The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, which set up the Central and State Pollution Control Boards, was enacted in which year?
- A.1972
- B.1974
- C.1981
- D.1986
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, 1974. The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1974 was India’s first comprehensive law on pollution. It created the Central Pollution Control Board and the State Pollution Control Boards, gave them power to lay down effluent standards, and made the consent of the board necessary before any industry may discharge waste water into a stream, well or sewer. Option A is wrong because 1972 is the year of the Wildlife (Protection) Act and of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Option C is wrong because 1981 is the year of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, which extended the same boards to air quality. Option D is wrong because 1986 is the year of the Environment (Protection) Act, the umbrella law passed after the Bhopal gas tragedy. A related law is the Water Cess Act of 1977.
Read the full article: Water Pollution and River Cleaning: Causes and Schemes
Practice Questions
View allWhich pollution causes Itai-Itai disease in human beings?
- A.Mercury pollution
- B.Cadmium pollution
- C.Arsenic pollution
- D.Nitrate pollution
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Itai-Itai disease was first identified in Japan among people who ate rice grown with water polluted by cadmium from mining waste.
Read the full explanation →Minamata disease is caused by the pollution of water with which metal?
- A.Lead
- B.Mercury
- C.Cadmium
- D.Chromium
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Minamata disease takes its name from Minamata Bay in Japan, where a factory discharged mercury compounds that were converted by bacteria into methylmercury, concentrated in fish through biomagnification and then eaten by people.
Read the full explanation →A high value of biochemical oxygen demand in a water sample indicates:
- A.The water is clean and fit to drink
- B.Heavy load of organic pollution
- C.High dissolved oxygen
- D.Absence of bacteria
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Biochemical oxygen demand measures the oxygen that micro-organisms need in order to break down the organic matter present in a sample.
Read the full explanation →Blue baby syndrome, or methaemoglobinemia, in infants is caused by an excess of which substance in drinking water?
- A.Fluoride
- B.Nitrate
- C.Iron
- D.Calcium
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Nitrate from fertiliser run-off and from sewage seeps into groundwater; in an infant it is converted to nitrite, which binds to haemoglobin and forms methaemoglobin, a compound that cannot carry oxygen.
Read the full explanation →The excessive growth of algae in a water body due to enrichment with nitrates and phosphates is called:
- A.Biomagnification
- B.Eutrophication
- C.Salinisation
- D.Sedimentation
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When fertilisers, detergents and sewage add nitrates and phosphates to a lake or a slow-moving river, algae multiply into a bloom that covers the surface.
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