India Environmental Issues

[kronik]

Yamuna pollution: HC summons top govt brass

Peeved at the authorities' failure to check pollution of river Yamuna, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday summoned the Delhi Chief Secretary, Commissioner MCD and the CEO of the Delhi Jal Board to appear before the court.

The Bench sought the presence of the three top brass after the Delhi government and the MCD failed to furnish any affidavit on the measures being taken to prevent discharge of sewage into the holy river and other water bodies.

...The court was dealing with a public interest litigation wherein it was alleged that the river had become highly polluted as the authorities were releasing untreated sewage and sallage through storm-water drains.

Earlier in an affidavit the Delhi Jal Board sought to abdicate its responsibility by insisting that the maintenance and conception of sewer lines was the responsibility of the MCD.

[WillyWick]

China dams Brahmaputra, India upset

New Delhi: The mighty Brahmaputra is the lifeline for the people of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam but China's plans to dam it is causing serious concern.

MEA sources confirmed that the matter will be taken up during President Hu Jintao's visit to Delhi next month.

The source of the Brahmaputra is in Tibet, where it is known as the Yarlung Tsangpo. China plans to dam the river before it flows into India to divert the waters to the northeast and feed the provinces of Shaanxi, Hebei, the capital Beijing and Tianjin.

The plan reportedly has the backing of President Hu Jintao, a hydro-engineer by profession who built his political career in Tibet.

There is concern in India that a dam of this kind would affect water flows into Assam and Arunachal.

India's sense of urgency is growing as two months ago China cleared a plan to divert water from the upper reaches of the Yangtze river in Tibet to the north-western parts of the country.

India will take up the river issue during President Hu Jintao's visit in November

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/china-da...t/24570-3.html

[Naga_Solidus]

This is serious, if the plan goes through, Bangladesh will suffer severe water shortages, and the Ganga in India will get overtaxed (and that's not accounting for the unforutnate fact that the "holiest river in the country" has been reduced to toxic sludge )

speaking of pollution in the Ganga...

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1057894

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up Union environment ministry over its apathy towards river Ganga despite the government coughing up over Rs900 crore on the Ganga Action Plan (GAP), which promised to clean up the holy river.

The Comptroller and Auditor General had also unearthed lacuna in GAP expenditures. Referring to 2002 CAG expose, the judges said: “In the plan, crores have been marked as spent to improve the water quality, but going by the report, the water quality has further deteriorated and the industrial pollution has increased.”

A bench headed by Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal issued notices to the Ganges basin states — UP, Uttaranchal, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Delhi, Haryana and MP — to file their status reports on the plan by October 31. The SC noted that various government-appointment committees also couldn’t ensure a cleaner Ganga.

A Central Ganga Authority headed by the PM, the Steering Committee under the Secretary, Planning Commission, and the National River Conservation Directorate are responsible for the maintenance of the river.

“If this is the state of affairs of the scheme monitored by the court, what will happen to those schemes which are not monitored by the court,” the Judges observed, adding “same is the state of the river Yamuna, for whose cleansing, hundred of crores of rupees have been spent.”

Earlier in April last, the Allahabad HC took cognisance of a petition by some Hindu religious leaders alleging neglect of the river by the government. The HC had warned the state against uncontrolled flow of sewage into the Ganga and asked the Mulayam Singh Government to submit a report on the action taken by it.

As per a recent official report, only 39 percent of the primary target of the GAP, which the Union government had started to cleanse the river in 1986, could be met so far. The World Health Organisation says one person dies every minute due to water-born diseases in the Ganga river basin that’s home to some 400 million people, who depend on the river afor livelihood and sustenance.

[drwho]

as i see it,the problem is that no one owns the river.People see Ganga river as a "spiritual" entity so it becomes everyones property,in other words you can do anything you want with the river, throw trash in,contaminate it,,you name it.

But if the river becomes a private property then the river is something worth. So what about people who uses it or contaminate it?

Easy,pay for usage of the water and for littering .

[p2p4]

HI Drwho,

Good to see you up and about again.

There was a recent report in FRONTLINE magazine about the receding glaciers of the Himalayas and how grave the situation is.

They have shown an entire timeline from 1963 till present day as to how one particular glacier has receded at least 10km since the 60s and it (the report) shows very glaringly, the general apathy the government and the opposition has subjected this grave concern as a mere 'hype'.

The summary of the article attributes the receding glaciers of Himalayas to global warming but considering the fact that the winds from the subcontinent blow to the north too, it takes a lot of pollution with it.

THere is no national level effort by the goverment to make people aware of this threat. Imagine this.. no glaciers, no Ganga, no Yamuna !

Originally Posted by drwho

as i see it,the problem is that no one owns the river.People see Ganga river as a "spiritual" entity so it becomes everyones property,in other words you can do anything you want with the river, throw trash in,contaminate it,,you name it.

But if the river becomes a private property then the river is something worth. So what about people who uses it or contaminate it?

Easy,pay for usage of the water and for littering .

[drwho]

Hi Psp4:

thanks.

It sure is a scary thought but it is also the issue we will face if something is not done for combating global warming

AS you said,the apathy from gov is a big problem but also, environment has not made a big political issue in elections.

Global warming will effect India,question is what mechanism should be used for combating it, in my view there are two ways:

Market-solution:
Gov-Regulation:

I am for a market solution where polluters who release greenhouse gases have to buy carbon credits from the market for releasing CO2 in to the air.

problem in this case is that every country must be in this system otherwise it will not work. For instance if one country is against the market solution,the idea pretty much falls because the country can release as much CO2 it wants to without paying for it.

This is also what is happening right now where India,China,US,Aus has not ratified the Kyoto protocol.

Originally Posted by p2p4

HI Drwho,

Good to see you up and about again.

There was a recent report in FRONTLINE magazine about the receding glaciers of the Himalayas and how grave the situation is.

They have shown an entire timeline from 1963 till present day as to how one particular glacier has receded at least 10km since the 60s and it (the report) shows very glaringly, the general apathy the government and the opposition has subjected this grave concern as a mere 'hype'.

The summary of the article attributes the receding glaciers of Himalayas to global warming but considering the fact that the winds from the subcontinent blow to the north too, it takes a lot of pollution with it.

THere is no national level effort by the goverment to make people aware of this threat. Imagine this.. no glaciers, no Ganga, no Yamuna !

[drwho]

MUMBAI, India: Residents of Mumbai, India's commercial capital, filled buckets, pots and containers with water on Tuesday to prepare for a 24-hour shutdown of the city's water supply.

Officials plan to cut off the supply to the city of some 16 million people for one day starting Wednesday morning to allow engineers to lay kilometers (miles) of new pipes to improve the water distribution network.

The work will enable the city to supply its residents with an additional 250 million liters (60 million gallons) of water per day, said A.N. Kajbaje, a senior city hydraulic engineer.

The city currently receives about 3.2 billion liters (845 million gallons) of water a day but needs close to 3.9 billion liters (1 billion gallons), he said.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/..._Water_Cut.php

[pding]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP136674.htm

India completes huge dam, critics damn it


India completed construction of a highly ambitious and controversial dam on Sunday, nearly two decades after it launched the project environmental groups say will destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands.

Authorities hailed the completion of the Sardar Sarovar dam in Gujarat state as an answer to the thirst, irrigation and power needs of millions in the vast, parched regions in the west of the country.

"India has taken a leap ahead. The dam will change the future of the country," said Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat, after the last bucket of concrete was poured on the wall of the $7.7 billion dam.

The Sardar Sarovar is the centrepiece of the multi-billion dollar Narmada Valley development project that taps the Narmada, India's fifth-largest river, through a series of dams, reservoirs and canals.

Authorities say the dam will connect an 86,000 kilometre (50,000 mile) network of canals and help irrigate 1.8 million hectares (4.5 million acres) of farm land and provide drinking water to 20 million people in Gujarat and the neighbouring states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

The dam will also help in flood control and its two power plants are expected to generate 1,450 MW of peak power, they say.

"Despite all odds, we have completed the dam. It will fulfil promises and will take India ahead," said P.K. Laheri, head of the Sardar Sarovar project.

RICH VS POOR?

Construction of the dam, which is 1,250 metres (4,100 ft) long, 122 metres (400 ft) high, began in 1987. But it soon became the focus of one of the world's longest social and environmental campaigns.

Nearly a decade was lost to a dispute between rival states over how to divide water and power from the dam, and at least five more years in protracted legal battles with activists from the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), or Save the Narmada Movement.

The NBA says the dam will displace 320,000 people -- many of them poor tribal farmers who have not been properly resettled on fertile land, and disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands more.

It also says that the benefits claimed by authorities are false promises.

"The Sardar Sarovar dam is a classic case of cheating the poor ... it has been built to destroy the economy of rural India," said NBA's Medha Patkar.

She said the dam showed policymakers favoured the rich in urban India over those in the countryside.

In March this year, Patkar went on a hunger strike that lasted nearly three weeks, forcing authorities to come up with better rehabilitation plans for some of those affected.

"The Sardar Sarovar project will have to prove whether it is a right combination of engineering and natural resources or a blunder of depriving farmers of their land," said Bidyut Datta, an independent water management expert.

[Naga_Solidus]

At least they're finally going to be able to extract a bit of kinetic energy from the mighty Narmada. Some of those allegations are flat out ridiculous.

[SarafIndian]

hi Guys,

I was searching for an environment related thread. Could not find and thought of a new thread. Please post the related topics here.

Cheers..

[SarafIndian]

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/cl...lution20071009

'Ban the bulb' to kick-start India's energy revolution?

Posted by Joss on 9 October 2007.

Something that drives me nuts is when people use the example of developing economies such as China or India as an excuse for inactivity on climate change - the "what's the bloody point" argument, which insists that any savings we might make in CO2 emissions using renewables will be more than cancelled out by their use of dirty energy. It's not that there's not an element of truth in this - it's the refusal to recognise that we in the west have any influence of responsibility in the matter. After all, a key driver in India and China's rapid development is our insatiable demand for insanely cheap products - which forces them to use the clapped out and dirty technlogies we are trying to break away from.

Rather than wringing our hands we should be helping these emerging giants to apply new cleaner technologies. China has already taken a big step by agreeing to phase out traditional energy hungry light bulbs within the next 10 years , and now Greenpeace India is hoping to persuade the sub-continent to follow suit by launching its own 'Ban the Bulb' campaign. By banning energy guzzling incandescent light bulbs, India can cut its carbon dioxide emissions by a whopping 55 million tones. This is a simple, quick and doable step and would lead to a 4 per cent cut in the nation's carbon dioxide emissions.

Which is why Greenpeace activists made a very visual statement yesterday in one of India's greatest cities, Kolkata. Situated on the River Hooghly and the Bay of Bengal, Kolkata is extremely vulnerable to climate change impacts, particularly rising sea levels. Using floating life rings they created a massive 50 m 'Ban the Bulb' message - visible from the city's major bridges, and demanded that the government act to phase out energy guzzling incandescents by 2010.

But replacing all power crazy bulbs with CFCs is just one of the suggestions in an new Greenpeace report 'Energy [R]evolution: A sustainable Energy Outlook for India'. The report shows how renewable energy, combined with energy efficiency from the 'smart use' of energy, can deliver half of India's primary energy needs by 2050. It provides a practical blueprint for reducing India's carbon dioxide emissions while providing a secure, affordable energy supply. This is a project that can and must be succeed - bringing India and China into the climate change debate is absolutely crucial if we're to have any chance of success in keeping global warming to a minimum - and fortunately its starting to happen.

[SarafIndian]

Sorry Guys,

This thread should be on "Infrastructure & Economy" part. Can someone move this thread there(if possible)?..

[p2p4]

SarafIndian, I still feel this thread should be independent and not be mended (and forgotten) into some other mega-thread.

It is high time environmental issues were addressed and discussed in a separate thread - which this is.

Cheers
p2p4

Originally Posted by SarafIndian

Sorry Guys,

This thread should be on "Infrastructure & Economy" part. Can someone move this thread there(if possible)?..

[IndiansUnite]

Yesterday, I saw an environment thread on page3/4 of the infra section. But now it's not there(probably hidden and not deleted due to post count reasons ).

[Cov Boy]

India and China are being used as scapegoats to an extent blaming these countries for climate change when the west should really be championing & setting an example then countries like India & China will co-operate.

If the west continue to bully and make demands without changing thier own habits why should India, China or any other country have to concede?

I always beleived that energy saving light bulbs should replace the "old light bulb" to the extent of banning them. I think Sweden or Norway have taken this step by banning them very soon.

[Licit Mortal]

India’s huge and growing population is putting a severe strain on all of the country’s natural resources. Most water sources are contaminated by sewage and agricultural runoff. India has made progress in the supply of safe water to its people, but gross disparity in coverage exists across the country. Although access to drinking water has improved, the World Bank estimates that 21% of communicable diseases in India are related to unsafe water. In India, diarrhea alone causes more than 1,600 deaths daily—the same as if eight 200-person jumbo-jets crashed to the ground each day. Hygiene practices also continue to be a problem in India.

India faces a turbulent water future. Unless water management practices are changed – and changed soon – India will face a severe water crisis within the next two decades and will have neither the cash to build new infrastructure nor the water needed by its growing economy and rising population.

Courtesy: http://www.water.org/waterpartners.aspx?pgID=887
http://www.worldbank.org.in/WBSITE/E...295584,00.html


Let us use this thread to discuss the developments in our water preservation, management and distribution!

Thank you.

Cheers.

[Licit Mortal]

I am truly sorry. I searched for this thread and I honestly couldn't find and that is why I decided to open a thread on Water management. Someone closed my thread and finally I am happy to see my message back here again.

I am extremely sorry and I wouldn't repeat this again. In addition, I also opened another thread named Indian Police Thread as it was surely missing here and someone moved it to chaibar and closed the thread. Ain't a good police force a part of country's infrastructure?

Cheers!

[Licit Mortal]

Rural water supply: The Hebballi experience
The village of Hebballi in the Krishna river basin is a striking example of a successful and sustainable piped water supply in rural India. While challenges still remain, this experience shows that some steps towards equity and sustainability can be taken in many other places too. S Vishwanath reports.

Continue reading

Cheers.

[Licit Mortal]

RAIN HARVESTING
'Water deposit' revives open wells
Thanks to voluntary water harvesting measures by a few, as well as legislation-led RWH by the others, many of Chennai's open wells have sprung back to life. The bountiful rains of 2005 showed that where conservation efforts are in place, even a single season's rainfall can largely restore water security.

Continue reading

[Licit Mortal]

WATER HARVESTING
Upper catchment, gains in the plains
By building tanks to catch run-off in the higher reaches of the land, a Karnataka farmer reaps the benefit of a higher water table in the lower areas. In doing so, he remembers that this was the practice for a long time in this area, and he has simply recalled an old tradition.

Continue reading

Cheers.