Status report by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) regarding accreditation for environmental laboratories.

In Karnataka, there were only three private environmental laboratories who had obtained recognition from Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). The state has more than 65,000 working industries and they require water, air, noise and soil samples monitoring as per the Water and Air Act. It is impossible to get the samples analysed by these limited MoEF&CC recognised laboratories. Also, it is not practical to carry out samples for analysis to the laboratory located far away from the industry.

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In this background, the Chairman of the KSPCB had extended 6 months time to get recognition from MoEFf&CC by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accredited laboratories. This would help the industries to comply with the environmental laws which they are mandatorily bound to carry out - water, air, noise and soil sample analysis.

The report asks the NGT to permit the NABL accredited laboratories to get MoEF&CC recognition in reasonable time in the interest of the environment and public at large. The NABL is an autonomous body under the Department of Science & Technology and was established with the objective to provide third party assessment of the quality and technical competence for testing and calibration laboratories. NABL provides laboratory accreditation services to laboratories that are performing tests/calibrations in accordance with NABL criteria and are based on internationally accepted standards and guidelines.