The Environment Protection Agency of the US plans to take up projects in India by working in tandem with government agencies and NGOs
The United States Environment Protection Agency (epa) intends to open an overseas office in India soon, to take up projects related to environment and health. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (mef) and the Central Pollution Control Board have offered support to the epa . However, administrative sanction and ministry of finance clearance is still awaited.
The epa will work broadly in four major areas: Urban air quality; comparative risk management and environmental management; priority pollutants; and environmental policy. The work will involve tie-ups with government departments, pollution control boards, ngos, and other specialist bodies. A particular stress area of the epa will be protecting the children from environmental hazards and raising public awareness on children's vulnerability to pollution.
The main concern in the "priority pollutants" area is arsenic pollution of ground water in West Bengal. The air quality work focus will be vehicular pollution in Delhi. Risk assessment and environmental management programme will be for Chennai, while the specific project under the environmental policy section will be assistance to Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (tnpcb) to deal with hazardous waste, including tannery effluents. Says Craig Hass, senior environment scientist with the epa : "Depending upon the success of projects undertaken and resources available, the epa may go in for continuing presence in India."
Why this move in India? "We have the money in India," Hass says. The us Embassy in India has given about $1 million to the epa for the programme of "environmental co-operation with the government of India." The epa also receives funds under the us Agency for International Development (usaid) and us -Asia Environmental Partnership (aep), a portion of which is used in India.
The programme is coordinated by the epa's overseas division, which has already done studies in Egypt and Mexico. It has also worked in 32 countries across the world. The first team of technical experts is expected to arrive in November.
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