An E-Bulletin from CSE on January 16, 2007

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CSE's Fortnightly News Bulletin [January 16, 2007]

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An e-bulletin from CSE, India, to our network of friends and
professionals interested in environmental issues. Scroll to the bottom
of this page for information on how to unsubscribe.

INSIDE:

- New publication: Sewage canal: How to clean the Yamuna
- Short-term course: Urban rainwater harvesting
- Editorial: 2006: The waterloo year
- Cover Story: Rising sea levels and tidal erosion eating up Sunderbans
- News: SC move to check haphazard implementation of child development
scheme
- News: Mumbai port's coal handling jeopardises public health
- News: Naini Lake being polluted out of existence
- Features: Olive Ridley preservation hits fishermen in Orissa
- Science: Carcinogenic enzyme blocked in human body


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Sewage canal: How to clean the Yamuna

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The book chronicles the state of the Yamuna as it passes through
populated towns and cities. It analyses the strategies adopted to clean
it up and lessons learnt about river management. The case of the Yamuna
is not unique. It is a poster child of the failure of India’s river
action plans. The book argues that rivers in India can be cleaned up
provided we can rethink and reengineer water and sewage management
programmes.

It also presents a revival action plan for the Yamuna and a conceptual
framework to address the complete disconnect between water used, sewage
generated and the ensuing river pollution.

Find out more>>
http://csestore.cse.org.in/store1.asp?sec_id=1&subsec_id=24


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Short-term course: Urban rainwater harvesting
New Delhi

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CSE is accepting applications for its short-term training programme on
urban rainwater harvesting (RWH) to be held on the following dates:

- February 12-15, 2007
- March 19-22, 2007

The programme will discuss the following:
- Urban water scenario in India with detailed case studies
- Groundwater status, demand side management and supply
- Planning: hydrogeological, geomorphological and metrological conditions
- Design and components: rainfall, terrain, water table, soil conditions
- Maintenance, monitoring and impact assessment
- Policies on RWH: legal and fiscal initiatives
- Primer on urban wastewater management
- Field visit to active project sites, workshops on RWH design

Register online >>
http://www.cseindia.org/misc/rwhcourse_Feb2007.htm

For more information, contact:
Salahuddin Saiphy <salah@cseindia.org>

Note:
- NGOs, researchers, RWAs, engineers, architects, urban planners,
industry consultants, and concerned citizens are invited to apply
- As this is a popular course, we advise you to register at the earliest
- A certificate of participation will be awarded at the end of the programme


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Editorial: 2006: The waterloo year

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By Sunita Narain

THE year 2006 will go down as environment's watershed year. This is not
because this year we have had extraordinary success in environmental
management; there was also no environmental disaster per se. This year
must be remembered because the task of environmental management has come
to be even more contested and even more challenged. Protests against
environmental degradation have grown. But so have efforts to deny
environmental concerns or to dilute regulations. This is partly because
economic growth has become the single biggest obsession of the country.
It is also because environmental institutions have not been up to the
challenge of standing by their agenda. But it is mostly because we as a
society have not internalised how environment can become the instrument
of economic change.

Just recall the million mutinies over dam projects, forest degradation,
mining, industrial pollution and real estate development. But also
recall how crucial regulations to protect the environment have been
negated this year from provisions for environmental impact assessments
to those for coastal zone regulation. Indeed recall how builders of real
estate lobbied strenuously to weaken any provision that would regulate
their development-over construction, water use or waste generation.

The fact is that these struggles for environment have come to be seen as
the biggest impediments to quick and dirty growth in the country. There
is a single-minded determination that focuses on the need to intensify
the use of resources and that this will magically lift everyone out of
poverty. In this obsession the problem is that there is no space for
dissent. These voices of disapproval need to be destroyed and made
powerless.

In this war for wealth, the weaknesses of the system are being
optimised. We know that our institutions of governance are riddled with
corruption, red-tape and debilitating inefficiency. It becomes easy to
argue that their role must be minimised. It also becomes easy to insist
that regulations must be removed or made 'simple' meaning diluted. For
instance, the builders' lobby had argued, successfully that clearances
of their projects was not just taking time but also leading to enormous
corruption as they were having to pay for them.

What is never said is that these institutions have been made corrupt and
compromised by these same lobbies. It is also never said that the
challenge is to strengthen regulation and oversight, not to emasculate
it. It is never said that this will require building capacities, hiring
new staff, and training and creating new tools of management for our
regulatory institutions. No, we want them written off. We are beginning
to see this end game succeed.

This view misses the point completely. The fact is that people are
fighting against projects not because they are anti-national or against
development. They are fighting for their own survival. We know in this
country, people live on the environment their livelihood depends on the
resources they get from their immediate environment. They are fighting
so that these desperately meagre and insufficient resources are not
taken away. They know that if the environment degrades, their lives will
be more impoverished; more impossible.

Their protest should make us think again of this development, which can
make such poor people even poorer. The problem is that modern industrial
growth requires resources of the region-minerals, water or energy-not
people. It does not provide local employment or economic benefits. It
only takes away from the local region. In this process it displaces
people; it degrades the land and water on which they survive. People
know this. The votaries of growth-at-all-cost should also learn this.

The problem also is that when regulatory institutions are disabled,
people have nowhere to go. They have no choice but to 'insist' that
their voice is heard and they will get more desperate and more
aggressive to make sure this happens. This spirals out of control as
neglect breeds violence and violence breeds more intolerance. 2006 has
been bloody, but 2007 will see more strife, not less. This is not good
for the environment. It is certainly bad for the country.

But it is not just that protest is misunderstood, the fact is that we
have not understood environmental concerns. We understand how to exploit
resources, develop, and we understand how to conserve resources,
protect. But we do not understand how we should use resources profitably
and sustainably for the economic security of people. The fact is that
today people are displaced by industry and also by conservation. Their
land is taken for mining and also for protecting forests and wild
animals. They get nothing in both cases.

This is not new. This is the manner of environmental protection that we
have inherited from the already rich world. The action is to degrade the
environment first and then to repair it later. Therefore, once the
factories are built and wealth is accumulated, the pollution can be
cleaned up. This world has found that it is investing more and more in
cleaning up and fixing the damage but it stays miles behind the problems
it creates. We want to do the same, but with much less means.

The world here is divided into areas that are kept aside for their rich
biodiversity or natural habitats. These areas, the protected wilderness
areas and habitats of wild animals, are leisure spots. In their well
organised landscape, there is no messy poverty and certainly no
inconvenient poor people. We would also like to do the same, but with
different realities and deadly results. We will divide people. We will
destroy the environment.

As I said, 2006 is the watershed year. It is a mirror of what our future
will be. Let's discuss how we can change the present in 2007.

To comment, write to >>
editor@downtoearth.org.in

Read the editorial online >>
www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=2


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Cover Story: Rising sea levels and tidal erosion eating up Sunderbans

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The West Bengal part of the Sunderbans comprises 102 islands. Of these,
54 are inhabited. Most of them were reclaimed and settled under the
British during the 1700s. Over two centuries of converting mangrove
forests into paddy land, exploitation of natural resources, and hunting
and poaching have contributed to the degradation of the region, making
it increasingly prone to erosion and vulnerable to storms, cyclones and
floods. Conservation measures have helped in safeguarding remaining
resources, but have also promoted the Sunderbans as an exotic forest --
obscuring the fact that the region is home to 3.9 million people, most
of whom are in desperate need of help.

Read online >>
www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=1


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More in Down To Earth magazine

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News: SC move to check haphazard implementation of child development scheme

The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to provide anganwadis to rural
people and slum dwellers within three months of their demand. Anganwadis
are the main agents under the Centre's Integrated Child Development
Services (ICDS) -- a scheme that looks after the nutritional and health
needs of children under six years of age and expectant mothers. The
court is currently hearing a petition against the haphazard
implementation of ICDS since 2001. Its order is crucial to the aim of
eradicating malnourishment in children. Presently, the power to set up
anganwadis lies with the state government.

Read complete article >>
www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=3

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News: Mumbai port's coal handling jeopardises public health

The state environment appellate authority recently stayed the order of
the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board directing Mumbai Port Trust
(MbPT) to stop handling of coal at the Haji Bunder jetty. The board had
objected to the operations as they were causing air pollution and health
problems in the vicinity. The MbPT, has, on its part, repeatedly shied
away from adopting environmentally efficient practices despite numerous
reminders.

Read online >>
www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=4

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News: Naini Lake being polluted out of existence

Rapid growth of the resident and tourist population, unchecked
construction activities, landslides, and dumping of waste in catchment
areas have spoilt the Naini Lake in Nainital. The lake was once the main
source of water for the town. However, because of the high pollution
level, just 1 mld is sourced from it now. Even its depth has shrunk from
29 metres in 1871 to 13 metres in recent times. To top it, the Naini
lake is eutrophicated and records a high rate of sedimentation. Can this
water body be saved?

Read online >>
www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=5

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Features: Olive Ridley preservation hits fishermen in Orissa

The Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary in Orissa's Kendrapara district was
established in 1997 to protect the endangered Olive Ridley turtle. Being
a breeding ground for fish, the area also provided livelihood to
numerous fishermen. However, the ban on fishing in the stretch has hit
them hard: thousands have emigrated for work, many have become mentally
unstable, some have even committed suicide. While locals allege that the
sanctuary was created hastily without their involvement,
conservationists argue that there are too many fishermen. However, the
bottomline is that fishing is not the only threat to the turtles. The
government has recently approved the construction of a port nearby and
has also given the go ahead to an oil exploration project -- without
measuring their environmental impact.

Read online (subscription required) >>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20070115&filename=news&se
c_id=50&sid=35

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Science: Carcinogenic enzyme blocked in human body

A study published in the journal, Aging cell, has found that humans are
less likely to contract cancer compared to mice. This is because
secretion of Telomerase -- an enzyme, which rapidly heals damaged cells
but causes cancer -- is blocked in the human body.

Read online (subscription required) >>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20070115&filename=news&se
c_id=12&sid=26


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