Centre for Science & Environment , Delhi : An E-Bulletin from CSE on February 15, 2007

Centre for Science & Environment , Delhi : An E-Bulletin from CSE on February 15, 2007

CSE’s Fortnightly News Bulletin [February 15, 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:

– Editorial: Excreta’s economy: a true experience
– Workshop: Towards green villages
– Training: Managing information resources in the digital age
– Course: Urban rainwater harvesting
– Cover Story: Fuel inefficient India heading towards energy crisis
– News: Tamil Nadu blacklists Mahyco’s Bt Cotton seeds
– News: Ghaziabad battles noxious fumes from burnt batteries
– News: Farmers continue protest against Reliance’s power project in UP
– Features: Jaggery made using time-tested method is more wholesome
– Science: Persistent organic pollutants can render vaccines ineffective
– Publication: Sewage canal: How to clean the Yamuna
– Jobs: Web developer needed

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Editorial: Excreta’s economy: a true experience

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By Sunita Narain

Every society must understand how the excreta it produces is managed. It
teaches us many things about water, about waste, about technologies to
clean, economics and politics: of who is subsidised to defecate in our
societies. But, most importantly, it teaches us humility. We know so
little about our own world. If we knew better, we would understand why
we are failing to ensure our present and why we will all need to do
things differently, if we want to safeguard our future.

I learnt about excreta management by chance. A few years ago, the
Supreme Court asked the committee I work with to monitor the state
government’s effort to clean city drains, which lead to the river and
pollute it to hell. The government presented an action plan. They would
build sewage treatment plants; upgrade existing ones; lay sewage drains
in housing colonies and repair conveyance systems to pump the waste to
sewage plants. It fitted prescriptions for pollution management of our
rivers.

I presumed our task was to check if the sewage plants had been built and
if they were working. How ignorant of me.

My first lesson came when we visited the sewage treatment plant. The
plant’s management had records of the quality of waste received and the
treated effluent. They showed us samples as well. It seemed to be in
order. The only, small, problem was that the sewage plant remained
underutilised-it received only 40 per cent of the waste that it could
treat. Officials told us that this was because the sewage systems and
drains were laid but had not been connected by households, because of
high costs. They said it was only a matter of time when the
infrastructure would be completed and sewage would flow into the plant.
Their emphasis was to add to the infrastructure of the sewage plant
itself. They needed more capacity in anticipation of this additional
sewage that would be generated. Once done, the river, they assured us,
would be clean.

Made perfect sense. Then, by chance, I asked how they disposed the
treated effluent. Pat came the reply: we have a treated effluent
disposal drain, which meets the river at some distance. This is what
happens in most cities,-I was reassured. My colleague, a senior and
respected bureaucrat, and I then wanted to see the disposal point.
Immediately, a can of worms opened.

The disposal point was in the drain in front of the sewage plant. From
where we stood, it was clear that the treated effluent-meeting all
pollution parameters and costing money and electricity to clean-was
discharging into a drain, which was already putrid and full of sewage.
The treated effluent did little to dilute the floating filth. In fact,
the stuff in the drain negated the pollution control efforts. The plant
had been built where land was available. The officials had never
considered how the treated effluent would be disposed and if indeed it
could be reused.

Then we asked about the drain. It was a storm water drain and the
official told us that it should not have any waste (it was peak summer).
The problem was that the adjoining colonies did not yet have sewage
drains but once they did, the situation would be under control.

Then another can opened. We learnt that roughly half the population
residing in this part of the city were not connected to the sewage
system. They lived in illegal, unauthorised or slum areas. So their
waste was also “illegal”, not to be unaccounted for. This is not
unusual. In most big cities of this country, 20-50 per cent of the
people live in similar settlements. Since official drainage does not
effectively connect the entire population, only partial sewage is
trapped, pumped and taken to the conveyance system. Their sewage gets
carried by gravity to the open drains, which in the official books only
transport storm water, not excreta. The pieces fit together when we
understand that this “legal” and “illegal” sewage gets mixed in the same
drain, which by the time it meets the river is grossly polluted. No
wonder the river never gets cleaned.

The next sewage treatment plant is located downstream of the first. It
retreats the effluents discharged from the first plant, which has turned
dirt to dirt. The treated effluents of this plant then meet another
drain, which collects more sewage on its way to the river.

The problem gets even more serious as we get to the river. The river is
tapped at the barrage upstream of the city, for drinking water. Then, in
its journey, it picks up sewage from my city. By the time it exits, it
has only sewage, no water. The cities downstream of my city do the same.
The river has no water to dilute our excreta. It is even losing its
assimilative capacity-to turn sewage-to soil and water. To bring it to
life would require us to take water and to return water to the river.

I now understand the economics of the excreta business. Put out a tender
and build drains, pumps and sewage treatment plants. The problem is we
don’t know our maths. The more water we use, the more waste is
discharged. The State does not charge for the water it supplies, forget
for the waste it collects or treats. The relatively rich-or call them
“legal” settlers with “legal” excreta -cost the State. It does not have
money or the wherewithal to pay to build, or run, or repair the system
for all. There is no way the river cannot get polluted.

This is not a parody. The city of Delhi, from where I write, has the
river Yamuna, which flows past it. But this water-excreta tale is not
unique to Yamuna or Delhi. This is the political economy of defecation
where the rich are subsidised in the name of the poor, where the
environment is discounted in the name of progress. This is the real
excreta we must understand.

PS: For more, read our book Sewage Canal: How to clean the Yamuna

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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Workshop: Towards green villages
New Delhi, March 12-16, 2007

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CSE announces a five-day refresher workshop on understanding the
linkages between environment and poverty, and using environment for
eradicating poverty in rural areas.

Highlights of the programme:
– Balanced mix of classroom teaching, guest lectures, onsite visits and
daily tasks
– CSE researchers and guest faculty will discuss various issues
– Participants will be taken for field trips to Sukhomajri and Banga
villages in Haryana

The course will help participants:
– Understand the nature of poverty in India
– Get to know the poverty-environment linkages
– Get introduced to the complexities of ecological poverty
– See how communities define and nurture development
– Orient themselves to the development potential of NREGA

Last date for registration: February 21, 2007

For more information contact:
Supriya Singh <supriya@cseindia.org>

Note:
– NGOs, representatives of development programme implementing agencies,
and members of rural development agencies and institutions are invited
to apply
– A certificate of participation will be awarded at the end of the programme

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Training: Managing information resources in the digital age
New Delhi, March 6-9, 2007

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This popular, hands-on training programme includes:

– Sourcing information (information acquisition and research)
– Classification and indexing (including digitised resources)
– Developing and managing audio-visual resources (films, photos, CDs)
– Library automation tools
– Product planning, services and marketing
– Digital library fundamentals (IT for information management)
– Web-based tools for information outreach
– Basic Webmaster skills
– Developing an information resource centre: Planning

Last date for registration: February 20, 2006

For more information contact:
Kiran Pandey <kiran@cseindia.org>
Shams Kazi <shams@cseindia.org>

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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 from:

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
– Urban wastewater management
– Field visit to active project sites, workshops on RWH design

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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Cover Story: Fuel inefficient India heading towards energy crisis

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With crude oil prices going through the roof, buying petrol and diesel
in India has become an expensive proposition. However, despite this
rise, the country is using more oil today than ever before. The main
culprit is the ever-growing transport sector, which utilises a lot of
this fuel. To top this, with inefficient public transport in most cities
and towns, the emphasis on private vehicles has increased. As a result,
the automobile sector is churning out cars, which are choking roads.
This mess can be addressed if the Centre sets fuel economy regulations
so that car manufacturers use better technology, and if states encourage
the use of public transport by taxing private vehicles. Will the Union
budget 2007 deliver on these accounts?

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: Tamil Nadu blacklists Mahyco’s Bt Cotton seeds

The Tamil Nadu government has banned the sale of Bt Cotton seeds by
Mahyco after farmers from Dharmapuri district complained that their crop
had failed due to sub-standard seeds. The anti-GM crop lobby has
welcomed the move saying that such losses always happen at the cost of
poor farmers. On its part, Mahyco does not deny the crop failure in
Dharmapuri, but attributes it to poor agricultural practices.

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

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News: Ghaziabad battles noxious fumes from burnt batteries

Poisonous smoke from the burning of a dump of batteries led to the death
of one person in Ghaziabad in January. Around 50 others were admitted to
hospitals after complaining of headache, nausea, coughing and vomiting.
Residents of the area said that the batteries had been dumped at the
site a week before the incident, but did not know how or why the fire
started. Nobody knows what kind of batteries were present in the heap
but the blamegame has begun. The Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board,
issued a notice over the incident, maintains that the dumpsite falls
under the purview of the Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam and was not its
responsibility.

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

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News: Farmers continue protest against Reliance’s power project in UP

Farmers from eight villages in Ghaziabad’s Hapur tehsil are protesting
the acquisition of about 1,011 hectare of land by Reliance Energy
Generation Ltd (REGL) for construction of the “world’s largest gas-based
plant”. The villagers allege that the government has taken away their
land without their consent at throw-away prices. Many have not even
received any compensation. Even as they wonder why the UP government
acted as a middleman between farmers and REGL, farmers feel that such
projects should come up only on barren land. Will their voices be heard?

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

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Features: Jaggery made using time-tested method is more wholesome

Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh is the main centre for manufacture and
sale of gur (jaggery) in India. Interestingly, gur made from the
traditional method is healthier but not much in demand. The golden hued
jaggery, made by adding high doses of sulphur dioxide, is more popular
because of the perception that it is cleaner and thus safe. But that
really is not the case: the Bureau of Indian Standards specifies that
sulphur dioxide levels in gur should be below 50 parts per million. The
level invariably goes higher than this because of the indiscriminate use
of the chemical hydro. So, which type of gur will you go for?

Read online (subscription required) >>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/Full6.asp?FolderName=20070215&FileNAme=life&si
d=1&sec_id=8

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Science: Persistent organic pollutants can render vaccines ineffective

Researchers from USA and Denmark have confirmed the link between
increased exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) like
polychlorinated biphenyls and decreased antibody production in children
vaccinated against tetanus and diphtheria. Action against POPs was
initiated in the early 1970s.

Read online (subscription required) >>
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/Full6.asp?FolderName=20070215&FileNAme=sci&sid
=1&sec_id=12

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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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Jobs: Web developer needed

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CSE is hiring a web developer to help launch an exciting set of new web
initiatives for the following sites:

– cseindia.org, India’s premier website on science and environment
– downtoearth.org.in, a global fortnightly magazine on environment
– gobartimes.org, a monthly magazine for youth
– rainwaterharvesting.org, a portal on India’s water challenges
– csestore.cse.org.in, for online purchase of CSE’s information products

The candidate must exhibit an attention to detail, flair for design,
good command over English, reliability and ability to work under tight
deadlines.

Write to us to join a young team working at the cutting edge of e-advocacy.

For more details >>
http://www.cseindia.org/joinus-index.htm

E-mail your resume to jgupta@cseindia.org

Contact CSE: http://www.cseindia.org/aboutus/feedback.htm
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