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India banned single-use plastics almost 2 years ago. Did it work?

A nearly two-year ban in India on single-use plastics (SUP) has failed to stem rampant proliferation and manufacturing of such items across the country, analysts say, putting the blame on the authorities’ “weak enforcement on the ground”. SUP products such as plastic bags, cutlery, straws, food packaging, and disposable water bottles were outlawed by the government from July 1, 2022. A senior official at the Federal Agency of Central Pollution Control Board in October 2022 admitted that the measure did not have the desired effect as SUPs, including a banned grade of carry bags, are still circulating in the low-end section of the economy. Analysts say lax supervision and a reluctance across cost-sensitive small businesses to embrace non-plastic alternatives have made the law toothless in a country that generates about 5.5 million tonnes of SUP waste annually, the New Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said in a February report. “During the first few months of the ban, actions were taken for non-compliance. Later, the authorities stopped being as watchful,” said Priti Mahesh, chief programme coordinator of environmental NGO Toxics Link in New Delhi. The regulation could have been successful if different state officials had rolled out a sustained implementation strategy and economically feasible non-plastic substitutes were available, she said.

MCD’s Parking Plan Parked For 3 Years

Three years after the notification of the capital’s parking policy, MCD has not made significant progress on the implementation of the Parking Area Management Plans (PAMP). In 2020, MCD prepared plans for at least 17 colonies and submitted these to Delhi govt’s transport department. Except for four, approvals were not granted for the rest, MCD officials said. Now, MCD has decided to conduct a fresh surveys in the remaining areas as the situation on the ground has changed. Delhi govt has not commented on this matter. The existing circumstances raise questions over the implementation of the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM)’s direction until Aug 30. The committee has asked urban local bodies to develop ward-wise PAMP and increase or rationalise parking charges to discourage private vehicles during this period. Of the four approved plans, two were implemented in Lajpat Nagar III and Lajpat Nagar Market. Due to changes suggested by local people at the remaining two places — Gulmohar Park and Neeti Bagh — the plans remained stuck. The nod is still awaited for Anand Lok, Aurobindo Marg (IIT to AIIMS), Geetanjali Enclave, Green Park Extension, Kailash Colony, Kailash Hills, Punjabi Bagh banquet halls, Malviya Nagar, Panchsheel Enclave, Safdarjung Development Area, and Siddharth Extension Pocket-B from 2021. While the civic body claims a lack of support from local people, insufficient parking space and other factors affected the implementation of the plans, people argue that the authorities have no will. At Lajpat Nagar III, the parking signs installed for PAMP were being ignored. “The residents demanded changes, and there was resistance. As a result, the plan could not be rolled out properly, and funds spent went down the drain,” a resident said. People were also not in favour of parking vehicles away from their houses. In Lajpat Nagar II Central market, the market association was operating the parking when PAMP was implemented. “We ran the parking as per plan for three years, but recently the site has been tendered out to a private agency, and now, the new contractor will need to ensure the norms are fulfilled,” said Ashwani Marwah, general secretary of the Traders Association, Lajpat Nagar. MCD officials that as a priority, they plan to take up the project at Nizamuddin Basti, where stack parking is operational. “Hundreds come to the dargah in cars and buses. The plans will decongest the area,” said an official. Experts believe that PAMP will be successful only when the civic body ensures citizens' participation. Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director for research and advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment, said that three pilot projects at Lajpat Nagar, Kamla Nagar and Krishna Nagar rolled out successfully. “Two could not survive because of a lack of willingness. The idea is not to legalise parking on internal roads but arterial and sub-arterial roads should be covered. If there is excessive resistance, then regulation and enforcement is an option to automatically decongest the city, which is a long-term objective. In Shahjahanabad, the plan is implemented, and in Karol Bagh, the plan was in force as long as the administration was supervising the project. If the civic body spends funds collected through the rationalisation of parking fees on upgrading parking infrastructure, then people will come forward to support,” she said. The Delhi Maintenance and Management of Parking Places Rules, 2019, were notified in September of that year. Under the policy, civic bodies were to make PAMPs and regularise haphazard parking in residential and commercial areas. It also recommended a dynamic pricing mechanism for peak and non-peak hours. “Regarding the rationalisation of prices, we have prepared a preamble, and it is waiting for a nod from the standing committee. The city is busy throughout the day, and fixing peak and non-peak hours is not feasible. Increasing parking charges to discourage people from taking out their vehicles is the only solution,” an MCD official said.

तापमान बढ़ने से एनसीआर में जमीनी स्तर का ओजोन बढ़ रहा है: सीपीसीबी

हरियाणा : जैसे ही दिल्ली-एनसीआर में औसत तापमान 40 डिग्री सेल्सियस तक पहुंच जाता है, केंद्रीय प्रदूषण नियंत्रण बोर्ड (सीपीसीबी) ने एनसीआर के कई हिस्सों में बढ़ते जमीनी स्तर ओजोन के लिए अलर्ट जारी किया है। सीपीसीबी के आंकड़ों के मुताबिक, एनसीआर में आठ घंटे तक वायु गुणवत्ता का स्तर राष्ट्रीय परिवेशी वायु गुणवत्ता मानक 100 माइक्रोग्राम प्रति क्यूबिक मीटर को पार कर रहा है। सुबह 11 बजे से शाम 6 बजे के बीच स्तर में अधिकतम वृद्धि दर्ज की जाती है। यह ध्यान दिया जा सकता है कि आम तौर पर वायु गुणवत्ता का आकलन पीएम 2.5 या पीएम 10 जैसे कणों के संदर्भ में किया जाता है। लेकिन 2023 में, सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट (सीएसई) ने पहली बार जमीनी स्तर के ओजोन के लिए अलार्म बजाया, जिसमें कहा गया कि ओजोन एक अत्यधिक प्रतिक्रियाशील गैस जिसके गंभीर स्वास्थ्य परिणाम होते हैं। “हम दैनिक आधार पर वायु गुणवत्ता की बारीकी से निगरानी कर रहे हैं और ओजोन स्तर पर भी नजर रख रहे हैं। सेक्टर 51 मॉनिटरिंग स्टेशन, जो औसतन सबसे खराब वायु गुणवत्ता दर्ज करता है, हमारे रडार पर है। हम प्रदूषण नियंत्रण बोर्ड के निर्देशों का पालन करेंगे, ”गुरुग्राम के उपायुक्त निशांत यादव ने कहा।

Ground level ozone rising in NCR as temperature rises: CPCB

As average temperature in Delhi-NCR reaches 40°C, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has sounded an alert for the rising ground level ozone in many parts of the NCR. According to the CPCB data, the levels in NCR are crossing the national ambient air quality standards of 100 micrograms per cubic metre for eight hours. The levels register the maximum increase between 11 am and 6 pm. The authority has identified six key air quality monitoring stations. Additionally, it has asked the authorities in Haryana and UP to tap their monitoring stations in Gurugram, Faridabad, Noida and Ghaziabad, and identify vulnerable ones as the ozone levels are predicted to rise further with soaring temperatures. CPCB’s data shows that the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, Narela, Nehru Nagar and RK Puram saw high ozone levels. It may be noted that generally air quality is assessed in terms of particulates like PM 2.5 or PM 10. But in 2023, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) sounded an alarm for ground level ozone for the first time, stating that ozone is a highly reactive gas that has serious health consequences. “We are closely monitoring the air quality on a daily basis and are also looking out for ozone levels. The Sector 51 monitoring station, which on an average records poorest air quality, is on our radar. We will abide by the directives of pollution control board,” said Gurugram Deputy Commissioner Nishant Yadav. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, high concentrations of ozone near ground level can be harmful to people, animals, crops and other materials. Ozone can cause irritation in the respiratory system, aggravate chronic lung diseases such as emphysema and bronchitis, reduce the immune system’s ability to fight off bacterial infections in the respiratory system and cause pulmonary complications. Unlike stratospheric ozone, which forms naturally in the upper atmosphere and protects us from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays, ground-level (or tropospheric) ozone is created through the interactions of man-made (and natural) emissions of volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides in the presence of heat and sunlight. Cars and gasoline-burning engines are key sources of these volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs also come from consumer products such as paints, insecticides, cleaners as well as industrial solvents and chemical manufacturing. Nitrogen oxides, the other chemical precursor of ozone, are produced whenever fossil fuels are burned and are primarily produced by motor vehicles and power plants. The sun’s direct ultraviolet rays convert these emissions into ground-level ozone. Health impact According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, high concentrations of ozone near ground level can be harmful to people, animals, crops and other materials. Ozone can cause irritation in the respiratory system, aggravate chronic lung diseases such as emphysema and bronchitis, reduce the immune system’s ability to fight off bacterial infections in the respiratory system and cause pulmonary complications.

Govt issues alert on heat ailments: Anyone showing warning signs should take measures to cool down, says doctor

The state health department has published a few symptoms that should alert people about possibilities of heat-related ailments. Nausea and vomiting, headache, throbbing pain in the head, muscle cramps or weakness in muscles, rapid breathing, redness and dryness of face and the body temperature reaching 104 degrees Fahrenheit are some of the symptoms that have been mentioned. The department posted the symptoms on X on Friday morning. Bengal health services director Siddhartha Niyogi said the advisory was meant to alert people. “Common people should know these symptoms. The heat and temperature has risen so much that common people should be aware of certain symptoms,” Niyogi said on Friday. Some of the symptoms mentioned in the advisory precede heatstroke. If people become cautious and take steps to cool down, it could avert a progression to heatstroke, said Chandramouli Bhattacharya, an infectious disease specialist at Peerless Hospital. “All the symptoms will come under the broad range of heat injury, heat exhaustion and heatstroke,” said Bhattacharya. Two of the symptoms mentioned in the health department’s X post are definite signs of heatstroke, he said. These are the body temperature rising above 104 degrees Fahrenheit and fainting after exposure to heat. “Anyone with these symptoms should immediately see a doctor or go to a hospital,” Bhattacharya said. The health department’s post, too, says anyone suffering from these two symptoms must visit a health centre or a hospital. The post also says one should visit a hospital if a muscle cramp persists for an hour or more and the other symptoms keep worsening. Calcutta has been in the grip of above-normal temperatures for at least the past fortnight. The maximum temperature recorded on Thursday was 41.6 degrees Celsius, six notches above normal. On Friday, the maximum was 39.7, four degrees above normal. The extreme heat has triggered calls from scientists that the city’s authorities should prepare a heat management plan. Anumita Roy Chowdhury, the executive director of the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, said the health department’s post mentioning the symptoms was an “important step”. “Tackling health emergencies is an important part of the heat management plan. As this comes from the state health department, it will be taken seriously. It will alert people about the possible health risks during very high heat conditions and heatwaves,” said Roy Chowdhury. Scientists earlier told Metro that such extreme heat will continue to recur and the authorities should take steps to make the community more resilient to such situations. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations panel, said in its sixth assessment report (AR6 Synthesis Report) published last year that “human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming, with global surface temperature reaching 1.1°C above 1850-1900 in 2011-2020”. The report said: “Global surface temperature has increased faster since 1970 than in any other 50-year period over at least the last 2000 years.” Some people also said merely posting some symptoms on X or issuing an advisory may not be enough. The government should find ways to disseminate the information to a greater number of people.

To cut down vehicular pollution, CAQM seeks parking plan by Aug 30

New Delhi: The Commission for Air Quality Management has asked urban local bodies in Delhi-NCR to develop ward-wise parking area management plan and increase or rationalise parking charges to discourage private vehicles by Aug 30. The commission said though the Supreme Court had directed formulation of a comprehensive parking policy in 2020, nothing had materialised on the ground. Vehicular pollution is one of the prominent sources of pollution in Delhi-NCR. According to a study carried out in 2018, the contribution of transport to PM2.5 in Delhi’s air was 39% and NCR’s air 13%. In an advisory dated April 24, CAQM said the Supreme Court on Aug 10, 2020, had directed the then five urban local bodies in Delhi and other authorities concerned in NCR to frame a detailed comprehensive parking plan for the region. The commission said the apex court also took cognizance of the high contribution of the vehicular sector towards the overall AQI in Delhi-NCR in a series of hearings during the winter months of 2023-24. “During the review meetings chaired by the cabinet secretary on Jan 17, it was recommended rational parking charges, congestion or peak hour charges may be considered for disincentivising use of private vehicles. However, in another meeting held on April 10, it was observed that the rationalisation of congestion and parking charges for private vehicles are yet to be taken up by the urban local bodies in Delhi and NCR,” said CAQM.  Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy at Centre for Science and Environment, said, “This is a very important directive to restrain usage of personal vehicles and to tame congestion and pollution. This much-awaited strategy is needed to organise, demarcate and limit legal parking, penalise illegal parking and apply variable parking pricing to discourage peak time and long duration parking on the street. This requires ward-wise management plans to ensure provision of parking is not compromising the space meant for other road users like walkers, cyclists, green areas, etc. This requires urgent implementation.” We also published the following articles recently Polluting red soil not to be used at Shivaji ParkBMC advises against red soil at Shivaji Park for Maharashtra Day due to pollution. Pollution Control Board orders control. Local residents, April 20 letter, TOI, mechanical power sweeping machines, removal of red soil, Prakash Belwade involved.109574965 Racecourse land measured for Central Park planMahalaxmi racecourse land being measured by city survey for BMC's Central Park. 120 acres to be developed, 91 acres for RWITC. State cabinet approved. RWITC's lease expired in 2013.109448004 Parking row in Delhi's Mayur Vihar: Youth escapes bullet fired at him, man heldVedant narrowly escapes being shot in Mayur Vihar during a heated parking dispute. The 38-year-old suspect is arrested after firing a gun. The police intervene, leading to legal action against Chauhan.109469398

Editorial: High off the hog

NEW DELHI: Earlier this week, the Supreme Court said that the Centre should activate itself against FMCG companies if they employ misleading advertise As per the findings of an all-India survey done by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), 93% of children consumed packaged food, 68% lapped up packaged sweetened drinks more than once a week, and 53% ate these foods on a daily basis. Concurrently,

The Indian villagers who lost their homes to the sea

The gentle roar of the ocean lulled Indian mother-of-two Banita Behra to sleep each night, until one day the encroaching tide reached her doorstep. Behra is among hundreds of people from the disappearing and largely abandoned coastal village of Satabhaya, whose displaced former residents have been officially recognised by the government as climate migrants. She grew up watching helplessly with her neighbours as rising seas, driven by climate change and upriver dams, slowly claimed the land around them. "We were doing well there. We used to catch fish," the 34-year-old told AFP. "But the sea came nearer and took away our homes." Satabhaya is the hardest-hit of several rural idylls along the seafront in eastern Odisha, a state that has also been battered in recent decades by tropical cyclones and floods of increasing ferocity. Behra's home is now underwater, 400 metres out to sea, while a few of her neighbours who refused to move live in makeshift thatched huts by the new shoreline. A weathered brick wall is all that remains of what was once a seaside temple to Panchubarahi a locally revered Hindu deity supposed to protect worshippers from natural disasters. Last year the Odisha government announced funds for a resettlement colony in Bagapatia, 12 kilometres inland from their village, giving each family a small plot of land and $1,800 to build a new house. Authorities said the scheme was the first of its kind in India for those forced to leave their homes by climate change. But life in Bagapatia has been tough for the new arrivals: without seas to fish and farmland to cultivate, many are depressed by having lost their self-reliance and way of life. In order to survive, most of the community's men have had to take jobs to work as labourers out of state. Behra's husband is now away 10 months of the year, working on the opposite side of the country and sending money home to provide for their two young children. "We miss him, some days I feel like crying," she said. "But what can we do?" Rising global temperatures driven by human activity have led to a consequent rise in global sea levels with the melting of polar ice caps. Odisha, where millions of people live in coastal settlements along the Bay of Bengal, is particularly vulnerable to the encroaching waters. Satabhaya sits at the mouth of the mighty Mahanadi River Delta and its coasts were once replenished by earth carried by the currents from inland. But an upriver dam-building spree in the decades since India's independence from Britain in 1947 drastically cut the amount of sediment deposited where the waterways met the sea. That left Odisha's coasts vulnerable to erosion and lacking a critical defence against rising sea levels. Across the state, sea levels increased by an average of 19 centimetres in the five decades to 2015, according to a 2022 paper coauthored by researchers from the state's Berhampur University. Tamanna Sengupta of India's Centre for Science and Environment think-tank told AFP that Odisha had the highest number of villages severely impacted by coastal erosion in the country. The crisis had been worsened by the "growing frequency and intensity" of cyclones and floods in the area, she added. "Locals have been displaced and those who remain are at risk of losing their homes to intensifying floods," Sengupta said. India remains heavily reliant on coal for energy generation and is the world's third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, the gas chiefly responsible for rising global temperatures.

Bengaluru’s Water Future

I wrote last time how Bengaluru’s water crisis is human-made. This crisis is not about the lack of water, but about how the city managers have invested in a system that is both capital- and resource-intensive and how this leads to unsustainable water supply and inadequate sewage management. This crisis is then exacerbated by climate change, which is adding to greater variability in rainfall and extreme rain events. What, then, is the way ahead? The key to a water-secure future for Bengaluru, and indeed for all our cities, is that water supply must be affordable. Only then can it be sustainable. In the case of Bengaluru, water is sourced from the Cauvery, some 100 km away, pumped up and transported. This means the cost of water is high. Worse, the longer the distance, the more is the water leakage. In the case of Bengaluru, water leakage is roughly 50 per cent. In Delhi, which also sources its water from a distance and then transports it across the length and breadth of the city, the loss is a whopping 60 per cent. This means, the water that is finally available after leakage or loss, is even more expensive to supply. This also means, industries and households either do not get the supply as the agencies cannot invest in new pipelines; or, if the cost of water is high, they prefer to look for other options—from tankers to digging borewells. In Bengaluru, it is estimated that half the water supply comes from its underground aquifers. The problem is, groundwater is not accounted for—the water and sewage boards discount its usage because they do not control its supply. In most cases, they do not even have any estimation of how much water is being sourced from below the ground, as against the “officially” supplied and billed water. The only way to do the math is to estimate the water demand of the city—this is done on a per capita basis, assuming a quantity for each person’s requirement in different classes of cities. Bengaluru and Delhi, for instance, have recommended water supply of 150 litres per capita per day and 15 per cent over and above this, for leakage. The gap between the “official supply” and demand is then assumed to be from groundwater. But this is often underestimated because the massive losses are not measured. In the case of Bengaluru, the gap is 50 per cent; it will be safely 60-70 per cent after accounting for water leakage. This is where the opportunity lies. If city managers accept that aquifers are a critical source of drinking water and make it part of the city’s water-secure future, it will change the equation. The question then would be how groundwater can be used sustainably. This is where the answer of recharging through rainwater becomes the real kicker. Conservation of lakes, and not just cosmetic beautification, becomes a necessity. The fact is, lakes and other waterbodies are sponges of a city; they hold excess rainwater and recharge the groundwater for times of scarcity. As climate change raises the specter of more rain in fewer days, all cities will need to drain their flood. If cities do this in a way that helps recharge their aquifers, they can survive prolonged periods of water scarcity and drought. Bengaluru, like most other cities of India, had an intricate system of lakes, so that the overflow of one would spill to the next and then the next. But this was studiously discounted because our highly trained water managers only focus on “big” engineering solutions of transporting water in pipelines. The city, over the past many decades, has been fighting a battle to protect its waterbodies—but losing to land development and also to pollution. The 2011 report on lakes submitted to the state high court estimated that there were 189 lakes in Greater Bengaluru and said that not only the lake but even the catchment and drainage need to be protected—without any real success. Lakes can be protected only if they become part of the water-wise futures of our cities. If Bengaluru did not have the mirage of bringing water from 100-km away Cauvery, it would have invested in the protection of its local water systems—from rainwater harvesting to lake conservation. These would then have been part of the water supply infrastructure, making water supply less expensive and thus more affordable. This, in turn, would have required water boards to rework the paradigm of sewage management so that the wastewater could be intercepted locally, taken to treatment plants and then used to recharge lake water. The fact is, we discharge as much as 80 per cent of the water that is supplied as sewage. Its availability is more secure than water transported over distances. This is why excreta matters. But all this requires changing the mindset of our water managers, and I am not sure how many more droughts this will take. (Writer is Director General of CSE and editor of Down To Earth, an environmentalist who pushes for changes in policies, practices and mindsets; https://www.downtoearth.org.in)

Down to earth: report: Fishy deaths, The mystery of large-scale fish fatalities in the Yamuna near Agra and the conflicting official theories

Mr. Prabhanjan Verma under the title “Down to earth: report: Fishy deaths, The mystery of large-scale fish fatalities in the Yamuna near Agra and the conflicting official theories”. Such incidents are common and in the subsequent period, occurrence of incidents has become more frequent and prominent, particularly, close to some townships or populated area.

The curious case of Delhi’s disappearing water bodies

The area next to the primary school run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in East Delhi’s Khichripur is like many other parts of the city: a group of shacks, stinking from the overflowing waste dump, and the cattle rummaging through it. But the nondescript neighbourhood successfully hides a secret – it used to be a water body. Like many others, the location has been categorised for years in Delhigovernment records as an “encroached” water body, without any chance of recovery. It is a small part of the larger story of how water bodies have disappeared from the city’s landscape. Despite Delhi witnessing the worst flood in its history last year, there seems to be no improvement in the miserable state of water bodies in the city, which could hold extra water and help in flood mitigation. Deletion requests In fact, the situation is actually getting worse. Official data accessed by The Hindu shows that the different government agencies that control these areas have requested the ‘deletion’ of 232 water bodies – over 22% of the 1,045 water bodies in Delhi – from the official records, due to encroachment and other reasons. The number of deletion requests received by the Wetland Authority of Delhi (WAD) has increased from 214 in 2022 to 232 in 2024. Data shows that there is hardly ever any recovery of water bodies from such encroachments. Despite calls and messages, the Delhi government did not offer any official comment on the issue. However, a Delhi government official said that they have not yet deleted any water body from the official list despite requests by different government bodies. Ground truthing on Over a year ago, Geospatial Delhi Limited (GSDL), a Delhi government-owned company, used satellite images to identify 321 more water bodies in Delhi. However, the details of these water bodies and who owns them are yet to ascertained, multiple officials confirmed to The Hindu. “After the GSDL sent the list of 321 more possible waterbodies, the Delhi government confirmed using GPS coordinates that these were other than the 1,045 waterbodies as per the existing list. The list was then forwarded to the Revenue Department to do a ground truthing exercise, to confirm their status, but the department is yet to complete the exercise,” an official source told The Hindu. The Union Ministry of Jal Shakti has also sent a list of eight more possible water bodies to the WAD, but these are also yet to be confirmed. If all the water bodies are confirmed as different from existing ones, then the total number of water bodies in the city could reach 1,374. No wetlands notified The government is also supposed to notify water bodies that fit the definition of “wetlands”, so that they can get legal protection from encroachments or waste dumping, and to facilitate efforts to rejuvenate them. However, not a single wetland has been “notified” in Delhi, seven years after the Union government came out with the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017, which made it mandatory for all States and Union Territories to form State wetland authorities and identify and notify all wetlands, according to officials. Wetlands are vital parts of the hydrological cycle, which support rich biodiversity and provide a wide range of ecosystem services such as water storage, purification, ground water recharge, flood mitigation, erosion control, and microclimate regulation. Victims of unplanned growth Delhi has largely lost its wetlands to unplanned growth and encroachment, according to experts. Depinder Singh Kapur, director of the water programme at the Centre for Science and Environment, said that Delhi had started losing its wetlands from the 1970s, when migration and urbanisation increased. “There were a lot of wetlands along the Yamuna’s floodplains and almost every village in Delhi had ponds. But most of them have been filled up and built over, either by the government or private individuals illegally,” he said. Mr. Kapur said that the government should try not only to monitor existing water bodies, but should also create new ones. “Selected areas should be converted to water bodies, rather than using it for commercial purposes,” he said.

Spike in fossil fuel lobbyists at UN talks to cut plastic pollution: CIEL analysis

NEW DELHI: Around 196 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists have registered for the United Nations negotiations on the first global treaty to curb plastic pollution in Ottawa, according to an analysis by the Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL), a nonprofit law This represents a 37% increase in the number of registered industry representatives from the 143 lobbyists registered at the third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in November last year, the analysis released on Thursday said. It added that fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists outnumber the combined 180 representatives of the European Union delegations. “The total number of fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists registered is three times greater than the 58 independent scientists from the Scientists’ Coalition for An Effective Plastic Treaty and seven times greater than the 28 representatives of the Indigenous Peoples Caucus. 16 lobbyists for the fossil fuel and chemical industry registered across nine different country delegations, including four in Malaysia, three in Thailand, two in Iran and the Dominican Republic, and one each in China, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Turkey, and Uganda,” CIEL, which used registration data provided by the U.N. Environment Programme, which is overseeing the talks, said. The Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) collectively registered 73 representatives, meaning they are outnumbered more than two to one compared to the fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists, the analysis added. Negotiators started talks on Tuesday on a proposed global treaty to reduce plastic pollution, which is found everywhere from mountain tops to ocean depths. In 2022, countries agreed to finalise a treaty by the end of 2024 with concrete measures to battle plastic pollution around the world. The meeting in Ottawa is the penultimate session before a final round of negotiations in South Korea later this year. Around 99% of plastics are derived from fossil fuels, and the fossil fuel industry continues to clutch plastics and petrochemicals as a lifeline. The chemical and fossil fuel industries oppose cuts to plastic production, falsely claiming that the plastics crisis is not a plastic problem, but a waste problem. “The outcome of these talks is of critical importance to countries and communities around the world, and it is vital to expose and confront the role of corporations whose agendas are fundamentally in conflict with the global public interest. Access to the negotiations is just one piece of the puzzle. Some may argue that everyone enjoys equal access, but that is simply not true. Lobbyists are appearing on country delegations and are gaining privileged access to Member State-only sessions, where sensitive discussions unfold behind closed doors. Beyond the troubling number of lobbyists present at the negotiation talks, behind-the-scenes industry lobbying activities and events take place around the world in the months leading up to negotiations,” said Delphine Levi Alvares, Global Petrochemical Campaign Coordinator at the Center for International Environmental Law. Plastic pollution activist Satyarupa Shekhar said: “We know that fossil fuels are causing the climate crisis, and we know that oil and gas companies have spent massive amounts of money misleading the public and politicians about climate science. There were nearly 2,500 industry lobbyists at COP28, and nearly 200 are at the ongoing Global Plastics Treaty negotiations in Canada. They are bombarding Treaty delegates with advertisements on taxis and trucks. They are hungry for huge profits and do not care if the world goes up in literal flames.” HT reported on April 17 on a Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) report on companies increasing oil and gas production for polymers, in anticipation of a serious response to climate change that could curb the production of fossil fuels. The global report titled “Global Plastic Treaty Negotiations” also highlighted that India, Russia, the United States of America, and China in certain cases, are not agreeable to reducing primary plastic polymer production; reducing chemicals from polymer production; or phasing out single-use plastic. This is based on an analysis by CSE researchers of submissions made by countries during INC negotiations. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), up to 99% of plastics are made from polymers derived from non-renewable hydrocarbons (crude oil and natural gas). Polymers, commonly known as plastics, are larger units of smaller molecules (monomers) that are joined together by chemical bonds. The International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) in their factsheet said many harmful chemicals are used during the production of plastics, either as building blocks for the plastic material itself (such as bisphenols) or as additives to provide certain properties such as durability, colour, flexibility, or other qualities. The impact on human health from these chemicals can be profound. Even small exposures can result in disruptions to reproductive systems, impaired intellectual functions, delays in physical development, and cancer. For example, endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) from some plastics are linked to health problems at very low doses.

सावधान, नदियों की जान ले रही है आपके घर में लगी पानी की समर…

आज़ादी के बाद से अभी तक भारत में कई बड़ी नदियां या तो गायब हो चुकी हैं या सिमट रही हैं. जिस देश में नदी किनारे त्योहार मनाए जाते हों, नदियों को पूजा जाता हो, वहां नदियों की बदहाली चिंता का विषय है. गंगा के हालात सुधारने के लिए नमामि गंगे जैसे प्रोजेक्ट्स हैं लेकिन बहुत सी ऐसी नदियां हैं जिनकी सुध किसी ने नहीं ली. हिंदू धर्म में मृत्यु के बाद अंतिम संस्कार और फिर गंगा में अस्थि विसर्जन की परंपरा है. गंगा ने तो पाप धो दिए लेकिन क्या आप और हम किसी नदी की हत्या के पाप से मुक्त हो पाएंगे? जल पुरुष डॉ. राजेंद्र सिंह कहते हैं कि कुछ साल पहले तक देश में 75 हजार से ज्यादा छोटी-बड़ी नदियां थीं जिनमें से करीब आधी नदियां सूखकर बरसाती नदियों में तब्दील हो गईं या गायब हो गईं. इंडिया वाटर पोर्टल की एक रिपोर्ट में बताया गया है कि आजादी के वक्त भारत में लगभग 30 लाख वाटर बॉडी थीं लेकिन ज्यादा इस्तेमाल, लगातार दोहन और बदलते पर्यावरण की वजह से लगभग 20 लाख तालाब, कुएं, पोखर और झील सूख गए. गिरता भूजल स्तर बना नदियों की मुसीबत विशेषज्ञ मानते हैं कि गिरते भूजल स्तर और नदी के पानी का सीधा कनेक्शन है. यानी भूजल गिरेगा तो नदी का पानी भी खत्म होगा. राजस्थान और हरियाणा में 20 प्रतिशत स्थानों का भूजल स्तर 40 मीटर या इससे ज्यादा नीचे जा चुका है. गुजरात में 12 प्रतिशत, चंडीगढ़ में 22 प्रतिशत और मध्य प्रदेश में 4 प्रतिशत स्थानों का भूजल स्तर 40 मीटर या इससे ज्यादा नीचे चला गया है. गिरते भूजल स्तर की वजह से भी कई नदियों ने अपना अस्तित्व खो दिया. उत्तर प्रदेश के बदायूं जिले की भैंसोर, असवार जैसी नदियां वक्त के साथ सूखती गईं तो बदायूं से सटकर बहने वाली सोत नदी का प्रवाह भी कई साल पहले ही खत्म हो गया. कहां गई गुरुग्राम की साहिबी नदी? हाल ही में दुबई में भारी बारिश से बाढ़ के हालात पैदा हुए तो बहुतों को गुरुग्राम याद आ गया. वही गुरुग्राम जहां बारिश के मौसम में अक्सर नाव चलाने की नौबत आ जाती है. दुबई और गुरुग्राम को लेकर सोशल मीडिया पर काफी मीम्स भी बने लेकिन क्या किसी ने सोचा कि ऐसे हालात क्यों होते हैं. दरअसल गुरुग्राम में एक नदी हुआ करती थी जिसका नाम था साहिबी जिसे सीबी भी कहा जाता था. ये नदी जयपुर के जीतगढ़ से निकलकर अलवर, रेवाड़ी, गुरुग्राम होते हुए दिल्ली के नजफगढ़ नाले में मिल जाती थी और यह बारिश पर निर्भर थी. कहा जाता है कि साल 1980 तक इस सीबी नदी में पानी था. फिर बारिश कम होने की वजह से ये नदी सूखती चली गई और फिर अलवर से लेकर गुरुग्राम तक इस नदी पर जगह-जगह प्लॉट काटकर बिल्डिंग बना दी गईं. गुरुग्राम को हाई क्लास जगह बनाने की होड़ में एक नदी कहां खो गई किसी ने ध्यान भी नहीं दिया. गुरुग्राम ही नहीं कई ऐसे शहर हैं जो नदियों के किनारों को काट कर बसाए गए और धीरे-धीरे वो नदियां सूखती चली गईं. क्या घग्गर-हकरा का नाम सुना है आपने? घग्गर-हकरा नदी कभी अपने किनारों पर मौजूद समृद्ध सभ्यताओं का प्रतीक थी. ऐतिहासिक रूप से इस नदी ने प्राचीन सिंधु घाटी सभ्यता को बनाए रखने, कृषि, परिवहन और घरेलू जरूरतों के लिए पानी उपलब्ध कराने में महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभाई, फिर धीरे-धीरे लगातार दोहन के साथ-साथ बांधों और बैराजों के निर्माण के कारण ये लुप्त होती गई. आज इस नदी का जो अवशेष बचा है वो महज एक मौसमी धारा है जो मॉनसून की बारिशों के दौरान हिमाचल प्रदेश के शिवालिक पहाड़ों में शिमला के पास से निकलकर हरियाणा के कालका से अंबाला और पंजाब से गुजरती है. यहां से यह राजस्थान में दाखिल होती है. मीठी और कुमारी नदी का क्या हुआ? सीएसआर जर्नल की हालिया रिपोर्ट के मुताबिक, मीठी नदी जो कभी मुंबई शहर से होकर गुजरने वाला एक महत्वपूर्ण जलमार्ग थी वो धीरे-धीरे सिर्फ एक नाला बनकर रह गई. इस नदी ने शहर के जल प्रवाह को विनियमित करने, अतिरिक्त वर्षा जल को अरब सागर में बहाने और इसके किनारे बसे समुदायों के लिए जीवन रेखा के रूप में काम करने में महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभाई थी. लेकिन अतिक्रमण और प्रदूषण ने इसका रंग-रूप ही बदलकर रख दिया. कुमारी नदी को कभी चेन्नई के लिए जीवन रेखा माना जाता था लेकिन आज ये एक प्रदूषित और उपेक्षित जलस्रोत बन कर रह गई है. हैदराबाद की मूसी नदी ने शहर के सामाजिक-आर्थिक परिदृश्य को आकार देने में महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभाई, फिर वक्त बदला और शहरीकरण की मार से ये नदी भी बच नहीं पाई. संकट में है बड़ी नदियों का भी अस्तित्व ज्यादा वक्त नहीं बीता है जब सुंयक्त राष्ट्र ने चेताया था कि हिमालय की नदियां सिंधु, गंगा और ब्रह्मपुत्र का जलस्तर तेज़ी से नीचे जा रहा है. इस वजह से साल 2050 तक लगभग ढाई सौ करोड़ लोगों को पानी मिलना बहुत कम हो जाएगा. गंगा से यमुना तक, गोदावरी से कावेरी तक, बड़ी से बड़ी छोटी से छोटी नदी का अस्तित्व संकट में है. साबरमती नदी जो कभी गुजरात के लिए जीवन रेखा थी, उस पर भी तेजी से शहरीकरण, औद्योगीकरण और दोहन का भारी असर पड़ा है, जिससे यह सिकुड़ने लगी है. कई योजनाएं बनाई जा रही हैं लेकिन नदियों की बदहाली पर कोई रोक नहीं लग पा रही है. पर्यावरणविद् डॉ जीतेंद्र नागर का कहना है कि अभी कई और ऐसी नदियां हैं जो विलुप्त होने के कगार पर पहुंच चुकी हैं. देश की राजधानी से सटे गाजियाबाद की हिंडन हो या दिल्ली का नजफगढ़ नाला ये सब पहले नदियां थीं लेकिन बदलते वक्त के साथ आज ये इतनी बुरी हालात में पहुंच गई हैं कि नाला बन कर रह गई हैं. कैसे होती है एक नदी की मौत? जलपुरुष के नाम से विख्यात डॉ. राजेंद्र सिंह का कहना है कि जो जलधारा 14.6 किलोमीटर लंबी है तो उसे भी नदी कह सकते हैं. नदी के मरने या सूखने की वजह यह है कि भूजल भंडार खाली हो रहा है. नीति आयोग की रिपोर्ट के हिसाब से 62 प्रतिशत भूजल के भंडार ओवरड्राफ्ट हैं यानी जितना रिचार्ज होता है उससे ज्यादा डिस्चार्ज हो जाता है. भूजल खाली होने से नदी में पानी नहीं आ रहा. जिन नदियों में थोड़ा-बहुत पानी है वो गंदे नाले की तरह बहती हैं. ये जो भूजल खाली हो रहा है इसलिए नदियों में पानी नहीं आ रहा है. हमारे यहां दो तरह के भूजल के भंडार होते हैं, एक अधोभूजल होता है और एक भूजल होता है. हमने दोनों तरह के भूजल का पानी निकाल लिया इसलिए जो पानी नदियों में बहता था वो पानी हमारी ट्यूबवेल, बोरवेल, सबमर्सिबल पंप ने खाली कर दिया है. आगे राजेंद्र सिंह का कहना था कि जिस देश की नदी सूखती है उस देश की सभ्यता सूख जाती है या यूं कहें कि सरिता सूखती है तो सभ्यता भी सूख जाती है. साथ ही नदी के स्वास्थ्य और इंसान के स्वास्थ्य का गहरा रिश्ता है. स्वस्थ्य नदी मतलब साफ पानी और साफ पानी मतलब बेहतर सेहत. भारत की आधे से ज्यादा नदियां सूख कर मर गईं और जो बची हैं वो आईसीयू में भर्ती हैं. उनकी हालत इतनी ज्यादा खराब है कि उन्हें नदी कह ही नहीं सकते. उनको कहेंगे कि वो गंदे नाले हैं. ये जो हमारे हालात हैं वह हमें आने वाले बड़े खतरे का एहसास करवाते हैं. नदियों के सूखने या सिकुड़ने की वजह सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एन्वायरमेंट में बतौर सीनियर प्रोग्राम मैनेजर काम कर रहीं सुष्मिता सेन गुप्ता ने बताया कि अतिक्रमण और प्रदूषण ही नदियों के गायब होने की सबसे बड़ी वजह हैं. हालांकि सरकार नमामि गंगे जैसे प्रोजेक्ट्स ला रही है, मगर इनका व्यापक असर अभी तक देखने को नहीं मिल सका है. यानी काम हो रहा है जिसका बड़ा असर दिखना अभी बाकी है. साथ ही सुष्मिता का ये भी कहना था कि ग्राउंड वाटर रिचार्ज के सही तरीके न अपनाए जाने के कारण आने वाले दिनों में बड़े जल संकट का सामना करना पड़ सकता है. जो हाल पिछले दिनों बेंगलुरु का हुआ वो अगर बाकी बड़े शहरों में भी हो तो ज्यादा हैरानी की बात नहीं होगी. भूजल का लगातार होता दोहन नदियों के सूखने में एक बड़ी भूमिका निभा रहा है. साथ ही तेज़ी से घटते पेड़ और नदियों के किनारे बढ़ती आबादी भी नदियों की बर्बादी का कारण है. आज जरूरत है ऐसे कड़े कानूनों की जो भूजल का दोहन रोक सकें जो नदियों के बिगड़ते हाल को सुधार सकें और सबसे ज़रूरी बात यह है कि ये कानून महज कागजी न बन कर रह जाएं, इनका कड़ाई से पालन भी हो. विलुप्त हुई नदियों को तो हम वापस नहीं ला सकते लेकिन जो नदियां सूख रही हैं या सिकुड़ रही हैं उन्हें बचाने की कोशिश तो की ही जा सकती है.

Southern African drought primarily driven by El Nino, massive blow to food security, health: Study

February was the driest month since 1981 for most of Zimbabwe, Zambia and parts of Botswana and Angola, according to official reports. It was among the top three driest months for most of Malawi and Mozambique. [...] These types of droughts are projected to happen about once every 10 years in the current climate. But, when El Nino is taken into account, the likelihood of severe droughts occurring during El Nino years doubles, according to the report by scientists from Zambia, Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. [...] “Effectively tackling the multifaceted impacts of drought calls for tailored interventions that account for specific chronic vulnerabilities of diverse groups,” the authors of the new report highlighted. This includes small-scale subsistence farmers, wildlife as well as people grappling with pre-existing health and socio-economic adversities throughout Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique, they added. According to the scientists’ assessment, maintaining strong traditional land governance systems and integrating them into contemporary frameworks appropriately seem to be essential for sustainable land management and reducing southern Africa’s vulnerability to drought. Source(s): Down To Earth

Why Indian cities need ‘Water Urbanism’

India is one of the most water-stressed countries in the world according to a report by the NITI Aayog. The country is home to nearly a fifth of the world’s population, but it has only 4% of global water resources. Add to this the rapid depletion of freshwater resources and increasing urbanisation, and you have a country whose urban centres are perennially fighting water crises today. Bengaluru has become a cautionary tale in that regard for most Indian cities. Data from the Ministry of Jal Shakti reveals that since Independence, the annual per capita availability of water in India has fallen by 75%, from 6,042 cubic metre in 1947 to 1,486 cubic metre in 2021. Any area that has a per capita availability of less than 1,700 cubic metres is considered ‘water-stressed’. The overall availability of water in the reservoirs and river basins in the country has also dropped severely. According to data released by the Central Water Commission (CWC) on April 18, key reservoirs in India were at their lowest in March compared to the level around the same time in the last five years. The reason for this massive shortfall was attributed to an El Nino-induced bad monsoon last year, the worst since 2018. The season brought one of the driest Augusts for the country. A Multi-Front Battle: Climate change and population growth exacerbate the challenge. Growing temperatures, depleting surface and groundwater reserves, and fluctuating rain patterns that mark unpredictable monsoons – causing floods in some areas and droughts in others – have complicated the battle against water-related issues. A UN report released in March last year warned that India is expected to be the most severely affected country as the global urban population facing water scarcity grows from 933 million in 2016 to 1.7-2.4 billion people in 2050. Experts cite several reasons for the crisis. Given that water is a state subject, there are often political tussles over sharing the resource. The Mahadayi Water Dispute between Goa and Karnataka and the Cauvery row between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are only a few cases in point. Groundwater makes up for 48% of the urban water supply in India, according to a report by the Centre for Science and Environment. But in seven of the country’s 10 most populated cities, groundwater tables have fallen drastically over the past two decades. In rural areas too, groundwater is one of the most important sources for domestic supply and farm irrigation, but overexploitation due to unchecked borewell or tubewell usage has led to rapid depletion of this resource. In many cities, groundwater levels have declined at rates much faster than the annual limit of 20 cm a year, being pushed to depths as low as 20 m in some areas. Pipe Dreams: Around 35% of India’s population lives in cities, but one in three people residing in informal settlements in urban areas still don’t have access to piped or tap water. Overall, 40% of people in urban areas in India don’t get tap water, according to the Multiple Indicator Survey in 2020-21 published by the National Sample Survey Office. Continuous piped water supply remains a dream for most urban Indians. In addition to this, urban water bodies like rivers, lakes and ponds are usually heavily polluted. Experts feel that the prime reason for water crises in urban areas is the absence of ‘water urbanism’, a concept that posits that water must be understood within the context of the urban ecosystem. Rainfall, water retention, rainwater harvesting, industry and agriculture use, recycling and sewage are all seen as part of an urbanised ecology that calls for the involvement of major stakeholders: civic authorities, citizens, public policy experts, etc. Bengaluru becomes a cautionary tale: Citing the case of Bengaluru, Dr. T.V. Ramachandra, coordinator of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the city’s Indian Institute of Science, says, “Bengaluru’s landscape has witnessed a 1,078% increase in paved surfaces (concrete area) with the loss of porous surfaces (loss of 88% of vegetation cover and 79% of water bodies) in the five decades between 1973 and 2023, thanks to unplanned urbanisation due to lack of coordinated good governance or fragmented governance with too many inefficient and corrupt para-state agencies.” He further adds, “Converting porous landscapes to paved surfaces has led to a lack of groundwater recharge, coupled with a simultaneous overexploitation of groundwater due to the mushrooming of high-rise buildings throughout the city.” And not just metros, even smaller cities like Lucknow, Bathinda, Jaipur and Patna are now facing water shortages due to reasons not very different from the ones mentioned above. India has all kinds of good remedies, but so far, they have existed only on paper. Urban planning, compulsory green spaces in cities, rainwater harvesting, better water management are measures that find mention in most civic plans. But the execution of these ideas in letter and spirit is the key to solving India’s deepening water problems.