Centre for Science & Environment , Delhi : An E-Bulletin from CSE on January 4, 2007

CSE's Fortnightly News Bulletin [January 4, 2007]

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CSE wishes all readers a very Happy New Year!

INSIDE:

- Cover Story: Polio on the comeback trail in UP, Bihar
- Editorial: Economics of congestion
- News: Public sector banks score over private ones
- News: Tsunami-hit farmers of Nagapattinam against prawn industry
- News: Public hearings on Tipaimukh project a farce
- Reporter's diary: Asia's dirtiest rivers in Chhattisgarh?
- Science: Formation of stars linked to evolution of life on earth
- Short-term course: Urban rainwater harvesting

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Cover Story: Polio on the comeback trail in UP, Bihar

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India's health ministry will not be celebrating the new year.  2007 is
India's deadline for eradicating polio. While most countries have
eradicated the disease, polio hit India with a vengeance in 2006.  Its
problem states, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar, have seen a sharp rise in
the number of polio cases. However funds for the anti-polio programme
are also drying up. Experts are now divided over what course of action
to take: some say that the oral polio vaccine should be made available
to more children, while others canvass for a change in vaccine. Another
set believes that since the disease cannot be eradicated, the anti-polio
campaign should be stopped.

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


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Editorial: Economics of congestion

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By Sunita Narain

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) says India
produced over 10 million vehicles in 2006. The number of cars was more
than one million. As the manufacture and sale of vehicles are important
parameters of the national economy, this millionth-vehicle yardstick
says the economy's fundamentals are buoyant.

I have no quarrel with this. But I do find this economic assessment
rather incomplete and simplistic. Because vehicles require resources to
operate, maintain and even park. Where will these resources come from?
Who pays? Who does not? These assessments are critical to learn the
economics that really matters: what is the cost of this growth, and how
should we pay for it?

At the very least, five costs have to be added to the price of each
vehicle. One, the cost of building a road. Two, the cost of maintaining
roads, the cost of policing on the road, the cost of powering the
millions of traffic lights. Three, the crippling cost of local air
pollution and bad health which requires monitoring, control and
regulation. Added to this, is evidence that vehicles are key
contributors to pollution, which is feeding climate change and will
result in even bigger costs. Four, the cost of congestion, which every
motorist on a busy road imposes on fellow travellers - from delays that
cost time, to increased fuel consumption that costs money. Five, the
cost of space for parking vehicles, at home and at work.

We need to ask why economists - the ones who normally rant about
markets, the need for full cost pricing and removal of subsidies - never
account for these costs in their calculations of growth. After all, the
cold logic of the market, repeatedly cited when it comes to the meagre
support given to farmers, should apply here as well. Could it be that
our economists are so vertically integrated to the market - with mind
and matter - that these distortions fail to catch their attention?

Take roads. We know that cars on roads are like the proverbial cup that
always fills up. Cities invest in roads, but fight the losing battle of
the bulge: congestion. The us provides up to four times more road space
per capita than most European cities, and up to eight times more road
space per capita as compared to the crowded cities of Asia. When more
roads fail to solve the problem, governments invest in flyovers and
elevated highways. These roads occupy space - real estate - and are
costly to build and maintain. It has been estimated that in Western
cities dependent on automobiles, it could cost as much as us $260 per
capita per year to operate these facilities.

But this investment is also not paying off as ever increasing cars fill
the ever increasing space. This is why experts say building roads to fit
cars is like trying to put out a fire with petrol. Britain's orbital
motorway, something akin to Delhi's Ring Road that 'bypasses' the city,
was built 20 years ago. Since then, it has been expanded at huge costs
to 12 lanes. But bumper-to-bumper traffic on it has dubbed it the
nation's biggest car park.

Congestion costs the earth, in terms of lost hours spent in traffic; in
terms of fuel and in terms of pollution. In the us, the congestion bill
for 85 cities totalled to a staggering us $63 billion in 2003. This
calculated only the cost of hours lost - some 3.7 billion - and extra
fuel consumed, not the loss of opportunity because of missed meetings
and other such factors. In the UK, the industry has pegged the figure at
us $30 billion. Our part of the world is similarly blessed: Bangkok
estimates that it loses 6 per cent of its economic production due to
traffic congestion. These costs do not even begin to account for
pollution: emissions of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide are linked with
speed and frequent stop and start.

The logic of the market tells us that people overuse goods and services
that come free. Why, then, should this dictum not be applied to roads?
Why should fiscal policy not be designed to reflect the real cost of
this public asset? Why not charge for it?

The question of who should pay is simple: the user. But what is often
not understood is the nature - colour and class - of the 'real' user of
the public largess in our economies. While in the Western world, the car
has replaced the bus or bicycle, in our world it has only marginalised
its space. Therefore, even in a rich city like Delhi, cars and
two-wheelers carry less than 20 per cent of the city's commuting
passengers. The rest are transported by buses, bicycles or other means.
But the operational fact is that these cars and two-wheelers occupy over
90 per cent of the city's road space. Therefore, it is evident that the
user of the public space and the beneficiary of public largess - the
road, the flyover or the elevated highway - is the person in the car or
the two-wheeler.

Cars do not only cost on the road. They also cost when they are parked.
Personal vehicles stay parked roughly 90 per cent of the time; the land
they occupy costs real estate. Cars occupy more space for parking than
what we need to work in our office: 23 sq metres to park a car, against
15 sq metres to park a desk. My colleagues have estimated that the one
million-odd cars in Delhi would take up roughly 11 per cent of the
city's urban area. Green spaces in the city take up roughly the same.

Ultimately, the issue is not even what it costs. The issue is why we are
not computing the costs or estimating its losses.

To comment, write to >>
editor@downtoearth.org.in
Read the editorial online >>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=2


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More in Down To Earth magazine

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News: Public sector banks score over private ones

A report by the Reserve Bank of India shows that public sector banks are
more efficient and customer-friendly compared to private ones. It says
that even though private banks are acquiring more customers, they are
doing so by compromising the quality of their services. The difference
lies in approach towards customers: while public sector banks like to
solve customer problems on a personal basis, human contact is anathema
for private ones.

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

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News: Tsunami-hit farmers of Nagapattinam against prawn industry

Even as they recover from the trauma of the tsunami of 2004, farmers in
Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, are facing another problem: the region's prawn
industry is stifling their only livelihood -- agriculture. Post-tsunami,
shrimp farms have sprung up across the town. Most of these violate the
Coastal Regulation Zone Act, block drainage canals and prevent rainwater
from reaching the sea. But their biggest effect has been on farmers,
whose land and livelihoods have been snatched away in the pursuit of
quick profits.

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

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News: Public hearings on Tipaimukh project a farce

For months, residents of Manipur's Tamenglong and Churachandpur towns
awaited public hearings on the "proposed" Tipaimukh Multipurpose Hydel
Project. The state government finally scheduled them for November after
it had floated a global tender for works on the project, and the Centre
had promised a Rs 400 crore security cover for it. The farcical nature
of these meetings angered the residents. To add to their woes, many
people were not even allowed to enter the gatherings.

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

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Reporter's Diary: Asia's dirtiest rivers in Chhattisgarh?

The mess in rivers Shankhini and Dankini in Bilabial, Chhattisgarh, can
even shock those who believe that the Yamuna is the country's most
polluted water body. The Bilabial range is known for its high quality
iron deposits. Sludge produced from the mining process carried out here
is released into the two perennial rivers, making the water unfit for
drinking or bathing. However, people from 65 villages along the
Shankhini and Dankini use the same dirty water for their daily use. They
do not have much of a choice: the wells, which were dug by the
government to help them, are too shallow and thus, of no use.

Read online>>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20061231&filename=news&se
c_id=50&sid=64

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Science: Formation of stars linked to evolution of life on earth

Researchers at the Danish National Space Centre have found that the
bacterial count of seas on earth (indicating formation of life) soared
2,400 million years ago, when there was frenzied star-making in the
Milky Way. Such productivity was neither seen before nor ever since.

Read online (subscription required) >>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/Subscriber_new.asp?FolderName=20061231&Filenam
e=news&StoryID=42&secID=12&PageCat=Full6.asp


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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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