Controlling industrial water pollution in Mumbai (India) : evaluating effectiveness

Abstract

In the last few years there has been a rapid growth in both theoretical developments and empirical studies of monitoring and enforcement. Various factors have contributed to this growth, including (1) the growth of the law and economics literature and its interest in issues of law enforcement and penalties (2) increased emphasis on enforcement by EP A and other regulatory agencies, and (3) the availability of data on firm compliance. The economics literature on environmental monitoring and enforcement has closely followed the related field of optimal penalties in the law and economics literature. However, there is hardly any such systematic attempt to study monitoring and enforcement of environmental policy in developing countries. The thesis makes an attempt to fulfill this gap by focussing on monitoring and enforcement of environmental policy (with a focus on industrial water pollution control) in Mumbai, a city developing country like India. Cities in the developing world exhibit certain common features: congestion is acute, ill-planned or unplanned physical sprawl abounds, services and amenities remain chronically short of basic requirements. Industry grows unchecked and above all the steady influx of population with varying social and environmental backgrounds accentuates the heterogeneous character of the community. Mumbai is such a case and is counted amongst the heavily polluted cities in the world. The various economic theories of government behavior outlined in the literature review have been used to help explain observed agency's enforcement behavior for water pollution control. Following these positive analyses, focus is then turned to normative theories of optimal penalties as it relates to water pollution control regulation, including recent developments that have incorporated the complexities associated with sanctioning both organizations and their employees. The thesis then assesses the compliance of firms with pollution control laws by researching into the reason so as to why the firms comply with water pollution control laws? The concluding section then assesses the overall effectiveness of water pol1ution control enforcement and compliance mechanism in Mumbai. The research demonstrated that though Mumbai has to go a long way in controlling industrial water pollution, it has been positively tackling the problems. The agency has successfully targeted the significantly polluting industries and monitors them more frequently. There is somewhat shortage of manpower and funds, but they have been effectively used by setting appropriate priorities and promoting compliance. The polluters are increasingly complying with the water pollution control laws because of increasing pressures from the agency, by upgrading their effluent treatment plants and in-plant process changes. Conspicuously less number of judicial and administrative penalties has strongly indicated the pervasiveness of negotiations at various levels. Ambient qua1ity of water was used as a broad indicator to assess the effectiveness of the enforcement-compliance system. The water quality has been found to be somewhat improving over the couple of years. The success of water pol1ution control depends upon the fast completion of mega 'sewerage master plan' which is right now underway and the ability of the agency to persuade the indu5tries to have their own efficient treatment plants.