Polluter pays principle applied to shared industrial pollution costs for potable water supply in affected communities

Environmental remediation costs for supplying potable water may be recovered from industries identified through a court-monitored pollution control process, even where exact scientific apportionment of each unit's contribution is unavailable. The Kerala HC note states that combined industrial pollution in the locality justified applying the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle to require the contributing industries to bear recurring drinking-water charges for affected residents. It also records that the challenge based on alleged action under dictation failed, because the impugned direction was issued in implementation of a Supreme Court monitoring mechanism rather than by external compulsion.

---

---

Issues: Whether the direction requiring the appellant to pay recurring charges for supplying potable water to affected residents could be sustained on the basis of environmental remediation directions, despite the absence of a specific finding that the appellant alone was the polluter.

Analysis: The directions originated from a Supreme Court constituted monitoring mechanism created to secure implementation of pollution-control and rehabilitation measures. The pollution in the locality was found to be the result of the combined effect of industrial activity in the area, and the absence of precise scientific data identifying the exact contribution of each unit did not disable remedial action. In such circumstances, the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle justified requiring the industries identified by the monitoring process to bear the recurring cost of supplying drinking water to the affected communities. The challenge that the authority acted under dictation was also rejected, since the impugned action was taken in implementation of the monitoring mechanism's directions within the framework set by the Supreme Court.

Conclusion: The liability to share the recurring charges for supplying drinking water was upheld and the challenge to the impugned order failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where environmental harm is attributable to combined industrial pollution, remedial and compensatory costs may be imposed on the contributing industries even without exact scientific apportionment or proof of a specific statutory breach, by applying the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle.

---