tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14619909561454060662024-03-13T14:42:52.097-07:00Necessary JourneysUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-79809195829824287472021-02-08T23:23:00.001-08:002021-02-11T23:26:18.905-08:00Uttarakhand Floods | A disaster foretold<p> </p><h2>International geologists and glaciologists studying satellite
imagery say the cause of the flooding disaster to be a landslide and not
a glacial outburst </h2><div> <p><span>February 09, 2021 </span> / 08:22 AM IST </p> </div> <div><div> <p><img alt="Multiple agencies are working at rescuing over 30 workers feared trapped inside a big tunnel at Tapovan. (Image: PIB in Uttarakhand)" data-src="https://images.moneycontrol.com/static-mcnews/2021/02/uttarakhand-flood-rescue-770x433.jpg?impolicy=website&width=770&height=431" height="358" src="https://images.moneycontrol.com/static-mcnews/2021/02/uttarakhand-flood-rescue-770x433.jpg?impolicy=website&width=770&height=431" title="Multiple agencies are working at rescuing over 30 workers feared trapped inside a big tunnel at Tapovan. (Image: PIB in Uttarakhand)" width="640" /> </p> <h2>Multiple
agencies are working at rescuing over 30 workers feared trapped inside a
big tunnel at Tapovan. (Image: PIB in Uttarakhand)</h2> </div> <p>Climate Change? Glacier lake outburst flood? Natural disaster? Manmade calamity? Deforestation? Dams? Roads? Greed? Gods?</p><p>The
jury is out on what caused the latest Himalayan disaster, when a part
of Nandadevi glacier broke off in the Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on
February 7 morning, causing massive floods in the Dhauliganga and
Rishiganga rivers.</p><p>At the time of writing, at least <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/india/uttarakhand-news-live-updates-glacier-burst-chamoli-joshimath-6465771.html" rel="nofollow">19 people have been killed</a>,
and 150 are missing. The floods also caused major damage to the
National Thermal Power Corporation's (NTPC) recently commissioned
Tapovan Vishnugad 520 MW hydro-electric project and the
under-construction 13.2 MW Rishiganga mini-hydel project, as well as to
several homes, roads and at least half a dozen bridges. Most of the
missing persons were workers deployed at NTPC's hydropower site.</p><p>While
media and commentators were quick to attribute the disaster to Climate
Change and melting glaciers, specifically GLOFs (glacial lake outburst
floods), activists and experts in the Himalayan region have blamed the
ecological destruction caused by the unholy rush to build ill-advised
dams and roads in this fragile region for the loss of life and property.</p><p>Meanwhile,
international geologists and glaciologists studying satellite imagery
say the cause of the flooding disaster to be a landslide and not a
glacial outburst. Dan Shugar of the University of Calgary, who
specialises in high altitude glacial and geologic environments, used
satellite images from Planet Labs, captured before and after the
disaster, and identified a steeply hanging bit of a glacier which likely
developed a crack and caused a landslide, triggering an avalanche and
the subsequent flooding. Images from the Copernicus Sentinel 2 satellite
also showed the formation or opening of a crack in the Nanda Devi
glacier that is believed <a href="https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2021/02/07/chamoli-1/" rel="nofollow">to have triggered the landslide</a>.</p><p>The
truth is that Uttarakhand's upper reaches, source of several small
rivers that feed the Ganga, already has 16 dams, and another 13 are
under construction. The Uttarakhand government has proposed another 54
dams on these rivers. On the Dhauliganga River, eight back-to-back new
hydel projects are proposed in addition to NTPC's Tapovan project.
Blasting of mountains, stone quarrying and digging of tunnels in the
fragile mountain system base for the two back-to-back under-construction
dams on Rishiganga and Dhauliganga rivers has played havoc with the
local ecology.</p><p>Incidentally, the Tapovan project started in 2006
and was scheduled to be commissioned in 2013, but the devastating flood
in 2013 affected the construction process. Earlier, the project's cost
was estimated to be Rs 2,978.5 crore, which was later revised to Rs
5,867.4 crore due to time and cost overruns. The NTPC has already spent
more than Rs 4,467 crore on the site.</p><p>Although further
investigations are required, the fingerprint of Climate Change cannot be
ruled out; after all, the India Meteorological Department has recorded
January 2021 to be the warmest January in Uttarakhand in six decades.</p><p>According
to the UN intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC), in many
high mountain areas, glacier retreat and permafrost thaw are projected
to further decrease the stability of slopes, and the number and area of
glacier lakes <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/chapter/summary-for-policymakers/" rel="nofollow">will continue to increase</a>.
Floods due to glacier lake outburst or rain-on-snow, landslides and
snow avalanches, are projected to occur also in new locations or
different seasons.</p><p>The Indian Space Research Organisation's
resource centre on Himalayan glaciers reveals that glacier melting in
the Central Himalayan catchment area, where Chamoli is located, <a href="https://www.isro.gov.in/earth-observation/snow-and-glacier" rel="nofollow">has increased</a> in the first 20 years of this century.</p><p>According
to the Hindu Kush Himalayan Monitoring and Assessment Programme
(HIMAP), co-ordinated by the International Centre for Integrated
Mountain Development (ICIMOD), glacier retreat (and some advance) in the
face of Climate Change will make the fragile mountains more prone to
natural disasters such as landslides, and will make the impact of other
natural disasters, such as earthquakes, far greater.</p><p>Variations in
rainfall will continue to rise, setting in place the possibility of
catastrophic flooding. At the same time, springs have been reducing
their flows in the hills, which may increase, leading to drought among
communities that already <a href="https://lib.icimod.org/record/34383" rel="nofollow">have higher-than-national-average rates of poverty</a>.</p><p>Ironically,
lest we forget, Chamoli, home to Badrinath, Hemkund Sahib, Nandadevi
Biosphere reserve and Valley of Flowers, is also the birthplace of the
‘Chipko movement’, and the famous slogan of Sunderalal Bahuguna,
“Ecology is the permanent economy.”</p><p>We were warned.</p><p><em><strong>Shailendra Yashwant is senior advisor, Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA). Twitter: @shaibaba. Views are personal. </strong></em></p><p><em><strong>First published in <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/uttarakhand-floods-a-disaster-foretold-6472631.html?fbclid=IwAR2cbL0FIAyPpahtBLHo2SO9ivh_YjPfKWoMPCaqBtI44s9TymlzdklN2Uc" target="_blank">Moneycontrol Opinion</a> <br /></strong></em></p><p><em><strong> </strong></em></p></div>
<span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-33771743003214647882021-01-31T23:19:00.001-08:002021-02-11T23:22:59.383-08:00Budget 2021 could have gone ambitious with green initiatives<p> </p><h2>At a time when countries including the United States and China are
increasing their climate change ambitions ahead of COP26 Climate Summit
in Glasgow, sadly, there was no mention of ecosystem restoration, forest
and wildlife protection, phaseout of coal, etc </h2><div> <p><span>February 01, 2021 </span> / 08:07 PM IST </p> </div> <div><div> <p><img alt="" data-src="https://images.moneycontrol.com/static-mcnews/2020/08/WIND-AND-SOLAR-POWER-770x433.jpg?impolicy=website&width=770&height=431" height="358" src="https://images.moneycontrol.com/static-mcnews/2020/08/WIND-AND-SOLAR-POWER-770x433.jpg?impolicy=website&width=770&height=431" title="" width="640" /> </p> </div> <p>Early
in the morning on February 1, I spoke to a few experts in the
environmental and climate change movements regarding their expectations
from the <a href="http://www.moneycontrol.com/budget-2021/" target="_blank">Union Budget</a>
2021, and got the usual checklist of fantasies of the ‘green lobby’:
clean air, clean water, plastic ban, phase-out of coal, wildlife and
forest protection, ecosystem and river restoration, renewable energy and
resilience building.</p><p>With no personal expectations, except
counting how many times 'climate change' is mentioned in the speech — in
2020 it was five —I settled in front of the TV for an afternoon of no
surprises.</p><p>First the good news. In the background of the pandemic
and increasing climate-induced disasters that has exposed the abysmal
conditions of India's public health infrastructure, various health
experts and doctors were expecting an increase in the outlay for the
health sector, and their expectations have been fulfilled to a large
extent with a whopping increase of about 137 percent in healthcare
spending totalling ₹223,846 crore.</p><p>To tackle air pollution, ₹2,217
crore had been allotted for 42 urban centres with a population over one
million to tackle the crisis. Also mentioned was the reduction of air
pollution by effectively managing waste from construction and demolition
activities.</p><p>For clean water, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
announced the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission Urban programme with an
outlay of ₹2.87 lakh-crore for five years. The minister also said that
as the World Health Organization has repeatedly stressed the importance
of clean water, sanitation, and a clean environment as a prerequisite to
achieving universal health, the mission aims at better water supply
across India. About 4,378 urban local bodies would benefit, and liquid
waste management would be carried out across 500 AMRUT cities.</p><p>Stressing
on 'Swachch Bharat, Swasth Bharat', the further strengthening of the
'swachhata' (cleanliness) campaign of urban India, to focus on complete
faecal sludge management, wastewater treatment, source segregation of
garbage, reduction in single-use plastic and bioremediation of legacy
dump sites, was announced. The Urban Swachch Bharat Mission 2.0 has been
allocated Rs 141,678 crore.</p><p>On renewable energy, the focus seems
to be on capturing the emerging energy transition trends — from hydrogen
to smart metering. The sector received an additional infusion of Rs
1,000 crore to Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and Rs 1,500
crore to Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA). She also
announced the launch of a National Hydrogen Mission in 2021-22 for
generating hydrogen from green power source.</p><p>The Budget also lays
focus on an increased outlay for the expansion of the City Gas
Distribution (CGD) network and Ujjwala beneficiaries, to cover over 10
million more families. This will ensure that India has a 100 percent
blue fame coverage of all willing household access to clean cooking fuel
— that’s up from 55 percent households with access in 2014.</p><p>A new
scheme will be launched on public transportation at the cost of Rs.
18,000 crore to support the augmentation of public bus transport
services. It is unclear whether this will be for electric buses or not,
and one hopes it is to tackle air pollution and improve mobility.</p><p>The
Indian Railways will soon be a major contributor to India's greenhouse
gas emission reduction targets, as the eastern and western dedicated
freight corridors will be commissioned by June 2022 and 100 percent
electrification of broad-gauge routes will be completed by December
2023. According to the World Resource Institute, dedicated freight rail
corridors can lower India's cumulative railway emissions over the period
2019-2046 from 1.26 billion tonnes to 0.29 billion tonnes.</p><p>So in
general that was it on the environment and climate change front. It was
more or less business as usual, with no vision of a green recovery or a
post-pandemic new world that many were expecting.</p><p>In the 75th year
of Independence, a year after the hottest year of the century, at a
time when countries including the United States and China are increasing
their climate change ambitions ahead of COP26 Climate Summit in
Glasgow, sadly, there was no mention of ecosystem restoration, forest
and wildlife protection, phase-out of coal, adaptation or resilience
building and to my personal dismay, 'climate change' was not mentioned
even once in the almost two-hour-long budget speech.</p><p><strong><em>Shailendra Yashwant is senior adviser, Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA). Twitter: @shaibaba. Views are personal.</em></strong></p><p><strong><em> Published in <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/budget-2021-could-have-gone-ambitious-with-green-initiatives-6428551.html?fbclid=IwAR2fod3m7ijw9LOGjecT7FNw_Uueovg6XIeVoc8U2oEuFV1nIa59fWa8aPo" target="_blank">Money Control Opinion </a>on 1st Feb 2021. <br /></em></strong></p></div>
<span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-44092812405439407242020-12-29T06:00:00.025-08:002021-01-07T06:08:58.119-08:00Is India Really A Global Climate Leader?<p> </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qkVfHviYLds/X_cVYoBEogI/AAAAAAAALeM/5166bJeg9vseh6XfgSCYtzB6T2WVBStugCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_20160418_114504193-02.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qkVfHviYLds/X_cVYoBEogI/AAAAAAAALeM/5166bJeg9vseh6XfgSCYtzB6T2WVBStugCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h640/IMG_20160418_114504193-02.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Five years ago, on December 12, 2015, world leaders agreed on <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement" rel="nofollow">the Paris Agreement</a> and
set themselves three goals to strengthen the global response to the
threat of climate change: adaptation for addressing and reducing
vulnerability to climate change, mitigation for reducing emissions to
limit the global temperature increase to well below 2°C up to 1.5°C, and
making financial flows consistent with climate goals.</p><p>By the end
of 2020, we already know what a 1.2°C warmer world feels like –
wildfires, floods, cyclones, droughts, melting glaciers, sea-level rise,
species extinction, crop failures, the decline of fisheries, and a
full-blown global pandemic. We also know that it is going to get worse
unless world governments take drastic and bold action.</p><p>It may surprise many that India is the only G20 country that is currently on track for the 2°C degree scenario, according to <a href="https://www.climate-transparency.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Climate-Transparency-Report-2020.pdf" rel="nofollow">The Climate Transparency Report</a> (CTR), the annual review of G20 countries' climate action. India also figures in the top 10 for the second year in a row in <a href="https://germanwatch.org/en/19552" rel="nofollow">The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2021</a>.
The CCPI analyses and compares climate protection across 57 countries
(plus the EU as a whole) with the highest emissions. The truth is that
the world is not doing anywhere near enough to meet the 1.5°C target.</p><p>According to the latest <a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/emissions-gap-report-2020" rel="nofollow">UNEP Emissions Gap report</a>, the world is still heading for a temperature rise in excess of 3°C degrees this century.</p><p>India
ranks high in these reports, merely due to its ambitious renewable
energy and energy efficiency targets that include 33-35 percent
reduction in the emissions intensity of GDP (compared to 2005 by 2030),
at least 40 percent non-fossil-fuel electric power capacity by 2030 and
additional (cumulative) carbon sink of 2.5-3 GtCO2e by 2030 through
additional forest and tree cover.</p><p>These rankings, however, stand
in contradiction to the Indian government's overall track record on the
environment. It is well known that the current government is on a
'dilution spree' of laws pertaining to India's forests, coasts,
wildlife, air, and waste management to favour "ease of doing business"
and to lure investments under the guise of development. Its outrageous
obsession with coal and ill-conceived infrastructure projects are
endangering the last remaining pockets of biodiversity and reserves of
natural resources, thereby weakening our resilience to climate change
challenges.</p><p>At the last count, the Indian government <a href="https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/environment-vs-economy-approach-exposes-india-covid-19-infections#slideshow-1" rel="nofollow">has approved 278 projects</a> in
and around India's most protected environments, including biodiversity
hotspots and national parks, since July 2014. India incidentally stands
168 (out of 180 countries) on the <a href="https://epi.yale.edu/epi-results/2020/component/epi" rel="nofollow">2020 Environmental Performance Index</a>.</p><p>For
a country battered by climate-induced disasters, India must recognize
the role of nature-based solutions to adapt to climate change's adverse
effects and foster climate resilience.</p><p>Already 8 out of the 10
highest-ranking years of heat wave exposure in India have occurred in
the past 20 years, with heat-related mortality in people older than 65
years reaching a total of 296,000 deaths in 2018. Cyclone Amphan, which
brought destruction to West Bengal in India and Bangladesh in May 2020,
was the "costliest tropical cyclone on record for the North Indian
Ocean," with India's economic losses from the disaster <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32596-6/fulltext" rel="nofollow">totalling about $14 billion</a>.</p><p>The International Labour Organisation <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_711919.pdf" rel="nofollow">has projected</a> that productivity loss due to heat stress in India will be equivalent to 34 million full-time jobs in another 10 years.</p><p>An October <a href="http://www.impactlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IndiaMortality_webv2.pdf" rel="nofollow">2019 study by the Climate Impact Lab</a> says
that by 2100, around 1.5 million more people are likely to die every
year in India due to climate change. This rate is as high as the death
rate from all infectious diseases in the country in 2019. The COVID-19
pandemic not only spiked those numbers but also demonstrated the real
cost of rampant forest destruction.</p><p>The pandemic-lockdown induced
reverse migration of millions of workers to impoverished villages and
hinterlands has further exposed India's lackadaisical climate change
adaptation efforts. Moreover, missing a significant opportunity for a
just and green transition, India's COVID-19 economic recovery spending
failed to invest in building climate change resilience in agriculture,
water, urban planning, coastal planning, and public health.</p><p>Going
forward, the Indian government needs to prioritize and incorporate
adaptation and mitigation measures into decision making at every level.
It has to recognize that a local resource-based approach to
infrastructure development can be a significant contributor to assisting
its citizens in adapting to climate change while contributing to the
economy. Community-based natural resource management programmes for
water and land resource management in rural areas, promoting
climate-resilient agriculture, and building a climate-proof rural
infrastructure will ensure livelihoods and reduce emissions.</p><p>But
most of all, India must protect its biodiversity fiercely and strengthen
its natural systems. To quote Antonio Guterres, "Making peace with
nature is the defining task of the 21st century. It must be the top, top
priority for everyone, everywhere."</p><p>First published in <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/is-india-really-a-global-climate-leader-6280681.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MoneyControl </a>on 29 December 2020.<br /></p><p> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-46345398641288770282020-10-06T00:09:00.002-07:002020-10-06T00:09:57.487-07:00Will China lead the global fight against climate change?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7_lUh8NKNps/X3wXiA8LeiI/AAAAAAAALT8/PW5PDLzbhUs11AuhDIkoGyQJBahwrVjSwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/CopyrightShailendraYashwant.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1638" data-original-width="2048" height="512" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7_lUh8NKNps/X3wXiA8LeiI/AAAAAAAALT8/PW5PDLzbhUs11AuhDIkoGyQJBahwrVjSwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h512/CopyrightShailendraYashwant.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="content">
<div class="moz-reader-content reader-show-element"><div class="page" id="readability-page-1"><div id="article-main">
<p>On September 22, Chinese President <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/24/china-carbon-emissions-420967" rel="nofollow">Xi Jinping announced to the world</a>
that China, responsible for 28 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas
emissions, would phase out any conventional use of coal, oil, and gas to
achieve the goal of “carbon neutrality”, i.e., zero additional carbon
emissions into the atmosphere, by 2060.</p><p>Under the Paris climate
deal reached in 2015, China had pledged that its emissions would peak
‘around 2030’, Xi addressing the United Nations General Assembly on
September 22, said that he was moving up that timetable to ‘before
2030’.</p><p>If China is able to deliver on the climate neutrality
pledge by mid-century, it will lower global warming projections by
around 0.2 to 0.3 degrees Celsius, the single-biggest reduction measured
since countries signed the Paris Agreement in 2015, according to an
analysis by <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/china/" rel="nofollow">the Climate Action Tracker</a>, which measures government commitments on climate against the Paris Agreement goals.</p><p>Carbon
neutrality refers to the elimination of carbon dioxide emissions by
stopping emissions altogether or by balancing carbon dioxide emissions
with some form of carbon removal. It is important to note that carbon
neutrality differs from climate neutrality because it does not consider
other greenhouse gases.</p><p>More than 60 other countries have <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/09/17/countries-net-zero-climate-goal/" rel="nofollow">pledged carbon neutrality by 2050</a>,
a consensus deadline that scientists believe must be met to have a
reasonable chance of averting the worst climate catastrophe. Those
countries are small compared to China. China’s total emissions are about
as much as those produced by the United States, European Union, and
India combined.</p><p>Sceptics have been quick to point out that Xi’s
announcement means China will have to stop burning coal, a tall order in
a country that is home to half of the world’s coal power capacity and <a href="https://in.reuters.com/article/china-coal/china-has-250-gw-of-coal-fired-power-under-development-study-idUSL4N2E20HS" rel="nofollow">another 210GW to be added soon</a>.
Others have expressed concerns about China exporting emissions, as it
is financing a quarter of coal plants under development in other
countries through its Belt and Road Initiative, with 102GW capacity.</p><p>Then
there is the timing of the announcement, before the US presidential
elections, which could mean China is trying to get out in front of any
US pressure in case Biden is sworn in, or maybe even yielding to
bilateral pressure from European Union that has been threatening carbon
taxes on imports from China if Beijing did not raise its ambition.</p><p>Yet
there are reasons to believe that Beijing may have acted
unconditionally, given that China outperformed its 2020 carbon emission
target, <a href="https://unfccc.int/news/china-meets-2020-carbon-target-three-years-ahead-of-schedule" rel="nofollow">reaching the goal three years</a> ahead of schedule. There are strong indications that China could meet its 2030 carbon intensity <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/65483/" rel="nofollow">peaking targets by 2025</a>.</p><p>“China
rarely makes announcements unless it is confident that it will move
towards achieving them, the new pledge indicates that the government
could be moving towards a commitment to phasing out the fossil fuel. ”
said Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics.</p><p>According to Harjeet
Singh, global climate lead at Action Aid, “The fact is that even as it
appears to cling to coal, China has also emerged as a leader in clean
energy technologies, including solar panels and wind turbines. It is the
world’s largest manufacturer of electric cars and buses...”</p><p>It is
important to note that China’s efforts to cut emissions so far have
been more about pragmatism than climate leadership. Pollution and other
environmental threats are increasingly seen as threats to the communist
party’s standing. “Humankind can no longer afford to ignore the repeated
warnings of nature,” Xi told the General Assembly. That was evident in
this summer’s <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/china-fails-to-tackle-decade-long-flooding-problem-billions-of-dollars-at-stake/articleshow/77945413.cms" rel="nofollow">devastating floods on the Yangtze River</a> and its tributaries in central China.</p><p>Xi
has already pledged to increase government support for new technologies
while fighting pollution, protecting natural resources, and expanding
the country’s national park networks.</p><p>However, if Xi is serious,
then the ambitious target of climate neutrality must find space in the
Chinese government’s soon-to-be released <u>14th Five-Year Plan</u> (2021-2025),
with detailing of the structural changes in energy production and
consumption and long-term decarbonisation road maps that are
economically and technically viable.</p><p>Whether Xi will save the
world from runaway climate change or not remains to be seen, but the
pressure is now on India, China’s partner-in-chief at the UNFCCC in
resisting calls from the West for firm commitments to decarbonisation,
to make a similarly bold climate announcement.</p><p><b><i>First published on <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/will-china-lead-the-global-fight-against-climate-change-5922161.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Money Control </a>on October 5, 2020.</i></b> </p></div></div></div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-4488207554497615802020-09-30T23:41:00.002-07:002020-09-30T23:41:48.190-07:00Is corporate hypocrisy fuelling plastic waste crime?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VAXNm6Txpy4/X3V5FKrGFQI/AAAAAAAALSo/pb1ZNDZ3GQYmVHzXi8P3C6y7TUv0maS7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/LadakhTrashbyShailendraYashwant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="663" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VAXNm6Txpy4/X3V5FKrGFQI/AAAAAAAALSo/pb1ZNDZ3GQYmVHzXi8P3C6y7TUv0maS7wCLcBGAsYHQ/w464-h663/LadakhTrashbyShailendraYashwant.jpg" width="464" /></a></div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><br /><p></p><p>While you were quarantined, plastic waste piles have been growing
exponentially around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an
unprecedented demand for personal protective equipment and a massive
spike in the use of single-use plastics due to hygiene fears over
reusable alternatives. Even before the pandemic, the global plastic
waste production had steadily increased by 10 million metric tons every
year in the 2010’s decade, to reach almost 360 million metric tons per
year in 2018. Plastic waste is pouring out into the natural world at a
rate of 8 million tonnes a year, or one garbage truck per minute.</p><p>A new report ‘<em>Talking Trash: The Corporate Playbook of False Solutions’</em>
from The Changing Markets Foundation alleges that for decades the oil
industry, consumer brands and retailers have proactively obstructed and
undermined proven legislative solutions to the plastic crisis. The
report points out that one of the key tactics of the corporations has
been to saddle ‘litterbug’ consumers with most of the blame — and public
authorities with most of the cost, even as they lobby at every level to
fight against proven solutions, such as Extended Producer
Responsibility (EPR) that would drive mandatory collection of packaging,
policies to increase reuse and phase out of certain problematic plastic
types or products, as that would require them <a href="https://talking-trash.com/chapter/executive-summary/" rel="nofollow">to take on the true costs of plastic pollution</a>.</p><p>Even
the much-touted voluntary initiatives and commitments are a farce and
nothing but a tactic to delay and derail progressive legislation — all
while distracting consumers and governments with empty promises and
false solutions. The report has critically analysed voluntary
commitments from the 10 biggest plastic polluters (Coca-Cola,
Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Mars Incorporated, Mondelēz International,
Nestlé, PepsiCo, Perfetti Van Melle, Procter & Gamble, and
Unilever), who have a joint plastic footprint of almost 10 million
tonnes per year.</p><p>All
these companies are complicit in spreading the false narrative of
recycling. For example, Coca-Cola, responsible for 200,000 tonnes of
plastic pollution per year, had committed to using at least 50 percent
recycled material in its packaging by 2030. Currently, the company
reports that recycled content makes up about 10 percent of its total
plastic-packaging volume.</p><p>Meanwhile,
our landfills are groaning under the weight of the plastic waste, our
waterways are choked, dumpsites are burning relentlessly adding toxicity
to our already polluted air and marginalised communities are left to
deal with tonnes of waste that is not of their making.</p><p>Interestingly, a recent <a href="https://www.interpol.int/en/News-and-Events/News/2020/INTERPOL-report-alerts-to-sharp-rise-in-plastic-waste-crime" rel="nofollow">Interpol strategic report on global plastic waste management</a>
has found an alarming increase in illegal plastic pollution trade
across the world since 2018. Difficulties in treating and monitoring the
plastic waste surplus in both export and import countries have opened
doors for opportunistic crime in the plastic waste sector, both in terms
of illegal trade and of illegal waste treatment.</p><p>According to the
Interpol report, plastic waste processing is a high-value market,
providing business opportunities and revenue through energy recovery
(via incineration) and raw material generation (via recycling). The
global recycled plastics market alone was valued at $34.80 billion in
2016 and is projected to reach $50.36 billion by 2022 — not counting the
traditional waste processing market, including incineration and
landfill.</p><p>The plastic waste market entails processing costs at
different stages of the plastic waste value chain, notably
infrastructure and labour costs, as well as taxation, especially taxes
imposed on incineration and landfill in countries that encourage
recycling. Plastic waste crime consists of efforts to reduce or
circumvent those costs, or to make profit by charging those costs to
clients.</p><p>The report goes on to say that waste criminals have
proven to adapt their modus operandi to regulation changes fast and
criminal trends have shown rapid evolutions in the past couple years.
Moreover, when changes are not well regulated, they offer opportunities
for new criminal businesses to grow.</p><p>Reading these two reports
together paints a deadly picture of corporate irresponsibility on one
hand and illegal waste trade on another that has almost certainly
allowed illegal recycling facilities to thrive, that are profiting by
circumventing license costs and environmentally sound treatment costs.</p><p>Nusa
Urbancic, Campaigns Director at the Changing Markets Foundation, sums
it up, “The voluntary initiatives and commitments by the industry have
failed. Policymakers should look past the industry smokescreen and adopt
proven, progressive legislation globally to create the systemic change
that this crisis so urgently needs.”</p><p><strong><em>Shailendra Yashwant is senior advisor to Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA). Views are personal.</em></strong></p><p><strong><em>First published on 23 September 2020 on <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/is-corporate-hypocrisy-fuelling-plastic-waste-crime-5874751.html?fbclid=IwAR2NWVK-Slva4DIvMzVz6OTPZUgsaB-2vUcgFuD8Q3sgeZW-Tw8OBLSgJbg" target="_blank">MoneyControl </a><br /></em></strong></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-43934764918696881982020-09-16T02:22:00.001-07:002020-09-16T02:22:18.808-07:00Coal ash is a serious hazard to our health and the environment<p> <em>India has to strictly regulate the disposal of toxic fly ash from
coal-fired power plants to minimise environmental and health risks to
local communities </em>
</p><div class="wp-caption" id="attachment_13013"><p><img alt="An earthmover levelling a fly ash pond in Korba, Chhattisgarh, to make way for more coal ash from power plants (Photo by Ishan Tankha/Clean Air Collective)" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13013" data-attachment-id="13013" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="<p>An earthmover levelling a fly ash pond in Korba, Chhattisgarh, to make way for more coal ash from power plants (Photo by Ishan Tankha/Clean Air Collective)</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1538956800","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Photo01" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Photo01.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Photo01-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Photo01.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2020/07/27/coal-ash-poses-serious-environmental-and-health-hazards/photo01/" height="366" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Photo01.jpg" width="640" /></p><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-13013">An
earthmover levelling a fly ash pond in Korba, Chhattisgarh, to make way
for more coal ash from power plants (Photo by Ishan Tankha/Clean Air
Collective)</p></div>
<p>While a lot of attention is given to the mining and burning of coal
that leads to huge carbon emissions, the dangers of fly ash, the residue
left after coal is burnt in thermal power plants, have received less
public attention, despite the risks to our health and to the
environment.</p>
<p>A new report released last week — <a href="http://www.healthyenergyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Fly-ash-report.pdf">Coal Ash in India – A Compendium of Disasters, Environmental and Health Risks</a>
— seeks to remedy that. It shines a spotlight on 76 major coal ash pond
accidents between 2010 and June 2020 that have caused deaths and loss
of property and have resulted in extensive pollution of nearby water
sources, air and soil.</p>
<p>Fly ash is left behind when coal is burnt. Coal-fired power plants
are the biggest sources of fly ash, which contains toxic chemicals such
as arsenic, barium, cadmium, nickel and lead, among others. These are
known to cause cancer, lung and heart ailments and neurological damage,
and contribute to premature mortality.</p>
<p>Published by Healthy Energy Initiative India and Community
Environmental Monitoring, Chennai, the report claims that the accidents
it has complied form just the tip of the iceberg as many incidents of
fly ash spills go unreported, though they occur on a regular basis.</p>
<p>Despite several policy and regulatory interventions, coal ash
management in India remains a challenge. Power utilities usually store
the coal ash in landfills or unlined ponds close to water bodies and
rivers. Breaches in the landfills and ash ponds frequently lead to
environmental contamination, damaging local ecosystems and harming the
health of local communities.</p>
<p><strong>Unregulated disposal </strong></p>
<p>Since coal ash is not classified as hazardous waste, there are no
guidelines to regulate its disposal or measure the leaching of chemicals
from it into water bodies and groundwater.</p>
<p>“In 2000, the classification of fly ash was shifted from the category
of hazardous industrial waste to the category of waste material,
without any supporting health-based scientific rationale for the
re-categorisation,” said Dharmesh Shah, public policy analyst and
co-author of the report.</p>
<div class="wp-caption" id="attachment_13015"><p><img alt="Coal ash dumped by power plants on agricultural land in Gharghoda, Chhattisgarh (Photo by Manshi Asher)" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13015" data-attachment-id="13015" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="<p>Coal ash dumped by power plants on agricultural land in Gharghoda, Chhattisgarh (Photo by Manshi Asher)</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.2","credit":"","camera":"A37f","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1471196282","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.6","iso":"123","shutter_speed":"0.02","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Photo02" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Photo02.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Photo02-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Photo02.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2020/07/27/coal-ash-poses-serious-environmental-and-health-hazards/photo02/" height="390" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Photo02.jpg" width="680" /></p><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-13015">Coal ash dumped by power plants on agricultural land in Gharghoda, Chhattisgarh (Photo by Manshi Asher)</p></div>
<p>India generated 217.04 million tonnes of ash in 2018-19, of which
only 168 million tonnes (77.5%) was utilised, according to the Central
Electricity Authority.</p>
<p>“The term utilisation is a misnomer for some of the uses like filling
of low-lying area reclamation and mine void filling are means of
disposal that are prohibited under the environment clearance conditions
for power plants,” claimed Shah.</p>
<p>Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu,
Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra have the highest concentrations of
coal-fired thermal power plants, and top the list of coal ash accidents,
according to the report.</p>
<p>In the most recent incident in April 2020, a breach in the fly ash
dyke of Reliance Power-owned Sasan plant in the Singrauli region of
Madhya Pradesh led to fly ash slurry entering nearby farms and villages,
resulting in the death of six people. The Madhya Pradesh pollution
watchdog sought an interim compensation of INR 100 million (USD 1.34
million) from the company and asked it to start remedial and restoration
work within 14 days.</p>
<p>In July, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed a petitioner, who
sought plant closure and cancellation of environmental clearance to the
Sasan plant, to approach a monitoring committee on the issue.</p>
<p><strong>Environmental harm</strong></p>
<p>The report has many such incidents of environmental damage. In
October 2019, a coal ash dyke breach in state-owned utility NTPC’s
Vindhyachal thermal power plant in Madhya Pradesh led to more than 3.5
million tonnes of fly ash flowing into the Govind Vallabh Pant Sagar,
also known as the Rihand reservoir.</p>
<p>The reservoir, the only source of potable water for people in
Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh and Sonbhadra district of Uttar
Pradesh, was contaminated, making the water unfit for drinking.</p>
<p>NGT asked NTPC to pay an interim compensation of INR 100 million and
directed the Anpara and Lanco-Anpara power plants in the vicinity to
stop ash pond overflow discharge into the Rihand reservoir.</p>
<p>“Coal ash ponds are (also) one of the biggest sources of air
pollution,” said Shweta Narayan of Healthy Energy Initiative and
co-author of the report. “Communities living close to coal ash ponds
often experience coal ash storms during the dry seasons.”</p>
<p>When accidents involving fly ash are brought to the attention of NGT,
it has penalised power plants and ordered them to pay compensation. For
instance, on July 22, the tribunal directed three coal-fired power
plants in Punjab to pay INR 15 million (approximately USD 200,000) as
“environmental compensation” over their failure to scientifically
dispose of fly ash.</p>
<div class="wp-caption" id="attachment_13017"><p><img alt="Water bodies are regularly used as disposal sites for coal ash in Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh (Photo by Amirtharaj Stephen/PEP Collective)" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-13017" data-attachment-id="13017" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="<p>Water bodies are regularly used as disposal sites for coal ash in Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh (Photo by Amirtharaj Stephen/PEP Collective)</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"10","credit":"Amirtharaj Stephen","camera":"Canon EOS 5D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1382864047","copyright":"All rights reserved \/Amirtharaj Stephen","focal_length":"35","iso":"1250","shutter_speed":"0.0004","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Photo03" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Photo03.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Photo03-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Photo03.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2020/07/27/coal-ash-poses-serious-environmental-and-health-hazards/photo03/" height="390" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Photo03.jpg" width="680" /></p><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-13017">Water
bodies are regularly used as disposal sites for coal ash in Singrauli,
Madhya Pradesh (Photo by Amirtharaj Stephen/PEP Collective)</p></div>
<p>The fly ash report tracks dilutions in the regulatory framework of
coal ash management over the years, which has allowed power producers to
flout environmental safeguards and public health protocols.</p>
<p>“A gazette notification on January 2, 2014 made coal washing
mandatory, to reduce ash content, before supplying to all thermal units
more than 500 km from the coal mine,” said Shah. “However, on May 21,
2020, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change made coal
washing optional through a controversial amendment based on economic
rationale offered by India’s NITI Aayog and ministries of power and
coal. This rationale, however, does not account for the resulting
increase in the fly ash generation and pollution caused by it.”</p>
<p>“Heavy metals from coal ash affect the aquatic ecosystems adversely,
which in turn impacts the livelihoods and nutrition security of
fishermen,” said K. Sarvanan, a fisher associated with The Coastal
Resource Centre, Chennai. “Fishing communities from Ennore told the
NGT-appointed expert committee about the significant decline or even
disappearance of many species of prawns, crabs and sea bass, among
others. The expert committee found high levels of heavy metals in the
fish, prawn and oyster from the Ennore river (due to fly ash
contamination).”</p>
<p>Fly ash can be used to make bricks, as part of road building material
and to make cement, but the utilisation has lagged far behind potential
in India. Coal-fired power plants in West Bengal have been exporting
their fly ash to Bangladesh for the purpose. The problem with that is
that barges used to transport the ash have a high capsize rate. <strong>See</strong>: <a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net/2020/06/25/more-barges-sink-carrying-toxic-ash-from-india-to-bangladesh/">Barges carrying toxic ash from India to Bangladesh keep sinking</a></p>
<p><strong>Impact of climate change</strong></p>
<p>Climate change heightens the risk from coal ash ponds in areas prone
to flooding. In addition to the increased risk of spills, scientists say
the heavier rains expected to come from a warming planet also threaten
to bring a more hidden peril — rising water tables that seep into the
ash ponds, contaminating groundwater used for agriculture and drinking.</p>
<p>The report recommends that India should develop regulations for the
scientific containment of pond ash. This would require retrofitting
existing ash ponds with impermeable materials and linking the scientific
landfilling of ash with environmental clearances.</p>
<p>This would also entail a rigorous environmental monitoring protocol
around the fly ash dumps to check for leachate and contamination of
groundwater, the report added.</p>
<p>The report also puts the onus of responsibility on power plants,
which burn coal and generate ash, to ensure safe management and the
environmental health impacts emerging out of its utilisation, disposal
and reuse.</p>
<p>In the event that there is ash discharged in the environment or
unaccounted for, the report suggests further defined mechanisms for
remediation and payment for health and environmental damages under the
polluter pays principle.</p><p> </p><p>This article was first published on <a href="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2020/07/27/coal-ash-poses-serious-environmental-and-health-hazards/?fbclid=IwAR3CgSq0tRJX-wtVOn_kEx0kEJxXuhrr3XnD_PUhe5qOEVFXFqEMTo4ZisU" target="_blank">India Climate Dialogue. </a><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-80480915905435970562020-06-26T08:01:00.002-07:002020-06-26T08:02:19.506-07:00Covid-19 hits Bhutan-India water cooperation<br />
Bhutanese officials scramble to restore irrigation channels after farmers thwarted by sealed border<br />
<br />
<img alt="" class="attachment-kicker size-kicker wp-post-image" height="294" src="https://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Assam_irrigation_channel_repair_1_Tshering_Darjey.jpg" width="640" /><br />
<div class="image-caption">
Bhutanese
officials overseeing repair work to allow water from Kalanadi to flow
into irrigation channels in Assam, India [image by: Tshering Darjey]</div>
<br />
<br />
<b>In</b> Baksa district of Assam in north-east India, right next to the
Bhutan border, hundreds of farmers held a demonstration this month. They
alleged that Bhutan had blocked the flow of water from the
transboundary Kalanadi river to irrigation channels.<br />
<br />
In normal years, the farmers walk into Bhutan through the open border
and repair the channels before the monsoon. They were stopped this year
because Bhutan has closed its borders due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bhutanese officials point out that they have repaired the channels
themselves.<br />
There were <a href="https://www.eastmojo.com/assam/2020/06/24/now-bhutan-stops-irrigation-water-for-farmers-bordering-assam">reports</a>
in the local media saying Bhutan had blocked water to the dongs, as the
traditional mud and stone irrigation channels are called.<br />
<br />
“Nothing can be further from the truth,” said Ugyen Rabtan,
vice-president of the Bhutan India Friendship Association’s (BIFA)
Gelephu chapter. “Why should we stop water flowing down from the hills?
The farmers from Baksa wish to cross the border to repair the dong
channels but due to Covid-19 related protocols this cannot be allowed as
Bhutan is taking strict measures to keep the country pandemic-free. But
instead of having a dialogue with the local authorities about our
efforts, these farmers have been misled into believing that we have
deliberately stopped the water.”<br />
<br />
Sewali Borgiary, a member of the local association that organised the demonstration, told news site <a href="https://www.eastmojo.com/">East Mojo</a>,
“At this time every year farmers of the locality enter Samdrup Jonkhar
[a town in Bhutan] and repair the irrigation channels to carry water of
Kalanadi river to the paddy fields on the Indian side. But this year,
due to Covid-19, the authorities in Bhutan have refused the entry of
Indian farmers. Because of this, for the last five days the dongs have
not been able to carry water to the paddy fields. We need water.
Otherwise, we won’t hesitate to intensify our agitation.”<br />
<br />
Explaining the situation, Tshering Namgyel, the BIFA focal person in
Samdrup Jongkhar, said in a Facebook post that for the past three months
since the lockdown started, officials and communities in Bhutan, “have
been doing our best to ensure continuous supply of water to our farmer
friends of India… Due to frequent rainfall in the mountain ranges
resulting in sudden increase in the flow of water sometimes our hard and
sincere efforts go in vain.”<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_34420" style="width: 1030px;">
<img alt="" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34420" class="size-full wp-image-34420" height="480" src="https://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Assam_irrigation_channel_repair_2_Tshering_Namgyel.jpg" width="640" /><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-34420">
Officials
in Bhutan supervise the repair of irrigation channels so that water can
flow</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-34420">
to farms in India [image by: Tshering Namgyel]</div>
</div>
<br />
When in
spate (containing more water than usual and flowing fast), the river
washes away the mud and stone walls that farmers put up to channel the
water.<br />
<br />
Dahal Narzary, who works in an NGO in the nearby town of Kokrajhar in
Assam agreed with Namgyel. “It is difficult to understand why these farmers are agitating,” he said. “If anything, the DC (district
commissioner) of Samdrup Jongkhar himself oversaw the repairs to channel the water to Baksa district. Unfortunately, due to heavy rains, the repairs were washed away last week. Following the news of the farmers’
problems, he hired another JCB [earth mover] and had the channels
repaired once again.”<br />
<br />
<b>The dong system</b><br />
This part of Assam bordering Bhutan is peopled largely by Bodos,
believed to be the earliest inhabitants of the state. They practise a
highly efficient community-managed irrigation system called
Dong-Jamphai, which is over 100 years old. Dongs are created by digging
canals that channel water from the many rivers and streams flowing down
from Bhutan to Assam to reach fields and homesteads in the villages
downstream.<br />
<br />
Typically, a dong network starts at the point of diversion from a
river or water source. The larger systems have subsidiary channels,
around 3-5 feet wide, taking off from the main dong channel (7-12 feet wide). These subsidiary canals branch off eventually into jamphai, or
field channels that supply water to the farms. Usually dongs dry out naturally at the end of their course or meet other large water bodies like rivers or wetlands.<br />
<br />
The dongs are narrow but very long, with branches and sub-branches
extensively throughout the paddy fields that are the main source of livelihood in the area. They can irrigate up to 5,000 hectares. The
longest dong is reported to be 10 kilometers, but most are between 2 and
5 kilometers long.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_34421" style="width: 1030px;">
<img alt="" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34421" class="size-full wp-image-34421" height="427" src="https://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Assam_irrigation_channel_Shailendra_Yashwant.jpg" width="640" /><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-34421">
A typical dong [image by: Shailendra Yashwant]</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-34421">
<br /></div>
</div>
Community
institutions called ‘dong-bandh committees’ oversee each point of this
intricate network. These committees are found throughout the four
districts of Bodoland Territorial Administration Council – Kokrajhar,
Baksa, Udalguri, and Chirang.<br />
<br />
There is a long history of cooperation between the people of Bhutan and Assam over the maintenance of dongs and an informal early warning system on floods. Villagers, NGOs, and local administration from both sides of the border are very proud of this long-standing cooperation.<br />
<br />
<i><b>See: <a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net/2018/08/27/villagers-in-bhutan-and-india-come-together-to-share-river/">Villagers in Bhutan and India come together to share river</a></b></i><br />
<i><b>
</b></i><i><b>See: <a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net/2019/07/04/community-communications-save-lives-in-assam/">WhatsApp messages from Bhutan save lives in Assam</a></b></i><br />
<br />
The farmers in Baksa district decided to hold a demonstration despite
this history. It may be a coincidence that elections in Bodoland are
just around the corner. One observer said, “As soon as the Bhutan
officials realised what was up, they took immediate measures to fix the
problem and allow the water to flow. The problem is solved now.”<br />
<br />
Animesh Prakash of Oxfam India, who has been studying the dong system
as part of Oxfam’s Transboundary Rivers of South Asia (TROSA)
programme, said, “In the long term, this people to people cooperation
needs to be institutionalised where both governments including local
administration should have significant roles to play. Already the
cooperation between the civil society organisations on both sides of
Indo-Bhutan border is considered unique in the region. Such cooperation
is very significant in these trying times.”<br />
<br />
This report was first published on <a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net/2020/06/26/covid-19-hits-bhutan-india-water-cooperation/">thethirdpole.net</a><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-14330426068582140222020-06-18T03:36:00.002-07:002020-06-26T08:03:23.582-07:00India’s first climate change report offers a stern warning<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wOQDFdn0sUI/XutBDdy2l0I/AAAAAAAALCg/S5_T7mJNZJEdXwgzadT_2I177wOk5P2hACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/DSC_0940.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wOQDFdn0sUI/XutBDdy2l0I/AAAAAAAALCg/S5_T7mJNZJEdXwgzadT_2I177wOk5P2hACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/DSC_0940.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
A <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-15-4327-2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">new report</a>
by the Government of India reveals that local climate change is
influenced not only by the increase in greenhouse gases but also by the
increase in air pollution and the local changes in the land-use pattern.
The report goes on to warn that the rapid changes in India’s climate
will place increasing stress on the country’s natural ecosystems,
agricultural output, and freshwater resources, while also causing
escalating damage to infrastructure and economy.<br />
<br />
The Ministry of
Earth Sciences’ (MoES) ‘Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian
Region’ is the first-ever attempt to document and assess climate change in different parts of India. The report describes the observed changes and future projections of precipitation, temperature, monsoon, drought,
sea level, tropical cyclones, and extreme weather events.<br />
<br />
The
report is edited by scientists of the Indian Institute of Tropical
Meteorology, Pune, and unlike the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) assessment reports that are global, this report looks at
regional climate change projections based on the IITM Earth System Model
and Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment datasets.<br />
<br />
According
to the report, India’s average temperature has risen by around 0.7°C
during 1901–2018 and projects that the frequency of summer (April–June) heatwaves over India will be 3 to 4 times higher (approximately 4.4°C)
by the end of the 21st century as compared to the 1976–2005 baseline
period. This, in turn, will lead to a high likelihood of an increase in
the frequency and intensity of droughts (>2 events per decade),
compounded by the increased variability of monsoon precipitation and
increased water vapour demand in a warmer atmosphere.<br />
<br />
The
seasonal monsoon rains during the June-September months, which
contribute to more than 75 percent of the annual rainfall, and are vital
for India’s agriculture and economy, has declined by around 6 percent
from 1951 to 2015, with notable decreases over the Indo-Gangetic Plains
and the Western Ghats. There also has been a shift in the recent period
toward more frequent dry spells (27 percent higher during 1981–2011,
relative to 1951–1980) and more intense wet spells during the summer
monsoon season.<br />
<br />
This trend of increasing year-to-year rainfall
variability will disrupt rain-fed agricultural food production that will
adversely impact food security in the future.<br />
The report further
cautions that the growing propensity for droughts and floods because of
changing rainfall patterns caused by climate change would be detrimental
to surface and groundwater recharge, posing threats to the country’s
water security.<br />
<br />
At the end of the 21st century, sea level in the
North Indian Ocean (NIO) is projected to rise by approximately 300 mm
relative to the average over 1986–2005, with the corresponding
projection for the global mean rise being approximately 180 mm.
Low-lying coastal zones, especially on India’s east coast, may witness
rising sea levels damaging property and increasing groundwater salinity.
A rise in cyclone intensities will result in increasing inundation from
the accompanying storm surges that will turn coastal agricultural lands
and lakes saline, and imperil wildlife.<br />
<br />
Climate models also project a rise in the intensity of tropical cyclone intensity and
precipitation in the NIO basin during the 21st century. Already,
observations indicate that frequency of extremely severe cyclonic storms
(ESCS) over the Arabian Sea has increased during the post-monsoon
seasons of 1998–2018. Cyclone Nisarga that devastated parts of
Maharashtra coastline earlier this month practically proves that the
climate modelling in this report is remarkably accurate.<br />
<br />
The
report observes that the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau have
experienced a temperature rise of about 1.3°C during 1951–2014. The
warming trend has been particularly pronounced over the Hindu Kush
Himalaya (HKH), which is the largest area of permanent ice cover outside
the North and South Poles. Popularly known as the ‘Third Pole’, the
meltwater generated from the Himalayan glaciers supplies the rivers and
streams of the region, including the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra
river systems of India. These rivers collectively provide about 50
percent of the country’s total utilisable surface water resources.
Several areas of the HKH have experienced a declining trend in snowfall
and also retreat of glaciers in recent decades. By the end of the 21st
century, the annual mean surface temperature over the HKH is projected
to increase by about 5.2°C.<br />
<br />
Finally, the report concludes that
rising temperatures are also likely to increase energy demand for space
cooling, which if met by thermal power would constitute to global
warming by increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, a rise in
water withdrawal by power plants would directly compete with water
withdrawal for agriculture and domestic consumption, particularly in
water-stressed areas.<br />
<br />
On
the other hand, power plants located around the coast that use seawater
for cooling are vulnerable to damage from sea-level rise, cyclones, and
storm surge. In short, climate change could impact the reliability of
the country’s energy infrastructure and supply.<br />
<br />
Although this
path-breaking report is not intended to be ‘policy prescriptive’, the
message is clear — in the absence of rapid, informed and far-reaching
mitigation and adaptation measures, the impacts of climate change are
likely to pose profound challenges to sustaining the country’s rapid
economic growth and achieving the sustainable development goals.<br />
<br />
<b><i>First Published in <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/environment/indias-first-climate-change-report-offers-a-stern-warning-5420891.html" target="_blank">Moneycontrol</a></i></b><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-86893925560650464082020-04-01T04:27:00.002-07:002020-04-12T23:06:46.227-07:00 India’s water wisdom in times of climate crisis<br />
<img alt="Ahar in Nawada revived by Ahar Pyne Bachao Abhiyan organised by Janhit Vikas Samiti of Bihar (All photos by Shailendra Yashwant)" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12027" class="size-full wp-image-12027" data-attachment-id="12027" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="<p>Ahar in Nawada revived by Ahar Pyne Bachao Abhiyan organised by Janhit Vikas Samiti of Bihar (All photos by Shailendra Yashwant)</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"10","credit":"Shailendra Yashwant","camera":"NIKON D750","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1565021994","copyright":"Shailendra Yashwant","focal_length":"24","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.0025","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="01 DSC_4017" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/01-DSC_4017.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/01-DSC_4017-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/01-DSC_4017.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2019/10/11/indias-water-wisdom-in-times-of-climate-crisis/01-dsc_4017/" height="390" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/01-DSC_4017.jpg" width="680" /><br />
<br />
The worst impacts of the unfolding climate crisis, on both people and
ecosystems, will be felt through its effect on water. In India, erratic
monsoons, prolonged dry spells and extreme rainfall incidents are
already overwhelming its 1.3 billion citizens.<br />
<br />
Relentless groundwater extraction, unprecedented pollution of surface
water, and alienation of communities from their water resources have
further compounded the water stress situation across the country.<br />
<br />
It doesn’t have to be this way. For decades, environmentalists and
social scientists have repeatedly pointed to India’s long history and
diversity in water harvesting and conservation. For centuries, Indians
have crafted ingenious water conservation system of all size and
varieties that channel water from rivers and monsoon runoff and nearby
hills and elevated areas.<br />
<br />
The water is usually directed to storage tanks, sometimes built in a
series, with overflow from one becoming runoff for the subsequent one,
like Talaabs, Pokharas, Ahars, Johads, and Eris. There is a plethora of
such traditional, low-cost, easy to maintain, and community-run examples
of water systems all over the country.<br />
<br />
A number of these ancient traditional water harvesting, and
irrigation practices have survived the test of time and social upheavals
and continue to give sustenance to communities through periods of water
scarcity.<br />
<br />
<b>Ahar Pyne of Bihar</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/02-Jalsar-Ahar-Siur-Nawada-Bihar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Jalsar Ahar, Siur, Nawada, Bihar. Ahars are reservoirs with an embankment on three sides while Pynes are diversion channels laid from the river or the catchment area for impounding water in the Ahars and channels" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12028" border="0" class="size-full wp-image-12028" data-attachment-id="12028" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="<p>Jalsar Ahar, Siur, Nawada, Bihar. Ahars are reservoirs with an embankment on three sides while Pynes are diversion channels laid from the river or the catchment area for impounding water in the Ahars and channels</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"Shailendra Yashwant","camera":"NIKON D750","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1565008304","copyright":"Shailendra Yashwant","focal_length":"85","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.0015625","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="02 Jalsar Ahar, Siur, Nawada, Bihar" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/02-Jalsar-Ahar-Siur-Nawada-Bihar.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/02-Jalsar-Ahar-Siur-Nawada-Bihar-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/02-Jalsar-Ahar-Siur-Nawada-Bihar.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2019/10/11/indias-water-wisdom-in-times-of-climate-crisis/02-jalsar-ahar-siur-nawada-bihar/" height="390" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/02-Jalsar-Ahar-Siur-Nawada-Bihar.jpg" width="680" /></a></div>
Ahar Pyne is a 5,000-year-old floodwater harvesting system that
evolved during the Mauryan Empire to bring water to the undulating and
rocky terrain of Magadh, in south-central Bihar. In Hindi, it means to
capture rainwater in channels — Aa (to come), Har (to capture) and Pyne
(water channels).<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_12028" style="width: 690px;">
<br />
<div class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-12028">
Jalsar
Ahar, Siur, Nawada, Bihar. Ahars are reservoirs with an embankment on
three sides while Pynes are diversion channels laid from the river or
the catchment area for impounding water in the Ahars and channels.</div>
</div>
Water supply for an Ahar comes either from natural drainage after
rainfall (rainfed Ahars) or through Pynes where necessary diversion
works are carried out.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_12029" style="width: 690px;">
<img alt="Bansi Mohana Pyne, Sakri River, Bihar. Water supply for an Ahar comes either from natural drainage after rainfall (rainfed Ahars) or through Pynes, artificial channels constructed to utilise river water in agricultural fields. It is this system that made paddy cultivation possible in South Bihar, which is otherwise unsuited for this crop" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12029" class="size-full wp-image-12029" data-attachment-id="12029" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="<p>Bansi Mohana Pyne, Sakri River, Bihar. Water supply for an Ahar comes either from natural drainage after rainfall (rainfed Ahars) or through Pynes, artificial channels constructed to utilise river water in agricultural fields. It is this system that made paddy cultivation possible in South Bihar, which is otherwise unsuited for this crop</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"11","credit":"Shailendra Yashwant","camera":"NIKON D750","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1565015420","copyright":"Shailendra Yashwant","focal_length":"24","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.002","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="03 DSC_3971" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/03-DSC_3971.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/03-DSC_3971-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/03-DSC_3971.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2019/10/11/indias-water-wisdom-in-times-of-climate-crisis/03-dsc_3971/" height="390" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/03-DSC_3971.jpg" width="680" /><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-12029">
<i>Bansi
Mohana Pyne, Sakri River, Bihar. </i><br />
Water supply for an Ahar comes either
from natural drainage after rainfall (rainfed Ahars) or through Pynes,
artificial channels constructed to utilise river water in agricultural
fields. It is this system that made paddy cultivation possible in South
Bihar, which is otherwise unsuited for this crop</div>
</div>
Water for irrigation is drawn out by opening outlets made at
different heights in the embankment. It is this system that made paddy
cultivation possible in south Bihar, which is otherwise unsuitable for
this crop. In particular, it helped farmers meet the crucial water
requirement for paddy during hathia (the grain-filling stage).<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_12030" style="width: 690px;">
<img alt="Pyne, Nawada, Bihar" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12030" class="size-full wp-image-12030" data-attachment-id="12030" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="<p>Pyne, Nawada, Bihar</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"10","credit":"Shailendra Yashwant","camera":"NIKON D750","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1565019995","copyright":"Shailendra Yashwant","focal_length":"24","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.0025","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="04 DSC_4013" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/04-DSC_4013.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/04-DSC_4013-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/04-DSC_4013.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2019/10/11/indias-water-wisdom-in-times-of-climate-crisis/04-dsc_4013/" height="390" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/04-DSC_4013.jpg" width="680" /><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-12030">
<i>Pyne, Nawada, Bihar</i><br />
</div>
</div>
Pynes are constructed by considering various parameters like the slope of the terrain and the location of crops grown. To create a
network of Pynes well-connected with Ahars is a labor-intensive job requiring a considerable amount of work and engineering skills. Ahar and
Pyne assist in controlling floods by distributing surplus water into its system. Drought is also managed as it makes water available in the reservoir for a year.<br />
Through this system, one Pyne can irrigate up to 400 acres. For
decades, the system is not just used to collect, store, and distribute
water but also hold people from various castes and classes together
resulting in group action for irrigation operation and maintenance.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_12031" style="width: 690px;">
<img alt="Farmers checking Pyne level, Nawada, Bihar" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12031" class="size-full wp-image-12031" data-attachment-id="12031" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="<p>Farmers checking Pyne level, Nawada, Bihar</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"","camera":"KeyMission 170","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1565013783","copyright":"Shailendra Yashwant","focal_length":"2.4","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.002","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="05 DSCN0078" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/05-DSCN0078.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/05-DSCN0078-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/05-DSCN0078.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2019/10/11/indias-water-wisdom-in-times-of-climate-crisis/05-dscn0078/" height="390" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/05-DSCN0078.jpg" width="680" /><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-12031">
<i>Farmers checking Pyne level, Nawada, Bihar</i><br />
</div>
</div>
Ahar beds were also used to grow a Rabi (winter) crop after draining out the excess water that remained after Kharif (summer) cultivation.
While Ahars irrigating more than 400 ha are not rare, the average area
irrigated by an Ahar during the early 20th century was said to be 57 ha.<br />
The area irrigated by the Ahar Pyne systems has witnessed a sharp decline and yet, even today, they constitute nearly three-fourths of the total irrigation facilities in south Bihar. More than 60% of these are defunct, and the rest is poorly managed.<br />
These structures not only have relevance for sustainable water
management but also have essential socioeconomic importance as it allows
community participation and distribution of responsibilities
simultaneously opening alternative avenues for earning a livelihood for
the local population.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_12032" style="width: 690px;">
<img alt="Paddy fields, Siur, Nawada, Bihar" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12032" class="size-full wp-image-12032" data-attachment-id="12032" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="<p>Paddy fields, Siur, Nawada, Bihar</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2.8","credit":"","camera":"KeyMission 170","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1565012739","copyright":"Shailendra Yashwant","focal_length":"2.4","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.000625","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="06 DSCN0074" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/06-DSCN0074.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/06-DSCN0074-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/06-DSCN0074.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2019/10/11/indias-water-wisdom-in-times-of-climate-crisis/06-dscn0074/" height="390" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/06-DSCN0074.jpg" width="680" /><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-12032">
<i>Paddy fields, Siur, Nawada, Bihar</i><br />
</div>
</div>
One Pyne can irrigate up to 400 acres. It helps controls flood and
drought and acts as a protecting mechanism for the villages. These
channels may be of various sizes. The small ones are those found
originating in Ahars and carrying the water of the Ahars to cultivable
plots.<br />
Ahar and Pyne assist in controlling floods by distributing surplus
water into its system. The routine upkeep work involves cleaning and
desilting of Ahar and Pyne and maintaining the water conveyance network
is done by the cultivators before the onset of monsoon.<br />
<br />
All farmers grow the same crop (paddy) all over the irrigation
command around the same dates. As a result, agricultural operations
undertaken by all cultivators are similar throughout the irrigation
command. Since Ahars and Pynes have to be used collectively, all farmers
have to synchronise their operations.<br />
<br />
<b>Johad of Uttar Pradesh</b><br />
<a href="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/07-3844Baba-Bhurewala-Johad-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Baba Bhurewala Johad, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh revived by Development Centre for Alternative Policies" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12033" border="0" class="size-full wp-image-12033" data-attachment-id="12033" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="<p>Baba Bhurewala Johad, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh revived by Development Centre for Alternative Policies</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"8","credit":"Shailendra Yashwant","camera":"NIKON D750","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1564748018","copyright":"Shailendra Yashwant","focal_length":"24","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.0025","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="07 3844Baba Bhurewala Johad, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/07-3844Baba-Bhurewala-Johad-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/07-3844Baba-Bhurewala-Johad-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/07-3844Baba-Bhurewala-Johad-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2019/10/11/indias-water-wisdom-in-times-of-climate-crisis/07-3844baba-bhurewala-johad-dhikoli-baghpat-uttar-pradesh/" height="390" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/07-3844Baba-Bhurewala-Johad-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh.jpg" width="680" /></a><i>Baba Bhurewala Johad, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh revived by Development Centre for Alternative Policies</i><br />
<br />
Johad, a crescent-shaped dam of earth and rocks found in Uttar
Pradesh, Haryana and the Thar desert of Rajasthan, is probably one of
the oldest rainwater harvesting systems in India. Archaeologists have
dated some of these rainwater storage structures in India as far back as
1500 BC.<br />
<br />
The water collected in a Johad during the monsoon is used for
irrigation, drinking, livestock and other domestic purposes while
recharging the groundwater. During the dry season, when the water
gradually recedes, the land inside the Johad is used for cultivation.<br />
<br />
Typically, building a Johad involves digging a pit and shaping the
excavated earth into a semi-circular mud barrier. A stone drain is
sometimes set up, allowing excess water to seep into the ground or
connecting it with Johads nearby. When many Johads are built in one
area, they have a cumulative effect, resulting in the replenishment of
whole aquifers.<br />
<br />
The height of the dam varies from one Johad to another, depending on
the site, water flow, contours of the land, etc. In some cases, to ease
the water pressure, a masonry structure is added for the outlet of
excess water. The water storage area varies from 2 ha to 100 ha. The
villagers share the expense, supply labour, and materials like stone,
sand, and lime.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_12034" style="width: 690px;">
<img alt="Reed bed channel, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12034" class="size-full wp-image-12034" data-attachment-id="12034" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="<p>Reed bed channel, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"5.6","credit":"Shailendra Yashwant","camera":"NIKON D750","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1564744994","copyright":"Shailendra Yashwant","focal_length":"24","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.05","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="08 3780Reed bed channel, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/08-3780Reed-bed-channel-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/08-3780Reed-bed-channel-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/08-3780Reed-bed-channel-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2019/10/11/indias-water-wisdom-in-times-of-climate-crisis/08-3780reed-bed-channel-dhikoli-baghpat-uttar-pradesh/" height="390" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/08-3780Reed-bed-channel-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh.jpg" width="680" /><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-12034">
<i>Reed bed channel, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh</i><br />
</div>
</div>
In the 1980s, deforestation, reduced rainfall, depleting groundwater,
polluted surface water, and the failure of the modern irrigation and
water supply systems brought back attention to the forgotten, decrepit
and silted Johads. A mass movement for the revival of traditional
methods began in Rajasthan and quickly spread to Haryana and Uttar
Pradesh.<br />
<br />
In the last 20 years, several innovations have improved the
efficiency of the Johads. An initiative by New Delhi-based Development
Centre for Alternative Policies (DCAP) in the Dhikoli village of Baghpat
district of Uttar Pradesh stands out for replication.<br />
<br />
In 2001, the Dhikoli block of Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh was
declared a dark zone by the Central Ground Water Board due to excessive
groundwater exploitation. With no sewage system in place, the ponds in
Dhikoli, like other villages in Baghpat, were overflowing with domestic
sewage. DCAP’s project included an innovative reed- bed system, also
known as the biofilter system, for treating wastewater before it reached
the ponds.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_12035" style="width: 690px;">
<img alt="Shamshan Johad, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12035" class="size-full wp-image-12035" data-attachment-id="12035" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="<p>Shamshan Johad, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"8","credit":"Shailendra Yashwant","camera":"NIKON D750","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1564745655","copyright":"Shailendra Yashwant","focal_length":"24","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.0015625","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="09 3815Shamshan Johad, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/09-3815Shamshan-Johad-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/09-3815Shamshan-Johad-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/09-3815Shamshan-Johad-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2019/10/11/indias-water-wisdom-in-times-of-climate-crisis/09-3815shamshan-johad-dhikoli-baghpat-uttar-pradesh/" height="390" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/09-3815Shamshan-Johad-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh.jpg" width="680" /><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-12035">
<i>Shamshan Johad, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh</i><br />
</div>
</div>
Seven years later the villagers of Dhikoli are benefitting from the
higher water table that ensures round the year water supply in their
wells but also are grateful to the unique sewage treatment system that
has also dealt with the menace of mosquitoes and malaria making this
traditional system, that came into existence decades ago, as relevant
today as it was then and perhaps even more given the water crisis and
problems like water pollution, scarcity and climate change.<br />
<br />
A 650 ft long channel — 8 ft deep and 10 ft wide — with weirs that
had alternating tiny waterfalls and ditches brought the sewage water and
rainwater overflow from the village drain to the lower Johad that was
constructed on the panchayat owned land.<br />
<br />
Since the project was completed and the three Johads have been able
to capture around 5.5 million litres of rainwater per annum from the
surrounding catchments per year, recharging the groundwater in the
process. In addition, every year, 11 million litres of treated
wastewater go into the newly made big Shamshan Johad. Several tube wells
downstream of the Johads have also reported an increase in the water
table.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_12036" style="width: 690px;">
<img alt="Lower Shamshan Johad, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12036" class="size-full wp-image-12036" data-attachment-id="12036" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="<p>Lower Shamshan Johad, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"8","credit":"Shailendra Yashwant","camera":"NIKON D750","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1564745994","copyright":"Shailendra Yashwant","focal_length":"120","iso":"320","shutter_speed":"0.003125","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="10 3834Lower Shamshan Johad, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/10-3834Lower-Shamshan-Johad-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/10-3834Lower-Shamshan-Johad-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/10-3834Lower-Shamshan-Johad-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2019/10/11/indias-water-wisdom-in-times-of-climate-crisis/10-3834lower-shamshan-johad-dhikoli-baghpat-uttar-pradesh/" height="390" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/10-3834Lower-Shamshan-Johad-Dhikoli-Baghpat-Uttar-Pradesh.jpg" width="680" /><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-12036">
<i>Lower Shamshan Johad, Dhikoli, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh</i><br />
</div>
</div>
The success of reviving these traditional practices illustrate the
urgent need to reengage communities in water management, using simple,
low-cost, traditional and highly efficient systems to ensure water
security. They demonstrate how empowered communities, having access to
and control over water resources, can significantly contribute to
reducing poverty and inequality, and achieve prosperity.<br />
The efforts by local communities in India to improve water
availability are lauded universally. A widespread revival of these
traditional practices will contribute to India attaining its Sustainable
Development Goals and ensuring water security, food security, and
disaster risk reduction.<br />
<br />
<i>Extracted from <a href="https://www.oxfamindia.org/sites/default/files/2019-08/Water%20Wisdom%20-%20CTB%20for%20Soft%20Launch_compressed.pdf">Water Wisdom in Times of Climate Crisis</a>, published by Oxfam India for the Transboundary Rivers of South Asia (TROSA) project</i>.<br />
First published on <a href="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2019/10/11/indias-water-wisdom-in-times-of-climate-crisis/" target="_blank">Indiaclimatedialogue. </a><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-53887620497327110062020-02-12T23:11:00.000-08:002020-04-12T23:38:22.747-07:00Tourism | Bhutan puts ecology before the economy<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WRxj7qUBQ-s/XpQCMEsJoeI/AAAAAAAAKWQ/WA8qtIo0G2UzAyno6pZdA0yNw6s0KvY4ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/DSC_0871.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WRxj7qUBQ-s/XpQCMEsJoeI/AAAAAAAAKWQ/WA8qtIo0G2UzAyno6pZdA0yNw6s0KvY4ACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/DSC_0871.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Putting ecology before the economy, Bhutan is going to charge
regional travellers from India, Bangladesh, and the Maldives, a
Sustainable Development Fee (SDF) of $16.85 (Rs 1,200) per day from
July. Predictably, tourism operators on both sides of the border, that
were riding high on the recent tourism boom, have expressed serious
concerns about this move.<br />
<br />
Bhutan adheres strictly to its policy of
‘high value-low impact’ tourism based on its unique Gross National
Happiness (GNH) policy that is based on four principles of sustainable
development, environmental conservation, preservation and promotion of
cultural values, and good governance.<br />
<br />
To achieve these goals,
barring regional tourists, visitors from all other countries pay
significantly higher costs, including a Sustainable Development Fee
of $65 (Rs 4,650) as part of a mandatory package of minimum $250 per day
which includes, visa fees, sightseeing entrance fees, meals, local
transport, and accommodation. The SDF is a direct revenue contribution
for the maintenance of ecology and local development in the country that
is also famous for being carbon negative.<br />
<br />
However, this "high
value, low impact" strategy was failing in the last few years following a
spike in the numbers of regional visitors, especially from India, that
were exempt from SDF levy. Bhutan received a total of 274,097 visitors
in 2018. Of the total arrivals, 202,290 were regional tourists. Indians
make up the majority of these regional tourists and had sparked worries
for the unique Himalayan kingdom's star attraction, its cherished
ecology.<br />
<br />
Bhutan’s biggest attraction is its natural heritage and
it is a fact that tourists in large numbers, running around some of the
world’s most pristine landscapes, are going to damage the ecology,
resulting in a loss of flora and fauna and posing a biosecurity risk. Go
to any hill station in India, from Manali to Munnar, to witness the
devastation caused by Indian tourists.<br />
<br />
In its <a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TTCR_2017_web_0401.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report</a> in
2017, the World Economic Forum noted that degradation of the natural
environment was having a serious effect on the tourism sector: natural
capital depletes — because of overfishing, deforestation or water and
air pollution — so tourism revenues decline.<br />
<br />
UN Environment’s <a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/explore-topics/resource-efficiency/what-we-do/responsible-industry/tourism" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">research has shown</a> that
the industry’s use of key resources, such as energy and water, is
growing commensurately with its generation of solid waste, including
marine plastic pollution, sewage, loss of biodiversity and greenhouse
gas emissions.<br />
<br />
Tourism accounts for around 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study <a href="http://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/8099906/type/dlg/sid/xid:fr1581173055362cjb/http:/nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/s41558-018-0141-x" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change</a>,
to quantify the industry’s total carbon footprint. The report concludes
that flying less and investing in payment schemes to offset the damage
caused by travel will be essential to avoid “unchecked future growth in
tourism-related emissions”.<br />
<br />
It’s quite simple, a country that has a
tourism sector that both cares about the sustainability of the
environment and nurtures its places of natural beauty is going to
attract discerning international and local visitors who are willing to
pay the extra dollar. That extra dollar can go into restoration,
conservation and well-being of the local biodiversity.<br />
<br />
For
example, Rwanda’s strategy to focus on high-value/low impact responsible
ecotourism, aka Gorilla Tourism, rather than mass tourism has resulted
in funding for the government’s programme for the protection of
gorillas. Since 2010, Rwanda is considered to be one of the safest
destinations in East Africa for wildlife and biodiversity experiences.<br />
<br />
Several
studies, including one by the Nielsen and Cornell University’s Centre
for Hospitality Research, have estimated that 75 percent of Millennial
and Gen Z travellers would be willing to pay extra for sustainable
tourism. Fifty percent of the older generation or Baby Boomers are also
willing to pay more for environmentally responsible destinations.<br />
<br />
Cox
& Kings carried out a survey in India’s key cities, including
Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and
Thiruvananthapuram. About 5,000 respondents aged between 20 and 35 took
part in the survey, and a whopping 87 percent of the respondents felt
strongly about saving the environment.<br />
<br />
These are encouraging trends, and may just augur well for the tourism sector.<br />
We
need carbon neutral, zero-waste, environmentally-sensitive tour
packages to destinations that have environmentally-conscious, free and
fair societies that value the ecosystem.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Shailendra Yashwant is a senior advisor to Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA). Views are personal.</i></b><br />
<br />
<b><i>First published in <span id="goog_521760563"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/">Moneycontrol <span id="goog_521760564"></span></a></i></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-80155259548219222752020-02-01T22:52:00.000-08:002020-02-15T22:56:00.532-08:00Budget 2020 | On climate change, it was business as usual<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KbVrFyZ2iqk/XkjnSRBatEI/AAAAAAAAJKQ/K_vq1oruQJMSIKiXYO3lH9khFa9jIIZGACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/seawaste8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KbVrFyZ2iqk/XkjnSRBatEI/AAAAAAAAJKQ/K_vq1oruQJMSIKiXYO3lH9khFa9jIIZGACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/seawaste8.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Presenting the <a href="http://www.moneycontrol.com/budget-2019/" target="_blank">Union Budget</a>
2020-2021, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India’s
commitment towards tackling climate change made at Paris conference will
kick start from January 1, 2021.<br />
She also referred to Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s two international initiatives in the climate
change arena; namely, the Coalition for Disaster Resilient
Infrastructure (CDRI) and the International Solar Alliance (ISA), which
according to her will also help achieve India’s commitment to the Sendai
Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, enhance adaptation and achieve
the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The efforts to this end,
she said, will be executed in various sectors through normal budgeting
process.<br />
Rs 4,400 crore has been allocated to give incentives to
large cities (more than one million population) to formulate plans for
ensuring ‘cleaner air’. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate
Change (MOEFCC) will notify the parameters for such incentives.<br />
Sitharaman
also announced that old thermal power plants that do not meet
prescribed emission norms will be asked to close down and their land
will be used for unspecified alternative purposes. She also said
PM-KUSUM scheme will be expanded to help 2 million farmers in setting up
standalone solar pumps. A slew of other announcements for uptake of
renewable energy and organic agriculture were also referred to in her
speech.<br />
The only thing remarkable of today’s budget speech was
that, ‘climate change’ found space in her over 2 hour 40 minutes long
budget speech after four subsequent budget speeches (<a href="https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/budget2015-2016/ub2015-16/bs/bs.pdf" rel="nofollow">2015-16</a>, <a href="https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/budget2016-2017/ub2016-17/bs/bs.pdf" rel="nofollow">2016-17</a>, <a href="https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/budget2017-2018/ub2017-18/bs/bs.pdf" rel="nofollow">2017-18</a> and <a href="https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/budget2018-2019/ub2018-19/bs/bs.pdf" rel="nofollow">2018-19</a>) under the same government had ignored it. The last time we heard climate change referred to in a full budget speech was in <a href="https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/budget2014-2015/ub2014-15/bs/bs.pdf" rel="nofollow">first budget presented by Arun Jaitley in 2014-15</a>.<br />
However,
today’s announcements are nothing but a lip service to climate change
and the proposed incremental measures fall short in their intent to
transform India into a sustainable, low-carbon, high-growth economy is
disappointing.<br />
As Nicholas Stern famously said, “Climate change is
the biggest market failure the world has ever seen”, Budget 2020 with
its deafening silence on budget allocations to the National Action Plan
on Climate change (NAPCC) and the National Adaptation Fund, does not
augur well for India’s campaign to combat climate change.<br />
Instead
of a strategy that will re-orient how we execute climate action via an
economy-wide green industrialisation that puts money into low-carbon and
climate-resilient sectors such as renewables, public transport,
ecological restoration, what we got was yet another set of vague and
unclear announcements.<br />
“She did not recognise climate change as a
major threat to people and economy, ignoring the estimates that climate
change impacts could cause a reduction of 2.5 to 4.5 per cent of GDP,
and did not give any indication of revising its emission reduction
targets. The message to the states on old and polluting coal fired power
plants is weak and advisory in nature,” said Harjeet Singh, global
climate change head of Action Aid International.<br />
“…the finance
minister had no clear allocation or incentives in today’s speech on how
India intends to develop resilient infrastructure, retrofit existing
infrastructure for resilience, and to enable a measurable reduction in
infrastructure losses, ” said Sanjay Vashist, Director of Climate Action
Network South Asia.<br />
While forest cover has been increasing in
India as claimed by the MOEFCC in its recent report that will put India
on track to achieve Paris Accord target of creating an additional carbon
sink by increasing forest cover, the Finance Minister was silent on any
further investments required for research into restoring biodiversity,
conserving landscapes and preserving the natural balance of biodiversity
in various parts of India.<br />
Considering that she referred to
climate change as part of the three themes woven around ‘aspirational
India, economic development and caring society’, there were high
expectations that the Finance Minister will go the extra mile to
mainstream climate change in the design of the first budget of the
decade — but it was business as usual with no real incentives to
mitigate or adapt to climate crisis.<br />
<em><strong>Shailendra Yashwant is senior adviser, Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA). Twitter: @shaibaba. Views are personal.</strong></em><br />
<br />
<em><strong>First published in <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/budget/budget-2020-on-climate-change-it-was-business-as-usual-4893481.html" target="_blank">Moneycontrol </a></strong></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-11554115667551135322020-01-28T22:48:00.000-08:002020-02-15T22:50:08.394-08:00Budget 2020 | To fight climate change, correct anomalies in fund allocation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QjVg9abnFeM/XkjltA1MOMI/AAAAAAAAJKE/sfMwLOW-nA0CmR_xAcITMA3yoaEngPpVgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/_DSC1434.NEF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1060" data-original-width="1600" height="422" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QjVg9abnFeM/XkjltA1MOMI/AAAAAAAAJKE/sfMwLOW-nA0CmR_xAcITMA3yoaEngPpVgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/_DSC1434.NEF" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
India, like the rest of the world, is facing an unprecedented
economic and humanitarian crisis caused by climate change and
environmental degradation, as is evident from the increasing intensity
and recurrence of floods, droughts, extreme heat and cold, cyclones, sea
level rise and an erratic monsoon.<br />
According to a recent report
by McKinsey Global Institute, climate change hazards such as extreme
heat waves and humid conditions could potentially cause a reduction in
India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2.5-4.5 per cent due to decline
in labour productivity and reduced working hours.<br />
The Global
Climate Risk Index 2020 says India suffered an economic loss of $37
billion due to climate change in 2018. Another study by Stanford
University’s Earth System Science, measuring the effects of
anthropogenic climate change on GDP per capita by country, has estimated
that global warming has made the Indian economy 31 per cent smaller
than it would have been otherwise.<br />
Preliminary estimates by the
Government of India indicate that around $206 billion (at 2014-15
prices) would be required between 2015 and 2030 for implementing
adaption actions in key areas such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries,
infrastructure, water resources and ecosystems. Beyond these, additional
investments will be needed for strengthening resilience and disaster
management, pegging the total funds requirement at $2.5 trillion for the
15 years.<br />
Unfortunately, consecutive <a href="http://www.moneycontrol.com/budget-2019/" target="_blank">Union Budget</a>s
since 2015, under the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance
(NDA) government, have failed to consider the real cost of climate
change and environmental degradation. The 2019-20 Budget by Union
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was hailed by the Prime Minister as a
“green Budget” with a vision for “pollution free India with green
Mother earth and blue skies”, but the actual budgetary allocations did
not match this rhetoric, with little or no reference to climate change,
mitigation, adaptation or disaster risk reduction.<br />
As she prepares
the Budget for 2020-21, Sitharaman must acknowledge the undeniable fact
that anthropogenic activity is eroding human capital (education and
productivity) as well as produced (infrastructure and property) and
natural (air and water) capital at an unprecedented pace.<br />
In this
context, Sitharaman must prioritise and scale up fiscal action to
address the unfolding climate crisis and environmental emergency by
first and foremost bolstering allocations to the National Action Plan on
Climate Change (NAPCC).<br />
The NAPCC was adopted in 2008 and
incorporates India’s vision for ecologically sustainable development by
creating eight national missions, i.e. for deploying solar energy,
enhancing energy efficiency, creation of sustainable urban habitat,
conserving water, sustaining fragile Himalayan ecosystems, expanding
forest cover, making agriculture sustainable and creating a strategic
knowledge platform to serve all the national missions. The success of
these missions is key to India’s commitment to the Paris Agreement to
combat climate change and achieve its Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs).<br />
Another area that the minister needs to urgently look at
is ways to mobilise funding for natural calamities and climate-induced
disasters. Collections from the National Calamity Contingent Duty -- a
major contributor to the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) -- have
been declining, having fallen to Rs 3,660 crore in FY18, from Rs 6,450
crore in FY17.<br />
A panel of state finance ministers is exploring
whether a disaster cess/tax should be imposed nationwide to fund the
NDRF, but it is well known that a cess may not be the best way for
funding disaster management. According to an Indiaspend report, just 29
per cent of the clean energy cess on coal was transferred to the
National Clean Energy and Environment Fund between 2010-11 and 2016.
Instead, Sitharaman must find ways of provisioning for these funds in
the Budget.<br />
Finally, the finance minister must also correct the
anomaly in allocation to the National Adaptation Fund. One of India’s
nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement is
“to better adapt to climate change by enhancing investments in
development programmes in sectors vulnerable to climate change,
particularly agriculture, water resources, the Himalayan region, coastal
regions, health, and disaster management”.<br />
The allocation of Rs
100 crore, a fraction of the total budget of over Rs 2,900 crore
allotted to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
(MOEFCC) in 2019-20 is woefully inadequate. Mitigation of climate change
depends on the international policy, but at a national level, it is
critical that we invest in adaptation to prepare our most vulnerable
communities to survive and thrive.<br />
<strong><em>Shailendra Yashwant is senior adviser, Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA). Twitter: @shaibaba. Views are personal.</em></strong><br />
<br />
<strong><em>First published in <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/budget/budget-2020-to-fight-climate-change-correct-anomalies-in-fund-allocation-4868181.html" target="_blank">MoneyControl </a></em></strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-4074840299879037672020-01-09T22:38:00.000-08:002020-02-15T22:40:13.270-08:00Climate Change | 2020 is the year of climate emergency<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YMVPXnWhxgQ/XkjjNXlcAhI/AAAAAAAAJJw/Qx4ykcwQmDYCN8vrEZjKrjAiDhYVVGuyACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/scan0049.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1121" data-original-width="1600" height="448" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YMVPXnWhxgQ/XkjjNXlcAhI/AAAAAAAAJJw/Qx4ykcwQmDYCN8vrEZjKrjAiDhYVVGuyACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/scan0049.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Children at Thousand Islands of Indonesia, that are disappearing due to sea level rise. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Fear, not hope, reigned in Australia on New Year’s Day. A string of
fires all the way down the South Coast region of New South Wales and
Victoria are burning at<a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6561329/residents-evacuate-to-beaches-as-south-coast-fires-pose-serious-threat/" rel="nofollow"> emergency levels </a>. This year’s bushfire season is <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-50980386" rel="nofollow">widely regarded</a>
as one of the most severe on record. Since September, fires have spread
across much of south-eastern Australia following a period of extreme
drought and record-breaking temperatures.<br />
At least 25 people
killed and ecologists at the University of Sydney estimate more than one
billion birds, reptiles and mammals in New South Wales alone are likely
to have died in the rapidly spreading wildfires. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-bushfires-insurance/australia-strengthens-bushfire-defenses-as-economic-environmental-costs-mount-idUSKBN1Z601F?feedName=environmentNews&feedType=RSS&utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter" rel="nofollow">Reuters reported</a> that by January 7, the fire had expanded to 10 million hectares or “an area the size of South Korea”.<br />
The
direct cost of the fires to the Australian economy has been estimated
to be at least $2 billion and rising. With summer only one-third over,
the situation is likely to grow even grimmer in Australia.<br />
Meanwhile,
in Indonesia, torrential rains, which began on New Year’s Eve, set off
deadly flash floods in the capital Jakarta and elsewhere on the island
of Java, killing at least 66 people and sending over 173,000 residents
to temporary shelters.<br />
Jakarta is a sinking city built on swamps,
riddled with punctured aquifers, clogged waterways, and weighed down by
an unwieldy population that is regularly inundated by floods as sea
levels rise steadily. This is why Indonesian officials are already
seeking to relocate the country’s capital to East Kalimantan Province,
on the island of Borneo.<br />
However, the deluge in the first week of
2020 was the heaviest in the capital since record-keeping began in the
19th century. “This rain is not ordinary rain,” warned a statement from
Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency.<br />
As
always multiple factors are at play in this annual cycle of fires and
floods on the Australian continent and the Indonesian archipelago, but
the scale and intensity of this year’s unfolding disasters unequivocally
reiterate that the link between the current extremes and anthropogenic
climate change is scientifically undisputable.<br />
If Indonesia is
naturally prone to floods, Australia is naturally primed to burn. Every
year there is a fire season in the summer, with hot, dry weather making
it easy for blazes to start and spread.<br />
More than a decade ago,
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that
ongoing anthropogenic climate change was <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar4/wg2/" rel="nofollow">virtually certain to increase</a> in intensity and frequency of fires in Australia and flooding in Indonesia. This assessment of the science evidence has <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/not-normal-climate-change-bushfire-web/" rel="nofollow">been repeated in countless reports</a>, including the IPCC’s <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/" rel="nofollow">Climate Change and Land report</a>, released in August.<br />
Yet
neither the Australian nor Indonesian governments have announced any
significant changes to their climate policies. Australia produces iron
ore and a third of global coal exports and the Indonesian economy is
fuelled by export of palm oil and coal. Both countries are also among
the top 20 CO2 emitters.<br />
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison
openly promotes coal industry, which is allegedly a major funder to his
party. “I am not going to write off the jobs of thousands of Australians
by walking away from traditional industries,” <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/australia-fires-prime-minister-defends-climate-policy-after-greta-thunberg-criticism/a-51782175" rel="nofollow">he told</a> Australian broadcaster Channel Seven.<br />
Indonesian
President Joko Widodo has pledged to rein in the illegal expansion of
palm oil sector, the largest driver of deforestation, but at the same
time in a bid to bring “development” to remote regions, he is accused of
surreptitiously allowing vast tracts of peat land forests to be cleared
for palm oil in the Indonesian part of Papua New Guinea.<br />
Australian
fires and Indonesian floods are merely a glimpse of a world careening
irreversibly into a climate emergency that appears to be set to unfold
across the planet in 2020.<br />
As Cate Blanchett put it so succinctly
at the 77th Golden Globe Awards night, “…when one country faces a
climate disaster, we all face a climate disaster, so we are in it
together.”<br />
The question is if Morrison and Widodo are willing to
accept that climate change is aggravating natural disasters in their own
countries, that they urgently need an alternative business model to
shore up their GDPs, that bold and decisive action to end coal
extraction and deforestation once and for all will go a long way in
helping the world survive the ongoing climate crisis.<br />
<strong><em>Shailendra Yashwant is senior adviser, Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA). Twitter: @shaibaba. Views are personal.</em></strong><br />
<br />
<strong><em>First published in <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/environment/climate-change-2020-is-the-year-of-climate-emergency-4799881.html" target="_blank">Moneycontrol</a> </em></strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-7719144821358918432019-12-01T23:35:00.000-08:002020-05-01T01:04:10.779-07:00Phase Out Coal - Restore Hasdeo Arand<a href="https://sanctuarynaturefoundation.org/public/uploads/Article/Alok%20Shukla_Chhattisgarh%20Bachao%20Andolan_DSCN0028_C630.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" class="img img-fluid" height="253" src="https://sanctuarynaturefoundation.org/public/uploads/Article/Alok%20Shukla_Chhattisgarh%20Bachao%20Andolan_DSCN0028_C630.jpg" width="640" /></a><i> </i><br />
<br />
<i>Despite adding dramatic capacity for solar and wind energy,
India is not able to make the determined mindshift away from fossil fuel
dependency and prevent the destruction of our last remaining forests
such as Hasdeo Arand. Photo Courtesy: Alok Shukla</i><br />
<br />
The Forested state of Chhattisgarh holds the key to the water security of
much of Peninsular India. Managed well, it has the capacity to enhance
India’s climate resilience, even as it boosts water security for
millions. <br />
The Hasdeo Arand forest that spans about 1,70,000 hectares (ha.), in
northern Chhattisgarh’s Korba and Sarguja districts, is one of the
largest contiguous stretches of intact forests in India. This pristine
forest is the watershed of the Hasdeo-Bango reservoir and the Hasdeo
river, which is a tributary of the Mahanadi river. Rich in biodiversity,
with dense sal forests, rare flora and endangered fauna, it is part of a
large elephant corridor for wild elephants, moving from the Gumla
district in Jharkhand to Korba in Chhattisgarh.<br />
The Hasdeo Arand region is also home to the large and vulnerable forest-dwelling <i>adivasi</i> community of<i> Gonds</i>, 90 per cent of whom are deeply dependent on forest produce, and agriculture, for their livelihoods.<br />
However, this rich ecosystem is under threat because of the vast coal
reserves it harbours over an area of 1,878 sq. km. A huge chunk, 1,502
sq. km., is forested. And roughly 80 per cent of this forested parcel
includes good quality forest cover, with around 1,176 sq. km. sporting a
canopy cover that exceeds 40 per cent and 116 sq. km. with an amazing
70 per cent canopy shield.<br />
In 2009, India’s Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) declared
the Hasdeo Arand forest as a ‘No-Go Area’ for mining because of its
irreplaceable forest cover and its potential to be expanded. Such
‘no-go’ areas represent 8.11 per cent of the total potential
coal-bearing area in India and 11.50 per cent of the nation’s total
explored coal-bearing area.<br />
<i></i>Then in 2011, three blocks on the “fringes” of the forest were
granted stage-I approval for mining, against the advice of its own
Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), which said that a section of the 841
hectares forest area to be diverted had “high ecological and forest
value”. The then Minister made a commitment that the rest of Hasdeo
Arand would continue to be inviolate, a ‘no-go’ area, while approving
this unfortunate forest clearance.
But the first axe has already struck. Bulldozers and giant excavators
have moved in, families have been uprooted from ancestral lands, and
precious flora and fauna is being ravaged for coal.<br />
Of the 18 coal blocks identified, mining operations are being carried
out in two blocks – Parsa East and Kete Basan (PEKB), and Chotia.
Proposals for mining four other coal blocks are underway at both State
and Central levels.<br />
India is emerging as a global champion for climate action.
Nationally, however, despite adding dramatic capacity for solar and wind
energy, we have not been able to make the determined mindshift away
from investing in new fossil fuels, including coal mining capacities.<br />
Coal mining in Hasdeo Arand will, for instance, fragment one of the
last remaining contiguous forest patches in India, damage biodiversity,
violate forest rights and increase human-wildlife conflict.
Well-protected forests are diehard economic infrastructures that harvest
and supply water, sequester carbon, prevent air pollution, mitigate
floods and droughts, fill aquifers, purify river water and greatly
reduce human-animal conflicts.<br />
At a time when the global financial system is moving away from coal,
it is vital to take a long-term view on protecting India’s natural
capital, by preventing the public sector, including banks, from pumping
money into financially risky investments. Expanding fossil fuel
capacities will end up creating stranded assets. In the case of coal,
when externalities including forest loss, land, air and water pollution
are factored in, the investment becomes uncompetitive, particularly in
light of the deflationary trends we see in the renewable energy sector.<br />
The need of the hour is statesmanship and farsighted planning that is
built on the understanding that we cannot develop as a nation unless
our natural capital base is secure.<br />
<br />
<b>What Needs to be Done</b><br />
<b>First:</b> Immediately stop the process of further land acquisition for
coal mining and auctioning of mining rights in the forest region of
Hasdeo Arand and declare the entire region as an elephant reserve.<br />
<b>Second: </b>Restore landscapes damaged by faulty coal mining and make
communities living next to our most productive nature reserves and
ecosystems the primary beneficiaries of biodiversity regeneration.<br />
<b>Third:</b> Create large-scale jobs and livelihood opportunities geared to
regenerate our forests, lakes, wetlands and riverine ecosystems that
sustain the quality of our air, nourish soils, produce fresh water,
regulate climate and create conditions that enhance climate resilience
by moderating the impact of floods and droughts.<br />
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12 mt-2 mb-4">
First published in: Sanctuary Asia,<a href="https://sanctuarynaturefoundation.org/article/phase-out-coal" target="_blank">Cover Story December Sanctuary Asia Part IV of VI,</a>
December 2019
</div>
</div>
<b></b><br />
<h5>
</h5>
<h5>
</h5>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-85337683578758481172019-10-10T01:03:00.000-07:002019-10-10T01:03:44.443-07:00Climate Change | Sorry Greta Thunberg, the world is not ready to tackle the climate crisis<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vm5pJKwsyM0/XZ7lh0KD36I/AAAAAAAAJBo/RAL-ZhBP5QoLagBxfsKz7GemCK1fTBVGgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/desertification.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vm5pJKwsyM0/XZ7lh0KD36I/AAAAAAAAJBo/RAL-ZhBP5QoLagBxfsKz7GemCK1fTBVGgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/desertification.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The much-hyped United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York on September 23, starring UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, teen climate activist Greta Thunberg, and millions of children <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2019/03/what-the-youth-climate-strike-looks-like-around-the-world.html#_ga=2.202054486.697527842.1569233471-511269494.1569233471" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">from around the world</a> rallying for urgent and enhanced climate action, delivered near to nothing.<br />
In 2015, governments pledged in the Paris Agreement to attempt to keep global warming since pre-industrial times to 1.5 degrees Celsius. This requires achieving net-zero global emissions by 2050. Science shows that phasing out coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, is essential to achieving that goal. This year, Guterres asked world leaders to come to the UN with concrete plans to cut emissions to net-zero.<br />
Instead, rich countries and large emitters such as the United States, Australia, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil brazenly ignored Guterres’ call and skipped the summit, while others practically came empty-handed to the table. Chinese President Xi Jinping’, leader of the world’s largest emitting country, sent his envoy Wang Yi with nothing but a promise to meet its Paris pledge.<br />
Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise of installing 450 GW after 2022 was received with scepticism given India’s continued dependence on coal-fired power plants. According to <a href="https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energy-economics/energy-outlook/bp-energy-outlook-2019.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BP Energy Outlook 2019</a>, coal’s share in India’s primary energy consumption will be almost half at 48 per cent in 2040, oil’s share will be 23 per cent, and the contribution of renewables will rise fivefold to a mere 16 per cent.<br />
Worldwide, despite the extraordinary growth of renewable energy in the last decade, the share of coal-fired powered plants continues to dominate the global energy system.<br />
According to <a href="https://climateanalytics.org/latest/coal-exit-by-2040-to-keep-climate-goals-within-reach-report/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a report</a> by Climate Analytics, the current and planned coal power plants globally would lead to a generation increase of 3 per cent by 2030 compared to 2010 levels. If the world follows these present trends, this would lead to cumulative emissions from coal power generation almost four times larger than what would be compatible with the Paris Agreement by 2050.<br />
Even if all the planned and announced coal power plants would be cancelled, shelved, or converted to other fuel, the operating coal plants would exceed the Paris Agreement benchmarks by four times in 2030 and more than 20 times by 2040, highlighting the huge risk of stranded assets that the coal sector will be facing in the next decades.<br />
The UNEP Emissions Gap Reports, aka ‘where we are likely to be and where we need to be’, current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are estimated to lower global emissions in 2030 by up to 6 GtCO<sub>2</sub>e (gigatonnes of equivalent carbon dioxide) compared to a continuation of current policies. This level of ambition needs to be increased around fivefold to align with the 1.5°C limit.<br />
For now, levels of the main long-lived greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>), methane (CH<sub>4)</sub>) and nitrous oxide (N<sub>2</sub>O) have reached new highs. CO<sub>2 </sub>emissions grew 2 per cent and reached a record high of 37 billion tonnes of CO<sub>2 </sub>in 2018. There is still no sign of a peak in global emissions, even though they are growing slower than the global economy.<br />
According to the UN’s Science Advisory Group, ‘the average global temperature for 2015–2019 is on track to be the warmest of any equivalent <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/environment/Science%20Advisory%20Group%20to%20the%20UN%20Secretary-General%E2%80%99s%20Climate%20Action%20Summit" target="_blank">period on record</a>’. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is of the view that ‘warming and changes in ocean chemistry are already disrupting species throughout the ocean food web, <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/2019/09/25/srocc-press-release/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">with impacts on marine ecosystems</a> and people that depend on them.’ It also noted that ‘if current trends continue wildfires and heat waves would sweep across the planet annually, and the interplay between drought and flooding and temperature would mean that the world’s food supply would become <a href="https://report.ipcc.ch/sr15/pdf/sr15_spm_final.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">dramatically less secure</a>.<br />
The IPCC’s <em>Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°</em> clearly states that, “avoiding that scale of suffering, requires such a thorough transformation of the world’s economy, agriculture, and culture that “there is no documented historical precedent.”<br />
Scientists believe that “this is not physically impossible” but as Thunberg and Guterres discovered, the world is nowhere near ready to tackle the climate crisis on the basis of science. Not yet.<br />
<br />
First Published on Sep 26, 2019 in <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/environment/climate-change-sorry-greta-thunberg-the-world-is-not-ready-to-tackle-the-climate-crisis-4477581.html" target="_blank">Moneycontrol</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-58148159832420717772019-10-10T00:54:00.001-07:002019-10-10T00:54:52.287-07:00Plastic Ban | Single-use plastic has no place on this planet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CKpe5lkZT68/XZ7jYoGbZTI/AAAAAAAAJBc/oAPoBsl9LZcKsk-W3YfnMWbKYVWUvpAPQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/plasticwaste.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1079" height="424" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CKpe5lkZT68/XZ7jYoGbZTI/AAAAAAAAJBc/oAPoBsl9LZcKsk-W3YfnMWbKYVWUvpAPQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/plasticwaste.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<h3 class="reader-title">
In 2018, as the global host to UN World Environment Day, India had promised to phase out single-use plastic (SUP) by 2022 with the theme ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’. During the UN Environment Assembly meeting held in Nairobi, in March, India piloted a resolution on phasing out SUP by 2022, a deadline later updated to 2025.</h3>
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the United Nations Conference on Desertification said, “I think the time has come for the world to say goodbye to single use plastic,” reiterating his government’s intention to phase out SUP. As if on cue, the plastic industry went in to protest mode, raising the usual bogey of threats to the livelihoods of plastic industry workers and how ‘businesses will find themselves stuck with proscribed equipment and will have to incur additional costs to replace old machinery’ at a time of ‘economic slump and slowdown’. We are told about how SUP is actually a very small percentage of plastic waste that is littering our landscapes and finally, we are told that plastic is not a problem, instead, we should improve India’s ill-managed waste management systems.<br />
Even former environment minister of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Jairam Ramesh, took the opportunity to tweet, "As Environment Minister I resisted blanket ban on the use of single-use plastic. Plastic industry employs lakhs and the real problem is how we dispose and recycle waste.”<br />
If Modi’s most recent pronouncement was yet another test balloon, the government was quick to pull it back down. Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar clarified at a press conference that “there is no imminent ban on the use of single-use plastic in India, that the “Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn't say ‘ban’, but said 'goodbye’ to SUP waste. From October 2, we will begin an attempt to collect all that waste. Nearly 10,000 tonnes of plastic waste remains uncollected,” he pointed out.<br />
SUP are commonly used for plastic packaging and include items such as plastic bags, food packaging, bottles, straws, containers, cups and cutlery, intended to be used only once before they are thrown away or recycled.<br />
According to a UNEP 2018 report, 79 per cent of the plastic waste ever produced now sits in landfills, dumps or in the environment, while about 12 per cent has been incinerated and only 9 per cent has been recycled. In Europe alone, the estimated costs for cleaning shores and beaches reach €630 million per year (European Commission 2015).<br />
According to PlastIndia Foundation, a conglomeration of associations and institutions that deal in plastic, India consumes an estimated 16.5 million tonnes, about 1.6 million trucks full of plastic annually. Of this, 43 per cent is plastic manufactured for single-use packaging material.<br />
About 80 per cent of the total plastic produced in India is discarded immediately and will find its way to landfills, drains, rivers and flow into the sea. Currently, the country is able to recycle only about 4 million tonnes of its plastic waste. A <a href="http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/thiruvananthapuram/2019/jun/14/1057-tonnes-of-plastic-presence-estimated-on-kerala-beaches-study-1989821.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">recent study</a> by Thiruvananthapuram-based NGO Thanal estimated that there was 1,057 tonnes of plastic litter present along the beaches of Kerala.<br />
The plastic industry in India is estimated to grow to 22 million tonnes (MT) a year by 2020 and nearly half of this is SUP, according to a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) study.<br />
Imagine 11 million tonnes of SUP waste being added to the already existing mountains of plastic waste every year. There are no studies available about the overall economic impact of plastic pollution but a study by Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) estimated a $1.3 billion economic impact of marine plastics to the tourism, fishing and shipping industries in that region alone.<br />
It is indeed true that banning SUPs today will hurt a large part of existing investments in machinery and impact jobs in the plastics industry but future costs of removing all single-use plastics accumulating in the environment will most certainly be higher than the costs of allowing this polluting industry to grow today. The solution to India’s problems with plastic waste should be addressed by ensuring sustained effort to cut down consumption and investing in the recycling sector. SUP has no place on this planet.<br />
First Published on Sep 16, 2019 in <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/environment/plastic-ban-single-use-plastic-has-no-place-on-this-planet-4438621.html" target="_blank">MoneyControl.</a><br />
<br /><br /><strong><em></em></strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-56858868873737118932019-07-12T10:13:00.003-07:002020-08-04T08:20:01.047-07:00WhatsApp messages from Bhutan save lives in Assam<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UVoIsQcOixU/XSi_AkAsaPI/AAAAAAAAIwM/JjQeyFMwYZ4kIcFNLByHgcOdC9OijqRtwCLcBGAs/s1600/%2528Bhutan%25E2%2580%2599s%2BSarbhang%2BChu%2Briver%2Bis%2Bcalled%2BSaralbhanga%2Briver%2Bafter%2Bit%2Bcrosses%2Binto%2BIndia%2Bto%2Bmeet%2Bthe%2BBrahmaputra%2Briver.%2BImage%253A%2BShailendra%2BYashwant%2529.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="425" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UVoIsQcOixU/XSi_AkAsaPI/AAAAAAAAIwM/JjQeyFMwYZ4kIcFNLByHgcOdC9OijqRtwCLcBGAs/s640/%2528Bhutan%25E2%2580%2599s%2BSarbhang%2BChu%2Briver%2Bis%2Bcalled%2BSaralbhanga%2Briver%2Bafter%2Bit%2Bcrosses%2Binto%2BIndia%2Bto%2Bmeet%2Bthe%2BBrahmaputra%2Briver.%2BImage%253A%2BShailendra%2BYashwant%2529.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bhutan’s Sarbhang Chu river is called the Saralbhanga after it crosses into India to meet the Brahmaputra river </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
In the last few weeks of June 2019, a series of WhatsApp messages
were sent from Bhutan to India to warn “cross-border friends” downstream
of the Aai, Saralbhanga and Manas rivers about cloud-bursts, swollen
rivers and possible flash floods affecting people in the Indian state of
Assam.<br />
<br />
Although originating from officials, these messages were
not sent via official channels. That would involve the dzongdag – the
administrative head of the dzonkhag, or district – in Geluphu passing
information to the officials in Bhutan’s capital Thimphu, who would then
inform officials in New Delhi, the capital of India. They would, in
turn, inform officials in Guwahati, the capital of the Indian state of
Assam, who would pass the warnings on to Kokrajhar district
headquarters. In the final stage, these messages would be relayed from
there to villages along the India-Bhutan border.<br />
In most cases
this circuitous channel would take too long, with information either
critically delayed or unclear, and of little use to most river bank
communities in downstream Assam.<br />
<br />
Now, though, the communities are
relying on these “WhatsApp early warnings” routed through members of
Bhutan-India Friendship Association (BIFA) to friends in NGOs like the <a href="https://nerswn.org/">North East Research & Social Work Networking (NERSWN</a>),
who pass the information to their network. Messages are forwarded
within minutes, giving the villagers precious lead-time to prepare and
escape the wrath of the suddenly rising rivers.<br />
<br /><div>
“It is difficult to predict when the flash floods will occur. In case of <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/bhutan-alert-on-dam-burst/cid/729443">water released from dams</a>
the Bhutanese government sends early warning to New Delhi but even then
some times, by the time we receive the information and pass it onto
villages along the border it is too late. The challenge is lack of
communication infrastructure in the area. There are no cell towers on
the Indian side and most villagers on the border surreptitiously use
Bhutanese SIM cards. Those WhatsApp messages probably save lives of
hundreds,” said Kamal Kishor Hazarika, project officer at the District
Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) in Kokrajhar.</div><div><p>“It’s costly, using internet, but for emergency all the villagers
depend on WhatsApp,” agreed Aniram Basumatary of Saralpara village,
while speaking to <a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net">thethirdpole.net</a>.
“Communication is important, especially in monsoon season. Anything can
happen, and getting advance warning will help us to be ready. We have
suffered enough because of lack of warning.”</p>
<p>Decades of militancy in this corner of India has led to a complex
situation, where communications infrastructure is seen as both a threat
and an opportunity, making it a politically challenging decision to
strengthen communications in the area.</p>
<p><strong>The cost of no warning</strong></p>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_27619" style="width: 1030px;"><img alt="Manas river in spate, near Geluphu. Bhutan" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27619" class="wp-image-27619 size-full" height="360" src="https://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Manas-river-in-spate-near-Geluphu.-Bhutan.-Image-_-Shailendra-Yashwant-copy-1.jpeg" width="640" /><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-27619">Manas river in spate, near Geluphu. Bhutan [image by : Shailendra Yashwant]</p></div>Banglajhora
is a small village on the banks of Saralbhanga river in Kokrajhar
district of Assam. The village faced three devastating floods in 2012,
2014 and then again in 2016. Since then, every monsoon the fear of
floods is palpable among its residents, who belong to the Bodo
indigenous community.
<p>Satyaraj Narzary recalled the floods of July 16, 2012, “When I woke
up in the morning, there was no water. Nor were there any signs of
flood. But around 8 a.m., the water started rising and before we
realised what was happening, the whole area was flooded. About 10-12
houses were washed away. Many families lost their cattle in the floods,
their standing crop of paddy was destroyed and considerable amount of
land was lost due to erosion. We have not been able to farm on that land
ever since.” He said that the floods happened following heavy rains in
the foothills of Bhutan when the Saralbhanga river broke a temporary
embankment.</p>
<p>In August 2014 Banglajhora was inundated again without warning, when
the gushing waters of Saralbhanga eroded the Saralpara-Patgaon bund and
several hectares of paddy and private properties in the area were
destroyed. The local residents had to take shelter at a relief camp for
over a week.</p>
<p>The floods of 2016 were the worst. Heavy rains caused flash floods in
most of the tributaries of the Brahmaputra. Nearly 1.8 million people
were affected in 22 districts across Assam. Lower (western) Assam’s
Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon districts were the worst affected, and the
villagers of Banglajhora faced the brunt of it all.</p>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_27620" style="width: 1030px;"><img alt="Kamal Basumatari at Banglajhora village in Kokrajhar [image by: Shailendra Yashwant]" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27620" class="wp-image-27620 size-full" height="427" src="https://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Kamal-Basumatari-Banglajhora-village-Kokrajhar.-Image-_-Shailendra-Yashwant-1.jpeg" width="640" /><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-27620">Kamal Basumatari at Banglajhora village in Kokrajhar [image by: Shailendra Yashwant]</p></div>“We
had to run with our children and the few belongings we were able to
gather. One contingent of the Army rescue team was deployed to rescue us
with lifeboats but the force of water was such that the first lifeboat
turned turtle in the middle of the river and the villagers ended up
rescuing the soldiers,” said Kamal Basumatari.
<p>“After that we made a raft with few tyre tubes and bamboo to ferry
women, children and a few belongings across the river with great
difficulty. I have never seen Saralbhanga so furious. The water was also
very cold,” he added.</p>
<p><strong>WhatsApp for disaster warning</strong></p>
<p>“Floods, both riverine and flash floods, are the most common hazards
in the Hindu Kush Himalayas and account for 17% of people killed and 51%
of the damage. Unlike riverine floods, flash floods occur rapidly with a
very short lead time for warning. They can arise following intense
rainfall events, or as a result of breaching of natural dams formed by
landslides or from glacial lakes formed behind end moraine dams (glacial
lake outburst flood or GLOF),” Neera Shreshta Pradhan of the
International Centre for Integrated Mountain development told <a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net">thethirdpole.net</a>.</p>
<p>“In recent years, increasingly erratic and unpredictable monsoon
rainfall patterns and increased climate variability have led to severe
and frequent flood disasters in the region. There may be some
information sharing between governments on major rivers, but tributaries
are largely ignored. This is where social relations between
transboundary communities are critical for any early warning systems to
deliver. Clear and timely communication, proper functional network and
preparedness reduces human casualties. Even a short lead time will save
lives,” she added</p>
<p>“Bhutan is in a high rainfall zone but in the last 15-20 years, there
have been more and more cloudbursts, resulting in severe flash floods
that destroy everything in their path with alarming regularity in Bhutan
and then downriver in Assam. The floods of July 2016 in Saralbhanga
river wiped out the entire Sarpang town in South Bhutan before
unleashing havoc in Assam. Bhutanese experts have said that this is due
to climate change and is in line with IPCC reports,” said Kripaljyoti
Mazumder, state project officer at the Assam State Disaster Management
Authority (ASDMA)</p>
<p>While the Bhutanese have responded by building mitigating structures
and preparing their populations, the downstream communities along the
border in India can only hope for timely information, seamless
evacuation and minimum damage to their homes, cattle and crops.</p>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_27621" style="width: 1030px;"><img alt="NERSWN staff and volunteers standing around a table meeting to address building early warning networks" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27621" class="wp-image-27621 size-full" height="427" src="https://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Building-early-warning-networks-NERSWN-staff-and-volunteers-at-Banglajhora-village.-Image-_-Shailendra-Yashwant-1.jpeg" width="640" /><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-27621">Building early warning networks, NERSWN staff and volunteers at Banglajhora village [image by: Shailendra Yashwant]</p></div>For
this the key elements of disaster risk reduction like risk knowledge,
monitoring, analysis, warning generation, dissemination and
communication of warning and preparedness for timely response have to
work in sync.
<p>“Getting timely early warning is not enough; the preparedness of the
communities is important as well. Already NERSWN has begun a Hazard Risk
Vulnerability Assessment (HRVA) mapping of the river basin villages and
identified volunteers in all villages to ensure that the early warnings
from our friends in Bhutan reach the last mile families, even those who
do not have access to WhatsApp or mobile phones,” said Raju Narzary of
NERSWN.</p>
<p>“Already this year, the WhatsApp warnings from BIFA to the last mile
family has travelled within 10 minutes of being sent out. The delay was
due to the fact that the last family ran out of phone batteries, so when
we didn’t see the ticks going blue, I borrowed a motorcycle to alert
the family. Mobile phones are warning systems but you need motorcycle
for sure, as there are always those without mobile phones,” said Aniram
Basumatary, who does not own a motorcycle but is saving up for one.</p>
<p><strong>Kokrajhar call for action</strong></p>
<p>Building on these relationships between BIFA and NERSWN, 14 civil
society organisations from Bhutan and India, including the Bhutan
Transparency Initiative and Aaranyak – a leading NGO in Assam – under
the stewardship of Oxfam India’s Transboundary Rivers of South Asia (<a href="https://www.oxfamindia.org/programdetails/5093/transboundary-rivers-south-asia-trosa">TROSA</a>)
programme came together on June 20-21, 2019 in Kokrajhar. These
consultations were designed to strengthen people-to-people ties, and
help safeguard the rights of riparian communities upstream and
downstream by supporting community-led cross-border ecosystem management
and conservation practices.</p>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_27622" style="width: 1030px;"><img alt="former prime minister of Bhutan, Kinzang Dorji standing on a podium" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27622" class="wp-image-27622 size-full" height="427" src="https://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Dr.-Kinzang-Dorji-former-Prime-Minister-of-Bhutan-addressing-also-Pankaj-Anand-Program-Director-Oxfam-India-and-Raj-PatraImage-_-Shailendra-Yashwant-1.jpg" width="640" /><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-27622">Kinzang
Dorji, former Prime Minister of Bhutan, addressing the two-day
conference on “Transboundary cooperation for effective management of
water risks between Bhutan and India” [image by: Shailendra Yashwant]</p></div> “The
biggest threat to peace is lack of effective management of our water
resources, especially along our borders. Some of the poorest people live
on transboundary waters of little known tributaries in remote parts of
the Indo-Bhutan region, easily the most vulnerable to vagaries of
climate change unfolding in these parts. Awareness, empathy,
people-to-people networks supported by appropriate technologies, and
timely and quality early warning information will go a long way in
reducing risks to these communities,” said Pankaj Anand, programme
director of Oxfam India, during his inaugural address.
<p>“Early warning is the moral responsibility of people living upstream
towards people living downstream. What you are seeing in Kokrajhar
district goes beyond the official friendly ties between Bhutan and
India. In fact this informal but friendly collaboration for early
warning and sharing of our water resources between border communities of
Bhutan and Assam is a model for peaceful relationships between
countries at a time when peace around the world is threatened by the
scarcity of water and climate change induced disasters,” said Kinzang
Dorji, who served <a href="https://www.cabinet.gov.bt/prime-minister/prime-ministers-since-1998/">twice as Prime Minister of Bhutan</a>, and is now the chairperson of the Bhutan Transparency Initiative.</p>
<em></em></div>
First published on The Third Pole - <a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/2019/07/04/community-communications-save-lives-in-assam/" target="_blank">Click here </a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-28175811762223702672019-06-12T23:07:00.001-07:002020-08-04T08:25:21.227-07:00India experiments with turning ocean plastic into roads<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4J8SDKo_ZGM/XQHj8AAAVzI/AAAAAAAAIoc/4J1bnvl52hsweeIiNyxlxWkzW3MkUcgJQCLcBGAs/s1600/seawaste2.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="425" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4J8SDKo_ZGM/XQHj8AAAVzI/AAAAAAAAIoc/4J1bnvl52hsweeIiNyxlxWkzW3MkUcgJQCLcBGAs/s640/seawaste2.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />he
early morning bustle at Sakthikulangara harbour in Kollam is much like
any other on Kerala’s coast. Thousands of tonnes of fish landed by
hundreds of boats are being sorted, cleaned and auctioned. But something
novel is happening. Each vessel is offloading salvaged waste that crews
disentangle from their nets. The plastic will be mixed with bitumen to
make roads.
<p>“It is disgusting what we find at the bottom of the sea,” says S
Raghu, captain of the Holy Star, which has just hauled in about 30 kilos
of waste. “The garbage is competing with the fish.”</p>
<blockquote><p>Our appeal to people is to stop using and discarding plastic like there is no tomorrow.</p></blockquote>
<p>Peter Mathias, president of the All Kerala Fishing Boat Operators
Association, says the fishers pledged to bring back the waste from their
operations and whatever is caught in the nets.</p>
<p>The plastic waste is then collected by Suchitwa Sagaram (Clean Seas),
a Kerala government initiative launched in 2017, and cleaned and
shredded in a special facility. <a href="http://sanitation.kerala.gov.in/">Suchitwa Mission</a>, Kerala’s flagship waste management programme, helped pay for the shredding machine and six months of costs.</p>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8558" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_8558" style="width: 1440px;"><img alt="Clean Seas staff move washed marine waste for drying, to be used to make plastic roads in india" class="wp-image-8558 size-article-inline-full lazyloaded" data-sizes="(max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px" data-src="https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Clean-Seas-staff-move-washed-marine-waste-to-dry-1440x961.jpg" data-srcset="https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Clean-Seas-staff-move-washed-marine-waste-to-dry-1440x961.jpg 1440w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Clean-Seas-staff-move-washed-marine-waste-to-dry-238x160.jpg 238w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Clean-Seas-staff-move-washed-marine-waste-to-dry-492x328.jpg 492w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Clean-Seas-staff-move-washed-marine-waste-to-dry-323x215.jpg 323w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Clean-Seas-staff-move-washed-marine-waste-to-dry-846x565.jpg 846w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Clean-Seas-staff-move-washed-marine-waste-to-dry-1199x800.jpg 1199w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Clean-Seas-staff-move-washed-marine-waste-to-dry-662x442.jpg 662w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Clean-Seas-staff-move-washed-marine-waste-to-dry-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Clean-Seas-staff-move-washed-marine-waste-to-dry.jpg 1618w" height="427" src="https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Clean-Seas-staff-move-washed-marine-waste-to-dry-1440x961.jpg" width="640" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-8558">Clean Seas staff carry washed marine waste. (Image: Shailendra Yashwant)</figcaption></figure>
<p>By late February, almost 16 metric tonnes of plastic had been
shredded and 145 kilogrammes of plastic bottles had been pressed into
bales. But despite the programme’s success, its future is uncertain,
largely because of a lack of funds and limited market opportunities.</p>
<p>“More and more road contractors are shying away from using the waste
material, citing technical difficulties in melting and mixing it with
their road-building material,” says Sudhakaran, the coordinator of the
programme in Kollam. “We need to think about other alternatives to
recycle the shredded waste.”<br />
</p><div class="post__shortcode-image post__shortcode-image--wide">
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8564" class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_8564" style="width: 1440px;"><img alt="Staff sort and shred plastic waste, to be used to make plastic roads in india" class="wp-image-8564 size-article-inline-full lazyloaded" data-sizes="(max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px" data-src="https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Staff-from-Suchitwa-Sagaram-Clean-Seas-sort-and-shred-plastic-waste-1440x961.jpg" data-srcset="https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Staff-from-Suchitwa-Sagaram-Clean-Seas-sort-and-shred-plastic-waste-1440x961.jpg 1440w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Staff-from-Suchitwa-Sagaram-Clean-Seas-sort-and-shred-plastic-waste-238x160.jpg 238w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Staff-from-Suchitwa-Sagaram-Clean-Seas-sort-and-shred-plastic-waste-492x328.jpg 492w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Staff-from-Suchitwa-Sagaram-Clean-Seas-sort-and-shred-plastic-waste-323x215.jpg 323w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Staff-from-Suchitwa-Sagaram-Clean-Seas-sort-and-shred-plastic-waste-846x565.jpg 846w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Staff-from-Suchitwa-Sagaram-Clean-Seas-sort-and-shred-plastic-waste-1198x800.jpg 1198w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Staff-from-Suchitwa-Sagaram-Clean-Seas-sort-and-shred-plastic-waste-662x442.jpg 662w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Staff-from-Suchitwa-Sagaram-Clean-Seas-sort-and-shred-plastic-waste-1000x668.jpg 1000w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Staff-from-Suchitwa-Sagaram-Clean-Seas-sort-and-shred-plastic-waste.jpg 2000w" height="427" src="https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Staff-from-Suchitwa-Sagaram-Clean-Seas-sort-and-shred-plastic-waste-1440x961.jpg" width="640" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-8564">Shredding and sorting plastic waste (Image: Shailendra Yashwant)</figcaption></figure>
</div><div class="post__content post__content--single"><div class="has-content-area" data-title="India experiments with turning ocean plastic into roads" data-url="https://chinadialogueocean.net/8553-india-plastic-roads/">
<h2>Are plastic roads a dead end?</h2>
<p>It was after a series of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/jun/30/plastic-road-india-tar-plastic-transport-environment-pollution-waste">pilot projects</a> in Chennai that a number of Indian cities and villages began blending roads out of 92% bitumen and 8% recycled plastic.</p>
<p>Clean Kerala Company (CKS) sources and distributes shredded plastics for road building. So far <a href="https://english.manoramaonline.com/news/kerala/kerala-hits-the-plastic-road.html">15 tonnes</a>
of plastic shreds have made it into about nine kilometres of road
across the state, mostly for short stretches inside villages. About <a href="https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2018/07/03/Kerala-produces-480-tonnes-of-plastic-waste-a-day.html">1.7 metric tonnes</a> of plastic is needed per kilometre.</p>
<p>Advocates claim that roads built with plastic waste are more
resilient to searing heat, but environmentalists have raised concerns.
They point to the release of highly toxic dioxins when the plastic is
melted, and the risk of leaching and bioaccumulation of microplastics in
soil, especially on poorly build roads.</p>
<p>“There is scant research on this aspect, hence it would be wise to
take a precautionary approach before adopting such technologies on a
large scale,” says Dharmesh Shah of Global Alliance Against
Incineration.</p>
<p>Plastic roads may not be economic as it is expensive to separate
polymers suitable for road construction from a mix of several. (The
Indian Roads Congress only recommend polyurethane, polyethylene
terephthalate and low- and high-density polyethylene.)</p>
<p>“We have to clean the oceans. We have to find a solution to the
garbage. So far plastic roads are the only available option,” says
Abhilash Pillai, assistant engineer of the local government’s Harbour
Engineering Department, Kollam. “There is no limit to the plastic waste
out there in the seas, on the land. We have a huge task ahead and it’s
an emergency.”</p>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8562" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_8562" style="width: 1440px;"><img alt="Shredded plastic, used to make plastic roads in india" class="wp-image-8562 size-article-inline-full lazyloaded" data-sizes="(max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px" data-src="https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Shredded-plastic-1440x808.jpg" data-srcset="https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Shredded-plastic-1440x808.jpg 1440w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Shredded-plastic-1007x565.jpg 1007w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Shredded-plastic-1426x800.jpg 1426w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Shredded-plastic-662x371.jpg 662w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Shredded-plastic-1000x561.jpg 1000w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Shredded-plastic.jpg 1920w" height="359" src="https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Shredded-plastic-1440x808.jpg" width="640" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-8562">Shreds of hope? (Image: Shailendra Yashwant)</figcaption></figure>
<p>“Plastic roads are not a solution,” says Shibu Nair of NGO Thanal,
who has spearheaded the zero-waste movement in Kerala for almost two
decades. “You are hiding your plastic waste for some time and converting
all your roads into toxic land.”</p>
<p>He says that neither the Harbour Engineering Department nor the
Fisheries Department have a clear institutional mechanism to manage and
protect the environment. “That is why the programme is running on an ad
hoc basis,” he says. “We cannot leave those fishermen and women to
market forces.”</p>
<p>“If plastic roads are going to be an environmental problem in the
future then we need another solution,” says Peter Mathias. “Our
fishermen are underwriting the clean-up operations. We desperately need
fresh ideas and an infusion of funds for this programme to make a
difference.”</p>
<p>Without funds and new markets for the salvaged plastic waste, the
fate of this pioneering programme in Kollam hangs in the balance, as do
ambitious plans to expand it to other ports.<br />
</p></div></div><div class="post__shortcode-image post__shortcode-image--wide">
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8556" class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_8556" style="width: 1440px;"><img alt="pressed plastic bottles, used to make plastic roads in india" class="wp-image-8556 size-article-inline-full lazyloaded" data-sizes="(max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px" data-src="https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bails-of-pressed-plastic-bottles-1440x961.jpg" data-srcset="https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bails-of-pressed-plastic-bottles-1440x961.jpg 1440w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bails-of-pressed-plastic-bottles-238x160.jpg 238w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bails-of-pressed-plastic-bottles-492x328.jpg 492w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bails-of-pressed-plastic-bottles-323x215.jpg 323w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bails-of-pressed-plastic-bottles-846x565.jpg 846w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bails-of-pressed-plastic-bottles-1199x800.jpg 1199w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bails-of-pressed-plastic-bottles-662x442.jpg 662w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bails-of-pressed-plastic-bottles-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bails-of-pressed-plastic-bottles.jpg 1618w" height="427" src="https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bails-of-pressed-plastic-bottles-1440x961.jpg" width="640" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-8556">Bales of bottles (Image: Shailendra Yashwant)</figcaption></figure>
</div><div class="has-content-area" data-title="India experiments with turning ocean plastic into roads" data-url="https://chinadialogueocean.net/8553-india-plastic-roads/" title="undefined">
<h2>The cost of plastics</h2>
<p>Kerala Suchitwa Mission estimates that the state produces <a href="https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2018/07/03/Kerala-produces-480-tonnes-of-plastic-waste-a-day.html">480 tonnes</a> of plastic waste per day. Some of this finds its way into rivers and into the sea.</p>
<p>A UN Environment Programme <a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/7720/-Marine_plasctic_debris_and_microplastics_Global_lessons_and_research_to_inspire_action_and_guide_policy_change-2016Marine_Plastic_Debris_and_Micropla.pdf?sequence=3&amp%3BisAllowed=">study</a>
found that 311 million tonnes of plastic was produced globally in 2014.
It estimated that in 2010, 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tonnes found its
way into the ocean. Sunlight then degrades it into microplastics that
are mistaken for food by aquatic life and seabirds, damaging internal
organs. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/31/microplastics-found-every-marine-mammal-uk-study">Millions</a> of birds, turtles, fish and other species are affected.</p>
<p>“Even if every plastic ban on the planet was fully successful, we
still have millions of tonnes of historical waste that needs to be dealt
with safely and permanently. Unfortunately, all the current practices –
poorly regulated landfills, waste-to-energy plants, recycling plastic
into pellets, plastic roads etc – all have failed and will lead to more
harm than help,” says Shibu Nair.</p>
<p>To end the cycle of plastic pollution for good, the recycling
industry is focusing on upcycling, prevention and interception of
microplastics, as well as negating the need for plastic – such as by
using corn starch or hemp for packaging.</p>
<p>“We hope that the next generation will completely reject plastics and
find a new alternative,” says Shiny S, an employee of Clean Seas at the
Kollam harbour. “For now, our appeal to people is to stop using and
discarding plastic like there is no tomorrow.”</p>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-8560" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_8560" style="width: 1440px;"><img alt="Ocean plastic roads, plastic roads, making roads from plastic" class="wp-image-8560 size-article-inline-full lazyloaded" data-sizes="(max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px" data-src="https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Mendes-Joseph-of-Clean-Seas-delivers-a-specially-knitted-bag-for-collection-of-marine-litter-to-crew-of-a-fishing-boat-1440x961.jpeg" data-srcset="https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Mendes-Joseph-of-Clean-Seas-delivers-a-specially-knitted-bag-for-collection-of-marine-litter-to-crew-of-a-fishing-boat-1440x961.jpeg 1440w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Mendes-Joseph-of-Clean-Seas-delivers-a-specially-knitted-bag-for-collection-of-marine-litter-to-crew-of-a-fishing-boat-238x160.jpeg 238w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Mendes-Joseph-of-Clean-Seas-delivers-a-specially-knitted-bag-for-collection-of-marine-litter-to-crew-of-a-fishing-boat-492x328.jpeg 492w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Mendes-Joseph-of-Clean-Seas-delivers-a-specially-knitted-bag-for-collection-of-marine-litter-to-crew-of-a-fishing-boat-323x215.jpeg 323w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Mendes-Joseph-of-Clean-Seas-delivers-a-specially-knitted-bag-for-collection-of-marine-litter-to-crew-of-a-fishing-boat-846x565.jpeg 846w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Mendes-Joseph-of-Clean-Seas-delivers-a-specially-knitted-bag-for-collection-of-marine-litter-to-crew-of-a-fishing-boat-1198x800.jpeg 1198w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Mendes-Joseph-of-Clean-Seas-delivers-a-specially-knitted-bag-for-collection-of-marine-litter-to-crew-of-a-fishing-boat-662x442.jpeg 662w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Mendes-Joseph-of-Clean-Seas-delivers-a-specially-knitted-bag-for-collection-of-marine-litter-to-crew-of-a-fishing-boat-1000x668.jpeg 1000w, https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Mendes-Joseph-of-Clean-Seas-delivers-a-specially-knitted-bag-for-collection-of-marine-litter-to-crew-of-a-fishing-boat.jpeg 2000w" height="427" src="https://chinadialogueocean.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Mendes-Joseph-of-Clean-Seas-delivers-a-specially-knitted-bag-for-collection-of-marine-litter-to-crew-of-a-fishing-boat-1440x961.jpeg" width="640" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-8560">Mendes Joseph of Clean Seas delivers a marine litter bag to fishers at Sakthikulangara harbour. (Image: Shailendra Yashwant)</figcaption></figure>
</div><br /> First published on China Dialogue Ocean - <a href="https://chinadialogueocean.net/8553-india-experiments-with-turning-ocean-plastic-into-roads/" target="_blank">Click here</a> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-34641352758281513362019-05-15T19:10:00.001-07:002020-08-04T08:31:56.330-07:00Red river turns black in North East India<br /><div class="kicker">
<div class="kicker-image-container" style="width: 1020px;"><img alt="Children crossing the flood-impacted barren paddy fields of North Lakhimpur" class="attachment-kicker size-kicker wp-post-image" height="427" src="https://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/BihuLakhimpur-1-1-1020x680.jpeg" width="640" /><div class="image-caption"><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="1"><i>Children crossing the flood-impacted barren paddy fields of North Lakhimpur, on Rongali Bihu day</i></font></p>
</div></div> </div><p>Ranganadi means red river. But the Ranganadi red river of India ran
black and turbid on Rongali Bihu, the Assamese New Year’s Day, this
April.</p>
<p>The people living along the banks of the river in North Lakhimpur
district of Assam could not bathe their livestock in Ranganadi on this
special day. Forced to forego a tradition among the Mising tribe to
which they belong, residents bathed their cattle and goats in water
pumped up from tube wells, ignoring the dangerous level of arsenic in
the groundwater.</p>
<p><strong>Red river of India</strong></p>
<p>On February 9 this year, an unprecedented amount of silt and muddy
water was released from the Ranganadi dam of North Eastern Electric
Power Corporation (NEEPCO)’s 405 MW Ranganadi Hydro Electric Project
(RHEP) near Yazali in Arunachal Pradesh.</p>
<p>A major tributary of the Brahmaputra, Ranganadi starts in the Nilam,
Marta and Tapo mountain ranges of Arunachal Pradesh, a state in which
the river is called Panyor. It is a major source of irrigation water and
fish in both Arunachal Pradesh and downstream Assam, where it joins the
<a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net/2018/12/27/best-of-2018-talking-to-china-about-the-brahmaputra/">Brahmaputra</a>.</p>
<p>Shortly after the sudden release of silt by NEEPCO, scores of dead
fish of different species and sizes were seen “lying at the bank of the
river at Lichi, Upper Sher, Lower Sher, Boda, Upper Jumi and Komasiki
village areas,” according to a statement by local NGO Jumi, Komasiki,
Cher Green Plus Society (JKCGPS). The NGO has lodged a complaint to the
police against the head of RHEP, holding him responsible for the
destruction of aquatic lives. It has also threatened to launch a
movement.</p>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_27236" style="width: 1010px;"><font size="1"><i><img alt="Bisan Narah showing the high concentration of silt in the red river of India with her hands" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27236" class="wp-image-27236" height="427" src="https://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/BisanNarah.jpeg" width="640" /></i></font><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-27236"><font size="1"><i>Bisan Narah shows the concentration of silt in the Ranganadi water since February </i></font><br /></p></div>The
amount of silt flowing down the Ranganadi seemed unusual even for
74-year-old Bisan Narah of Shantipur village downstream. “Although the
dam releases silt from time to time for maintenance, this time the silt
and contaminants are really thick in the water. That Ranganadi dam is
like the government’s curse upon our people. In monsoons the floods have
worsened because of the dam, in winter the river dries up because of
the dam. Our paddy fields are affected by the floods and now there is no
fish in the river. The water is unusable for even washing anything.”
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_27237" style="width: 1010px;"><img alt="Ranganadi dam at Yazali, responsible for turning the red river of India black" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27237" class="wp-image-27237" height="427" src="https://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/RHEP-Ranganadi-dam.jpeg" width="640" /><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-27237"><font size="1">Ranganadi dam at Yazali, Arunachal Pradesh </font><br /></p></div>When
RHEP became operational in 2001, it was hailed as the first
run-of-the-river project in North East India, which would produce
electricity without impounding water and displacing people.
<p>But several academics in Assam have since documented that that the
channelling of the river’s water through a tunnel on the adjacent
hillside has dried up the riverbed the entire length of the channel,
effectively stopping the movement of all aquatic life up and down the
river, except in the monsoon when the torrential rain common in the area
still leads to the river breaking its banks. Guwahati-based environment
researcher Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman describes them as
“run-away-with-the-river” projects.</p>
<p>As with all hydroelectric projects, RHEP engineers have to get rid of
the silt before the water hits the turbine blades – the silt would ruin
the blades otherwise. So the water is led to a settlement chamber from
which the silt is periodically flushed out and dumped on the riverbed
below the dam. It was this dump that was flushed out on February 9 by
opening the dam gates. The result is a river that still flows black and
turbid.</p>
<p><strong>Women Water Users’ Groups</strong></p>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_27238" style="width: 1010px;"><img alt="Women Water Users’ Group of Joinpur Village in a meeting" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27238" class="wp-image-27238" height="427" src="https://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/WWUGJoinpur.jpg" width="640" /><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-27238">Women Water Users’ Group of Joinpur Village in a meeting [image by: Shailendra Yashwant]</p></div>There
are many traditional new year’s day festivities slated for the day, but
it is also a holiday, so there is a meeting of the local Women Water
Users’ Group (WWUG) convened by the <a href="https://www.oxfamindia.org/programdetails/5093/transboundary-rivers-south-asia-trosa">Transboundary Rivers of South Asia</a>
(TROSA) programme of the NGO Oxfam in Joinpur village, a stone’s throw
from the recently rebuilt embankments that are supposed to protect the
village from rising waters of the Ranganadi during the flood season.
<p>Recalling the incidents that led to the current predicament, the
women recount how the RHEP was scheduled for complete shutdown for
maintenance earlier this year and had indeed communicated the same to
the local authorities, who in turn passed on the information to local
communities.</p>
<p>Downstream community organisations like JKGPS in Arunachal Pradesh
and many other representatives from the WWUGs in Assam demanded that
before shutdown NEEPCO must select a site for dumping the silt.</p>
<p>NEEPCO promised a delegation of NGOs that it would not release silt
but on the night of February 9, the state-owned company opened the dam
gates releasing massive amounts of silt into the river downstream.</p>
<p>“Did you know that in its shutdown circular, NEEPCO said that it will
‘not take any responsibility for any loss/damage to life and property
etc. in case of any accident owing to violation of the notice.’ What
kind of company is this, and what kind of government allows them to get
away with it?” asked Rachna Padun, President of Joarkhat village WWUG.
There were many groups at the meeting.</p>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_27239" style="width: 1030px;"><img alt="Barnali Taid sits next to what was her paddy farm and is now a permanent pond due to siltation from floods, near her house in Joinpur" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27239" class="wp-image-27239 size-full" height="427" src="https://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/BarnaliTaid-1.jpeg" width="640" /><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-27239"><font size="1"><i>Barnali
Taid sits next to what was her paddy farm and is now a permanent pond
due to siltation from floods, near her house in Joinpur <br /></i></font></p></div>“They cannot blame everything on climate
change and unpredictable weather. Everyone here knows that the floods
are caused by release of excess water during peak monsoon season by the
dam. When they do, the water comes with really great force, greater than
the normal rise of the river during monsoon. Last year 11 houses in our
villages were washed away because the force of water breached the
embankments. But no one took any responsibility,” said Barnali Taid ,
WWUG’s water champion from Jurkha Dambigual village.
<p>After last year’s floods that killed 11 people, the outrage against the dam forced NEEPCO to make a <a href="https://www.time8.in/ranganadi-not-the-cause-of-flood-woes-claims-neepco/">statement</a>,
claiming that the situation would have been much worse without the dam.
The claim has been contested by scientists and downstream communities
alike.</p>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_27240" style="width: 1010px;"><font size="1"><img alt="Aruna Das pointing to where the embankment breached during the floods of 2017 in Joinpur, North Lakhimpur, Assam [image by: Shailendra Yashwant]" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27240" class="wp-image-27240" height="427" src="https://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/ArunadasJoinpur-1.jpeg" width="640" /></font><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-27240"><font size="1">Aruna
Das points out where the embankment breached during the floods of 2017
in Joinpur, North Lakhimpur, Assam </font><br /></p></div>“We
haven’t had a chance to rehabilitate our rice farms that are destroyed
in successive floods. We seem to be building and rebuilding every year
and all the dam does is make some electricity that we will never benefit
from,” said Aruna Das, an Aanganwadi (government-run creche) teacher
and survivor of the 2017 floods that washed away her house and all their
belongings. “We don’t have any factories, so we now grow one crop of
rice and a few vegetables. Many farmers have tried pisciculture, but the
floods level it all, even the fish farm tanks, year after year. That
dam has made our lives impossible.”
<p>“We are supposed to trust these embankments, but they have breached
time and time again. The force of water when dam releases it together
with the rains is too much for the embankments,” she pointed out.</p>
<p>“What is the point of making electricity, when there is no water to
drink or food to eat and when we are living in the constant fear of our
houses being washed away?” asked Barnali Taid. “The least they can do is
to give us an early warning. Everyone knows that the floods are caused
by the dam. The dam authorities should alert us before they release the
water, so we have time to react, at least take our children and cattle
to higher ground.”</p>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_27243" style="width: 1010px;"><img alt="The new embankment on the Ranganadi river near Joinpur" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27243" class="wp-image-27243" height="428" src="https://www.thethirdpole.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/oiuy-1.jpg" width="640" /><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-27243"><font size="1">The new embankment on the Ranganadi river near Joinpur </font><br /></p></div><strong>Women seek role in decision making</strong>
<p>At the Joinpur meeting, the WWUGs prepared a charter of demands that
they wish to present to the district commissioner, with whom they are
seeking an appointment to appraise him of their problems.</p>
<p>Clean drinking water tops the list, in a region severely affected by
arsenic contamination of groundwater. That is followed by a long list of
dam-induced problems for which they seek redressal – clean-up of the
river from the ongoing contamination, an early warning system in the
flood season, reparations for agricultural and fisheries losses to
floods and inclusion of women in dam, floods and embankment maintenance
related meetings at the district level.</p>
<p>After more animated talk, the women decided to reiterate the last
demand in the introduction. “Women’s water related work is invisible in
the current water paradigm though women are primary victims of
degradation of nature and water scarcity,” said Gita Rani Bhattacharya,
director of the Mahila Samata Society of Assam. “Water entitlements,
water technology and infrastructure and voice or decision making in the
water related institutions are mostly vested in men.”</p>
<p>“There are hardly any men in the villages, as all the young and able
bodied have migrated out for work due to failure of agriculture and
fishing here in Lakhimpur. Clearly there is a need to empower women to
participate in water related decision-making,” said Vinuthna Patibandla,
Oxfam India’s programme officer. “As part of the TROSA programme, we
have formed Women Water Users’ Groups in 21 villages. They are an
integral part of the village development management committee of the
Panchayat, and interacts with district officials on matters relating to
water governance.”</p>
<p>While leaving the meeting, Aruna Das asked a question that is on
everyone’s mind but rarely expressed. “If these are the difficulties due
to one small dam on Ranganadi, what will happen when a much bigger dam,
the 2,000-megawatt dam on the Subansiri river, is made operational?”</p>
<p>Barnali Taid is quick to respond, “First let the women take control
of this situation. Then we will deal with the big dam.” Everyone giggles
at the phrase “take control” as they disperse to resume new year
celebrations.</p><br />
Continue reading the full article..<a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/2019/05/02/red-river-turns-black-in-north-east-india/" target="_blank"> click here</a><br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-11265663550407923652018-10-09T02:17:00.000-07:002020-05-01T20:14:12.633-07:00The Kerala Floods: Will The Last Words Ever Spoken Be Why? Why? Why?<br />
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"This year, we have seen the terrible flooding in Kerala in India, savage wildfires in California and Canada, and dramatic warming in the Arctic that is affecting weather patterns across the northern hemisphere. The trend is clear. The past 19 years included 18 of the warmest years on record, and greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere continue to rise.” – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.</div>
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In August 2018, Kerala experienced once-in-a-lifetime rainfall of 2,378 mm. over 88 days, four times more than normal. The Indian Met Department (IMD) pegged the rainfall in the first 20 days of August at 164 per cent above normal.</div>
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Almost all 41 west-flowing rivers originating in the Western Ghats were in spate. The reservoirs of all 82 dams on these rivers were at maximum capacity by August 10, 2018. Shutters of 54 dams had to be opened by August 21, and the gates of 35 out of these 54 dams were opened for the first time in history.</div>
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The rivers already filled to the brims, broke their banks with the release of reservoir water and swept everything in their path – roads, bridges, vehicles, buildings and humans.</div>
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The iconic Idukki dam and its reservoir received 811 mm. of rain and when the controversial Muallaperiyar dam began to overflow into the Idukki reservoir, all five gates had to be opened for the first time in 26 years. The resultant trail of destruction from Cheruthoni to Aluva, forced authorities to shut down the Kochi airport. Paddy fields and entire villages in the 900 sq. km. delta of Kuttanad, the backwaters of Vembananad lake, some lying two to three meters below sea level, were completely submerged.</div>
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The human casualty was terrible. According to the Kerala government, one-sixth of the total population of the state was directly affected by the floods and its collateral impact. As of September 7, 2018, the death count was 483, with 14 missing. Over a million people were evacuated and are only now, slowly, returning to their homes and their lives.</div>
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Continue reading this report on <a href="https://www.sanctuaryasia.com/magazines/conservation/10857-the-kerala-floods-will-the-last-words-ever-spoken-be-why-why-why.html" target="_blank">Sanctuary Asia website.</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-30207489243506639642018-10-02T09:10:00.005-07:002020-08-04T08:35:19.971-07:00Climate change altering farming in Spiti<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c_TdQapH2sc/W7OXxuWdMsI/AAAAAAAAHys/UqCmTGqY7E4rrk50vNt0qSoqkazgTEjawCLcBGAs/s1600/Pea%2Bfields%2Balong%2BSpiti%2Briver%252C%2BRangrik%252C%2BHimachal%2BPradesh.%2B.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c_TdQapH2sc/W7OXxuWdMsI/AAAAAAAAHys/UqCmTGqY7E4rrk50vNt0qSoqkazgTEjawCLcBGAs/s640/Pea%2Bfields%2Balong%2BSpiti%2Briver%252C%2BRangrik%252C%2BHimachal%2BPradesh.%2B.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br /><p>In the short summer of Spiti valley, when the snow melts on high
peaks, there is a spurt of intense agricultural activity around the
sparsely populated villages in the cold desert of Himachal Pradesh – for
four months between May and August every year.</p>
<p>Spiti, the ‘middle land’ between Tibet and India, is classified as a
sub-Himalayan desert that is mostly inaccessible for the rest of the
year when snowfall blocks the mountain passes. Due to its extreme and
inhospitable conditions, Spiti valley is one of the least populated
regions of the world, home to just 13,000 people living on 758,000
hectares of land.</p>
<p>When not snowbound, the stark sub-Himalayan landscape supports very
little life. Being in a rain shadow region, there is negligible
rainfall, leaving the mountains devoid of any vegetation. The climate is
marked by sharp turns in temperatures, high-speed winds, high altitude
atmosphere and low humidity, all of which makes the soil dry and almost
devoid of organic matter.</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_10166" style="width: 690px;"><img alt="Barley fields near Langza in Spiti valley" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-10166" class="size-full wp-image-10166" data-attachment-id="10166" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="<p>Barley fields near Langza in Spiti valley </p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"11","credit":"Shailendra Yashwant","camera":"NIKON D750","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1534680472","copyright":"Shailendra Yashwant","focal_length":"24","iso":"200","shutter_speed":"0.0025","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Spiti02" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti02.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti02-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti02.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/spiti02/" height="367" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti02.jpg" width="640" /><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-10166"><i><font size="1">Barley fields near Langza in Spiti valley</font></i></p></div>
<p>Despite these handicaps, Spiti valley has been made habitable and
productive by sheer human cunning, doggedness and use of ingenious
techniques to cultivate crops like barley, black peas and potatoes, the
staple diet of locals, and more recently, green peas and fruits like
apples and seabuckthorn.</p>
<p>One of the remarkable features of farming in Spiti is its snow-fed
irrigation system known as the Kul. Tapped from the head of a glacier,
the Kul is a water channel that leads to a circular tank from which
water is let out in a trickle. The Kuls often cover long distances,
running down precipitous mountain slopes and across crags and crevices.
Water from the Kul is collected through the night and released into the
exit channel in the morning. By evening, the tank is practically empty,
and the exit is closed. This cycle is repeated daily.</p>
<p>Between sowing in April and harvesting in September, water
availability is for approximately 70 days. All available and accessible
patches of land along various snow streams and rivers are cultivated.
Barley fields near potatoes and green peas are sown in the month of May
and the crop is harvested at the end of August.</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_10167" style="width: 690px;"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-10167" class="size-full wp-image-10167" data-attachment-id="10167" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"11","credit":"Shailendra Yashwant","camera":"NIKON D750","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1534692105","copyright":"Shailendra Yashwant","focal_length":"31","iso":"400","shutter_speed":"0.002","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Spiti03" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti03.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti03-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti03.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/spiti03/" height="367" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti03.jpg" width="640" /><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-10167"><font size="1">A traditional glacier-fed Kul water tank in Langza, Spiti valley</font></p></div>
<p>However, this unique irrigation system, carefully nurtured for
hundreds of years, is now failing due to the retreat of glaciers induced
by climate change. The glaciers are no longer playing their part as the
main suppliers of water. They have retreated so much that in some
places, they have completely disappeared and the Kuls receive very
little or no water.</p>
<p>A 2014 study by the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi said
annual temperatures in the Indian Himalayas rose by up to 2 degrees
Celsius over two decades, while the area of glaciers here have reduced
by 13% over five decades.</p>
<p>This was done through a remote sensing-based glacier study on
thickness and mass over the Lahual-Spiti region. Almost all glaciers
have shown a clear thinning at low elevations, even on debris-covered
tongues. The rate of ice loss is double that of the long-term (1977 to
1999) mass balance record for the entire Himalayas.</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_10168" style="width: 690px;"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-10168" class="size-full wp-image-10168" data-attachment-id="10168" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"5","credit":"Shailendra Yashwant","camera":"NIKON D750","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1534531882","copyright":"Shailendra Yashwant","focal_length":"66","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.016666666666667","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Spiti04" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti04.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti04-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti04.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/spiti04/" height="367" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti04.jpg" width="640" /><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-10168"><font size="1"><i>The peaks of Kinner Kailash mountain from Kalpa town in Himachal Pradesh</i></font></p></div>
<p>Glaciers are the symbol of an inviolate environment and are visually
and quantitatively among the most reliable indicators of climate change.
Since the early 2000s, average temperature in the Himalayas has
increased by about 1 degree Celsius, which is around four times the
global average. Temperature rise is more during winter and autumn than
during summer, and it is clear that the temperature increases with rise
in altitude, directly impacting the snow capped mountains, melting the
glaciers faster.</p>
<p>“In Spiti valley, de-glaciation has been to the extent of 10-12%
during 2001 and 2007. The rate of retreat of glaciers in Baspa and
Parvati basins has also been fast since 1962, in some cases as high as
172 metres per year,” S.S. Randhawa, Senior Scientific officer at the
Himachal Pradesh Council of Science and Technology, told <a href="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2018/09/21/climate-change-is-altering-farming-landscape-in-spiti/indiaclimatedialogue.net">indiaclimatedialogue.net</a>.
“The area under snow cover too has changed from October to June in six
basins, and the decline in snow cover ranges between 5-37% in the
2010-2014 period compared with 2015 and 2016.“</p>
<p>The abrupt change in the weather is not only affecting the unique
irrigation system, but is endangering the very survival of traditional
subsistence crops and threatening the food security of the region.</p>
<p>For the last five years, farmers have been complaining that there is
lesser, low-quality crop and increased pestilence due to warming
weather. Some areas in the region saw maximum mean winter temperatures
going up by as much as 3.4 degrees Celsius from the 1980s.</p>
<p>Some farmers have responded by shifting their apple orchards up the hill slopes.</p>
<p>A study conducted by the Regional Centre, National Afforestation and
Eco-development Board and Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and
Forestry, Himachal Pradesh, points out that in the past three decades,
the apple crop is getting affected in all the hilly regions in lower
altitudes.</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_10169" style="width: 690px;"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-10169" class="size-full wp-image-10169" data-attachment-id="10169" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"4","credit":"","camera":"COOLPIX A900","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1534591847","copyright":"Shailendra Yashwant","focal_length":"8.9","iso":"80","shutter_speed":"0.000625","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Spiti05" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti05.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti05-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti05.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/spiti05/" height="367" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti05.jpg" width="640" /><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-10169"><i><font size="1">Farmers in Spiti valley have taken to planting apples</font></i></p></div>
<p>“The snow line, once considered as ‘white manure’ for the apple crop
and forest cover necessary for conservation and recharge of natural
water bodies has also shifted upward to higher hills,” the study said.
“Therefore, the quality apple production has shifted to higher hills and
dry temperate zones of Kinnaur and Spiti areas.”</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_10170" style="width: 690px;"><img alt="Apple orchards on sheer mountain slopes at Tabo in Spiti valley" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-10170" class="size-full wp-image-10170" data-attachment-id="10170" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-description="<p>Apple orchards on sheer moutain slopes at Tabo in Spiti valley</p>
" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"3.4","credit":"","camera":"COOLPIX A900","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1534592508","copyright":"Shailendra Yashwant","focal_length":"4.3","iso":"80","shutter_speed":"0.000625","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Spiti06" data-large-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti06.jpg" data-medium-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti06-300x172.jpg" data-orig-file="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti06.jpg" data-orig-size="680,390" data-permalink="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/spiti06/" height="367" src="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Spiti06.jpg" width="640" /><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-10170"><i><font size="1">Apple orchards on sheer mountain slopes at Tabo in Spiti valley</font></i></p></div>
<p>From a distance, the task of growing apples in the rugged landscape
of Spiti seems impossible, but a closer look reveals the extraordinary
ingenuity required to literally hug a mountain side, almost vertically,
divert snow water and grow apple trees.</p>
<p>The markets have given thumbs up to the Spiti apples, as they seem to
give to any Spiti product, going by conversations at the main market in
Solan in the lower reaches. If the claims of the horticulture
department are to be believed, the apple produce in Lahaul-Spiti has
been over 125 tonnes from 450 hectares this year, and is likely to
double in the next five years.</p>
<p>Enthused by the growing business, the horticulture department has set
a target of expanding apple orchards by 50 hectares every year.</p>
<p>But it was interesting to hear a dissenting view from Rajesh Kumar, a
local wholesaler. “The few crops we have received from Spiti are top
quality and fetch high price. More and more apple growers from Himachal
are considering to shift but it may not be such a good idea,” he told <a href="https://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2018/09/21/climate-change-is-altering-farming-landscape-in-spiti/indiaclimatedialogue.net">indiaclimatedialogue.net</a>.
“Spiti valley is home to the snow leopard. It is a one-of-its-kind
ecosystem. All this increased human activity may not be taken kindly by
the mountains.”</p><br />
<br />
First published on <a href="http://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2018/09/21/climate-change-is-altering-farming-landscape-in-spiti/" target="_blank">India Climate Dialogue</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-11427296595645460842018-09-24T03:21:00.000-07:002019-06-02T03:32:18.529-07:00A win for environment and media: Mumbai court acquits journalists as UPL loses 22-year-old case<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UDYUKDPTn68/XPOlkVLKMSI/AAAAAAAAIlw/7W_A87l0yPEQGLJVkG5xdOeAQqcM9cs4ACLcBGAs/s1600/Vapipipe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1060" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UDYUKDPTn68/XPOlkVLKMSI/AAAAAAAAIlw/7W_A87l0yPEQGLJVkG5xdOeAQqcM9cs4ACLcBGAs/s640/Vapipipe.jpg" width="422" /></a></div>
A report by Meena Menon in Firstpost.com about the judgement in a SLAPP suit aka defamation case against me by India's biggest agricultural pesticide company. <br />
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'Like some places, Vapi, an industrial hub in Gujarat, bordering
Maharashtra, is recognisable by its smells and its polluted colourful <em>nallahs</em>
full of untreated effluents. Many years ago, it used to be identified
by an unmistakable stench and even now as you cross the river Daman
Ganga, the air tells you that there is more than water in that river.
Most people passed by and held their noses but one photo-journalist did
more than that. Shailendra Yashwant reported on the pollution in Vapi in
an article, “Toxic Wastes Choke Vapi’s Lifeline”, for <em>Sanctuary Features</em> which was published in <em>Newstime</em> on 11 July, 1995.<br />
For that public service, Yashwant and the chief editor of <em>Newstime</em>, Ramoji Rao, its owners and publishers, and Bittu Sahgal, editor of <em>Sanctuary Features</em>
who commissioned the article, faced trial for defamation charges which
concluded only last month, a good 22 years after the case was filed by
United Phosphorus Limited (UPL) in 1996. The company claimed that the
“defamatory” article was published with the “common intention” of
affecting its business and causing it damage as well as tarnishing the
reputation of its directors. Besides, it contended that the article
contained “several false statements, some of which are defamatory per se
and others [are] containing defamatory innuendos.”<br />
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<a href="https://images.firstpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/RTXC2BJ-380.jpg"></a><div class="wp-caption-text">
File image of the metropolitan magistrate court in Mumbai. Reuters/Punit Paranjpe</div>
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However, metropolitan magistrate KG Paldewar concluded on 4 August,
that the article was published after “due care and attention”, without
malice, in good faith for the public good. “The said article in good
faith conveys for the public good a caution on the adverse environmental
impacts by the import of such obsolete technology and its operation in
the country. Hence, the publication of [the] article is for public good
in the interest of public.” He acquitted all the accused in the case and
said that the article in question “speaks of the truth which has been
written by his [the journalist’s] own study, research and from the
material collected.”<br />
The judge also pointed out in his order that the case of the
complainant relating to financial loss to the company is contrary to the
evidence.<br />
<br />
To continue reading on FirstPost. <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/india/a-win-for-environment-and-media-mumbai-court-acquits-journalists-as-upl-loses-22-year-old-case-5247711.html" target="_blank">Click here </a><br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-40804719415624556802018-09-14T22:08:00.000-07:002018-10-09T02:17:49.948-07:00How villagers in Bhutan and India came together to resolve a water-sharing tussle<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0G5itUNYDyo/W5ySgEc8lYI/AAAAAAAAHtA/FxcMvLCn3W4Ek8T9NvD9Bj5K9JgqRbrDwCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/DSC_0781%2Bcopy.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0G5itUNYDyo/W5ySgEc8lYI/AAAAAAAAHtA/FxcMvLCn3W4Ek8T9NvD9Bj5K9JgqRbrDwCK4BGAYYCw/s640/DSC_0781%2Bcopy.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<br />
There are 56 rivers that flow down from the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan to the eastern state of Assam in India to meet the Brahmaputra River. The hills of Bhutan are covered with lush forests, but on the Indian side of the border there are vast tracts of dry plains with occasional patches of severely denuded forests. Not very long ago the forests were contiguous across the borders but internal migration, poverty and increasing demand for fuelwood changed the landscape drastically on the Indian side of the border.<br />
<br />
Due to climate change all the rivers flowing from Bhutan to India have changed their behaviour dramatically in the last decade – with long periods of dryness, shallow flow and then repeated flash floods, followed by massive amount of silt, sand, sediments, stones and boulders hurtling downstream across the border into India, constantly altering the river’s course. This has caused hardships and misery to people on both sides of border.<br />
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A large share of Bhutan’s revenue comes from hydropower projects, although it has been declining over the years, from 44.6% in 2001 to 20% in 2013. Most of these hydropower projects have been developed in cooperation with India. Bhutan currently has an installed hydropower capacity of 1,488 MW, although it hopes to increase this to 20,000 MW.<br />
<br />
Due to climate change all the rivers flowing from Bhutan to India have changed their behaviour dramatically in the last decade – with long periods of dryness, shallow flow and then repeated flash floods, followed by massive amount of silt, sand, sediments, stones and boulders hurtling downstream across the border into India, constantly altering the river’s course. This has caused hardships and misery to people on both sides of border.<br />
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Downstream communities in Assam have regularly raised the alarm, attributing these changes to dam building upstream in Bhutan. They are worried that the plans to build more dams in Bhutan will lead to more flooding, erosion and more destruction than good. The Bhutanese government and their Indian dam consultants have dismissed these objections in the past, but the recent erratic weather patterns have upset all predictions and is now shaping the future flow of the river and Bhutan’s relationship with India.<br />
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Read the full report on s<a href="https://scroll.in/article/892235/how-villagers-in-bhutan-and-india-came-together-to-resolve-a-water-sharing-tussle" target="_blank">croll.in </a> or on <a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/2018/08/27/villagers-in-bhutan-and-india-come-together-to-share-river/" target="_blank">The Third Pole</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-52098297351090707562018-04-15T22:21:00.000-07:002019-07-12T10:23:45.880-07:00Defying Climate Change - My new report for UNICEF and CANSA.<br />
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With global heat records reaching new highs, extreme weather events and other natural disasters becoming more deadly, everyone is equally vulnerable to climate change. But it’s the poorest of the poor, especially women and children in remote and fragile environments, that bear the brunt of increasingly frequent climate induced disasters. <br />
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1461990956145406066" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v-uO6JnchNo/XSjBNmijcrI/AAAAAAAAIwY/dZI399gKCzYpVthF-sFXwB03NLVSSR3mwCLcBGAs/s1600/DSC_8087.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v-uO6JnchNo/XSjBNmijcrI/AAAAAAAAIwY/dZI399gKCzYpVthF-sFXwB03NLVSSR3mwCLcBGAs/s640/DSC_8087.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Defying climate change, a new report from Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA) and UNICEF India, introduces some of the most effective and innovative women and child centric resilience building projects being implemented across climate hotspots of India.<br />
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The focus of the ongoing partnership between UNICEF India’s Disaster Risk Reduction Section and CANSA is to assist state government policy makers and practitioners to convert existing climate action plans into actionable work plans for relevant departments like health, education, drinking water, etc.<br />
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This report is an attempt to identify recently tested and innovative Community Based Adaptation projects and practices that benefit women and children directly or indirectly and can be used as models to develop and promote women and child centred adaptation and disaster risk reduction best practices on a national scale.<br />
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Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) to climate change aims to allow local people to determine the objectives and means of adaptation practices by including affected people in the design and implementation of adaptation projects and practices. The CBA projects featured here demonstrate the importance of locally appropriate solutions, community ownership and multi-stakeholder partnerships in building resilience of the most vulnerable communities.<br />
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The methodology applied for shortlisting projects for the report required the projects and practices to fit into the following matrix of the following 9 minimum requirements to reach the most vulnerable and poor.<br />
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Directly benefits women and children<br />
Is an innovative practice, technology or method of implementation<br />
Adopts clear monitoring and evaluation strategies<br />
Involves diverse stakeholders, including local self governments and other NGOs<br />
Is participatory, people-driven with community buy-in and social acceptability<br />
Is sustainable and incorporates sustainability strategies with identified resources and potential for replications<br />
Is cost effective and doable using indigenous adaptation knowledge and materials where possible<br />
Demonstrates transparency and accountability<br />
Has a clear mechanism for knowledge sharing and knowledge building beyond the immediate locality.<br />
The report features initiative the success of Swayam Shikshan Prayog in ‘Women led climate resilient farming’ in the drought- hit districts of Maharashtra, the first carbon neutral panchayat in Kerala, unique pond water filtration system from Odisha rissa and Ice Stupas of Ladakh amongst others.<br />
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Download the report at: <a href="https://goo.gl/JsM7cW">https://goo.gl/JsM7cW</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1461990956145406066.post-53023380435741699822016-08-10T05:21:00.000-07:002016-08-13T00:05:22.312-07:00Narmada Bachao Andolan - 30 years of India's greatest people's movement for environmental justice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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To mark 30 years of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA)'s resistance to the hydro dam projects in the Narmada valley, I dug up this image of the Narmada Jan Vikas Sangharsh Yatra of December 1990, that first appeared on the front page of the now defunct 'The Independent', that was launched and edited (for a very short time) by Vinod Mehta.<br />
I was assigned to cover the week-long march and joined thousands of anti-dam protestors led by Baba Amte and Medha Patkar on their march from Barwani in Madhya Pradesh to Ferkuva on the Madhya Pradesh–Gujarat border.<br />
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This is where I first met activists like Medha Patkar, Shripad Dharmadhikary, Rohit Prajapati, Himanshu Thakkar, Arundhati Dhuru, Simantini Dhuru, Alok Agarwal, Ashish Kothari, to name only a few of so many more in the following years, who have shaped and influenced my understanding of the greatest people's movement for environmental justice in modern India.<br />
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25 years later, the people’s demands for suitable rehabilitation have not been met and neither has the promise of delivery of Narmada waters to the villages of Kutch, but worst of all no lessons have been learnt and the people have come together again to save their homes, villages and forests. "Narmada ki ghati me ab ladai jaari hai" - The slogan I heard first time on this march is ringing again in the valley since last week.<br />
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In August 1993 I posted this report for Frontline Magazine- <a href="http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2701/stories/19930813112.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Manibeli's woes </a>.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0