The Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act 1974- Definitions, Establishments of — Central Pollution Control Board (S. 3)

Stand on the Mithi river bridge near Kurla after the first monsoon shower and you can smell what factories and drains have been pouring into it. Nobody in the crowd thinks of the river as someone’s property, yet someone is surely responsible for it. Who can stop a factory from emptying its waste into a stream, who gives it permission to start in the first place, and what happens to the owner who ignores the order? The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974 answers these questions by creating pollution control boards and giving them the power to say yes, no or stop.

In two minutes

The Water Act 1974 sets up the Central Pollution Control Board and State Boards, gives them the power to grant or refuse consent for discharges into streams, wells, sewers and land, and backs that power with directions, court orders and penalties.

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