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MSPCB’s fund-crunch theory unacceptable: CAG

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‘Water of 28 out of 31 water bodies of six districts unfit for drinking’

 

By Our Reporter

SHILLONG: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed out that the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board (MSPCB) has failed to utilize the available funds at its disposal to conduct the regular monitoring of water bodies terming the contention of MSPCB regarding financial constraints as ‘unacceptable’.

According to the CAG report for the year ended March 31, 2011, no action was initiated on the part of the Board to repair the Rs 19.27-lakh Mobile Laboratory Van (MLV) which is used to monitor air/water quality at remote localities.

“The poor compliance with the rules by the municipal board and the health care establishments coupled with ineffective monitoring by the MSPCB has resulted in continued environmental pollution and health hazards leading to increase in the number of patients suffering from air and water borne diseases”, the report stated.

Stating that the status of water bodies in the State is pathetic, the CAG report pointed out that water of 28 out of 31 water bodies of six districts of the State was not fit for drinking. “The existence of actual number of water bodies in the State was not determined by the MSPCB or the water resources department,” the CAG said.

Reports also pointed out that the actual number of water bodies in the state was not identified by the MSPCB. However, the board had monitored the water quality of 31 water bodies in six districts during 2006-10 out of which 13 water bodies was monitored and the result indicated that none of these bodies was fit for drinking.

Meanwhile, the water of the remaining 18 water bodies was not monitored regularly. However, based on monitoring of these water bodies conducted in a piecemeal manner by the MSPCB, it was observed that the water of three bodies are drinking water sources without conventional treatment but after disinfection and the remaining 15 water bodies was classified as unfit for drinking.

“Despite this, the MSPBC did not carry out regular monitoring of water quality of these 18 water bodies”, the report said adding that the claims made by MSPBC on its inability to conduct regular monitoring due to financial and manpower constraints was unacceptable.

Further, the report has highlighted on the waste management in the state while terming it as ‘poor’ and the lack of waste processing facilities in four municipal boards or scientific landfills in all the six municipal boards of the state resulted in open dumping of mixed waste which could lead to environmental pollution.

Meanwhile, report also stated that in violation of Bio-Medical Waste Rules, 139 out of 178 health institutions were functioning in the state without authorization from the MSPBC. “The MSPBC has failed to ensure segregation, labeling, colour coding and disposal of bio-medical wastes in accordance with the prescribing rules”, CAG added.

Moreover, it was found that the extent of pollution of air caused by 481 polluting industries was not monitored by the MSPCB. Besides coal mining activities were being carried out in the state without authorization.

“The ambient air quality of Shillong city in particular and the state in general is far from ‘satisfactory’ mainly because of the emission of air pollutants from automobiles”, reports said.

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