharged into the river. (v) The total water supply in Kanpur is about 55 mil lion gallons per day. After use major part of it goes down the drains, nalas and sewers; sewage is taken to Jajmau sewage pumping station and a part of it is being supplied to sewage farms after diluting it with raw ganges water and the remaining part is discharged into the river. (vi) Dhobi Ghats. (vii) Defecation by economically weaker sections. The affidavit further states that the U.P. Jal Nigam, the U.P. Water Pollution Control Board, the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, the Central Leather Research Institute, the Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika, the Kanpur Development Authority and the Kanpur Jal Sansth ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n in the month of August, 1986 when the ISI limit for river water is 0.3 and 0.900 (mg/ml) of manganese whereas the WHO limit of manganese for drinking water is 0.05. The Progress Report for the period February 1987-June. 1987 of Microlevel Intensive Monitoring of Ganga under Ganga Action Plan describes the samples of the water taken from the river Ganga at Kanpur thus: B.O.D. (Bio oxygen Demand) values are found to be higher than prescribed values of l.S.I. C.O.D. (Chemical oxygen Demand) values are also found to be higher. These values clearly indicate that river water is not fit for drinking, fishing and bathing purposes. Table II further shows that Total Coliform and Fecal Coliform bacteria are always found very high. This is due to disposal of large quantity of untreated municipal waste into river Ganga. These high values of bacteria indicate that water is not fit for drinking, bathing and fishing purpose. To improve quality of water in Ganga, all nullahs should be trapped immediately and raw water should be treated conventionally at water works and disinfected by chlorination (underlining by us) In the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... water supply gets contaminated by faeces from d person suffering from, or carrying, one of the infections. Many people drink the water and a number of these fall ill from the infection at about the same time. Typhoid is the most cosmopolitan of the classical water-borne infections. In man it produces a severe high fever with generated systemic, more than intestinal, symptoms. The bacteria are ingested and very few are sufficient to infect. The typhoid patient is usually too ill to go out polluting the water and is not infective prior o falling sick. However, a small proportion of those who recover clinically continue to pass typhoid bacteria in their faeces for months or years; these carriers are the source of water borne infections. Gallstones predispose to the carrier state as the bacteria persist in the inflamed gall bladder. In the tropics, lesions of Schistosoma haematobium in the bladder also act as nide of infection, producing urinary typhoid carriers, whilst rectal schistosomiasis combined with typhoid leads to a persistent sever fever lasting many months. Typhoid bacteria survive well in water but do not multiply there. Cholera is in s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... efficacious. Such methods did not create difficulties as sewage discharges were small as compared to the stream flow. But with the increased discharge of progressively large quantities of sewage, polluted streams became a serious menace to public health. NATURE OF THE PROBLEM The introduction of modern water carriage systems transferred the sewage disposal from the streets and the surroundings of townships to neighbouring streams and rivers. This was the beginning of the problem of water pollution. It is ironic that man, from the earliest times, has tended to dispose of his wastes in the very streams and rivers from which most of his drinking water is drawn. Until quite recently this was not much of a problem, but with rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, the problem of the pollution of natural waters is reaching alarming proportions. The most disturbing feature of this mode of disposal is that those who cause water pollution are seldom the people who suffer from it. Cities and industries discharge their untreated or only partially treated sewage and industrial waste waters into neighbouring streams and thereby remove waste matter from th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tries to treat their trade wastes in such a way that they do not deteriorate the quality of the receiving waters, which otherwise would make the utilisation of such polluted waters very difficult or costly for downstream settlers. URGENCY OF THE PROBLEM The crucial question is not whether developing countries can afford such measures for the control of water pollution but it is whether they can afford to neglect them. The importance of the latter is emphasised by the fact that in the absence of adequate measures for the prevention or control of water pollution, a nation would eventually be confronted with far more onerous burdens to secure wholesome and adequate supplies of water for different purposes. If developing countries embark on suitable pollution prevention policies during the initial stages of their industrialisation, they can avoid the costly mistakes committed in the past by many developed countries. It is, however, unfortunate that the importance of controlling pollution is generally not realised until considerable damage has already been done; (Pages 3 and 4) In common law the Municipal Corporation can be restrained by an injunction in an action broug ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on Plan at Kanpur in order to improve the sewerage system and to prevent pollution of the water in the river Ganga. But as we see from the affidavit filed on behalf of the authorities concerned in this case the works are going on at a snail's pace. We find from the affidavits filed on behalf of the Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika that certain target dates have been fixed for the completion of the works already undertaken. We expect the authorities concerned to complete those works within the target dates mentioned in the counter-affidavit and not to delay the completion of the works beyond those dates. It is, however, noticed that the Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika has not yet submitted its proposals for sewage treatment works to the State Board constituted under the Water Act. The Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika should submit its proposals to the State Board within six months from today. It is seen that there is a large number of dairies in Kanpur in which there are about 80,000 cattle. The Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika should take action under the provisions of the Adhiniyam or the relevant bye-laws made thereunder to prevent the pollution of the water in the river Ganga on account of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ch orders have been issued under sections 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 staying prosecutions under the Water Act within two months. The counsel for the Board constituted under the Water Act shall furnish a list of such cases to the Registrar of the concerned High Court for appropriate action being taken thereon. One other aspect to which our attention has been drawn is the practice of throwing corpses and semi-burnt corpses into the river Ganga. This practice should be immediately brought to an end. The co-operation of the people and police should be sought in enforcing this restriction. Steps shall be taken by the Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika and the Police authorities to ensure that dead bodies or half burnt bodies are not thrown into the river Ganga. Whenever applications for licences to establish new industries are made in future, such applications shall be refused unless adequate provision has been made for the treatment of trade effuents flowing out of the factories. immediate action should be taken against the existing industries if they are found responsible tor pollution of water. Having regard to the grave consequences ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ons by rendering free personal service. This would surely create a national awareness of the problems faced by the people by the appalling all-round deterioration of the environment which we are witnessing today. We request the Ministry of Environment of the Government of India to give a serious consideration to the above suggestion. What we have stated above applies mutatis mutandis to all other Mahapalikas and Municipalities which have jurisdiction over the areas through which the river Ganga flows. Copies of this judgment shall be sent to all such Nagar Mahapalikas and Municipalities. The case against the Nagar Mahapalikas and Municipalities in the state of Uttar Pradesh shall stand adjourned by six months. Within that time all the Nagar Mahapalikas and Municipalities in the State of Uttar Pradesh through whose areas the river Ganga flows shall file affidavits in this Court explaining the various steps they have taken for the prevention of pollution of the water in the river Ganga in the light of the above judgment. The case as against the several industries in the State of Uttar Pradesh which are located on the banks of the river Ganga will he taken up for hearin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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