We can leapfrog to the future without pollution and congestion: Anumita Roychowdhury

By: Parvinder Singh, Source: Toxics Link, Date: January 06, 2007

CSE recently came out with a study claiming that Delhi's pollution levels have turned critical this winter, could you shed light on this?

Even without looking at the air pollution figures we know from the darkened skyline that Delhi’s air quality gains will be lost this winter. Dry air has begun to get heavy with dust, smoke and particles. Calm and cool weather is blocking the dispersal of smoke and pollutants. Low-hanging shroud impairs visibility, chokes lungs.

Our analysis of the official air pollution data shows that the particulate pollution, which is considered the most serious vis-a-vis health, had stabilised after dropping by more than 24 per cent from the 1996 levels, is threatening to rise again. Even in winters when build up of pollution is highest compared to any other part of the year -- there had been a consistent decline since 1999. This too is scaling up. Winter is a seasonal statement of the growing pollution crisis, a cyclical reminder of our inability to put into action the real solutions.

Should we be alarmed? Why only this winter? Does this mean the historic conversion to CNG has failed suddenly?

We are very concerned. The real problem of an exponential increase in the number of vehicles, particularly the diesel variants, not only remains, but continues to grow. Between 1996 and 2006, personal vehicle registrations have risen by a staggering 105 per cent. Car registrations saw an aggressive climb of 157 per cent. Diesel car have increased by a shocking 425 percent in this period. This can only have devastating impact for a city already desperate for solutions to control smoke, particulates and NOx.

Delhi phased out 12,000 diesel buses to escape from the lethal effect of toxic diesel particles. However diesel, and its polluting fumes, is making a comeback through personal transport, threatening to nullify the air quality gains made in the past years. According to a very conservative estimate, the particulate emissions from the diesel cars in Delhi equals that from nearly 30,000 diesel buses. The benefits of the CNG switch and other measures including improvement in vehicle technology and fuel quality will be lost if the vehicle numbers are not controlled.

You have been at the fore-front of the decade-and-half clean air campaign that has made air-pollution a important issue in public perception. Can share with our readers how has the nature of pollutants changed over the recent years?

We are noticing significant shifts in air quality trends in Delhi. Among the key pollutants that are routinely monitored by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), particulates have continued to remain a grave cause for worry given their very high levels despite stabilistaion. But sulphur dioxide levels have dropped much below the permissible levels largely due to coal substitution by the industries and lowering of sulphur levels in the transport fuels.

But lower SO2 levels should be interpreted with caution as much of this primary pollutant may also convert into sulphate particles through atmospheric transformation that are more deadly. Dramatic reduction in carbon monoxide despite the growing number of petrol cars in the city is a success story. But the major cause of worry today is the rising NOx levels, which is not only very harmful as a primary pollutant, but also aids in formation of yet another very harmful pollutant -- ozone. This trend here is consistent with global experience. All pollution control measures that have targeted to reduce CO, hydrocarbons and particulates have increased NOx as a deadly trade off. This is a challenge for the future. Indian cities will have to design control strategies that will help to resolve the trade offs.

Can you briefly share with us the shortcoming of the current emission standards, particularly with regards to diesel vehicles?

Diesel engine presents a very special engineering challenge in reducing both particulate matter and NOx emissions, simultaneously and significantly. The available engineering solutions to reduce particulates increases NOx. Due to these limitations of diesel engine, emissions regulations worldwide traditionally have allowed diesel vehicles to emit more NOx and particulate matter in comparison to petrol vehicles. Under the Euro-III emissions standards currently in force in Delhi, diesel cars are legally allowed to emit three times more NOx than petrol cars. This means adding one diesel car to the fleet on the road is equal to adding three petrol cars. At a global level the new emissions regulations in the US and California have addressed this problem by setting one of the most stringent fuel neutral standards for all vehicles, irrespective of the fuels they run on. This has severely reduced diesel cars in the US market. Only significant technology development would allow diesel cars to live up to the US norms.

Is it high time to nail the issue of private transport vehicles?

The biggest challenge that confronts Delhi and other Indian cities -- is how to overcome the intractable problem of automobile dependence. Vehicle numbers continue to grow, leading to congestion, pollution and unsafe roads. This is symptomatic of the mobility crisis that has resulted from wrong policies that have made the cost of owning and driving vehicles abysmally low and at the same time ignored to build public transport strategies.

In a statement of concern submitted to the Supreme Court a couple of years ago, we stated that the “breathing space” that Delhi gained, quite literally, because of the CNG programme can be lost if the future roadmap for pollution control in the city is not set immediately. There is need for consistent, sustained, and aggressive strategy to lower emissions from the fast burgeoning vehicle fleet in the city. The serious challenges that Delhi faces today include rapidly growing numbers of private vehicles, and increased pollution from slow and congested traffic. Inadequate public transport is leading to an increased dependence on private transport and distorted tax policy that taxes public transport at higher rates makes ownership and usage of private cars and two-wheelers attractive.

Urban planners must recognise that there are cities around the world which have demonstrated that with policies that restrain travel demand and use of personal vehicles, it is possible to reverse automobile dependence. Congestion pricing, parking levers, and land-use changes, are among the wide range of strategies available that can reduce car use.

An important way to slow down the growth in car numbers is to make a car pay for the full costs of the ecological and social damages. But the existing policies in Delhi and other Indian cities actually allow a hidden subsidy to cars as the costs of using up urban space for parking and roads, health damage, pollution, other social impacts are not recovered through taxes and road pricing. Reversal of such policies has already begun in Europe and other regions of the world. Asia’s own legend, Singapore, has shown how beginning early with traffic restraint measures, even before the mass transit systems are in place, can effectively cap the car boom. These measures have shown results. Traffic volumes have reduced. India cannot afford to delay these decisions any more.

In the end of the last year, mid-December 2006, an important inter-governmental meet brought together largest ever Asian gathering on the issue at Yogakarta in Indonesia. What are the implications of this gathering? Was it just a talk-shop or more than that?

This was one of the largest gathering on clean air issues in Asia and presents an opportunity to mobilise information and knowledge, track progress in Asian cities and expose a large number of stakeholders to the state of the science, debate, common problems and challenges pertaining to the issue. Whether such efforts -- not only this event or many other such forums -- represent opportunities or degenerate to talk shops will largely depend on the ability of the cities to translate science and information into real action and develop their own systems to benchmark progress. These forums should bring out good science on pollution control and management, draw attention to public health impacts, lay stress on the importance of preventive action and leapfrog strategy to go beyond the problem.

Do you see the issue of trans-boundary air pollution becoming a concern for the region's policymakers in the coming years?

Discussions have already begun on these issues in the Asian region and is likely to draw more political attention in the near future as individual countries begin to come under intense pressure to clean up their air.

Finally, the Asian economic boom has not really allowed consistent measures to address the issue of air pollution as the countries are too busy capitalising on the gains. Do you feel the exponential rise in air-pollution and its related health implications dampen the investment environment here?

Unfortunately, we do not organise studies in India to assess the impact of air pollution on our economy. It is a vital instrument of governance in other countries. Even in Asia, Hong Kong for instance, despite having cleaner air than the major Indian cities has begun to experience negative impact of pollution on business. A growing number of foreign executives -- and even some companies -- are leaving the city, citing the air pollution as the reason. Some companies worry pollution could cost the city its competitive edge. A recent survey of American business leaders in the region, found that 79 per cent of executives felt environmental issues are making Hong Kong less attractive to foreign companies. In India, such organised efforts have not been made to asses these dimensions of the problem. But we must be pre-warned about such sporadic instances. For rxample the way international sport events have got affected by high pollution levels. You may recall how the cricket test match in Kanpur was called-off because of smog in 2004.

Would like to share anything on the issue with our readers?

We believe it is possible to bring about change -- we can leapfrog to the future without pollution and congestion, if we can push for new technology and mobility paradigm. The seriousness of the problem requires quantum leap. It is more cost effective to leapfrog than to space out action incrementally over an inordinately long time frame. Solutions exist. We need to enable them. We have learnt from our experience and I am convinced that change is possible if there is strong public demand for clean air in our cities.

Accident at Jadugoda

Accident at Jadugoda

Demand Full Investigation and Remediation

On December 24, 2006, one of the pipes carrying radioactive wastes from the uranium mill to a storage dam had burst, discharging highly toxic wastes into a nearby creek. When released into the environment in such a hazardous manner, the radioactive wastes are deadly to the people living in the surrounding area as well as their land and water.

The accident occurred in Dungridih – a small village near Jadugoda inhabited largely by displaced families whose lands were acquired to construct two of the three storage dams, also known as tailings ponds. The tailings ponds store all the radioactive wastes generated by the milling of uranium ore in Jadugoda. Based on the experience of similar accidents in other countries, however, the negative effects on human and environmental health will impact communities living downstream, perhaps even hundreds of kilometers away. Therefore, it is imperative that the Uranium Company of India Limited (UCIL) – the owner and operator of the uranium mine, mill, pipes, and tailing ponds in Jadugoda – immediately inform downstream communities of the disaster and prevent them from using the creek water until it is certifiably safe. Until the creek is safe to use, UCIL should supply water to the impacted communities so that they can continue their necessary activities such as bathing and washing clothes. Also, UCIL may need to provide compensation for families living downstream whose livelihoods depend upon the stream, a tributary to the Subarnarekha River, either for irrigation or fishing.

It is troubling that UCIL did not have its own alarm mechanism to alert the company in cases of such a disaster. Rather, the villagers that had arrived at the scene of the accident soon after the pipe burst informed the company of the toxic spill. Even more reprehensible is the fact that the toxic sludge spewed into creek for nine hours before the flow of the radioactive waste was shut off. Consequently, a thick layer of radioactive sludge along the surface of the creek killed scores of fish, frogs, and other riparian life.

According to reports in local Hindi newspapers, UCIL has begun repairing the pipe and removing sludge from the creek. This is an important step, but there must be a comprehensive remediation plan for cleaning up the affected sites in Jadugoda and elsewhere. Based on the experience of remediation efforts in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere, some of the major action items that must be included in the plan are to:

1. thoroughly investigate the causes and impacts of the disaster, involving UCIL, appropriate state agencies, and representatives of local community organizations such as JOAR (Jharkhand Organization Against Radiation);
2. compensate the people harmed by the radioactive waste that has been accidentally discharged into the environment;
3. decontaminate the soil and streams that have been affected by the bursting of the pipe;
4. create and establish inspection mechanisms and procedures to routinely monitor the quality and safety of UCIL’s equipment;
5. regularly measure and monitor the exposure of workers and area residents to the radioactive and hazardous chemical contaminants that are generated by the mining and milling of uranium;
6. create and establish emergency response programs in order to ensure the safe, effective, and timely response to possible disasters; and
7. fully disclose to area residents UCIL’s progress in its clean-up of the disaster as well as reports of its inspections and monitoring programs.

Hindus defy pollution to bathe in Ganges festival

By Alistair Scrutton

ALLAHABAD, India, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Hindu holy men brandishing spears and tridents charged into the sacred Ganges on Monday, after threats to boycott the world's largest religious festival over pollution failed to dent devotees' fervour.

Wealthier Indians from politicians to high court judges have their own tent compounds with servants, Internet cafes and television.The ritual bathing kicked off the most auspicious day yet in the six-week Ardh Kumbh Mela, or Half Pitcher festival, where tens of millions of pilgrims gather to wash away their sins and free themselves from the earthly cycle of reincarnation.

Chanting battle cries to Lord Shiva, holy men dressed in saffron robes and other naked and ash-smeared "sadhus" ran into the river to the sound of drums for the first "Royal Bath" as dawn broke over the Ganges. "The water is dirtier than last time. It's like neglecting my mother.

This river is the source of all life," Naga Baba Triveni Puri, a naked holy man whose dreadlocked hair had not been cut in 18 years, said as he smoked cannabis after a dip. After thousands of holy men had threatened to boycott a festival that records show is more than 2,000 years old, authorities last week released fresh water from an upstream dam to clear up what many locals said was filthy and greenish water.

Industrial discharges, sewage, pesticides and the rotting remains of dead bodies have increased pollution levels in the Ganges over the years despite government promises to clean-up India's most sacred river.

WASHING AWAY SINS

Families from across India gathered well before dawn in Allahabad by the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and a mythical third river, the Saraswati, to bathe and speed their way to the attainment of nirvana or the afterlife.

Thousands of pilgrims fought for space on the crowded, sloping river banks, many filling metal pots with the sacred water to take home for ill or dying relatives. Some 15,000 police stood guard and 50,000 officials kept control of crowds expected to top five million on Monday.

"Do not dispose of dead bodies in the river," warned one poster by the environment ministry. "The Ganges is so dirty -- how can you wash your hands in this?" proclaimed graffiti on an old fort overlooking the river. Indian holy man Hari Chaitanya had led a campaign to clean the Ganges and had taken his case to court. "It is not just water but divine nectar," Chaitanya told

Reuters late on Sunday in his temple grounds as followers came by to kiss his feet and make him offerings of fruit. For many of the millions that bathed, pollution was of little concern. "All I have is a hut and I live off alms. I'm tired but very happy," said Ram Iqbal Singh, a jobless and polio-ridden villager who hobbled on crutches for three hours to reach the river.

The festival is held roughly every three years in one of four sites, with the "Maha Kumbh Mela" festival or the Great Pitcher Festival held every 12 years in Allahabad. The last one in 2001 drew some 50 to 70 million pilgrims.

This year a tent city sprung up in the 4,000 acre (1,600 hectare) festival area to house pilgrims, with facilities from temporary railway ticket offices to missing peoples' departments for the thousands of people who get lost. Stalls selling statuettes of Hindu deities competed for customers. Many poor farmers dressed only in cotton slept in the bitter cold huddled up with families to keep warm. The city of Allahabad is one of four sacred spots where Garuda, the winged steed of Hindu god Vishnu, is said to have rested while battling demons over a pitcher of divine nectar of immortality. (Additional reporting by Sharat Pradhan)

It’s all about balance sheet

Darry d' Monte

Environmentalists are fond of applying Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic to an economist: someone who knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing. Though the two social sciences seem irreconcilably antagonistic towards each other, they both derive from the same Greek root, oikos, meaning household.

Freely interpreted, economics is the science of keeping the household accounts in order, while ecology is the science of ensuring that it is sufficiently stocked with goods. Economists, on their part, believe that ecologists are irredeemably unrealistic, while the practitioners of the ‘dismal science’ are derided for being ‘resource-illiterate’.

Unknown to most people, however, there is now a respectable body of science which attempts to reconcile the two fields. From December 15 to 18, the International Society of Ecological Economics met for its ninth bi-annual conference in Delhi. It was attended by some 800 participants, including 350 from India and 30 from China. As Joan Martinez-Alier from Catalonia, the outgoing President who has written prolifically about India, observed, it was something of a mela, with things to pick and choose, staples as well as some piquant fare — a bit hot for those unused to it — and some with medicinal value. The very fact that Amartya Sen agreed to deliver the concluding address demonstrates that it is a movement whose time has come.

Most conventional economics textbooks treat real-life situations as closed systems where the waste generated becomes a resource. Any digression from this diagram is put down to ‘externalities’ which can be accounted for and costs attributed to them. However, ecological economists see that there is a one-way flow from human activity to waste, whether in material form or as pollution. Thus, a single gold ring generates 20 tonnes of mining waste. On a much more alarming scale, the spectre of global warming threatens the very survival of the planet itself — externalities gone amuck.

The ecological branch does not view economic activity as a closed system but one which is embedded in physical and social systems. The natural environment has existed well before the human economy, but the converse is not possible. If the economic system is viewed as a metabolism, there are stocks (of fossil fuels, for example) as well as flows (renewable energy). Both stocks and flows are being depleted faster than they can be replaced. Wastes like carbon dioxide are also being generated faster than nature can cope with. Alier refers to extraction from the ‘commodity frontiers’: oil from the Niger Delta or Alaska; closer home, coal, bauxite and uranium from Bihar, Orissa and Jharkhand.

An ecological economist has cited how capitalism is an economy of unpaid costs, while others prefer ironically to characterise externalities not as market failures but "cost-shifting successes". The British economist WS Jevons warned as long ago as in 1865 that coal resources would run out. However, China and India, which constitute almost a third of the world’s population, will rely on this fossil fuel for their economic growth till the middle of this century, despite having to abide by the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gases after 2012. Unlike conventional economics, the ecological variety squarely addresses the issue of the "carbon debt" – the fact that industrial countries have created global warming and ought to pay for these historical emissions.

There is also the concern that both China and India may be growing at extraordinary rates, but this does not necessarily mean that the benefits of growth are trickling down to the poor. The historian Ramachandra Guha, who has co-authored books with Alier, pointedly has titled his recent book, How Much should We Consume?, introducing a Gandhian rider to the current euphoria on the economic front. Economists tend to overlook the tricky questions of equity and distribution of resources; aggregates like GDP and per capita incomes camouflage such disparities, which is why there are more telling human development indices to measure the progress, or lack of it, of a country.

The contradictions that arise with conventional economics were vividly illustrated at the conference. Someone cited how Sir Nicholas Stern, the British economist (his academic field work was conducted in India) whose recent report on global warming has shaken many countries out of their apathy, believes that climate change is the biggest market failure of mankind. His prescription — countries currently need to spend 1per cent of their GDP to tackle climate change — typically does not address equity issues, even though Sen absolved him of such blame, stating that this was not his brief. By contrast, sustainable development requires inter-generational equity, so that in future people have access to the same resources.

However, "cost-shifting successes" were very much in evidence at a panel discussion on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which are tradable rights which industrial countries or companies can buy from their counterparts in developing countries whose emissions are below limits. Pradipto Ghosh, the environment secretary, went so far as to claim that the foreign investment in clean technologies that India expected as a result of such trading amounted to $ 8 billion in 30 months, "an economic achievement unparalleled in the country’s history". He added that the Indian carbon market sector was growing faster than any other sector, including construction, IT and biotech.

The Centre for Science & Environment in Delhi has dubbed CDM the "Cheap" Development Mechanism because it enables industrial countries to buy their way out cheaply instead of paying the true economic costs of warming the globe. Developing countries are now selling their emissions permits for as low as $ 10 to $ 25 a tonne of carbon reduced, whereas in the years to come, after developing countries also come under the Kyoto Protocol, the cost of reducing a tonne will rise to $ 200 to $ 300.

The system makes no mention of compliance and penalties for those who have polluted the atmosphere in the first place and lets them off the hook. It is this operation of the market that is unprincipled and India and China, along with other developing countries, are in effect selling themselves cheaply in the bargain. It also provides industrial countries a huge market for their technologies when they launch joint projects.

Kenneth Boulding, the American economist who was one of the founding fathers of the ecological branch, warned that since economics was based on so many assumptions — about human behaviour as homo economicus — it was unwise to make predictions, which it does with abandon. In Delhi, speakers warned that economics, instead of being seen as a theoretical body of knowledge, has become an ideology; many concepts, like "development" are self-fulfilling. They called for inclusive and humane growth, shifting from "I rationality", which is the cornerstone of economics (Alfred Marshall’s shipwrecked islander who makes the right choices), to "We rationality", implying collective choices.

Ultimately, economics has to concede that not everything can be ascribed a cost ("the best things in life are free") and it has to make room for ethical values. Given the ascendancy of neo-liberalism, including in this country, this seems a difficult task to accomplish. A speaker called for embedding corporations within socio-political structures, based on social rationality, rather than profit.

When the first joint stock company was formed in Britain in 1564, it had unlimited liability; its reintroduction may rein in reckless growth, a la Enron. Corporations ought to be compelled to adopt social and environmental goals, as responsible and accountable entities. Their ownership should be more widely dispersed and the public exercise greater scrutiny. While this may sound anathema, such reforms are called for to ensure that growth is more sustainable and just.