Desicritics Category: Politics: Water

Sorrow of Bihar

Abhinandan Mishra — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 08:04:07 EDT

Northern part of Bihar is swarming with reporters and media personnel. With the who's and who's of print media and the electronic media converging on the swollen banks of Kosi, the might of the sorrow of Bihar and the plight of those affected by it is now being witnessed by everyone.

Before 18th of August no one including me cared about what was happening in Supaol or Saharsha. It is nothing more than perhaps the law of our society that only in times of extreme sorrow that the poor hogs the limelight. And then also the affected victims have to share their 10-15 days of 'fame' with the politicians who are one among the first to reach such places.

In the past too, old women were swept away, children died of snake bites and man drowned, but who cares for a few numbers. In the end it is all about the eye catching numbers; huge number. In the present case the 29 lakh people that were affected was too big a number to give a miss.

As soon as Manmohan Singh after a 'quick response' that took 10 days to come, declared the flood a national calamity, all hell broke loose. The flood affected regions of Bihar which till then were 'immune' from the presence of even a reporter from a local news-channel suddenly found itself facing familiar faces of our vibrant media. You name them and they were there.

No one can take away the fact that the media did and is still doing a commendable job of covering the calamity ,but the point is that is presence of 'huge numbers' the only criteria for making a news a national news?

Reporters after reporters are taking great pains and efforts to visit the areas that are still out of reach for the state officials. Heart rendering footage has become the order of the day. Some have taken great pain to cross over to the other side of Nepal and dig out stories on how the breach occurred due to the negligence on the part of the irrigation department. They also declared that the breach was a result of long period of negligence and the breach didn't take place overnight. Agreed that the breach developed over a period of time. But why wasn't the breach brought in the public when it was still in its initial stage?

Its not that the dam was kept out of bounds for the journalist, it's just that at that point of time it was not worthy of being shown on the national television. Who would have watched a 'eroding dam'.

Post the 'national calamity' declaration things have changed. Now even a glitch in a minor embankment is making news. I guess the top management of the media that moves and shakes in Delhi have their own idea of a news-worthiness.

Calamity or no calamities, politician are flowers that bloom throughout the season. The Below the belt remarks that have been coming from the political leaders of Bihar has highlighted the sad plight of the level to which the leaders can fall even in the worst of time. Not even the catastrophic effects of a swollen Kosi, could stop these leaders from indulging in political war at a time when they should have been attending to the rescue of the millions that have been affected by the raging Kosi.

The political game that ensued saw Nitish Kumar calling himself an unsung hero and terming Lalu, a dramatist, who was moving around the flood affected areas with a train of TV reporters. Lalu replied back and declaring that Nitish has lost his mind.

After Kosi river broke all barriers and flooded 15 districts of the state, affecting more than 29 lakh people, it took 10 long days for the union government to decide that this time it was not 'just another regular flood' that affects Bihar every year but a national calamity.

Then came the initial statements of no politics in time of sorrow. But later the whole nation stood witness to the troika of Lalu Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan and Nitish Kumar engaging in political statements and counter statements over fixing the responsibility for the floods.

Initially it was Lalu who started the fistfight when he announced in a press conference that the state government had failed to pay heeds to the instructions from the Center and had not repaired the Kosi barrage. Pointing out to the callous attitude of the state officials he came out with documents that pointed out that the walls of the barrage was breached a day after the State chief engineer (Irrigation) had reported that all barrages were in good condition.

In reply, Nitish came out with a set of his own documents in which it was said that the state government had been regularly corresponding with the center and asking them to take the issue of repairing the barrage with Nepal.

Paswan too joined in and rapped Nitish for failing to take timely actions to plug the breach. In between all this, the plight of the victims was forgotten and they were left to themselves. Even now many are still stranded and marooned and fighting a loosing battle.

Old timers point out that in a way the 15 years that preceded this government is also to be blamed for this failure of government machinery. During the earlier rule, the whole of the state machinery was left to stagnant and officers found themselves being molded in a way that required them not to venture out in the fields but to stay in the comforts of their offices. The same disease continues to plague some of the current lot.

Till last year the engineers of the water resources department were punished by the DMs in the flood hit areas. Whenever any breach occurred in the embankments the concerned executive, superintending or chief engineer was instantly arrested on the orders of the DMs and sent to jail. But now it seems that, Nitish who is an engineering graduate, has realized the bureaucrats too are at fault.

The CM suspended district magistrates of Supaul and Saharsa districts for Negligence in flood relief work. He was so infuriated with the officers that he ordered on the spot transfer of the two DMs when he visited the flood affected areas.

He also sent three of his cabinet colleagues in the worst affected areas with direction to stay there for a fortnight and not come to Patna. Three senior IAS officers from State Secretariat were also sent as special DMs in the three worst hit districts to monitor and supervise the relief and rescue operations.

Nothing can absolve Nitish because as a CM he was responsible for the state machinery but the bureaucrats too have let down the chief minister.After the flooding the Bihar chief minister was told by his officers that Nepal was responsible for the floods in Bihar as the embankment was breached from their side. Later the foreign minister of Nepal Upendra Yadav denied the charge and claimed that dam in Nepal was still intact.

Such was the mismanagement that rescue boats and rescuers had to wait for six hours for supply of diesel as the BDO of the concerned district was busy with the PMs Program. Then came a statement from a senior official of the state disaster management asking the flood victims not to come to Patna, and return back to their submerged homes through the same special train that had brought them to the capital.

The fury of Kosi continues unabated but for these representatives of people it has boiled down to who gets the maximum accolades in this time of sorrow. And not surprising it's Lalu, accompanied by the ever swelling entourage of reporters who is winning hands down.

Idol Immersion Increasing River Pollution in India

DeeptiA — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:30:29 EDT

There are a number of areas where modern science and problems clash with traditions. In such cases, a reasonable expectation is that there is a compromise between traditions and the needs of today; in some cases, there is a need that the tradition changes. Why did I suddenly think of this topic? Well, I came across this article that describes how idol immersion, a joyful and integral part of many religious festivals, is actually helping in killing the river systems of the country. Now, there are many reasons why our river systems are getting killed - there is too much flow of effluents (both domestic and industrial), not enough cleaning of these effluents, not enough flow of fresh water to do a cleanup of the pollutants in the river. No one doubts that in many cases, the conditions of our rivers as they move past major cities is that of a sewer, with the water having very high percentages of pollutants.

For those who have taken part in Durga Pooja celebrations or those celebrating Lord Ganesha, the immersion of idols is an important part. This is repeated across the country. But how many of you have read the news articles that describe the dead fish found floating days after a major festival, with these fish poisoned by the chemicals form the immersion ? Read this article in more detail:

Elaborately painted and decorated idols are worshipped before they are taken during mass processions to rivers, lakes and the sea, where they are immersed in accordance with Hindu faith. Environmentalists say the idols are often made from non-biodegradable materials such as plastic, cement and plaster of Paris and painted with toxic dyes.

After the statues are immersed, the toxins then contaminate food crops when villagers use the polluted water for irrigation, said Shyam Asolekar, science and engineering head at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai. Statue remains from festivities last year still float in rivers and water tanks in Mumbai, where the annual "Ganesh Chaturthi" festival culminate in the immersion of some 160,000 statutes -- some up to 25 feet high -- by millions of devotees. Traditionally, idols were made from mud and clay and vegetable-based dyes were used to paint them.

This is a tricky issue. Issues related to religious festivities are treated with care, with efforts being made not to offend the religious. However, there is no getting around the facts of a matter, and this is not an issue that has sprung up suddenly. Even on TV, you do see many times news articles about the importance of making statues with eco-friendly material, but somehow these items do not sink in.

Sometimes, direct action needs to be taken, as for example, when the courts ordered the installation of tall fences on the bridges of the river Yamuna in Delhi in order to prevent people from throwing in flowers or complete garlands.
Rivers are the lifeblood of this country (or any country), with dependence on water requiring that water sources be protected. People know this, but somehow the relation with water pollution does not sink in, or maybe many people do not care. How does one ensure that such a message sink in? You cannot use force to ensure that such a change happens across the breadth and width of the country.

Rainwater Harvesting In Bangalore

Ashish — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 07:02:26 EDT

It is a well known (and nightmarish scenario) that the groundwater levels in cities and the rural parts of the country are declining. In rural parts of the country, the promise of free electricity, and agriculture that is not well fed by canals (along with some wrong crop planting policies in which heavy water seeking plants have been planted) has caused a tremendous decline in the water levels. In some parts of Uttar Pradesh, there were recent reports that in some parts of the state, there has been a sudden cracking of the surface land crust due to a total absence of water underneath, causing a drying up of the surface.

In cities, the groundwater is pumped out by various authorities as well as individuals; all of this is done for satiating the growing water requirements of cities. On the contra side, water levels would normally get replenished through rain water seeping in from the normal watersheds and lakes inside a city, as well as through water seeping in from river-beds (most cities have some form of river running through them). However, both of these methods are in great decline. Rivers in cities are like drains, and water bodies are in a state of decline (recent reports from Delhi point to many of these water bodies being coveted by builders, or being used as a means to dump trash).

One possible solution that is being increasingly touted for cities is the use of rainwater harvesting by buildings. The reasoning goes that if each new building is forced to do rainwater harvesting all over its compound, then the water levels of the whole city will rise. Towards this end, the Bangalore Government is trying to bring in a low to enforce water harvesting in the city:

BANGALORE: Ensure your building is equipped with rainwater harvesting technology in the next few months. If not, local authorities will install one for you and collect the expenses later.

Even though the Act is applicable to the entire state, the government is concentrating on making rainwater harvesting equipment mandatory for all new buildings — residential and commercial — in Bangalore. Aimed at replenishing groundwater, the Act, once it becomes operational, makes it mandatory for users of groundwater through well or borewell to register with the Ground Water Authority within 120 days of its establishment.

This sounds very good, but in principle. In reality, this is already law in many places (including I believe in Delhi), and it has been a spectacular failure. Why ? Because builders do not do it, and they are hardly ever caught for it. Even if at some point they are asked, they do the great India money appearance trick, and presto, no more problems. This sort of law is only good when either people genuinely believe in this sort of welfare, or when inspection procedures are strict.

The Coming Scarcity of Water

Shantanu Dutta — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:14:20 EDT

Every morning I wake up to the buzz and hiss of motors sucking up water from the bore wells dug in the compound of practically every house in the area. The house I live in was for long an exception – my landlady, a middle aged widow is a kindly, law abiding woman. She did not want to deplete any further ground water resources than was already happening and continued to rely faithfully on the limited supply of municipal water morning and evening. This would then be pumped up the three storied house. Of course using ground water for domestic use is not banned in all of Delhi, but then it is common knowledge than ground water levels are depleting every where in the National Capital Region.

Even a couple of years ago, the municipal water supply through restricted was still reasonably adequate. Water was provided for two hours in the morning and another two years in the evening, and if this water was judiciously used and stored in over head tanks, then well…. one could survive. Then the supply started to slowly decline. The first to go was the evening supply….. The duration started reducing slowly over time and finally a day came when it stopped altogether. However it never became permanent phenomena – on the odd evening, water would still be supplied – but when and for how long, no one knew and it became impossible to depend on that evening supply. Then the morning supply started getting affected in a similar way and earlier this summer, one fine morning, the water simply ran dry. If at on the odd day, some trickle of water was supplied, there happened to be a power cut on at the very hour and so it proved impossible to pump anything up into the storage tanks.

Though the municipal water limped back to its nominal morning trickle (about 20 minutes), it was then that our land lady gave in and drilled a bore well much against her wishes. The few days that the taps were completely dry, the government sent in some tankers but the ordeal of carting buckets up the steep stair cases pretty much broke our backs. However the bore well was pretty much in line with what her neighbors had done years ago. Blessed with a gush of fresh water at the end of a switch has lulled my neighbors into believing that fresh water from the ground was like some never ending fount of spring.

Over summer I have been seeing what this delusion can lead to. Amidst some what desperate advertisements in the newspapers preaching about water conservation and rain water harvesting are some of the most grotesque uses of the scarce commodity that water has become. On my way to office every morning, I pass a three storied house. Like most areas in Delhi, houses have not been built to accommodate any car parking, so the residents dump their many cars on the street. Every morning as I pass by, one of these cars is being washed. And though there are many advertisements suggesting that perhaps people could wash their cars with buckets of water and conserve some few listen. In this particular instance, a huge hose pipe dangles from some unseen tap on the third floor, and as it swings this way and that with water gushing, the driver tries to maneuver the pipe over various parts of the car’s portly body. And while the driver is busy with his rag and scrubs, the water spurts on to the road making puddles. Every one is oblivious and although the sight makes me cringe, there seems little that I too can do.

The imagery I see every morning makes me believe that Shekar Kapur’s film “Water” is one whose time has very much come. Shekar’s next film, Paani, is set in 2025 in a city polarized by water scarcity, a world divided into the haves and have-nots - those who have water and those who don't. Shekhar said in an interview that

“Paani is not just about water shortage. It's about the callousness of world where about three per cent of the populace are haves; the rest are have-nots. And what a wonderful way to speak of that disparity through the one resource that we're most squandering away,”

I think that Shekar Kapur’s point is well taken – I would argue only one point. Shekhar does not need to date the film in 2025 as if the problem of water scarcity is one of the futures. He can set in the here and now. Ask me.

Uttar Pradesh Police on Cleanliness Drive for Gomti River

DeeptiA — Sun, 6 Jul 2008 10:54:45 EDT

Indian rivers are extremely polluted, and have been so for a long time now. It is all the more horrible since we consider many of these rivers as holy and worship them; the waters of the river Ganga find a very holy spot in Hindu culture. And yet, the waters of most of these rivers look hideous (unable to support aquatic life, unfit for human consumption, and so on). Various Governments claim to spend a lot of time and effort to clean up these rivers and have drawn up plans over the past two decades with big sounding names (all ending with the words of 'Action Plan') and the rivers remain dirty.

Over a period of time, even the courts of India have been unable to push the Governments to prepare an effective plan that is also executed well. All you get in the end is a lot of discussion about which method is the best for river cleaning (for those familiar with the discussions, the endless discussion in Delhi around where the sewage treatment plants should be, and how to stop the big drains from throwing their filth directly into the river would be funny if it was not so critical to public health). Otherwise, you would not get cases whereby drinking water to a city became critical when the filth content of the water available for drinking became too high.

What is required is for Governments to set up dedicated action plans that will ensure proper treatment of sewage (whether industrial or residential) so that no untreated sewage flows into the various water bodies that we have. Industries that violate this dictum need to be severely fined and punished (and that means that corruption levels in the environmental inspection area need to come down). Else we will end up with more cases such as the one in Punjab where millions of fish in a canal suddenly died due to release of untreated industrial waste. What we don't really need is for this kind of publicity generating measures such as this one:

With the state police coming to the fore to free the Gomti of pollution, now those caught red handed throwing garbage in the river will be severely dealt with. This announcement was made on Saturday by the director general of police (DGP) Vikram Singh, even as along with other senior officials of the department he took it upon himself to clean the city's lifeline.

In the morning the officials arrived at the banks of the Gomti for the cleanliness drive that is on to clean the river for the past few days. During the drive, the DGP made an official announcement that one company of river police will be deployed on all the banks of the river.

How will they prevent people from throwing trash into the river? Will it stop if they patrol a few kilometers? Would it not be more effective to have a proper education drive along with ensuring that people get a proper garbage collection facility? Or am I hoping for an ideal world?

The South Asian Water That Is Indian

Diganta — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:15:14 EDT

It's been long since I have written about Farakka - the barrage on the Ganges just before it enters Bangladesh. There has been no permanent treaties between India and Bangladesh on the water sharing at Farakka. However, there is a 30 year agreement between India and Bangladesh that ends after 2020. As per the agreement, India ensures 35000 cusec water for Bangladesh at even the driest possible season. The dam was supposedly for supplying more water to the dying Kolkata port, which has already died its' natural death and handed over its responsibilities to Haldia port - a new and better one.

If you Google the term Farakka, you will encounter a lot of documents and articles about Indian unilateral water withdrawal. Some of them are written on a factual basis but some of them are not. So far, I have found an excellent paper written by Mikiyasu Nakayama from Utsunomia University, Japan. This is an excellent analysis of the entire proposal and its history.

I was delighted to find that both the proposals I raised in my previous article were indeed discussed between India and Bangladesh. It was my pleasure to know that the proposal that I stressed on, was indeed put forward by the Robert McNamara, the President of World Bank in 1976. He proposed that dams and water reservoirs should be built in Nepal to solve the long term water crisis in the Ganges. The dams could be on the tributaries of the Ganges (map), preferably on Kosi and Gandak. It was supposed to release water during dry season and to store during monsoon. Canada and World Bank both agreed to fund the project. It was not only for the storage, it would have created huge amount of hydro-electricity for both Nepal and India. Bangladesh also agreed to the proposal. But India did not.

India rejected the idea since it was going to 'internationalize' the issue and will involve a third party (Nepal). Indian policymakers stuck to the point that they'd help Bangladesh to construct a canal from Brahamaputra to the Ganges. Bangladesh opposed with the claim that it would involve displacement of a huge population in a densely populated country and also the Brahamaputra river might not have enough water during dry season. And I don't see Bangladesh was wrong in that. Brahamaputra water is also diminishing (though better than the Ganges).

The other point India cited was the possible earthquake in Nepal could destroy thousands of life if the water breaks out of the dam. The same hold true for counter-Indian proposal to build a water-reservoir in upstream Arunachal to augment the lower supply in Brahamaputra. Either of these two is a probably bitter truth - a dam in either place can carry destructive effects downstream should there be an Earthquake. However, how else can we get extra water?

Nakayama noted that since India was not hungry for World Bank loans in 1970s, they actually did not even bother to care about the proposal. In 1950s, the situation was different when India and Pakistan signed the Indus Water treaty. The other notable observation was India basically stuck to the same pattern that it was successful with Pakistan - get total ownership of a few rivers and ask others to interlink (with compensation of cost of canals ) - something that Pakistan did after the Indus Water treaty. But, it is clear to me that Indian policymakers lacked 'out-of-the-box' thinking and were more committed to stick to their position and never thought in terms of development of the whole region.

What would have possibly happened if Nepal was made a party to Ganges agreement? Indian policymakers could have thought from both political and technical point of view. They viewed it as an agreement where Nepal would come to the driver's seat having the storage capacity. Also, they might think that it would be difficult to tackle both the countries instead of one at a time. The other point could be serious. A possible earthquake in Nepal would devastate high populated Indian areas including Uttar Pradesh. Well, that's always a possibility with a water reservoir and we already have a lot of them all though out the country.

Instead of adding extra water to the supply, India and Bangladesh are still vying for water, from Teesta (another Indian river that enters Bangladesh) and the Ganges. It is noted that India gets 39% of water from Teesta and more than 50% of the Ganges. However, the upper-riparian withdrawal is generally restricted to 20-25% in all resolved water disputes till date including Indus water treaty and the Nile river water sharing treaty between Sudan and Egypt.

The paper also noted the unwillingness of lower-riparian states to gain popularity. I was personally very critical of that in case of Bangladesh where political parties do make politics out of this issue but showed little commitment towards solving it. He ended his opinion with a few possible reasons of failure including the mediation of an effective and neutral third party. ICJ interfered in only a single case on record - with Hungary and Slovenia on river Danube. That seems to me the last place for arbitration.

It is said that "better late than never". Even if after 30+ years of bad policies towards Indians and Bangladeshis, some of Indian policymakers get rid of casual attitude towards development - it will be a bonus for the majority of Indians. It should be noted that the extra water could not only solve the dry season water crisis, but also could fix the diminishing ground water levels and the lower growth in agriculture for last couple of decades. In an era when the food prices are doubling every year, it's worth taking a fresh look at the age-old problem. After all, what's wrong if we have a few dams in Nepal?

Poetry: indolence

temporal — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:32:47 EST

photo credit Nat/Geo

indolence

under the facade
below the abyssal ocean floor
hidden by the grave dark
behind the veiled smile
beneath the abysmal roots
covered by the october carpet
………………..of april's distant hopes
lies serene embers of dormant fury
sequestered by light-less water

when the last straw
of environment’s rape
breaks down..………and tilts
the voluble volcano sounds
………………..go ululating
and once again the animals run
………………..and people
from far off consciences
………………..and continents
come………………..together

Pakistan's Economic Monster - The Tarbela Dam

C N Anand — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:16:59 EST

Pakistan's cup of political woes is brimming. Lurking behind is a less obvious and closely guarded economic monster threatening to garrote Pakistan -- the rest of the world better watch out for flailing nuclear arms. I am not crying wolf:

If the Grand Coulee dam springs a leak and empties overnight, the USA will be wounded but will not crumble. However, if the world's largest earth and rock fill dam, the Tarbela dam across the Indus, springs a leak and empties, Pakistan will disintegrate -- hopefully without any fireworks. Pakistan has placed a lot of its eggs in one basket. The Tarbela dam provides 60% of the hydel power generation and anchors Pakistan's irrigation system. However, the Indus river is one of the world's largest silt producer and the Tarbela reservoir is choking up with silt. The catastrophe in the making which was thought to be many years away might actually be visiting Pakistan very soon if it is not already almost upon them. The current political woes in Islamabad has either got the Pakistani leadership to stick their heads in the sand, or they do not want the rest of the world and their own people to know the extent of the dire straits they are in.

With Pakistan having acquired nuclear weapons, the rest of the world must know whether the remaining shelf life of Tarbela is only a few months or a few years. How fast is Pakistan becoming a failing state is the answer we all have to know in an objective manner.

The Tarbela dam construction was completed in 1974 and while test filling the site, sink holes in the alluvium bed were noticed. This led to costly remedial measures and delay in filling up by two years. Since then, every year, 200 million tons of silt was being deposited in the reservoir. Predictably a silt delta formed and crept towards the dam. It was envisaged that the silt delta would be 48 Kilometers from the dam by 1983, but it actually loomed to within 19 Kilometers. By 1991 the delta crest was just 14 Kilometers from the dam and creeping towards the dam at the rate of one kilometer a year. In 1997 M/s Tippetts-Abbett-McCarthy-Stretton International Corporation (TAMS) recommended that if remedial measures were not taken for the management of sediments, the delta would cross the danger limit line by as early as 2006.

If the danger limit line is crossed and the delta slumps, there is a very real danger of the turbines getting overwhelmed and being shut down. If the Tarbela dam stops producing electricity, the entire grid of Pakistan will trip. The load shedding that will have to be resorted to will cripple industry, normal daily life and bring about a sudden flight of capital and civilian population. Darkness will engulf the country and Pakistan will implode. This scenario is neither far-fetched nor fanciful.

To reduce the creep rate of the silt delta, the minimum level to which the reservoir was allowed to deplete to was being raised every year. This resulted in the live storage being reduced not only to the extent of silt deposition but also the extra water locked in because of rising of the minimum operating level. Foreigners are not allowed to visit the dam site.

In October 2005 an earthquake resulted in earth loosening up and hill sides sliding down into the valleys. All the valleys of the tributaries of the Jhelum and the Indus got choked with mud slides. Since the earthquake, two monsoons have washed the loosened earth into the reservoirs.

This year the snowmelt and South-West monsoons have been steadily leading to the Tarbela filling to the brim by end of August 2007. Hardly two months have passed and the Tarbela reservoir has been depleted to less than half its capacity. The Pakistani media has been reporting in a guarded manner that Hydel generation is down and eight to ten hour power outages are being predicted. Water shortage for the Rabi crop is feared. Is this article crying wolf? Shouldn't we take peek into Tarbela? A few satellite images should be revealing and this is an activity that India and the US can jointly undertake. Even if Pakistan turns beautifully democratic overnight, is there any light at the end of the tunnel for it? Let us not be taken by surprise.

City of San Jose's Neighborhood Clean-up

Blokesablogin — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:58:28 EST

My neighbor called me Saturday morning to enquire why we were not out dumping stuff into the dumpsters parked along our street corner. It was part of the city's commitment to get residents to clean out their garages, closets and backyards. We were only too thrilled to make a file towards the dumpsters off-loading bits of wood and other sundry items that couldn't be accommodated inside the city-issued trash cans and recycle bins.

Illegal dumping of items in city creeks and other areas are forcing cities such as San Jose to consider a pro-active approach to end this problem. Further, these dumpsters are processed officially and most of it, recycled. San Jose is one of the leading recyclers in the Bay area with more than 60% of its trash being recycled. It is the third largest city in California and a leader in sustainability. This is determined by the energy use, land use and optimization of resources that include water and generation of solid waste.

In the past three years, garbage removal and recycling costs have doubled. Many Bay area landfills are slated to close within 5-8 years. That means, the trash has to travel another 50-60 miles to be disposed off after this time period. This is just the beginning. Meanwhile, we have issues of global warming and fossil fuel use as burning issues to contend with intellectually.

Reading Cleanliness in Mumbai by Ashish, made me rethink the herculean task of cleaning up our cities in India. On one hand we have a gargantuan population that requires urban services that include sanitation in the form of running water, sewers and drains. The majority of this population lives in unorganized shanty towns with no municipal linkup to sewerage and drains. Nobody is willing to pay for the set up or clean up. On the other side, we have an inefficient political and administrative system that is least bothered about trash and human waste. Going hand-in-hand with it is the fact that access to water is also haphazard.

When I lived in Chennai in the late 80s, the problem facing the city corporation was that 60% of the city dwellers who lived in Chennai's slums had no access to corporation-approved water or sewage lines. The ruling party just bore holes through the concrete slabs that covered storm drains and built public toilets. These quick-fix political methods to garner votes have been the downfall of our country.

One of the largest and well-designed sewage treatment plants are located in the North of Chennai at Kodungayur, but is unfortunately not used to capacity as there is not sufficient water to make the sewage flow! This is what I call irony.

This brings us to another problem that plagues India: Access to water. The reason why I do not say potable water is obvious. Let us get water first then worry about the potability issue. Water has become such a politicized issue that it has led to private parties managing water tankers that lead to their share of the water trade in the urban areas. In Tamil Nadu, there is a direct correlation between the owners of water tankers and MLAs. Many times they are one and the same.

According to a United Nations report on precipitation across the globe, India's catchment of rainwater is quite high. Unfortunately it is not harvested well. While the ancient kings of India built various wells, tanks and bunds to ensure the storage of rain water, it is only in recent times, rain water harvesting has slowly found a resurgence in the minds of people. Jayalalitha made it a law for all Chennai citizens to have a rainwater harvesting unit in their homes and apartment buildings to replenish the water table. And it has worked. After a long time, several areas of Chennai confirmed their artisan wells coming back to life after a long spell of dryness.

Along with recharging the water table, we are faced with a pure filtering system (the current aquifers in many urban regions are under concrete or clogged with plastics and toxic materials). It is difficult to just clean up what has been piling up for decades now.

However, where there is a will, there is a way indeed. If all of Bollywood would set aside 2 days in a year to lead a "Clean Mumbai" campaign, you will find thousands of Mumbaikars coming together with biodegradable gloves and bags to collect trash and clean out aquifers etc. We can ask India's richest man, another Mumbaikar, to sponsor all the materials!!! (Mr. Ambani, are you reading this? Just how green is your building that you are planning? Please consider greening your city before building a tall house for yourself.)

Here, in the Bay, we have Clean the Bay and Clean our Creek days where community members come together one Saturday or Sunday and pick litter and trash from creek beds, parks and bay. There is a greater Clean the Beaches day too that ensures clean coastlines. The Besant Nagar Exnora, Chennai, has made the stretch of Elliot's Beach from Besant Nagar to Thiruvanmayur a wonderful example of community commitment along with local fishermen and visitors who come for a stroll.

Another group of community members to be targetted for this job (which has been very successful in smaller towns of Tamil Nadu) are college students. They come together in large groups and clean out large stretches of muck and make for cleaner environments within hours. The enthusiasm of these youth are unparalleled.

Once the initial clearing is done, we can begin the implementation of infrastructure. I am sure that the corporation has all necessary numbers with regards to the demographs of any given area in Mumbai along with the current availability of resources including water and Sulabh facilities.

The AIIMS campus and Safderjung Hospital in New Delhi are an example of this. From 1991 to 2000, the change in this corner of Ring Road and Aurobindo Marg is beyond amazing. The new flyover has made this congested corner even more streamlined. But the real miracle is on the ground with Sulabh toilets and areas for out of city patients to await their appointments and test results. While this corner is great, half a Km away at the Green Park intersection, Aurobindo Marg becomes a nightmare.

This is where the sustainability model of San Jose comes into play. The city combines water, trash, sewage, building codes and traffic under its environmental plan. Having lived here for over 10 years, I can see the transformation from the boom days of the dot com revolution and the bust. This city has learned to adapt and improve facilities including upgrading its airport to an international one now.

The city of Bangalore that I envied in the early 80s is no more. The gardens are dead in the Garden city. It has become a traffic nightmare and there are no laws that prevent new vehicles from joining the already overcrowded streets. Singapore-style laws of high car taxes, ban on new vehicle registrations should improve the situation. The level of corruption needs to be taken care of before that. Phew... Public transit is pathetic and the multinational culture of excessive salaries has messed up the economy of that city and its original citizens.

I sincerely hope that the megapolises of India and their stakeholders set aside their paltry politics of communal hatred and get together to make a beautiful environment for the society to flourish. We have the technology, we have innovators like that inventor Dr. A. D. Karve in Pune with his indigenous productions, we have strong, enthusiastic youth who want to make a difference to their community and country, we have the money. Yes, it is very doable.

When the Earth Trembles

Blokesablogin — Thu, 1 Nov 2007 14:08:24 EDT

Tuesday night saw all of us run out of the house seconds after the first tremors rolled across the house. Welcome to the seismically active Bay Area, an area neatly framed with interesting fault lines. The Hayward fault lies to the East of us and the San Andreas one to the West.

My husband's nephew was visiting us that very instant and he was scared stiff. He was ready to quit his job and pack his bags back to "safe" Chennai! It was quite funny and yet normal to see that response from a person who had just experienced his first earthquake.

My first experience of the earth delicately stretching a finger was in Delhi in the 80s. It was pretty late at night and I wondered who shook my bed so vigorously?! The best joke was my mom relating to us the next morning that she was angry with father for so violently shaking his ear! The next day's paper told us it was an earthquake! My next incident that really made me totally cognisant of this amazing force of nature was the Utharanchal earthquake on 20th October, 1991. We had just returned to Delhi from a trip to Gangotri. The guest house we had stayed at, in Uttarkashi on 18th night, had fallen into the Ganga within 36 hours of our leaving. You can barely imagine the feelings in our hearts that day after reading the paper.

The Bhuj quake in 2001 January was yet another experience- this time around, we were busy mobilizing funds and donations through the Art of Living. It kept us focsed on the issue in a more productive way. What amazed me was the spiritual strength of the people affected. There was no blaming and complaints. Just an acceptance of Earth and her movement. Of course, they were anguished about their personal loss of life of family and friends, with great acceptance.

The Tsunamis triggered by the quake in Dec 2004 was probably the most dramatic of all. The blogsphere rose to the occasion and networked in a way that had never happened before.

In all these situations, what came through was the tenacity of the human spirit towards life in spite of the destruction. It was about humanity reaching out and giving solace. The finer aspects of humans like generosity and caring was self evident.

However, there is much we need to know about dealing with quakes and other natural disasters. The Red Cross offers special training to specific groups of volunteers to learn to deal with Disasters that impact large groups of people. Mass Care is one such training that teaches us to be efficiently useful in such times. Running a shelter is yet another aspect of Mass Care. After the Tsunami, volunteers converged so fast to the east coast of Tamil Nadu, that there were issues of hygiene, availability of water for the affected and volunteers etc. The logistics of handling masses of people after huge damage to preexisting infrastructure is an ongoing problem. This can be addressed to some extent if we plan a little ahead and organize ourselves better.

As nature never gives us an intimation before sending in a storm, an earthquake or a wildfire, it is a good idea to get ourselves organized now. Therefore, my dear readers, please do get your friends and family together and get a disaster relief party ready.