• Sustainable Mobility

Market size key to battery investments

While the Centre has made its intent clear on faster adoption of electric vehicles, there are a host of issues that need to be sorted out first. According to Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director — Research and Advocacy, Centre for Science & Environment (CSE), the adoption of battery swapping strategy is an option to embrace faster EV adoption. “Within that, the private sector will be encouraged to innovate business models for battery or energy services,” she says. Yet, when it comes to scale, Roychowdhury believes that an idea about the real market size is what will make a difference. This is where “we would still expect” the Centre to give a sense of what kind of market transformation “we are looking at”. Otherwise, she continues, why would businesses respond to battery swapping or battery manufacturing if there is uncertainty about the level of EV penetration in the coming years. In her view, an exclusive battery swapping policy signals delinking (the battery) from the vehicles and making it separate as an independent business for someone else to invest. However, there is a need to quantify scale in this case too as “whoever is coming into the market needs to be assured of a certain scale of the market, that is set to or expected to happen.” By the end of the day, says Roychowdhury, there is still need for a “lot more certainty” in terms of setting targets one could expect going forward so that “we don’t get caught in the typical chicken-and-egg syndrome” about what should come first. Her other concern is that the Budget is “technically not talking about allocations” except for where the grants are going to be given — there is “some promise” to the state governments about allocations. “What will really determine the transformation is how this Budget is going to activate the funding levers for what has been planned,” says Roychowdhury. Clearly, the Centre is throwing its weight behind faster EV adoption and linking it with urban development. As she elaborates, “We need to reimagine the city and then within that they have linked up the new generation policies like modernisation of building bylaws, town planning and transit-oriented development.” The provisions in the Budget along with the PLI scheme for battery chemistry and the ongoing FAME incentives will collectively define the EV trajectory across the country. Given India’s net zero target by 2070, the Deloitte Global Automotive Consumer Study 2022 indicates that the future of mobility in India is electric. More than a third of Indian consumers have expressed interest in electrified and hybrid vehicles. The Budget in this context brings about a “better alignment of policies with the overall clean air and low carbon growth path that India is now committed to after COP26,” says Roychowdhury. The direction is clear but within industry there are some anxieties like battery prices and the obvious limitation of the FAME incentives which cannot last forever. Yet, world over, EVs have become the buzzword even while carmakers are concerned about the return on investments being made. Within India, it is quite obvious that the transition will happen in the two and three-wheeler space first before expanding into cars. The internal combustion engine may be on its last lap but it will be a while before petrol and diesel are completely taken over by electric. For now, neither fuel will top a popularity poll given the crude oil price spiral which has seen their retail prices in India soar to giddy levels.

• Down To Earth

Climate Change And Agriculture: Ethiopia Farmers Utilise Smart Methods To Tackle Erratic Weather

Our climate has changed for the worse due to the prolonged burning of fossil fuels, destruction of forest cover and use of livestock farming. These have collectively caused global warming due to the accumulation of greenhouse gasses (GHG). The rising temperatures have caused erratic weather and led to an unpredictable seasonal cycle. Ethiopia, a farming-dependant nation, has also faced the brunt of these impacts. They have, however, taken steps to mitigate the effects of climate change and enhance their farming production. As noted by Susan Chacko in a Down to Earth article, 25 Ethiopian smallholder farmers were interviewed in a study led by Diana Feliciano of the University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom. The study used Mitigation options tool (MOT) to estimate the GHG emissions in farming, note mitigation choices to understand the mutual benefits, between farmers and the environment. They learned that the farmers noted changes in weather patterns, such as a rise in temperatures and reduced rainfall, rise in crop diseases, decreased yields, crop season delays and water springs disappearing. The small farmers began to use methods such as reduced tillage and adding manure to the soil to lessen the impact of climate. Smallholders are farmers in developing countries, who own and also control a small patch of land and cultivate crops in it for commercial purposes and personal use. They create small volume yields with lesser resources than large-scale farmers. Smallholders are usually not part of the formal economy due to lack of government registration, proper legal documentation, and may fail to receive benefits of agricultural laws and initiatives by the government. Smallholder farmers may produce a small volume of crops, but they are the chief food producers in third world nations and their success as noted above means an increase in food production for their nation, a better economy and a reduction in poverty. In Ethiopia, traditional inversion tillage with ploughs and harrow was practised, which destroyed the qualities of the soil’s organic matter in the long term. Reduced tillage practises disturb smaller areas of a farm and are shallower. Such practises allow the preservation of the natural structure of the soil, which in turn helps prevent soil erosion. Reduced tillage also reduces reliance on machinery and saves fuel and labour. With the additional use of manure, the soil’s organic properties and its carbon content are protected and rejuvenated. The above climate mitigation practises have led to an increase in the soil’s water retention capacity, which is a blessing for nations like Ethiopia which are largely dry and have very little rainfall. Increased water retention by the more nutrient-rich soils in Ethiopian small farms can lead to improved yields. Other climate mitigation practises employed by Ethiopian small farmers are crop rotations and planting new types of crops, which increase soil fertility, increase yields, keep pests and diseases at bay, among others. The farmers are also adopting indigenous animal breeds in small numbers, and native Desho grass strips, for farming. They are utilising boundary planting and replacing wheat with barley, which does better in shallow soil and requires less moisture. The smallholders have increased the use of fertilisers, are sowing crops earlier and storing crops as a contingency for years in which yields are low. They are also, of late, seeking government help through agricultural officers and agents, to manage their farming better.

• Industrial Pollution

The New Single-Window Green Clearance System Is Bad Political Reform

In her budget speech, Union finance minister Sitharaman expressed a need to expand the scope of the single-window green clearance portal, called ‘Parivesh’. A single-window clearance system will hasten processes designed to rationalise – perhaps even delay – ecological destruction caused by human activity. In the new framework, the environmental protection that our natural resources avail is perceived to be a hassle to the free flow of capital. As a result, the onus of creating a hassle-free business environment has fallen to agencies within the environment ministry, which are now forced to abdicate their statutory mandates. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech last week garnered a lot of attention from various quarters, as intended. But while concepts like ‘climate action’ and ‘energy transition’ adorned the speech, Sitharaman didn’t make any substantial commitment to the cause of environmental governance. The country’s foremost pollution regulatory agency, the Central Pollution Control Board, was allocated only Rs 100 crore while key institutions like the National Biodiversity Authority, the Wildlife Institution of India and the Salim Ali Center for Ornithology and Natural History had their budgets cut by 10% or more. More fundamentally, the budget speech also included crucial announcements that deserve wider discussion, especially in civil society circles and from the perspective of the shrinking democratic space in environmental decision-making. In her speech, finance minister Sitharaman expressed the need to expand the scope of the single-window green clearance portal, called ‘Parivesh’, and launched the ‘Ease of Doing Business 2.0’ mission with the idea of ‘trust-based governance’, in keeping with the Narendra Modi government’s commitment to “minimum government, maximum governance”. To understand the social impact of these announcements, it is first important to decipher the connections between these ideas that appeared in different parts of the speech, and their implications. The key terms here were “single window”, “trust-based”, “ease” and “minimum”. The overall message was for businesspeople and investors to see India as a hassle-free destination for profit-making activities. In this framework, the environmental protection that our natural resources avail is perceived to be a hassle to the free flow of capital. As a result, the onus of creating a hassle-free business environment has fallen to agencies within the environment ministry – which have now been forced to abdicate their constitutional and statutory mandates and participate in the national GDP contest. In fact, this is contrary to plain common sense. State of India’s environment The push towards ‘Ease of Doing Business 2.0’ comes at a time when India’s ecological capital has been severely degraded and is threatened by the vagaries of a warming planet. The government’s sustained focus on deregulation under the pretext of easing business without improving environmental governance has only made matters worse. In 2020, India ranked 168 in the 12th biennial Environment Performance Index, which measured the environmental performance of 180 countries. India scored below the regional average score on all five key parameters: environmental health (including air quality), sanitation and drinking water, heavy metals and waste management. India also ranked 120 out of 165 countries evaluated in the Sustainable Development Index of 2021. According to the Centre for Science and Environment’s 2021 report on the state of India’s environment, over 11,000 hectares of forest land were diverted for other uses in 22 states in 2019-2020 alone. The Lancet’s Global Burden of Disease Study in 2019 found that nearly 1.7 million, or nearly 18%, of deaths in India are attributable to air pollution. The economic cost of output lost to premature deaths and morbidity was estimated to be Rs 2.6 lakh crore, or 1.4% of India’s GDP. The surface and groundwater in the country are also under threat, with 86% of water bodies in the country ‘critically polluted’. And between 2008 and 2020, some 3.73 million people were displaced every year by floods, earthquakes, cyclones and droughts. Democratising environmental governance Given the state of India’s environment, the priority for Indian policymakers should be to strengthen the country’s environmental governance. ‘Environmental governance’ comprises the rules, practices, policies and institutions that shape how people interact with the environment. Good environmental governance is participatory, inclusive and takes into account the roles and stakes of all actors. The idea of single-window green clearance for infrastructure development has been one of the modes of governance of this government since 2018. The idea’s ultimate aim is to hasten development that is otherwise perceived to be mired in bureaucratic processes. While it’s fair to apply such a system to customs and taxation, it’s imprudent to apply the same standards to the environmental clearance processes. Investigating the environmental impacts of a project can be time consuming – and rightly so. A standard environmental impact assessment, if done right, will have to account for seasonal variations across a whole year. If a project is to come up in an already polluted area, the assessor will have to study its cumulative impacts – another time-consuming process. Add to this the time required to democratise the process in line with the principles of sustainable development, i.e. getting all stakeholders, especially the impacted communities, on board. As such, a single window clearance system designed to ‘simplify’ this process is a major political reform. It’s a change management project that involves interdepartmental coordination, redesigning business processes, document simplification and data harmonisation. It will completely overhaul the environmental governance regime and hasten processes designed to rationalise – perhaps even delay – ecological destruction caused by human activity. Arguably, a similar single-window clearance system should be for project-impacted communities to register their grievances and for the judicial system to dispose of cases on environmental crimes faster. In 2020 alone, 61,767 cases of environmental crime were registered – a 78.1% increase from 2019. To clear the backlog, courts will need to dispose of close to 237 cases a day. All these issues call into question the idea of “trust-based governance” that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed. If we go by recent decisions of the courts and tribunals, it’s clear that the only ground on which approvals for development projects have been cancelled is because regulatory agencies accepted the words of the project developers as gospel truth. Our trust in project proponents is misplaced – and a single-window system will only further benefit the proponents. The bureaucracy – in the form of a few upright and honest civil servants – around the green-clearance processes has been the principal safeguard against the unsustainable exploitation of our natural resources. It is also a way to ensure democratisation, instead of fostering a centralised clearing house. Impacted communities have various avenues, both bureaucratic and procedural, to challenge projects that impact their environment, health and livelihoods. This variety somewhat levels the playing field in a game that is heavily tilted in favour of the powers that be. Indeed, the idea of sustainable development is at the heart of the ‘Prime Minister Gati Sakthi’ scheme – the backbone of the 2022 budget. Going forward, policymakers need to incorporate the realities of our changing environment and strive to combine new economic models based on the sustainable use of resources and the principles of social equity and environmental justice. They will also have to embrace participative processes, collective decision-making and systems-thinking to withstand the social outfalls of climate change. But if they continue with business as usual, climate change won’t be our biggest problem. Dhamesh Shah is the senior technical advisor at the Lawyers Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE), New Delhi.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Spell of cleaner AQI may mean end of pollution curbs for Delhi

January 2022 saw only one “severe” air day as against six such days last January, two in January 2020, and seven in January 2019. No severe days have been recorded in February so far January 2022 saw the cleanest air in the Capital in at least seven years -- and with air quality in February generally being better, the last restrictions related to bad air may soon be removed. As daytime temperatures rise, the winter pollution season is all but over, with no “severe” air day recorded in Delhi since January 2, when the air quality index (AQI) touched 404. Since then, Delhi’s air quality has largely hovered between the “moderate” and “very poor” categories, even recording some “satisfactory” air days, with spells of rain and good wind-speed keeping pollution in check. January 2022 saw only one “severe” air day as against six such days last January, two in January 2020, and seven in January 2019. No severe days have been recorded in February so far. In terms of the average AQI of the month, January 2022, at 279, was the cleanest January since AQI was launched by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in April 2015. RELATED STORIES Manchester United star Paul Pogba reacts to Karnataka hijab row, shares Instagram story involving religious mobs Manchester United star Paul Pogba reacts to Karnataka hijab row, shares Instagram story involving 'religious mobs' Step inside Shark Tank Indias Ashneer Grovers lavish 18,000 square feet Delhi mansion. See photos Step inside Shark Tank India's Ashneer Grover's lavish 18,000 square feet Delhi mansion. See photos ED attaches funds worth <span class=webrupee>₹</span>1.77 crore of journalist Rana Ayyub ED attaches funds worth ₹1.77 crore of journalist Rana Ayyub DU starts work on infra revamp ahead of students’ Feb 17 return DU starts work on infra revamp ahead of students’ Feb 17 return No hijab in schools till matter is resolved: HC No hijab in schools till matter is resolved: HC Mrunal Thakur reveals she was ‘absolutely okay’ with her boyfriend being on a dating app: ‘I am very understanding’ Mrunal Thakur reveals she was ‘absolutely okay’ with her boyfriend being on a dating app: ‘I am very understanding’ Amid slugfest over Yogi Adityanath’s ‘Kerala’ remark, data offers reality check Amid slugfest over Yogi Adityanath’s ‘Kerala’ remark, data offers reality check This spell of relatively cleaner air is likely to lead to the last of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) restrictions falling under the “very poor” category — particularly the ban on diesel generator (DG) sets across the National Capital Region (NCR) — being lifted by the end of the month, according to officials familiar with the matter. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) released a notification dated February 8, regarding the ban on DG sets in the region, and while it has not been lifted yet, the Commission has extended the list of exemptions, also allowing the telecom and IT sectors to use DG sets. Their use was also allowed across all sectors for a maximum period of two hours if they are run on 70% gas and 30% diesel. “Based on a review of the DG set ban and several meetings held with stakeholders, a decision was taken to extend the list of exemptions to the IT and telecom industry too. In addition, non-diesel based generators will be allowed from next winter, even during GRAP,” an environment ministry official said, asking not to be named. He added that a decision on lifting the ban on DG sets altogether will also be taken soon. Last year, the Central Pollution Control Board lifted the ban on DG sets in NCR on March 5. Experts say that unlike previous year when the impact of pollution continued till the end of January, this year, the second episodic smog event of the season occurred earlier than usual with Delhi recording six straight days of “severe” air between 21 and 26 December. According to data since 2015, after November, Delhi sees a second spike in pollution between December 31 and January 6, with some “severe” days being recorded until the end of the month. “January has been quite unique this year in terms of the intensity of rain, and winter rains have been quite prolonged this year, largely eliminating peak pollution levels during the month. Instead, we saw six consecutive days of severe air in December and the impact of the episodic smog event was concentrated in December and November instead of being spaced out from October till January, highlighting the impact meteorological conditions can have on air quality,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

• Sustainable Food Systems

Experts recommend setting up of regional labs for honey testing

NEW DELHI: Experts from across the honey value chain have stressed on the need for setting up of honey testing labs by the government, better facilities for training, infrastructure and capacity building for beekeepers. They said the government needs to create a more enabling environment for holistic growth of beekeepers, who are an important part of the honey ecosystem. The experts were speaking at a virtual panel discussion organised by the India Honey Alliance, an association of honey producers, beekeepers, and technology experts recently. Naveen Patle, executive director at the National Bee Board, said while the National Honey Mission has been launched, there is a big lacuna in maintaining proper data on beekeepers, bee colonies and production. The webinar was organised to address the issues faced on-ground by beekeepers and to get insights on the various government schemes, scientific and technical information and initiatives to promote beekeeping in India. Experts agreed that beekeeping is a fragmented and unorganised sector, and that the government and the entire honey ecosystem should collaborate to take strong measures to create a robust, transparent and long-term strategy that can be implemented on ground for the betterment of beekeepers. Pankaj Prasad, additional MD, NAFED, said, “The honey production at grass-root level is highly unorganised and there is complete lack of technical knowledge for the efficient management of colonies. Further, the poor logistics and management for migration of bee-colonies is a great concern for the beekeepers. The inadequate infrastructure for production, collection, quality control and storage of honey also needs to be dealt with for tapping the potential of the honey industry at large." Sitaram Gupta, founder Samridhh Bharat Abhiyan, stressed the importance of employment generation though honey and authentic honey production through various means. He pointed out that the Processing Plant holders should open their training centres for beekeepers. He also spoke in favour of setting up of State Bee Boards. India Honey Alliance and sector experts said that labs with state-of-art, cutting-edge technologies be established across states by the government for honey testing. To be sure, private companies in India are growing the honey market through branded and packaged honey as more and more consumer turn to honey to improve health. India’s packaged honey market is dominated by Dabur. Others include Marico Ltd’s honey under the Saffola brand, Patanjali as well as Emami’s Zandu. An earlier report by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) found several Indian honey brands to be adulterated with sugar syrup. These brands allegedly failed the globally accepted nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) test, the CSE report had said. India Honey Alliance has been formed to create a unified platform for all stakeholders in the honey sector to identify issues and find solutions related to technology, training, and consumer awareness programmes.

• Solid Waste Management and Circular Economy

The role of grassroots initiatives in managing waste in cities

Most of us forget about our waste once it is discarded into dustbins or municipal garbage trucks. Municipalities and waste management companies are only at the tip of an iceberg – the formal waste sector – funded, regulated and managed by local governments. This sector is involved with all kinds of waste: organic, inorganic, domestic, hazardous, horticultural refuse, and construction debris, among others. They are responsible for the collection, transport, recycling, and the appropriate disposal of waste which they often execute directly or via an external vendor. Ideally, the segregation of waste into recyclables and non-recyclables should be done at source by the households, residential areas, or business centres that generate waste. Paper, metal, and glass have long been salvaged as they have good potential for recycling. Plastic is the new material that needs immediate attention. While polyethylene terephthalate or PET has a fair recycling value with the plastic-to-textile industry creating high demand, other commonly used plastics have little to no value and are often discarded. Hence, this plastic often reaches landfills, where it is incinerated or buried. Many chemical additives from these plastics leach into the soil and the surrounding ecosystems, often finding their way into rivers and marine ecosystems. In much of the developing world, as in India, recovering recyclable waste between source and landfill is expensive, tedious and labour-intensive. This gap in the waste ecosystem is filled by the informal sector. This informal sector is a near-invisible, shadowy waste economy that we rarely acknowledge or appreciate, because it falls outside the purview of the formal system. The informal sector, often concerned with inorganic waste, has many players. Waste pickers collect and segregate recyclable waste from residential areas, and are incentivised by the chance to earn a livelihood from it. They then sell the waste to small scrap dealers or kabadiwallas. The scrap dealers further segregate the waste and sell it to a (Level 2) small or medium aggregator. From here, it is carted off to a wholesaler or stockist, and finally, to specific recycling units. In India, many national policies have recognised the role of the informal sector, mainly waste pickers, and have expressed value in their inclusion in the waste ecosystem. Yet waste pickers face other challenges while operating within the formal waste economy: outsourcing of waste management to private companies, waste-to-energy plants touted as alternatives to recycling, and urban zoning plans that do not factor in the infrastructure requirements of waste management. Importantly, waste pickers at the frontline of the informal sector work in challenging, often unsanitary conditions that affect their health. They also face uncertainty due to fluctuating market prices of recyclables. Over the decade, grassroots organisations around the country have been working with waste pickers, in a bid to integrate them into the waste economy. Among these are Kabadiwalla Connect (Chennai), Hasiru Dala (Bengaluru), and Chintan (Delhi) that have emerged as waste management solutions and there are a few lessons that can be learnt from them. Informal sector crucial in finding solutions to plug plastic leak “Every year, Chennai generates over 1,30,000 tonnes of waste, of which plastic accounts for 10-15,000 tonnes. It is a huge challenge for the municipality to implement waste segregation at source. Hence, most of the waste, including 10-15% of which can be recycled, ends up in landfills. City authorities spend $200,000 (approximately Rs. 15 million) every day to collect the waste and transport it to the Pallikaranai and Kodungaiyur landfills,” states Siddharth Hande, CEO of Kabadiwalla Connect, a Chennai-based initiative for decentralised waste management. “If cities across India are keen on optimising their resource recovery and recycling in the future and finding solutions to plug the ‘leak’ of plastics into our oceans, integrating the formal and informal waste sectors will be crucial,” adds Hande. Hande also shares that the informal waste system helps Chennai collect roughly 20% of its recyclable waste, over 100,000 tonnes annually. By linking networks of waste pickers and scrap shop owners, he says he believes that almost 70% of the waste being sent to landfills could be diverted. Kabadiwalla Connect helps leverage the city’s existing informal waste infrastructure in the collection, segregation and processing of post-consumer waste, with the help of innovative, technology-based solutions. Its inclusive, cost-efficient, and industry-compliant solutions harness the untapped resource of the informal sector in the supply chain, reduce the health risks faced by waste pickers, and pay rich dividends while tackling plastic waste at urban, and semi-urban levels. “In the informal sector, we rarely talk of the stakeholders beyond waste pickers. Yet there is a nexus of scrap dealers or kabadiwallas, aggregators, wholesalers and recyclers, that are an essential part of the waste ecosystem. This lack of classification is key to the problem of integrating the formal and informal sectors,” explains Hande. The involvement of upstream stakeholders of the value chain, such as plastic manufacturers and retailers is needed to bring about an integration of the waste ecosystem. Bridging gap between waste workers and other stakeholders vital In Bengaluru, the informal waste ecosystem is much the same – the door-to-door collection of waste is done by the municipality, or waste pickers, and is deposited at dry waste collection centres, where it is sorted for recycling. Paper, metal, glass, cloth, and plastics are usually recovered, with plastics like tetra packs, which are technically recyclable but have a poor market value, sent off to waste-to-energy plants or as fuel for cement kilns. Since 2011, Hasiru Dala has been working to bridge the gap between waste workers and other stakeholders, such as the local governments, policymakers, and citizens, while improving the lives and livelihoods of waste pickers. Bengaluru with over 35,000 waste pickers and itinerant buyers, has approximately 3,500 tonnes of plastic traded in the informal economy every single day – rescuing it from landfills, incineration sites and water networks. In 2021, Hasiru Dala actively worked with over 40 wards in the city, and their dry waste collection centres handled a total of 13,656 metric tonnes (T) of waste, of which 4,097 T was recyclable, and 9,559 T was non-recyclable waste. “Often plastics that can be recycled, such as food containers, aren’t washed properly, and hence, have to be discarded. Working with residents and encouraging them to put in the effort to clean food-related waste, often discarded improperly due to convenience, is essential,” says Rohini Malur, Communications Manager at Hasiru Dala. “Putting the onus of cleaning and segregation on households reaps benefits further up the waste ecosystem, as lesser waste, especially plastic, ends up at the highly polluting waste-to-energy plants, “she continues. The pandemic adversely affected the entire informal waste ecosystem, and as single-use plastic consumption soared, recovery and recycling couldn’t keep pace. Waste pickers are essentially daily wage workers, and restricted mobility affects their ability to collect recyclables and earn a livelihood. With waste pickers clocking fewer hours, there was lesser income for scrap shops too. There were months during the first wave when the entire recycling industry shut down. Dry waste collection centres were deemed essential services, yet scrap shops and godowns were not, and had to close down. Collection centres stayed open during the lockdowns yet they had nowhere to send the aggregated waste, causing the waste economy to stagnate. Workers struggled to get by as they could collect but not sell the recovered recyclable waste, payments from the authorities were often in arrears and they had little to no savings to fall back on. “It is crucial for grassroots organisations to amplify the messages of other efforts across India if we are to see a bigger shift in our waste management practises and to realise how vulnerable and essential these waste warriors are,” Malur adds. Waste workers play a crucial environmental role Every day, Delhi produces 12,350 tonnes of solid waste, most of which ends up at three major dumpsites: Ghazipur, Bhalaswa, and Okhla. The city has an estimated 40,000 waste pickers, with other recyclers, itinerant buyers, small and large kabadis, re-processors and other waste workers adding to a total of a 1,50,000 strong informal sector. They collect 15-20 per cent of Delhi’s total waste (in terms of weight) and 55% (in terms of volume) and recycle about 2,000 tonnes of the city’s waste each day. As in other cities, much of this recycling happens due to the toil of waste pickers. In addition, as unsegregated waste accumulates at landfills, rotting wet waste releases methane – a highly combustible gas. This results in spontaneous combustion of waste, with plastics, among other hazardous, polluting materials being set on fire. Sometimes, waste is incinerated at landfills before being buried. This adds significantly to Delhi’s air pollution issues. Waste pickers can help Delhi tackle some of its air pollution problems by diverting waste from reaching dumping sites. As a partner of the CounterMEASURE initiative under the United Nations Environment Programme, funded by Japan, Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group (Chintan) strives for better waste recovery between source and landfills. Their work with waste pickers ensures lesser plastics end up in the Yamuna, and further downstream into the Ganges, and the Bay of Bengal. In 2018, Chintan’s report titled Wastepickers: Delhi’s Forgotten Environmentalists, highlighted the role of the informal sector in tackling the burgeoning problem of waste management and plastic pollution. “Ironically, Delhi’s Master Plan 2041 talks in detail about solid waste management and environmental pollution, yet doesn’t make provisions for the labour involved, nor for the space and infrastructure they require,” says Shruti Sinha, Manager of Policy and Outreach at Chintan. “Recently, many dhalaos (large three-walled concrete structures used by waste pickers to collect garbage from a locality or market), have been put to alternate use. A study by Chintan in 2021 found that 73.8% of waste pickers do not have access to sheltered spaces, which makes it difficult to work through monsoon and winter,” Sinha continues. The Chintan report advocates establishing partnerships between the informal and private sectors, as well as the public, legitimising the informal workers, developing waste management protocols, and training and monitoring waste workers. This would ensure they can operate effectively in their niche while performing key environmental roles. A waste management blueprint The CounterMEASURE initiatives are committed to identifying sources and pathways of plastic pollution and finding solutions to prevent city-sourced plastic from reaching rivers and oceans. Working at the grassroots level with stakeholders in the waste economy, is an effective way to raise awareness about source segregation to reduce mismanaged waste, as well as build on existing knowledge to inform policy decisions. The 2021 report titled Waste-Wise Cities published by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Niti Aayog, inspected solid waste management initiatives in 28 cities to understand the mechanisms that worked best. Across cities, grassroots initiatives concur that the integration of the informal and the formal sector is an effective solution for waste management. The report found that decentralised systems and public-private partnerships would be ideal for India to achieve its ‘smart cities’ objectives. City planners and municipal organisations should take cognisance and find ways to integrate the waste ecosystem. This would not only ensure better living and working standards for the informal sector but also incentivise their role in last-mile resource recovery and recycling, while providing cities with a decentralised, cost-efficient blueprint for waste management. Devayani Khare (As published in Mongabay India)

• Director General Office

John F. Kerry, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate to Address CERAWeek by IHS Markit 2022 in Houston

-(BUSINESS WIRE)--The United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John F. Kerry will address delegates at the 40th annual CERAWeek by IHS Markit, to be held in-person March 7-11 in Houston. The first-ever Principal to sit on the U.S. National Security Council entirely dedicated to climate change, Mr. Kerry previously served as the 68th U.S. Secretary of State and as a U.S. Senator representing Massachusetts. "We are pleased to welcome Secretary Kerry among the distinguished speakers at CERAWeek by IHS Markit 2022," said Daniel Yergin, conference chair and vice chairman of IHS Markit. "His unique knowledge and experience, both in his current position at the epicenters of global climate diplomacy such as at COP26 in Glasgow and a career imbued with leadership in foreign affairs, will be a timely and important contribution to the critical dialogues taking place at this year’s conference." Sec. Kerry will join the world’s energy industry leaders, experts, government officials and policymakers, as well as leaders from the technology, financial and industrial communities addressing this year’s conference. CERAWeek 2022: Pace of Change: Energy, Climate and Innovation will examine the challenges and opportunities of reducing emissions while supplying the needs of a growing global economy in the era of energy transition. The conference is returning to Houston for its 40th annual gathering after being hosted as an all-virtual event in 2021. Produced by IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, the CERAWeek 2022 conference program will explore key themes related to More Energy, Lower Emissions; Geopolitics and Energy Markets; Workforce of the Future; Competitive Landscape and the Energy Transition; Supply Chains; and Financing the Energy Future. The conference will also feature the CERAWeek Innovation Agora, serving as the center of technology and innovation programming at the event. Featuring a community of thought leaders, technologists, start-ups, investors, academics, energy companies and government officials, the Innovation Agora will showcase transformational technology platforms in the energy space ranging from digitalization, AI, analytics and connectivity, robotics, blockchain, additive manufacturing, mobility and decarbonization. Newly added for 2022 will be dedicated "Agora Hubs" focused on hydrogen and carbon management. CERAWeek 2022 speakers will include (partial list): Jennifer Granholm – secretary of energy, U.S. Department of Energy Vicki Hollub – CEO, Occidental Amin Nasser – president and CEO, Saudi Aramco Bernard Looney – CEO, bp Patti Poppe – CEO, PG&E Corporation Pedro Pizarro – president and CEO, Edison International Ben van Beurden – CEO, Royal Dutch Shell Patrick Pouyanné – chairman of the board and CEO, TotalEnergies Jim Fitterling – chairman and CEO, Dow H.E. Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo – secretary general, OPEC Ignacio Galán – chairman and CEO, Iberdrola, S.A. Shrikant Madhav Vaidya – chairman, IndianOil Maria Pope – president and CEO, Portland General Electric Ryan Lance – chairman and CEO, ConocoPhillips H.E. Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber – minister of industry and advanced technology; special envoy for climate change and chairman of Masdar, United Arab Emirates; Group CEO, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Dr. Fatih Birol – executive director, International Energy Agency Josu Jon Imaz – CEO, Repsol Jill Evanko – CEO and president, Chart Industries Hon. Richard Glick – chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Miranda Ballentine – CEO, Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA) Ernie Thrasher – CEO and chief marketing officer, Xcoal Energy and Resources Øyvind Eriksen – president and CEO, Aker ASA Peter Terwiesch – president, process automation and member of group executive committee, ABB Jean-Pascal Tricoire – chairman and CEO, Schneider Electric RJ Scaringe – CEO, Rivian Barbara Burger – vice president, innovation, Chevron; president, Chevron Technology Ventures Carri Lockhard – executive vice president, technology, digital and innovation, Equinor Christian Bruch – president and CEO, Siemens Energy Sunita Narain – director general, Center for Science and Environment Amos Hochstein – senior advisor for energy security, U.S. Department of State Dan Brouillette – president, Sempra Infrastructure Emma Delaney – executive vice president, customers and products, bp Daniel Poneman – president and CEO, Centrus Energy Scott Sheffield – CEO, Pioneer Natural Resources Hon. Sonya Savage – minister of energy, Alberta, Canada Mark Little – president and CEO, Suncor Felipe Bayón – CEO, Ecopetrol S.A. Dawn Summers – member of the executive board and COO, region EMEA, Wintershall Dea AG Mark Nelson – executive vice president, downstream and chemicals, Chevron Visit www.ceraweek.com for a complete list of speakers and the most up-to-date program information (subject to change). Registration Information CERAWeek by IHS Markit 2022 will be held March 7-11 at the Hilton Americas—Houston. Further information and delegate registration is available at www.ceraweek.com.

• Director General Office

John F. Kerry, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate to Address CERAWeek by IHS Markit 2022 in Houston

The first-ever Principal to sit on the U.S. National Security Council entirely dedicated to climate change, Mr. Kerry previously served as the 68th U.S. Secretary of State and as a U.S. Senator representing Massachusetts. “We are pleased to welcome Secretary Kerry among the distinguished speakers at CERAWeek by IHS Markit 2022,” said Daniel Yergin, conference chair and vice chairman of IHS Markit. “His unique knowledge and experience, both in his current position at the epicenters of global climate diplomacy such as at COP26 in Glasgow and a career imbued with leadership in foreign affairs, will be a timely and important contribution to the critical dialogues taking place at this year’s conference.” Sec. Kerry will join the world’s energy industry leaders, experts, government officials and policymakers, as well as leaders from the technology, financial and industrial communities addressing this year’s conference. CERAWeek 2022: Pace of Change: Energy, Climate and Innovation will examine the challenges and opportunities of reducing emissions while supplying the needs of a growing global economy in the era of energy transition. The conference is returning to Houston for its 40th annual gathering after being hosted as an all-virtual event in 2021. Produced by IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, the CERAWeek 2022 conference program will explore key themes related to More Energy, Lower Emissions; Geopolitics and Energy Markets; Workforce of the Future; Competitive Landscape and the Energy Transition; Supply Chains; and Financing the Energy Future. The conference will also feature the CERAWeek Innovation Agora, serving as the center of technology and innovation programming at the event. Featuring a community of thought leaders, technologists, start-ups, investors, academics, energy companies and government officials, the Innovation Agora will showcase transformational technology platforms in the energy space ranging from digitalization, AI, analytics and connectivity, robotics, blockchain, additive manufacturing, mobility and decarbonization. Newly added for 2022 will be dedicated “Agora Hubs” focused on hydrogen and carbon management. CERAWeek 2022 speakers will include (partial list): Jennifer Granholm – secretary of energy, U.S. Department of Energy Vicki Hollub – CEO, Occidental Amin Nasser – president and CEO, Saudi Aramco Bernard Looney – CEO, bp Patti Poppe – CEO, PG&E Corporation Pedro Pizarro – president and CEO, Edison International Ben van Beurden – CEO, Royal Dutch Shell Patrick Pouyanné – chairman of the board and CEO, TotalEnergies Jim Fitterling – chairman and CEO, Dow H.E. Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo – secretary general, OPEC Ignacio Galán – chairman and CEO, Iberdrola, S.A. Shrikant Madhav Vaidya – chairman, IndianOil Maria Pope – president and CEO, Portland General Electric Ryan Lance – chairman and CEO, ConocoPhillips H.E. Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber – minister of industry and advanced technology; special envoy for climate change and chairman of Masdar, United Arab Emirates; Group CEO, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Dr. Fatih Birol – executive director, International Energy Agency Josu Jon Imaz – CEO, Repsol Jill Evanko – CEO and president, Chart Industries Hon. Richard Glick – chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Miranda Ballentine – CEO, Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA) Ernie Thrasher – CEO and chief marketing officer, Xcoal Energy and Resources Øyvind Eriksen – president and CEO, Aker ASA Peter Terwiesch – president, process automation and member of group executive committee, ABB Jean-Pascal Tricoire – chairman and CEO, Schneider Electric RJ Scaringe – CEO, Rivian Barbara Burger – vice president, innovation, Chevron; president, Chevron Technology Ventures Carri Lockhard – executive vice president, technology, digital and innovation, Equinor Christian Bruch – president and CEO, Siemens Energy Sunita Narain – director general, Center for Science and Environment Amos Hochstein – senior advisor for energy security, U.S. Department of State Dan Brouillette – president, Sempra Infrastructure Emma Delaney – executive vice president, customers and products, bp Daniel Poneman – president and CEO, Centrus Energy Scott Sheffield – CEO, Pioneer Natural Resources Hon. Sonya Savage – minister of energy, Alberta, Canada Mark Little – president and CEO, Suncor Felipe Bayón – CEO, Ecopetrol S.A. Dawn Summers – member of the executive board and COO, region EMEA, Wintershall Dea AG Mark Nelson – executive vice president, downstream and chemicals, Chevron

• Director General Office

John F. Kerry, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate to Address CERAWeek by IHS Markit 2022 in Houston

The United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John F. Kerry will address delegates at the 40th annual CERAWeek by IHS Markit, to be held in-person March 7-11 in Houston. The first-ever Principal to sit on the U.S. National Security Council entirely dedicated to climate change, Mr. Kerry previously served as the 68th U.S. Secretary of State and as a U.S. Senator representing Massachusetts. “We are pleased to welcome Secretary Kerry among the distinguished speakers at CERAWeek by IHS Markit 2022,” said Daniel Yergin, conference chair and vice chairman of IHS Markit. “His unique knowledge and experience, both in his current position at the epicenters of global climate diplomacy such as at COP26 in Glasgow and a career imbued with leadership in foreign affairs, will be a timely and important contribution to the critical dialogues taking place at this year’s conference.” Sec. Kerry will join the world’s energy industry leaders, experts, government officials and policymakers, as well as leaders from the technology, financial and industrial communities addressing this year’s conference. CERAWeek 2022: Pace of Change: Energy, Climate and Innovation will examine the challenges and opportunities of reducing emissions while supplying the needs of a growing global economy in the era of energy transition. The conference is returning to Houston for its 40th annual gathering after being hosted as an all-virtual event in 2021. Produced by IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, the CERAWeek 2022 conference program will explore key themes related to More Energy, Lower Emissions; Geopolitics and Energy Markets; Workforce of the Future; Competitive Landscape and the Energy Transition; Supply Chains; and Financing the Energy Future. The conference will also feature the CERAWeek Innovation Agora, serving as the center of technology and innovation programming at the event. Featuring a community of thought leaders, technologists, start-ups, investors, academics, energy companies and government officials, the Innovation Agora will showcase transformational technology platforms in the energy space ranging from digitalization, AI, analytics and connectivity, robotics, blockchain, additive manufacturing, mobility and decarbonization. Newly added for 2022 will be dedicated “Agora Hubs” focused on hydrogen and carbon management. CERAWeek 2022 speakers will include (partial list): Jennifer Granholm – secretary of energy, U.S. Department of Energy Vicki Hollub – CEO, Occidental Amin Nasser – president and CEO, Saudi Aramco Bernard Looney – CEO, bp Patti Poppe – CEO, PG&E Corporation Pedro Pizarro – president and CEO, Edison International Ben van Beurden – CEO, Royal Dutch Shell Patrick Pouyanné – chairman of the board and CEO, TotalEnergies Jim Fitterling – chairman and CEO, Dow H.E. Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo – secretary general, OPEC Ignacio Galán – chairman and CEO, Iberdrola, S.A. Shrikant Madhav Vaidya – chairman, IndianOil Maria Pope – president and CEO, Portland General Electric Ryan Lance – chairman and CEO, ConocoPhillips H.E. Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber – minister of industry and advanced technology; special envoy for climate change and chairman of Masdar, United Arab Emirates; Group CEO, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Dr. Fatih Birol – executive director, International Energy Agency Josu Jon Imaz – CEO, Repsol Jill Evanko – CEO and president, Chart Industries Hon. Richard Glick – chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Miranda Ballentine – CEO, Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA) Ernie Thrasher – CEO and chief marketing officer, Xcoal Energy and Resources Øyvind Eriksen – president and CEO, Aker ASA Peter Terwiesch – president, process automation and member of group executive committee, ABB Jean-Pascal Tricoire – chairman and CEO, Schneider Electric RJ Scaringe – CEO, Rivian Barbara Burger – vice president, innovation, Chevron; president, Chevron Technology Ventures Carri Lockhard – executive vice president, technology, digital and innovation, Equinor Christian Bruch – president and CEO, Siemens Energy Sunita Narain – director general, Center for Science and Environment Amos Hochstein – senior advisor for energy security, U.S. Department of State Dan Brouillette – president, Sempra Infrastructure Emma Delaney – executive vice president, customers and products, bp Daniel Poneman – president and CEO, Centrus Energy Scott Sheffield – CEO, Pioneer Natural Resources Hon. Sonya Savage – minister of energy, Alberta, Canada Mark Little – president and CEO, Suncor Felipe Bayón – CEO, Ecopetrol S.A. Dawn Summers – member of the executive board and COO, region EMEA, Wintershall Dea AG Mark Nelson – executive vice president, downstream and chemicals, Chevron Visit www.ceraweek.com for a complete list of speakers and the most up-to-date program information (subject to change).

• Climate Change and Green Economy

How Modern Progress Defined by Speed, Efficiency Is Killing the Planet — And Us

The “lightbulb” moment symbolises humanity’s ticket to greatness, signifying a paradigm shift in innovation and progress, akin to the moment of discovering fire. What’s left unsaid is that the humble light bulb sparked an avalanche of change in our cultural imagination. Electricity allowed us the gift of sight in the dark at the flick of a switch, no longer requiring the tedious and long-winded process of manually breathing life into a fire. This logic has pervaded our sense of progress ever since. How fast can we think? How fast can we move? How soon can we consume? Produce? Live? The dominant frame of thought would have us believe that whatever costs – most notably, environmental – are being incurred due to progress are worth it due to the comforts we have acquired along the way and the rapidness with which we can keep expecting to acquire them. This thinking culminated most recently in India in the form of a new, shiny little scheme from the 2022 Union Budget. The ‘Gati Shakti’ scheme, its crowning jewel, aims to increase connectivity, the efficiency of logistics, by building more ports, more roads, more highways. “The Gati Shakti scheme is targeted at aiding economic growth and sustainable development,” the finance minister said. “Development” is the keyword that keeps everyone happy, even as the powers that be constantly raze down the Earth to build more ways for us to travel faster, for goods and services to be delivered more speedily, in the name of progress and development. Our clothes, grocery deliveries, e-commerce carts and travel will reach us faster under this “development” and we can have a good life much faster too, just the way we like it. The pandemic, for instance, has seen a deluge of innovation – not around public health, which is slow and requires patience, but around public convenience, which is faster. Delivery apps now promise 10-minute wait times for non-essential goods that you can buy in a flash however many times a day. The emphasis on speed for trivial commodities has innumerable, longer-lasting costs. “In the name of comfort, we are creating more discomfort. The fast and furious rush of the world in the name of development is disastrous,” says Goldy M. George, Dalit rights activist and scholar. Related on The Swaddle: To Keep Our Coastal Cities From Drowning in Floods, We Have to Reimagine Land Use Meanwhile, deep in the Atacama desert in Chile, a strange blight was to be beheld late last year. Heaps and heaps of unused and unsold fast-fashion clothing replaced the rolling sand dunes, with price tags still attached. It took an unspeakable amount of water, land, and labor to make all of it, only for it to return to the elements – never having been seen, touched, or felt by a single consumer. All this while e-commerce continues to support the fast-fashion industry’s need to rapidly cycling through outfit trends that die out faster than we’ve had time to process them. The same applies to most other industries. In the 21st century – change is good. The faster it happens, the better we can say our lives are. In other words, our lifestyle trends, the norms we’ve come to associate with a good life, are less agentic than they seem. It is less the case that communities drive demands for faster production of the commodities they use, and more that industries producing these things coerce demand from us. Avantika Goswami, from the Centre for Science and Environment, too points out that this demand hardly comes from consumers first – it is manufactured by industries. Because when we give in to this manufactured need for speed and efficiency, it lines the pockets of those who make it. Take the fact that soon after the Gati Shakti announcement, steel, construction and logistics companies saw the highest gains in stock value. And yet, this is precisely what is framed as “growth.” And “we associate growth in our minds with something that is good,” says Nityanand Jayaraman, environmental activist and journalist. But the discourse obscures whose growth, exactly, is at hand. And critiquing growth would be to imply that people don’t deserve, or shouldn’t want, a good life of convenience. But the corpse of this model of comfort and development lies in the Atacama desert. Clearly, we don’t actually want or need so many new things; the rate at which they’re produced far exceeds our demand. “We don’t need anything that is super fast, we need to shift back to methods that exist in the age of taking things slow. A lot of why we want speed could also have something to do with social media and reduced attention spans… Quickness feels like an advance when it’s not really the case,” says Disha Ravi, 23-year-old environmental activist from Fridays for Future. Ravi’s words cut to the heart of why the ideology of speed is not to our betterment. The Internet revolution promised a lot, most notably faster, instantaneous communication. This is a good thing, to an extent. But the easy access to other people and information has turned it into a toxic heap of crossed wires where communication often breaks down, leading to misinformation and hate that threatens entire democracies, fuels conflict, and notably, fuels climate denialism. It epitomizes an age of alienation, keeping individuals in pursuit of faster goods and services instead of giving and receiving care as communities. Somewhere along the way, we crossed over from being citizens to consumers, where we don’t owe anyone anything. We are reassured that it is okay to abdicate responsibility towards the community: individual comfort is the priority above all else. And the ability to make things happen with nothing more than a flick of the finger endows us with a sense of luxury, a sign of having made it. Time itself is optimized under this regime of lifestyle citizenship; and the cost is our very future on this planet. For instance, the only thing we, as consumers, gain from more roads is perhaps a few hours saved in travel. But so much more is lost – and the costs of convenience are hidden from view. Even when they’re not, however, the notion that some must make sacrifices for the good of society overall persists, without questioning what “good” is. Right now, fast equals good and good equals more goods. Within this paradigm, making decisions as individuals to consume items at a slower rate does not fundamentally challenge what it means to live a comfortable or a good life. *** Most notably, indigenous systems of knowledge – many of which value slowness and reject the hyper-individualistic focus on speed and efficiency oriented growth – are kept out in these industrialized processes, even as indigenous populations suffer the most. George talks about how indigenous values have been “swept under the carpet of capitalism and casteism.” “This [idea of growth] is not representative of the indigenous people who have a different worldview, the trade unions, the transgender groups, they have extremely different ways of looking at the same problem,” Jayaraman adds. For one, our relationship with nature itself has become one centered around treating it as a “resource” for constructing the pace and standard of life that we are currently accustomed to. “This isn’t to say we must go back to horses and bullock carts, but not to dismiss their importance. If the cost of a lightbulb is the displacement and death of thousands, it is better to live by the candle,” he says. The long-term environmental effects of thinking about comfort in this way, however, will soon catch up with us. “We need to look at the inverse. Is it comfortable to live without oxygen? Without water?” asks George. Reducing consumption and slowing down is touted as a “sacrifice.” But the sooner we recognize it as necessary, the more we can start to see “the overproducers, the fossil fuel industries and their associates, as attacking the real heart of our world: we see them not as purveyors of beneficial products, but as death-bearing destroyers,” notes Julia Steinberger, ecological economist at the University of Lausanne. Related on The Swaddle: Mumbai Fish Workers Escalate Protest Against Displacement, Loss of Livelihood However, these mechanics are hidden from view in the name of comfort, progress, and an inexorable rush away from what we’ve come to see as “primitive” or “slow.” A few steps behind the material comforts we’ve become more than accustomed to lie “other” people are sacrificed for these comforts. A few steps ahead, our own people are sacrificed for the comforts of elites above us. And on and on it goes until humanity extinguishes itself – all in service of a quality life that never felt that good or comfortable to begin with. 5G and bullet trains, when they properly arrive, will once again reset the normal for what the pace of life should be, as opposed to what it needs to be. But what’s so good about speed? Other alternatives exist. “[These alternatives] don’t valorize simplicity – they valorize health, time, community, land, these are all slow,” says Jayaraman. What do we do about all this? One framework to think through it is that of survival versus luxury emissions. Enter the “degrowth” school of thought. Proponents argue that changing the paradigm of growth to decenter the economy and slow down how we live to just what consuming and emitting what we need, would reduce the chasm between the global North and South. There is also another model of governance itself, that doesn’t look for the big changes we need from the state or from corporations. Radical ecological democracy, as Ashish Kothari explains, “puts collectives and communities at the center of governance and the economy.” Techno-optimists would have us believe that it is possible and desirable to maintain the current pace of life, while also being sustainable. However, emerging research suggests otherwise: “unless we tackle the ‘root causes of vulnerability’ (i.e. the systemic and historically laden inequities based on extraction, colonialism, anthropocentricism etc.) through social and behavioural approaches, these tech fixes are, at best, bandages,” notes Chandni Singh, senior research consultant at the Indian Institute of Human Settlements. “Transformational change, the type needed for grave problems, requires a complete reimagination of human-nature relationships, societal functioning, and changes in our financial systems.” Slowing down, therefore, doesn’t mean renouncement. Clearly, speed – defined even scientifically as the rate of displacement – leaves people behind. On the other hand, nobody is likely to suffer from slowness. Think about it: slower workdays. A slower pace of life. More rest and relaxation. In an economy designed to churn out maximum labor for minimum returns in the name of efficiency, rest can be resistance in more ways than one. It allows, simultaneously, for bodies and the planet to heal.

• Solid Waste Management and Circular Economy

PlastiCities: the role of grassroots initiatives to manage waste in cities

In India, many national policies have recognised the role of the informal sector, mainly waste pickers, and have expressed value in their inclusion in the waste ecosystem. Yet, there are many challenges in integrating them into the existing waste infrastructure. Integrating the formal and informal sectors in India will be key to optimising resource recovery and recycling in the future and finding solutions to plug the ‘leak’ of plastics into our oceans. Grassroots organisations that work at the intersection between the formal and informal sectors are important, and policy level changes are needed to adopt a decentralised, cost-efficient blueprint for waste management. Most of us forget about our waste once it is discarded into dustbins or municipal garbage trucks. Municipalities and waste management companies are only at the tip of an iceberg – the formal waste sector – funded, regulated and managed by local governments. This sector is involved with all kinds of waste: organic, inorganic, domestic, hazardous, horticultural refuse, and construction debris, among others. They are responsible for the collection, transport, recycling, and the appropriate disposal of waste which they often execute directly or via an external vendor. Ideally, the segregation of waste into recyclables and non-recyclables should be done at source by the households, residential areas, or business centres that generate waste. Paper, metal, and glass have long been salvaged as they have good potential for recycling. Plastic is the new material that needs immediate attention. While polyethylene terephthalate or PET has a fair recycling value with the plastic-to-textile industry creating high demand, other commonly used plastics have little to no value and are often discarded. Hence, this plastic often reaches landfills, where it is incinerated or buried. Many chemical additives from these plastics leach into the soil and the surrounding ecosystems, often finding their way into rivers and marine ecosystems. In much of the developing world, as in India, recovering recyclable waste between source and landfill is expensive, tedious and labour-intensive. This gap in the waste ecosystem is filled by the informal sector. This informal sector is a near-invisible, shadowy waste economy that we rarely acknowledge or appreciate, because it falls outside the purview of the formal system. The informal sector, often concerned with inorganic waste, has many players. Waste pickers collect and segregate recyclable waste from residential areas, and are incentivised by the chance to earn a livelihood from it. They then sell the waste to small scrap dealers or kabadiwallas. The scrap dealers further segregate the waste and sell it to a (Level 2) small or medium aggregator. From here, it is carted off to a wholesaler or stockist, and finally, to specific recycling units. In India, many national policies have recognised the role of the informal sector, mainly waste pickers, and have expressed value in their inclusion in the waste ecosystem. Yet waste pickers face other challenges while operating within the formal waste economy: outsourcing of waste management to private companies, waste-to-energy plants touted as alternatives to recycling, and urban zoning plans that do not factor in the infrastructure requirements of waste management. Importantly, waste pickers at the frontline of the informal sector work in challenging, often unsanitary conditions that affect their health. They also face uncertainty due to fluctuating market prices of recyclables. Over the decade, grassroots organisations around the country have been working with waste pickers, in a bid to integrate them into the waste economy. Among these are Kabadiwalla Connect (Chennai), Hasiru Dala (Bengaluru), and Chintan (Delhi) that have emerged as waste management solutions and there are a few lessons that can be learnt from them. Informal sector crucial in finding solutions to plug plastic leak “Every year, Chennai generates over 1,30,000 tonnes of waste, of which plastic accounts for 10-15,000 tonnes. It is a huge challenge for the municipality to implement waste segregation at source. Hence, most of the waste, including 10-15% of which can be recycled, ends up in landfills. City authorities spend $200,000 (approximately Rs. 15 million) every day to collect the waste and transport it to the Pallikaranai and Kodungaiyur landfills,” states Siddharth Hande, CEO of Kabadiwalla Connect, a Chennai-based initiative for decentralised waste management. “If cities across India are keen on optimising their resource recovery and recycling in the future and finding solutions to plug the ‘leak’ of plastics into our oceans, integrating the formal and informal waste sectors will be crucial,” adds Hande. Hande also shares that the informal waste system helps Chennai collect roughly 20% of its recyclable waste, over 100,000 tonnes annually. By linking networks of waste pickers and scrap shop owners, he says he believes that almost 70% of the waste being sent to landfills could be diverted. Kabadiwalla Connect helps leverage the city’s existing informal waste infrastructure in the collection, segregation and processing of post-consumer waste, with the help of innovative, technology-based solutions. Its inclusive, cost-efficient, and industry-compliant solutions harness the untapped resource of the informal sector in the supply chain, reduce the health risks faced by waste pickers, and pay rich dividends while tackling plastic waste at urban, and semi-urban levels. “In the informal sector, we rarely talk of the stakeholders beyond waste pickers. Yet there is a nexus of scrap dealers or kabadiwallas, aggregators, wholesalers and recyclers, that are an essential part of the waste ecosystem. This lack of classification is key to the problem of integrating the formal and informal sectors,” explains Hande. The involvement of upstream stakeholders of the value chain, such as plastic manufacturers and retailers is needed to bring about an integration of the waste ecosystem. Bridging gap between waste workers and other stakeholders vital In Bengaluru, the informal waste ecosystem is much the same – the door-to-door collection of waste is done by the municipality, or waste pickers, and is deposited at dry waste collection centres, where it is sorted for recycling. Paper, metal, glass, cloth, and plastics are usually recovered, with plastics like tetra packs, which are technically recyclable but have a poor market value, sent off to waste-to-energy plants or as fuel for cement kilns. Since 2011, Hasiru Dala has been working to bridge the gap between waste workers and other stakeholders, such as the local governments, policymakers, and citizens, while improving the lives and livelihoods of waste pickers. Bengaluru with over 35,000 waste pickers and itinerant buyers, has approximately 3,500 tonnes of plastic traded in the informal economy every single day – rescuing it from landfills, incineration sites and water networks. In 2021, Hasiru Dala actively worked with over 40 wards in the city, and their dry waste collection centres handled a total of 13,656 metric tonnes (T) of waste, of which 4,097 T was recyclable, and 9,559 T was non-recyclable waste. “Often plastics that can be recycled, such as food containers, aren’t washed properly, and hence, have to be discarded. Working with residents and encouraging them to put in the effort to clean food-related waste, often discarded improperly due to convenience, is essential,” says Rohini Malur, Communications Manager at Hasiru Dala. “Putting the onus of cleaning and segregation on households reaps benefits further up the waste ecosystem, as lesser waste, especially plastic, ends up at the highly polluting waste-to-energy plants, “she continues. The pandemic adversely affected the entire informal waste ecosystem, and as single-use plastic consumption soared, recovery and recycling couldn’t keep pace. Waste pickers are essentially daily wage workers, and restricted mobility affects their ability to collect recyclables and earn a livelihood. With waste pickers clocking fewer hours, there was lesser income for scrap shops too. There were months during the first wave when the entire recycling industry shut down. Dry waste collection centres were deemed essential services, yet scrap shops and godowns were not, and had to close down. Collection centres stayed open during the lockdowns yet they had nowhere to send the aggregated waste, causing the waste economy to stagnate. Workers struggled to get by as they could collect but not sell the recovered recyclable waste, payments from the authorities were often in arrears and they had little to no savings to fall back on. “It is crucial for grassroots organisations to amplify the messages of other efforts across India if we are to see a bigger shift in our waste management practises and to realise how vulnerable and essential these waste warriors are,” Malur adds. Waste workers play a crucial environmental role Every day, Delhi produces 12,350 tonnes of solid waste, most of which ends up at three major dumpsites: Ghazipur, Bhalaswa, and Okhla. The city has an estimated 40,000 waste pickers, with other recyclers, itinerant buyers, small and large kabadis, re-processors and other waste workers adding to a total of a 1,50,000 strong informal sector. They collect 15-20 per cent of Delhi’s total waste (in terms of weight) and 55% (in terms of volume) and recycle about 2,000 tonnes of the city’s waste each day. As in other cities, much of this recycling happens due to the toil of waste pickers. In addition, as unsegregated waste accumulates at landfills, rotting wet waste releases methane – a highly combustible gas. This results in spontaneous combustion of waste, with plastics, among other hazardous, polluting materials being set on fire. Sometimes, waste is incinerated at landfills before being buried. This adds significantly to Delhi’s air pollution issues. Waste pickers can help Delhi tackle some of its air pollution problems by diverting waste from reaching dumping sites. As a partner of the CounterMEASURE initiative under the United Nations Environment Programme, funded by Japan, Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group (Chintan) strives for better waste recovery between source and landfills. Their work with waste pickers ensures lesser plastics end up in the Yamuna, and further downstream into the Ganges, and the Bay of Bengal. In 2018, Chintan’s report titled Wastepickers: Delhi’s Forgotten Environmentalists, highlighted the role of the informal sector in tackling the burgeoning problem of waste management and plastic pollution. “Ironically, Delhi’s Master Plan 2041 talks in detail about solid waste management and environmental pollution, yet doesn’t make provisions for the labour involved, nor for the space and infrastructure they require,” says Shruti Sinha, Manager of Policy and Outreach at Chintan. “Recently, many dhalaos (large three-walled concrete structures used by waste pickers to collect garbage from a locality or market), have been put to alternate use. A study by Chintan in 2021 found that 73.8% of waste pickers do not have access to sheltered spaces, which makes it difficult to work through monsoon and winter,” Sinha continues. The Chintan report advocates establishing partnerships between the informal and private sectors, as well as the public, legitimising the informal workers, developing waste management protocols, and training and monitoring waste workers. This would ensure they can operate effectively in their niche while performing key environmental roles. A waste management blueprint The CounterMEASURE initiatives are committed to identifying sources and pathways of plastic pollution and finding solutions to prevent city-sourced plastic from reaching rivers and oceans. Working at the grassroots level with stakeholders in the waste economy, is an effective way to raise awareness about source segregation to reduce mismanaged waste, as well as build on existing knowledge to inform policy decisions. The 2021 report titled Waste-Wise Cities published by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Niti Aayog, inspected solid waste management initiatives in 28 cities to understand the mechanisms that worked best. Across cities, grassroots initiatives concur that the integration of the informal and the formal sector is an effective solution for waste management. The report found that decentralised systems and public-private partnerships would be ideal for India to achieve its ‘smart cities’ objectives. City planners and municipal organisations should take cognisance and find ways to integrate the waste ecosystem. This would not only ensure better living and working standards for the informal sector but also incentivise their role in last-mile resource recovery and recycling, while providing cities with a decentralised, cost-efficient blueprint for waste management.

• Down To Earth

Find the Balance

In the early 2010s, most large projects got stuck because of the idiosyncratic behavior of a few people. Now it seems no project will ever get held up due to environmental concerns (see this edit in the Indian Express). Why can’t we have a good balance, where harmful projects whether by the private sector or government are stopped, and non-harmful ones receive quick permission? The Economic Times carried a commentary by me posing this same question and also answering it. Can we not create independent and capable environmental regulators who can stand up to such harmful progress? The alternative is hundreds perhaps thousands of harmful projects over the next 3-4 decades. Each may seem insignificant individually but together will create disaster.

• Solid Waste Management and Circular Economy

Lack of disposal sites slows work on flattening Delhi’s 3 landfills

A proposal moved by the civic bodies states that the plan is to fill inert waste in pits 2,6,10 and 12 -- spread over an area of 477 acres with a 30m depth. Delhi’s three municipal corporations are on a hunt for a “gigantic” plot -- gigantic enough to accommodate 18 million tonnes of inert waste from the three landfill sites of Okhla, Bhalswa and Ghazipur in Delhi. It is the want of such a space that is proving a major impediment to the ₹250-crore project to flatten the three landfills, said municipal officials. The civic bodies are now eyeing the abandoned Bhatti Mines in the Southern Ridge and a feasibility study will soon be carried out by the Wildlife Institute of India at the behest of the Ridge Management Board (RMB), the body that is mandated to protect the Ridge, a forest department official said, asking not to be named. The three landfills together hold over 28 million tonnes of legacy waste and it has been estimated that about 60-70% of the material recovered after bio mining -- process of using trommel machines to separate legacy waste into plastic, paper, cloth, sand etc-- consists of soil, stones and inert material. Till December, only about 14% of the legacy waste had been excavated and the inert sent to locations such as the eco park being developed in Badarpur, various low-lying areas that face water-logging in the monsoon, a park being developed by filling up the old ash pond sites in ravines of south-east Delhi’s Tajpur Pahadi, and for horticulture purposes. RELATED STORIES Delhi: Civic bodies eye abandoned Bhatti Mines for dumping inert waste Delhi: Civic bodies eye abandoned Bhatti Mines for dumping inert waste Gurugram: 12 waste recovery facilities to lessen burden on Bandhwari landfill Gurugram: 12 waste recovery facilities to lessen burden on Bandhwari landfill Mumbaiites may have to pay ‘user fee’ to BMC over waste collection Mumbaiites may have to pay ‘user fee’ to BMC over waste collection Mumbai logs less than 500 Covid-19 cases as downward trend continues Mumbai logs less than 500 Covid-19 cases as downward trend continues Haryana gets its 1st waste recovery facility in Gurugram’s Badshahpur: Officials Haryana gets its 1st waste recovery facility in Gurugram’s Badshahpur: Officials 53 waterlogging spots to remain this monsoon in Mumbai 53 waterlogging spots to remain this monsoon in Mumbai Mumbai mega-block: 350 suburban locals, 117 mail, express cancelled for 72 hours Mumbai mega-block: 350 suburban locals, 117 mail, express cancelled for 72 hours Air quality in Delhi remains in ‘very poor’ category for second day Air quality in Delhi remains in ‘very poor’ category for second day Municipal officials are now looking at the abandoned Bhatti Mines. A proposal moved by the civic bodies states that the plan is to fill inert waste in pits 2,6,10 and 12 -- spread over an area of 477 acres with a 30m depth. The total estimated volume of these pits is 57,898,200 cubic metres and they can accommodate 69,478,000 metric tonnes of inert soil, the proposal said. The area is also part of the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, however, and experts have opposed the move, citing possible contamination of groundwater that may adversely impact the flora and fauna of the Ridge. In October 2019, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) also turned down a plea by the three civic bodies to use the mines. Chairperson justice Adarsh Kumar Goel asked the south civic body to approach “more appropriate authorities” in this regard. So, a fresh proposal was sent to the RMB in March 2021 by the SDMC on behalf of the three corporations, asking for permission to use Bhatti Mines. While no approval was given by the body, it set up a five-member panel to look into the proposal. Civic officials say the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) has now been asked to carry out a study to ascertain whether dumping inert there could harm the ecology. “Once the study is complete, we will decide on SDMC’s proposal,” said a member of the ridge management board. Already running behind the projected timelines for clearing the landfill sites through bio remediation, the municipal corporations have now submitted fresh deadlines for completion of the NGT-mandated project to flatten the three garbage mounds. The north corporation has revised the deadline to clear Bhalswa landfill site to December 31, 2023; the Okhla landfill needs to be cleared by March 2023 and Ghazipur landfill by December 2024. “We have got the inert material tested and it has been found fit for use in road construction. We are hoping that National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will use the material,” east Delhi mayor Shyam Sunder Agarwal said. As per the north corporation, it plans to increase the number of trommel machines to 50 the coming month. Once operational, the new units will increase the daily processing from existing 5,000 tonnes per day to 13,000 tonnes per day,” an official claimed, asking not to be named. “NHAI has agreed to use the inert soil in Urban Extension 2 project. The NTPC will take around 300,000 tonnes of inert soil,” the north civic body official said. North corporation also plans to use the low-lying area near the cluster bus depot in Rani Khera for dumping the inert so as to alleviate water-logging issues. Atin Biswas, programme director, municipal solid waste, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), who is part of an on-going study of landfill sites across the country, said preliminary findings indicate the presence of heavy metals and toxic chemicals in the inert material, suggesting it could be harmful to dump them in open mines in Delhi. “Of India’s 3,159 officially designated dump sites, there is a total legacy waste of around 1,300 million metric tonnes. When bio-mining is carried out, around 70% ends up as inert waste. As part of our ongoing study, in most samples, we found the presence of heavy metals and dumping inert in mines could contaminate the water table,” he said.

• Director General Office

Our broken system of clearances

The EIA has become a convoluted exercise, designed for futility Sunita Narain Ranking is an instrument to reward the best performers — but more importantly, it signals the best way to do things. So, when the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change says that it will rank the state environmental impact assessment authorities based on the speed at which environmental approvals are given, it basically implies that all it cares about is the “clearance” of projects, not the quality of the assessment or the ability to ensure that the environmental impacts of development projects are mitigated. You could argue that time taken is not an indicator of the level of scrutiny — and that the ministry’s notice is designed only to hold the assessment committees accountable and to ensure that projects are not unnecessarily delayed. But it is not that simple. The fact is this “ranking” is the final nail in the already built coffin of environmental assessments. Over the past decade or so, government after government has systematically decimated the process of decision-making that would allow for assessment or scrutiny. It is a sham and a farce, and in my view this direction by the ministry — set up to purportedly safeguard environmental interests — has only made its contempt for its self-built process apparent. Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) started way back in 1994, when development projects were few and the process remained uncontested. The rot took hold from the early 2000s, when “building” projects were included in this system of scrutiny. There is no question that construction — especially large-scale housing, infrastructure, or commercial projects — has a massive environmental footprint. They add to water usage, wastewater generation, traffic, and solid waste. The problem was the system was never upgraded to handle the huge volume of “building” projects. This led to delays and high transaction costs — corruption, in other words. So in 2006, the ministry decentralised and outsourced the work to states. It replicated the Central system at state level, setting up the state environmental impact assessment authorities. A maze of categories — projects falling into A, B, BI, and B2 — were created, with overlaps and a good measure of discretion thrown in. All in all, the quality of scrutiny has not improved and development projects are not more environmentally compliant. The EIA has become a convoluted exercise, designed for futility. Why do I say this? Just consider how fundamentally flawed the process is today. The project proponent is expected to pay consultants to do the EIA, which is based on the terms of reference (ToR) approved by the Central or state environmental impact assessment authority. Category A projects come to the Centre and Category B projects go to the state, where the state authority then decides if it is B1 (projects requiring detailed assessments) or B2 (that do not require detailed assessments). The committee can approve the ToR, ask for more information, or reject it. After this, the EIA is done. This, in turn, requires the involvement of at least 12 functional area experts and management and monitoring plans. The draft EIA is in English and its summary is in the regional language, which is then put out for public consultation. A detailed process is in place for holding the public hearing, which would be crucial for “listening” to local objections. Then all this goes to the appraisal committee, which has to scrutinise the draft, ask for more information, and accept it with conditions or reject it. In actual fact, projects are rarely “rejected”. In our analysis of projects between July 2015 and August 2020, of the 3,100 projects submitted, only 3 per cent were not recommended. Even these would come back with more information. So, all this fuss, and then nothing. But in the process, proponents are asked — and more so in controversial projects — many times to come back with more data and more clarifications. Finally, the committees “clear” the project, and, in most cases, to protect themselves, they do so with a fistful of conditions that will never really be monitored. The faceless committees are not held responsible for the project after clearance; their “job” ends with this clearance. So you really cannot hold them responsible for the quality of the decision taken. The monitoring is then left to the understaffed regional offices of the ministry — state pollution control boards are not empowered to monitor impacts because this clearance is done under the Environmental Protection Act and not under the laws governing air or water. In all this, there is duplication, lack of scrutiny, and no real intent to ensure that projects are implemented keeping in mind environmental interests. So, when we defend this broken system of “clearances” it only adds fuel to the fire of the extremely false narrative of environment versus development. In reality, environmental interests have already been given a bypass, and development has become mindless, without any regard for what can be done to mitigate and manage harm. The writer is at the Centre for Science and Environment sunita@cseindia.org Twitter: @sunitanar

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Mumbai: Unusual increase in air pollution in western India due to dust, scientists suspect climate change

Other areas which recorded very poor AQI were Colaba (348), Malad (346), Chembur (316) and Andheri (306) Mumbai’s Air Quality Index (AQI) continues to remain in the ‘Very Poor’ category and Mumbaikars are likely to have no relief for the next few days as experts pointed out that this was a result of the second dust storm hitting in the last 15 days, which has even left the scientific community surprised. The overall AQI of Mumbai on Sunday evening stood at 361 (very poor). Mazagon in south Mumbai recorded AQI of 426 which is in the severe category. Other areas which recorded very poor AQI were Colaba (348), Malad (346), Chembur (316) and Andheri (306) According to Gufran Beig, Founder Project Director, System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research under IITM-Pune the western part of India is experiencing a very peculiar kind of air quality trend this winter which is very unusual. “During the last 15 days, a second successive dust storm originated on February 3 from the border areas of Rajasthan, Pakistan and Afghanistan. This coincided with the westerly disturbances due to which upper air trough was formed, which aggravated it and it then entered somewhere near Ahmedabad thus making the air quality of Mumbai and Ahmedabad in the Very Poor category, which in this season is mostly in the moderate category,” Beig explained that the AQI of Mumbai is likely to continue to remain in the Very Poor category till February 7 because of calm wind and colder conditions are prevailing in Mumbai. “The cause of this particular successive dust storms coming in when the air is very heavy is what is making all of us think about it reasons and we cannot deny the impact of climate change. A recent analysis of regional air pollution levels, done by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), has pointed out that air pollution is rapidly becoming a matter of concern in the western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat as well. Winter pollution sets in these states during late December and early January when cooler and calmer conditions trap the local pollution, which is high. "Bad-air days begin to build up in the cities of the western states during the end of December and persist till the end of January. Cities in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region show a more pronounced impact of winter pollution compared to cities of other regions," the CSE analysis report states. According to the analysis of CSE, Over the years, the air quality in Mumbai seems to be declining. Daily AQI analysis based on the 10 oldest stations shows a 20 per cent drop in the number of good AQI days in the city between 2019 and 2021 -- while days with poor or very poor AQI have doubled. South Mumbai has the worst air within the city during winter: CSE In December 2021, the stations in south Mumbai have reported significantly higher PM2.5 levels compared to the rest of the city. Mazgaon with a monthly average of 134 ug/m3 was the most polluted neighbourhood of the city, followed by Navy Nagar-Colaba (124 ug/m3), Kurla (101 ug/m3), Vile Parle West (101 ug/m3) and Worli (97 ug/m3). Khindipada at the edge of Sanjay Gandhi National Park in the suburbs with a monthly average of 54 ug/m3 was the least polluted neighbourhood. Bandra and Malad West reported low numbers, but the values are not considered valid due to significantly large amounts of missing data from these two stations, CSE's report stated.

• Water Programme

Cry me a lake

According to a report by the Centre-for-Science-and-Environment the amount of faecal matter in sewage is monitored through coliform count — a water quality parameter that acts as an indicator of pathogens that most commonly cause diarrhoea, typhoid and a host of enteric or intestinal diseases. While coliform is not a cause of illness, it does indicate pathogens of faecal origin such as bacteria, virus or protozoa. <br> <br>According to the <keyword keytype="General" smid="0" usetype="2" source="Orion" keywordseo="Central-Pollution-Control-Board" keynameseo="central-pollution-control-board" actualkeyword="central pollution control board">Central Pollution Control Board</keyword> (CPCB), the total coliform organism or MPN/100 ml (most probable number) for drinking water source, without conventional treatment but after disinfection, should be 50 or less. <br> <br>For outdoor bathing, MPN/100 ml should be less than 500, and drinking water source after conventional treatment and disinfection, MPN/100 ml shall be 5,000 or less. <br> <br>In Doddakallasandra Lake, however, the water sample showed much higher value at 350x102, showcasing a high amount of coliform bacteria, which does not qualify as safe. <br> <br>Raghvendra B Pachhapur, resident of <keyword keytype="General" smid="0" usetype="2" source="Orion" keywordseo="Doddakalasandra" keynameseo="doddakalasandra" actualkeyword="doddakalasandra">Doddakalasandra</keyword> and ActionAid, India’s programme manager, said: “The high value of coliform indicates bad water quality. <br> <br>Sewage is still entering the lake. Other parameters like pH, dissolved oxygen and conductivity are good.” <br> <br>The report also showed an increase in biochemical oxygen demand. Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) represents the amount of oxygen consumed by bacteria and other microorganisms while they decompose organic matter under aerobic conditions (when oxygen is present) at a specified temperature. The decay of organic matter in water is measured as biochemical or chemical oxygen demand.