The flow need not stop

India’s water resources are depleting quite rapidly. Rainfall is, after all, limited in quantity and the availability of water in our rivers and
lakes is decreasing rapidly as populations grow, agricultural and industrial usage increases and lifestyle changes occur. Also, the waters we pollute become unavailable for beneficial uses. In short, we are running out of water. Availability of fresh water per person in some Indian rivers today is only half, or less, than what it was just 30 years ago. Lakes in India suffer a loss of 30 per cent or more of their volume merely through annual evaporation thanks to our tropical climate. Local bodies incur a further loss varying from 20 to 40 per cent in distributing water to urban consumers. In effect, for every glass of water we drink, roughly two glasses are lost for various reasons. Yet water conservation is not seriously practised in India. This is one among few countries allowing farmers use of free electricity to pump up groundwater for irrigation. We are in a bind: it would be bad politics to increase the price of water or control its use in a country like India; at the same time, water being so cheap, its conservation is not taken seriously. Meanwhile, water scarcity is increasing rapidly in many parts of India. The municipalities exert pressure on consumers to increase their water resources themselves either through rainwater harvesting or treatment of wastewater for reuse. Both methods have their limitations. In India, water has been reused for agriculture for over a hundred years. With some treatment, wastewater has been reused in industry and commerce, especially since the early 1960s. From 1993 onwards, reuse expertise took on an entirely new approach to meet community uses. This remarkable development has gone almost unnoticed. Hussain Sagar Lake in Hyderabad was the first to use the technique of treating city sewage to replenish the lake’s evaporation losses. Hyderabad uses as much as 20 million litres per day of the city’s treated sewage to make up for evaporation losses in its famous lake. Sewage is treated to a high degree in a special treatment plant and used to keep the lake topped up at all times. This frees it from odours caused by anaerobic — devoid of oxygen — conditions in the lake water in summer, conditions that would generate greenhouse gases and contribute to global warming. Moreover, evaporation laid bare some land along the lake’s shrinking periphery, encouraging public encroachments. Controlled reuse with treated sewage has been going on for nearly a decade now to protect the lake environment. Treated sewage could be used since the lake supplied water only for non-potable purposes. A foreign agency is now funding the system’s expansion. Sewage and industrial wastewater find their way into most of India’s already highly polluted lakes. In many cases, lakes, especially the smaller ones, would dry up without wastewater. So, wastewater inflow cannot be stopped unless the dried up lake area is intended to be converted into a new building construction site and sold to builders. More logical would be to pre-treat wastewater to maintain a relatively clean lake people can benefit from. A few lakes in Thane and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra are being taken up for protection in this manner. Many other lakes in India, both large and small, could be similarly saved. Rajasthan is presently developing a lake area, with local funding, where water is badly needed for tourism development. Sewage will be brought from Jaipur city after high-level tertiary treatment to replenish evaporation and other losses. However, as some body-contact sports may be played in the lake water, the tertiary treated wastewater will be further treated by a ‘natural’ wetland treatment to simulate nature. The success of this project, backed by extensive analytical monitoring work, will take us a step further in the art of reuse. Whether a lake is large or small, its sustainability is assured if it becomes a source of income for the people who look after it. Tourist activities around a clean lake as well as aquaculture and reuse bring income. Income is the key that motivates caretakers. If it goes to the government or local authority, neglect sets in. For a country like India with its large population, existing water resources will never be enough and treated wastewater will someday have to be used on a much wider scale for replenishing potable water supply lakes. Can this be done? The US, Europe and Israel are already doing it in certain areas. Singapore has started reuse. Desalination of seawater is not always the answer since it is often more expensive. In most cases, wastewater is first treated well in a mechanised treatment plant and then made to flow underground for ‘natural’ treatment, as is planned for Jaipur. In flowing underground through soil and aquifer, the wastewater’s micro-pollutants are removed and quality is further improved. Groundwater may be re-treated just before supply, if necessary. We have to utilise our reuse expertise to overcome heavy evaporation losses usually occurring in tropical lakes. Nowhere in the world is treated sewage being used to replenish lakes. Treatment has to be both mechanical and natural. That way, we will be able to turn our tropical climate to our advantage and conserve our water resources.

ref: this article was published in Times of india dated 12/03/09 (editorial column)

Let's Go Green

Economic stimulus is the order of the day. This is as it must be, as governments around the world struggle to jump-start the global economy. But
even as leaders address the immediate need to stimulate the economy, so too must they act jointly to ensure that the new de facto economic model being developed is sustainable for the planet and our future on it. What we need is both stimulus and long-term investments that accomplish two objectives simultaneously with one global economic policy response a policy that addresses our urgent and immediate economic and social needs and that launches a new green global economy. In short, we need to make 'growing green' our mantra. First, a synchronised global recession requires a synchronised global response. We need stimulus and intense coordination of economic policy among all main economies. We must avoid the beggar-thy-neighbour policies that contributed to the Great Depression. Coordination is also vital for reducing financial volatility, runs on currencies and rampant inflation as well as for instilling consumer and investor confidence. In Washington last November, G20 leaders expressed their determination to enhance cooperation and work together to restore global growth and achieve needed reforms in the world's financial systems. This needs to happen urgently. Stimulus is intended to jump-start the economy, but if properly conceived and executed it can also launch us on a new, low-carbon path to green growth. Some $2,250 billion of stimulus has already been announced by 34 nations. This stimulus, along with new initiatives by other countries, must help catapult the world economy into the 21st century, not perpetuate the dying industries and bad habits of yesteryear. Indeed, continuing to pour trillions of dollars into carbon-based infrastructure and fossil-fuel subsidies would be like investing in subprime real estate all over again. Eliminating the $300 billion in annual global fossil fuel subsidies would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 6 per cent and would add to global gross domestic product. Developing renewable energy will help where we need it most. Already, developing economies account for 40 per cent of existing global renewable resources as well as 70 per cent of solar water heating capacity. Leaders everywhere, notably in the US and China, are realising that green is not an option but a necessity for recharging their economies and creating jobs. Globally, with 2.3 million people employed in the renewable energy sector, there are already more jobs there than directly in the oil and gas industries. In the US, there are now more jobs in the wind industry than in the entire coal industry. President Barack Obama's and China's stimulus packages are a critical step in the right direction and their green components must be followed through urgently. We urge all governments to expand green stimulus elements, including energy efficiency, renewables, mass transit, new smart electricity grids and reforestation, and to coordinate their efforts for rapid results. Second, we need 'pro-poor' policies now. In much of the developing world, governments do not have the option to borrow or print money to cushion the devastating economic blows. Therefore, governments in industrialised countries must reach beyond their borders and invest immediately in those cost-effective programmes that boost the productivity of the poorest. Last year, food riots and unrest swept more than 30 countries. Ominously, this was even before September's financial implosion, which sparked the global recession that has driven a further 100 million people deeper into poverty. We must act now to prevent further suffering and potential widespread political instability. This means increasing overseas development assistance this year. It means strengthening social safety nets. It means investing in agriculture in developing countries by getting seeds, tools, sustainable agricultural practices and credit to smallholder farmers so they can produce more food and get it to local and regional markets. Pro-poor policy also means increasing investments in better land use, water conservation and drought-resistant crops to help farmers adapt to a changing climate, which if not addressed could usher in chronic hunger and malnutrition across large swathes of the developing world. Third, we need a robust climate deal in Copenhagen in December. Not next year. This year. The climate negotiations must be dramatically accelerated and given attention at the highest levels, starting today. A successful deal in Copenhagen offers the most potent global stimulus package possible. With a new climate framework in hand, business and governments will finally have the carbon price signal businesses have been clamouring for, one that can unleash a wave of innovation and investment in clean energy. Copenhagen will provide the green light for green growth. This is the basis for a truly sustainable economic recovery that will benefit us and our children's children for decades to come. For millions of people from Detroit to Delhi these are the worst of times. Families have lost jobs, homes, health care and even the prospect of their next meal. With so much at stake, governments must be strategic in their choices. We must not let the urgent undermine the essential. Investing in the green economy is not an optional expense. It is a smart investment for a more equitable, prosperous future.

Note: this article was written by Ban Ki-moon and Al Gore. This article was published in Times of India dated 21-2-09

Indian experts find bacteria to beat global heat

In a major breakthrough that could help in the fight against global warming, a team of five Indian scientists from four institutes of the
country have discovered a naturally occurring bacteria which converts carbon dioxide (CO2) into a compound found in limestone and chalk. When used as an enzyme — biomolecules that speed up a chemical reaction — the bacteria has been found to transform CO2 into calcium carbonate (CaCO3), which can fetch minerals of economic value, said Dr Anjana Sharma from the biosciences department of RD University, Jabalpur, who was part of the Rs 98.6 lakh project sponsored by the department of biotechnology (DBT) under the Union science and technology ministry. CO2 is a greenhouse gas produced in the burning of fossil fuels and other industrial activities. The rising emissions of CO2 in the atmosphere is chiefly responsible for global warming. Reducing CO2 levels is the single most important strategy to fight global warming and the resulting effects of climate change. "The enzyme can be put to work in any situation, like in a chamber fitted inside a factory chimney through which CO2 would pass before being emitted into the atmosphere, and it would convert the greenhouse gas into calcium carbonate,’’ Dr Sadhana Rayalu, the project coordinator who is from the National Environmental Engineering and Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, told TOI on phone from Nagpur. This potentially means that the bacteria — extracted from a number of places including brick kilns in Satna, Madhya Pradesh — can be used to take out CO2 from its sources of emission itself. Rayalu said the chemical reactions involved in the process have been successfully established while its economic viability, cloning, expression and single-step purification are under study. The team has published its findings in the Indian Journal of Microbiology and its paper has been accepted for publication in the World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology. Sharma said the breakthrough was the result of marathon research work spanning more than three years. Other members of the team are Dr K Krishnamurty from NEERI, Dr T Satyanarayana from Delhi University and Dr A K Tripathi from Banaras Hindu University. "Interestingly, it is nature that has come to the rescue of the human race from harmful effects of global warming. Investigators of the team have discovered as many as seven such micro-organisms that have the tendency to convert carbon dioxide into calcium carbonate at different natural locations,’’ said Sharma, who was on a visit to Allahabad.

reference: this article was published in times of india dated 15/02/09

Sun & Sand

Sun, sea and sand... it sounds like Goa. But it's actually an environmental project that could help the whole world. A third of the planet faces a
critical water shortage by 2025. And with agriculture accounting for some 70 per cent of all water used, the crisis is closely linked to crop cultivation and economic development. The world also faces a shortage of food in underdeveloped countries and sources of low-cost renewable energy. Together, that's a pretty big problem to handle but if an ambitious plan called the Sahara Forest Project can take off, it can not only hope to provide a significant fraction of all these essentials but, in the process, also produce conditions to enable the re-vegetation of desertified areas. This could happen because the project combines two established technologies seawater greenhouse and concentrated solar power to achieve highly efficient synergies. Both work best in sunny and arid conditions such as hot deserts which have access to seawater. The process uses seawater to cool and humidify the air that ventilates the greenhouse and sunlight to distil fresh water from seawater. This enables the year-round cultivation of high-value crops that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to grow in such regions. Concentrated solar power (CSP), on the other hand, uses mirrors or lenses to concentrate sunlight on seawater to produce superheated steam which is used to drive conventional turbines and generate electricity while the steam itself becomes desalinated water. There's no problem in collecting the seawater either if the plant can be located in places lying below sea level, a lot of which exist in deserts flanking water bodies. It's been estimated that even if less than 1 per cent of continental deserts could be covered with concentrated solar power plants, it could produce as much electricity as the whole world uses now. More importantly, since CSP makes use of the most abundant and free fuel there is sunlight it could be used in key countries like India, China, Mexico, southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Australia that already have such vast resources. India could well do with a Sahara-type Thar Forest Project since scientists say the endless sands of Rajasthan could easily earn the distinction of becoming one of the biggest solar powerhouses of the future if the political will is there to see it through.

Ref: This article was published in Times of India on january 31st.

India has a vital role to play in climate deal

Hundreds of industry leaders, opinion makers, and climate change experts are gathering this week for the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, dedicated to climate change. The summit, being held for the second year running, could not come at a more opportune time. 2009 is a defining year for the international climate change process. The world is poised to conclude one of the most complex international agreements ever to be negotiated, an agreement which has the potential to decide the fate of the human race.

India and the rest of the world cannot afford the worst predictions of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to come true, for example, the flooding of coastal cities and extreme food shortages. Failure to first slow and then reverse current greenhouse gas emission trends within the next 10 years or so would lead to a rise in global average temperatures that would completely undermine all efforts to combat poverty and achieve sustainable development. But there are good reasons to believe that the international community is progressing in the right direction.

In 2007 in Bali, the 192 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change committed themselves to launching negotiations on strengthened action on climate change, to culminate in an ambitious and effective international deal in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. Since then, there have been several highly significant events which make me optimistic that a solid agreement can be reached this year.

For example, at the end of last year, the European Union agreed to a climate and energy package with which it will be able to reach its target of a 20 per cent emission reduction by 2020 and minus 30 per cent if other industrialised countries follow suit.

A new US administration has assumed office, with President Barack Obama agreeing on 80 per cent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and to reduce his country's emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. President Obama is not only firmly committed to taking action against climate change domestically, but has announced that he will re-engage his country in the international climate change negotiations.

Many pundits warn that the current global economic woes could throw efforts to combat climate change off-track. But even the financial and economic crisis is being used by countries such as China and the US as an opportunity to change direction and to shift towards the greening of their economies. For the US, this includes unleashing $150 billion over 10 years to create five million new 'green' jobs. China recently announced a $586 billion economic stimulus package, some 25 per cent of which is to help bolster conservation, environmental protection, and renewable energy efforts. All this has injected energy into the negotiating process.

At Bali, industrialised countries reconfirmed their commitment to lead in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In the context of the Copenhagen agreement, developing countries must receive measurable, reportable and verifiable funding for measurable, reportable and verifiable action on climate change. In 2008, the first year of the two-year negotiating process towards Copenhagen, India put forward important proposals. For example, a reinsurance fund to deal with the unavoidable losses arising from climate change and an international technology transfer mechanism.

Domestically, India has blazed a trail by drawing up an ambitious National Action Plan. In the field of mitigation, key elements of the plan are to boost solar energy, promote research and development into renewable energies and enhance energy efficiency. And the plan foresees effective adaptation measures, such as helping farmers by boosting the development of drought and pest-resistant crop varieties. The question is now how India can dovetail its existing actions with international cooperation in such a way that national development and the fight against climate change become two sides of the same coin.

India already benefits from international cooperation on climate change as a leading participant in a key mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol. The country globally ranks first in terms of the number of clean development mechanism (CDM) projects. Under the CDM, projects in developing countries can earn saleable certified emission reduction credits. Countries with an emission reduction commitment under the protocol can use these credits to cover a part of that commitment.

The current carbon market structures are a promising first step in the right direction. But in their present form, they are insufficient to meet the challenge of drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions and need to be expanded. India could therefore now put forward proposals on how carbon market mechanisms could be considerably strengthened and scaled up.

The negotiating process of 2009 and the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen constitute a narrow window of opportunity that, if recognised and made the most of, could set the world on a path towards a truly green economy. India is ideally positioned to grasp the opportunities offered by the negotiating process and to help lead the rest of the world to an ambitious outcome in Denmark at the end of this year.


note: this article was published in the times of india on february 5th

Green cover loss causes micro climate

There was an artice on sunday's times of india (1/2/2009) regarding the loss of green due to micro climate change. Due of loss of green or due to cutting of trees in pune, there has been some consequences such as changes in seasonal pattern, increasing temperatures during winters, untimely rainfall, disappearance of certain plant species, etc. According to experts tress are th lungs of pune and if they dissappear, there will not be adequate CO2 absorbtion which leads to overall warming. This has an impact on seasonal cycles as well as rabi crops due to higher temperature and cloudy skies in winter. The trees lining along the major roads have been cut for widening the roads. It leads to heating of roads and bring changes in the microclimate. The changes in land-use pattern have also affected birds and animal species, grasses and river bio-diversity.

Global warming irreversible for next 1000 years

There was a report on yesterday's Times of India(date:jan 28, 2009/page 15) about global warming. A study conducted by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), reveals that climate change is largely irreversible for the next 1000 years even if carbondioxide emissions could be abruptly halted. The report said that changes in surface temperature, rainfall and sea level are irreversible for 1000 years even if CO2 emissions are completely stopped. CO2 in present days earths atmosphere is 385 ppm as against 280 ppm before the industial age. the researchers emphasised that the increase in CO2 that occur from 2ooo to 2100 are set to 'lock in' a sea level rise over next 1000 years. Rising sea level would cause "irreversible commitments to futute changes in the geography of the earth, since many coastal and island features would ultimately become submerged," said the study. Some of the impacts would be decrease in rainfall, decrease human water supplies, increased fire frequency, ecosystem change and expanded deserts.