National Initiatives
In order to conserve inland water quality in India, several programmes
have been drawn up by the Ministry of Environment and Forest. Based on
the data provided by the Central Pollution Control Board, a Water Quality
Atlas of India has been prepared by the Survey of India. The Ganga Action
Plan was launched in 1986 for improving the quality of the river Ganga
in India and thousands of polluting industries along the river have been
ordered to close or to improve the standards of their emissions. The National
River Action Plan (NRAP) includes grossly polluted stretches of those rivers
not covered under the Ganga Action Plan Phases I and II. Fourteen grossly
polluted stretches in 9 rivers, and 14 less-polluted stretches in another
8 rivers of the country, have been identified (India, 1992b).
Among the many countries of the Asia-Pacific region with anti-pollution
legislation, that of Malaysia is the best example with respect to its level
of control. The Environmental Quality Act (EQA) of Malaysia authorizes
the regulation of most forms of pollution and is put into effect through
the licensing of polluting activities and of certain prescribed premises.
The various sets of regulations and acts include the Water Enactment as
amended (for the control of river pollution), the Street, Drainage and
Building Act (for control of discharges of trade effluent and domestic
wastes into rivers), and the Local Government Act (for control of pollution
of streams within local authority areas) (Malaysia, 1992 and 1993).
A notable example of a national initiative is the ten-year "clean river"
programme which was initiated by the Singapore Government in 1977. The
programme has brought back life to the Singapore River and the Kallang
Basin. Today Singapore’s rivers support aquatic life and have dissolved
oxygen (DO) concentrations ranging from 2 to 4 milligrams per litre. The
Government’s objective is to reduce pollution further and to raise DO concentrations
in all streams to 4 milligrams per litre by the year 2000 (Singapore, 1992).
In Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia, a nation-wide
clean river campaign programme, called PROKASIH, has been active in bringing
greater public and political pressure onto industrial polluters. As a result,
most industries have installed treatment facilities, and in some cases
pollution loads have fallen by more than 50 per cent (ESCAP, 1995) .
Regional Initiatives
With financial and technical assistance from the Asian Development Bank
and other donors, two projects are being developed, one focusing on "Subregional
Environmental Training and Institutional Strengthening in Selected Priority
Areas" and the other on a "Subregional Environmental Monitoring and Information
System". The former will address, among other issues, the standardization
of national environmental legislation particularly in respect of environmental
standards, water quality management and industrial pollution, and appropriate
technology transfer within the sub-region.
In South East Asia, the Mekong is the largest river flowing through
China, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam. The lower Mekong
is the focus for international co-operation on water quality and pollution
control. Basic networks have been established for water quality monitoring
of surface water. With funding from the Swedish International Development
Agency (SIDA), a Ground Water Investigation Programme (1989–92) was formulated.
One of the main achievements of this project was the establishment of a
hydrogeological network for the observation of water table variations,
regional hydraulic head variations and water quality variations in the
Mekong countries (ESCAP, 1991). |
