ENVIRONMENTAL TRAINING

Training is an important component for Human Resource Development of any Organisation/Institutes. In the area of Environmental Pollution Control, which is an interdisciplinary subject, imparting training is an imperative activity. Environmental awareness among the public and educating current knowledge to the officers working in the Pollution Control Boards are essential steps to have a sound environmental management in the country. Hence the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Air ((Prevention and Control of Pollution), Act, 1981 are also emphasizing that imparting training is one of the major functions of the Central Pollution Control Board. Training in various aspects of prevention, abatement and control of pollution to the identified target groups is important. The target groups include officials dealing with planning, funding and implementation of programmes for prevention and control of pollution in the Central and State Governments, the Central and State Pollution Control Boards, the local bodies, operators of industrial and municipal wastewater treatment plants and NGO’s engaged in management of pollution control programmes.

8.1 TRAINING NEED

Pollution control is an inter-disciplinary subject. Graduates, post-graduates in the fields of chemical/civil engineering and pure and applied sciences, do not have any formal training in the field of prevention, abatement and control of pollution. When appointed in Pollution Control Boards, they face a gigantic task before them. Therefore, it is necessary to have them trained and oriented for discharging their responsibilities smoothly and efficiently in areas, such as consent management, and implementation of effluent and emission standards. In addition, there is a need to improve the capabilities of persons already working with Pollution Control Boards. It is necessary that uniform methods of analysis of pollutants and consent granting are adopted and ensured through training for proper and effective implementation of the provisions of the Acts. To summarize, training is needed in the following fields:

• Operation and maintenance of wastewater treatment plants and air pollution control devices;

• Management, routine analysis, quality assurance and analytical quality control and maintenance of environmental laboratories;
• Water and air quality monitoring system;
• Consent management including setting of standards;
• Environmental audit, Environmental Impact Assessment and environmental management system;
• Specific subjects, such as management of hazardous waste, air/water quality modeling, data processing and legal aspects; and
• Computer application for data processing and Internet shuffling for literature collection.

8.2    TRAINING COURSES ORGANISED UNDER AMBIENT AIR QUALITY MONITORING SUB- COMPONENT OF EMCBTA PROJECT  

Training Abroad:  

v     14 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “Air Pollution Monitoring including Advanced Instrumental Methods for Sampling and Development of Managerial skills” at M/s Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand during March 3, 2003, to April 11, 2003.

Training in India:

v     20 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AS6: Determination of impact on health and vegetation due to air pollution” at Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, New Delhi during November 11 to 15, 2002.

v     19 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AE6: Air pollution sources inspection techniques” at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay during November 25 to 29, 2002.

v     17 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AE1: Source sampling techniques” at National Productivity Council, Chennai, during December 16 to 20, 2002.

v     19 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AE6: Air pollution sources inspection techniques” at Environmental Management & Policy Research Institute, Bangalore, during December 16 to 20,2002.

v     22 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AE5: Reviewing plans for air pollution control devices” at National Productivity Council, Chennai during January 6 to 10, 2002.

v     22 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “Environmental economics - market based instrument” at National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi, during January 13 to 17, 2002.

v     25 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AM7: Clean technology and pollution prevention in air pollution control” at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, during January 27 to 31, 2003.

v     19 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AS3B: Sampling and analysis methods for volatile organics in ambient air” at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, during February 3 to 7, 2003.

v     18 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AS3B: Sampling and analysis methods for volatile organics in ambient air” at National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, during February 3 to 7, 2003.

v     21 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AM7: Clean technology and pollution prevention in air pollution control” at National Productivity Council, Chennai, during February 10-14, 2003.

v     22 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AE4+AE7: Legal procedures in enforcement including consent drafting” at Center for Environmental Studies, Anna University, Chennai, during February 24 - 28, 2003.

v     25 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AS4+AS7: Air quality lab management including quality assurance” at School of Environmental Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, during March 3 - 7, 2003.

v     23 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AS6: Determination of impact on health and vegetation due to air pollution” at Industrial Toxicology Research Centre, Lucknow, during March 10 - 14, 2003.

v     20 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AS6: Determination of impact on health and vegetation due to air pollution” at National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad, during March 10-14, 2003.

v     16 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AE2: Preparation of emission inventories” at National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur during March 17 - 22, 2003.

v     21 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AE8: Accident and emergency management” at Disaster Management Institute, Bhopal, during March 24 – 28, 2003.

v     16 participants from Central and different State Pollution Control Boards attended a training programme on “AS1+AS3A+AS5: Sampling and analysis methods of ambient air pollutants and source emission including site selection guideline and statistical analysis and interpretation of air quality data” at National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, during March 24 to April 4, 2003.  

8.3  WORKSHOP ON ISSUES RELATED TO AMBIENT AIR QUALITY MONITORING INSTRUMENTS AND ANALYSERS
 
A workshop cum symposium was conducted by CPCB on issues related to ambient air quality monitoring instruments and analyzer at India International Centre, New Delhi on 6 & 7 June 2002.  The workshop was attended by representatives from State Pollution Control Boards, Public Sector Undertakings, R&D Institutes, Manufacturers and suppliers of Instruments and Non-governmental Organizations.  The primary objective of conducting this workshop was to bring together all those working in the field of air quality monitoring for sharing their experiences.  Many papers were presented on issues related to calibration of instruments, methodology, availability of gas standards, quality assurance and quality control aspects.  Some of the manufacturers also displayed their latest and state-of-the-art instruments.  Participants of the workshop felt the need for conducting such workshops on a regular basis.  Some of the important recommendations of the workshop were to develop zonal centers for calibration and certification of air monitoring instruments, Initiate monitoring of additional parameters such as PM_2.5, PAH and BTX and networking of continuous monitoring stations being operated by Pollution Control Boards and industries.

 
8.4 NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON AIR TOXICS IN ENVIRONMENT (BTX, VOC, PAH)  

Workshop on Air Toxics in Environment (BTX, VOC, PAH) was organised by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in collaboration with Indo-German Project on March 7-8, 2002 in Delhi.  

The objective of the workshop was to provide an opportunity to officials of CPCB/SPCB’s & other Organisations working in this area to share their experiences, harmonising methodology of sampling & analysis for BTX and PAH’s, quality assurance and setting up of air quality standards for these air toxics. During the workshop participants shared their views. The officials from National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL)- Research & Development, Centre for Occupational & Environmental Health, Lok Nayak Hospital, Patel Chest Institute, Indian Toxicological Research Centre (ITRC), Tata Energy Research Institute(TERI), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Hindustan Organic Chemicals Limited (HOCL), Indo-German Project, State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) and Central Pollution Control Board participated in the workshop and numbers of papers  on above themes were presented. From the discussion held during presentations the following issues emerged: 

• Identification of Air Toxics to be monitored (BTX, VOC, PAH, Dioxin & Furans).
• Selection of methods for monitoring.
• Sampling (strategy and techniques)
• Analysis (Processing and Measurement).
• Preparation of manual for sampling and analysis.
• Standardisation / Validation of selected method involving various labs/ organisations.
• Sampling programme : Frequency, Location and Duration of sampling /monitoring.
• Quality Assurance/ Quality Control Programme

- With in lab/ Internal

- Between Labs / External

• Strengthening of SPCB’s/ PCC’s laboratories.
• Instrumentation and infrastructure facilities
• Training
• Ambient Air Quality standards (Present 2005, 2010)
• Short term (24 hrly)
• Long term (annual mean, running annual mean)
• Methodology for preparation of inventory of air toxics.
• Prevention and control option of air toxics
• The issues were deliberated by a panel group comprising rexperts from   CPCB,  Indo-German Project,   SES-JNU, BARC, NEERI, SAIL- R&D,  HOCL.

  Three inter – organisational working group of experts has been constituted to work on different aspects as listed above to formulate the various guidelines.  

8.5 WORKSHOP ON AIR QUALITY MONITORING    

A series of Workshops on Air Quality Monitoring - Measurement of VOC, SVOC's, HAP's and POP's in air was organised at Vadodara (Jan 16 & 17, 2003), Kolkata (Jan 20 & 21, 2003) and Delhi (Jan 23 & 24, 2003) under Canada-India Institutional Strengthening Project. The faculties of the workshops were arrived from Environment Canada to associate with the organisation of workshops under the purview of Canada-India Institutional Strengthening Project. The Workshops were organised with the objectives to increase the ability of Pollution Control Board officials to professionally deal with sampling, measurement, release estimation techniques for estimation of toxic containments. The workshops were attended by about 70 nominated scientists and engineers of Central Pollution Control Board and State Pollution Control Boards to develop their expertise and exchange of scientific ideas.  

8.6   OTHER TRAINING PROGRAMMES  

Training programme on "Noise Pollution Control" was organised by CPCB in association with West Bengal Pollution Control Board for the officers of State Pollution Control Board's of Eastern and North-eastern States during December 4-5, 2002. The training programme highlighted the options and measures in area of environmental noise control. Various activities and issues in the States related to noise control.