How green is green?

The commonwealth Games, has the capital city of New Delhi abuzz with the word ‘green’. There is much talk of greening the games. Ministers and citizen’s alike are holding meetings to celebrate this. It seems that ‘greening’ has acquired the proportions of a virtue, and a passport of good behaviour. That is a welcome sign, for previously it was an effort to even bring such a notion to the table. However, is this real, or is this mostly ‘greenwash’ entailing superficial actions, with no real benefits? Let us see.

Over 100,000 trees have been cut for the games, leaving many streets bare and dusty. Previously soft, water absorbent earth stretches such as in flood drains (which streak through the city), grassy pavements, hedges on central aisles have been replaced by heat emitting concrete, poured mercilessly over the earth to make roads and parking lots. Large tracts of wooded areas, such as the 27.7 acres Siri Fort sports complex (Chartes Correa report to the Supreme Court of India) have been cleared to make stadiums. The riverbed has been converted from a sandy bank to athletes’ residences, metro stations, flyover stretches, power stations, bypass roads and barricaded off. Several large populations of people living in shanty towns have been put out of sight on the outskirts of the city. The Delhi Ridge forest, previously a hallowed ground, has now been dug up of the metro lines, and is being surrounded by high walls to prevent illegal entry by any destructive other!

Delhi's waste generation is higher than ever. Urban solid waste exceeds 7000 mt per day and the landfills are choking. As a remedy, the municipality wishes to convert the reserve Ridge forest into a landfill. Less than 70 % of its 60 mt of medical waste is collected or treated properly even as over 17 incinerators continue to pollute the city, all of which are located in Government Hospitals. Hazardous waste to the tune of over 5000 mt per annum continues to be produced from its large number of metal, steel, electroplating and recycling units. Over 12000 mts of e waste is recycled under very hazardous conditions each year, throwing up strong acids, heavy metals, dioxins and furans into the air and water. Now as we have seen recently, city hospitals may be throwing out their radioactive waste in scrap yards, posing a deadly danger to people. Mercury is freely available in chemical markets here, which are a tinderbox anyway. Most of its 17 sewage treatment plants work below capacity, and mix the ‘recycled’ water back into the untreated drains, only to be dumped into the now dead river Yamuna. The coliform count here exceeds all numbers and even if it is completely cleaned there is no fresh water in it anyway – only sewage.

Meanwhile those who are earning their livelihoods from recycling waste continue to be more marginalized. There is evidence of new exploitations by the companies which have taken over water collection activities through PPP arrangements, as they now wish to 'corner' the large over 10 crore rupee trade as annual trade on plastics and metals. The government cannot decide if such people provide a service to the community or not. It swings between ignoring them, or outrightly banning them. The poor are not welcome in the city. On the other hand, the city has over 50 million vehicles already, and this is a growing number. Car parking takes up more space than the non-existent pedestrian walks, and aggression on the road belays any claims of Indians being of a peace loving nature. While the elite use more than 450 liters of drinking water per day, many cannot avail of even 30 litres. The ground water table is falling rapidly. Even so the sales of bottled water at 10 rupees liter is soaring which is incomparable to the 3 rupees per thousand liters supplied by the Jal Board. Who says the city cannot afford better? The list can go on.

So how ‘green’ can a Commonwealth Games be? Energy saving and waste collection in a few buildings stadium, seems like a bad joke. Try walking on the grass during the 45 deg C mid day heat, and then hop skip and jump on the burning 'concrete'. Green is not a word to be trivialed with. It takes work to earn that 'badge'.

- Ravi Agarwal