Environment Protection (Standards for effluent discharge) Regulations 2003 (G.N. No. 44 of 2003).

This Regulation provides that no person shall discharge effluent onto land, into a watercourse or into a waterbody unless he ensures that the parameters of the effluent do not exceed the permissible limits set out in the Second Schedule to this Regulation. “Waterbody” includes a stream, a river, a canal, a lake, a pond, a reservoir, an estuary, a wetland and underground water and “watercourse” means any natural or artificial channel, pipe or conduit, excluding the sewerage system, carrying, or that may carry, and discharging water directly or indirectly into a water body. Under no circumstance a person shall discharge or cause to be discharged any effluent into a waterbody or watercourse used or earmarked to be used for potable water supply and at any rate, any person using an influent, the limits concentration or value of the any parameters of which exceeds the permissible limit for that parameter set out in the Second Schedule, shall ensure that the concentration or value of the parameters of in the effluent does not exceed those that of the influent.