By Fabiana Frayssinet, IPS News
Environmentalists criticised the lack of concrete proposals in the Brazilian government's submission to the preparatory process for the Rio+20 conference, to be held in this city in June 2012.
The document submitted Tuesday Nov. 1 to the United Nations for the Conference on Sustainable Development, taking place 20 years after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, demonstrates – according to the Brazilian government – its commitment to sustainable development.
It adds that the "permanent incorporation of poverty eradication (is) an essential element for achieving sustainable development".
The document also stresses "the Brazilian government’s political commitment to multilateralism as the principal long-term solution to the key global challenges of our age," and says the state "must reassert its role as driver and regulator of development."
Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said it is necessary to "make progress towards inclusive sustainable development over the next 20 years." She added that "an inclusive green economy is the right path."
But the document, which the foreign ministry says is Brazil's initial contribution to the first draft of the final declaration to be negotiated by all of the U.N. member states, did not live up to the expectations of this country's environmental organisations.
The submission "is far from a path leading to the transition to a new economy," Rubens Harry Born, assistant coordinator of Vitae Civilis, told IPS.
The environmental group participated in the government's consultation process on the document, as part of the Brazilian Forum of NGOs and Social Movements for the Environment and Development (FBOMS).
According to Born the input process was "interesting," but "fell short." He said there were only 20 days to debate all of the issues, with a "very limited concept of what a consultation process should be."
For example, the NGOs had no chance to debate the document with the Finance Ministry – an opportunity that was given to the trade unions and business, he noted.
"That limited the scope of society's contributions," he complained.
Born said the document is short on details with respect to the Global Socio-Environmental Protection Programme it mentions, whose aim is to ensure income in order to overcome extreme poverty throughout the world and to promote essential actions that would guarantee quality of the environment, food security, adequate housing and access to clean water for all.
"What the government has failed to answer is when, how, and with what resources, goals and instruments this will be carried out," Born said. "We want more tangible targets, which are not set forth in the document."
The environmentalist also said more recent issues, like nuclear safety in the wake of the March accident at the nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan, or the question of human migration driven by climate change, were not taken into account.
The government proposes adopting sustainability development goals, along the lines of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
It says that "based on an inclusive green economy, instead of complex negotiations seeking to establish restrictive and binding goals, objectives infused with a spirit of guidance and addressing a wide range of issues could be established, similarly to the Millennium Goals, in areas where there is already a high degree of convergence of opinions, which would be capable of providing impetus and guidance to the countries towards sustainable development."
The government suggests a Global Pact for Sustainable Production and Consumption which would include sustainable public procurement based on the idea that governments can play a key role in modifying production and consumption patterns.
Efficient energy consumption labelling, funding for research on sustainable development, and a repository of initiatives form part of the proposed global pact.
Brazil is also calling for a more integrated approach to the question of water, in the United Nations.
But while the government talks about clean energy, it does not discuss, for example, the question of subsidies for fossil fuels, said Born. Nor does it say "when it will support renewable energy sources," he added.
At the same time, "it will invest billions of dollars in exploiting the 'pre-salt' oilfields" – deposits discovered off the Brazilian coast below a two-kilometre-thick salt layer under rock, sand and deep water.
Nor does it lay out clear goals on sanitation – a key issue in regions like Africa and Latin America, Born said, pointing out that across the planet, 6,000 people a day die from water-related illnesses.
The document contains "extremely generic and abstract proposals," said Fábio Feldmann, a former legislator and environment secretary in the southern state of São Paulo.
"I am afraid that if they want to invite the world's heads of state here to support such generic proposals, the conference will not be that effective," he remarked to IPS.
"I'm very worried, because I don't feel there are effective proposals in terms of evaluation, funding and goals," added Feldmann, who was also executive secretary of the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change from 2000 to 2004, and of the São Paulo Forum on Global Climate Change and Biodiversity until 2010.
In his view, "there is nothing innovative" in the document, with respect to previous global conferences.
Feldmann agrees on the need to adopt efficient energy consumption labelling, improve global environmental governance, and give priority to financing for research on sustainable development and the green economy. "But in operational terms, how would all of that work?" he said.
Ecologist Sérgio Ricardo, a founding member of the Brazilian Environmental Justice Network, said the document is "rhetoric about a green economy that in practice is in fact a brown economy." He was referring to the state-run banks that finance unsustainable private initiatives and support non-renewable energy sources like thermoelectric or nuclear plants.
But he said "it is very positive that the Millennium Goals were included, like the reduction of poverty and social inequalities."
Nevertheless, he told IPS that "there is some distance between the official discourse and the government's economic policies."
The Brazilian government's proposal for the financial sector – which the document says has "a unique capacity for stimulus and inducement in the economic arena" – is an International Protocol for social and environmental sustainability.
A pact for an inclusive green economy should require information on social and environmental performance and corporate governance in the annual reports of state-run companies, private corporations, banks and pension funds, the document says.
In addition, it suggests the adoption of sustainability indices which would serve as reference points for stock exchange investments.
"Concretely, I would like to know what that means in terms of national legislation," Feldmann said.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota explained that once all of the official submissions are presented to the U.N., the negotiation of the conference's final documents will begin.
"Immediately after the start of 2012, we will enter the intergovernmental negotiating phase, to hammer out the Rio + 20 final document," he told the press.
Brazil postponed the summit to Jun. 20-22 to avoid a clash with the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
The first Earth Summit, whose official name was the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio in June 1992, was a landmark moment.
The governments adopted Agenda 21, the first detailed plan on global, national and local measures for achieving sustainable development, as well as the conventions on biological diversity and climate change.
Source
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Ghanaian scientist ask farmers to adapt water catchment systems
By Ghana Business News
Dr Dilys MacCarthy, a scientist at the Soil and Irrigation Research Centre of the University of Ghana has noted that water catchment and storage systems are important to farmers to adapt to changing climate.
She said most farmers in Ghana rely on rainfall for water and yet the pattern and quantities are becoming irregular, hence the need for them to learn technologies and practices which can be used in adaptation to climate change.
Dr MacCarthy said this at a “Meet and Greet,” interactive knowledge sharing programme for non-governmental organisations (NGOs), farmers and researchers to promote climate change networking in Ghana organised by Africa Adapt (AA), an NGO.
She briefed the participants on rainwater harvesting facility and soil formations adapted to flood conditions.
Madam Jacqueline Nnam, Programme Director of AA reiterated that climate change is causing immense havoc to the people and it is therefore important for immediate action to bring together stakeholders to share ideas on how to assist the vulnerable to adapt to the phenomenon.
She said the programme was organised to promote climate change networking.
Dr Ramadjita Tabo, Executive Director of Forum For Agricultural Research in Africa, a subsidiary of New Partnership For African Development, emphasised the reality of climate change and its negative impact and cited the recent heavy rains in Ghana that caused flooding resulting loss of lives and property.
He underscored the need for Africa to adequately prepare itself against such negative impacts of climate change.
Mr Lovans Owusu-Takyi, Executive Director of Youth Volunteers for the Environment in Ghana, an NGO said knowledge sharing workshops are important initiatives to educate farmers and NGOs on the impact of climate change and to provide guidance on adaptation strategies.
He said the most vulnerable are the youth in agriculture who contributed the largest to food security and the national gross domestic product.
Mr Owusu-Takyi, who is also a lecturer at Kumasi Institute of Tropical Agriculture said over flooding of crop farms, low soil fertility and crop yield, conflict over land resources are hampering the development of small-scale farming and a threat to peace in Ghana.
He said sustainable technologies, such as agro-forestry, farm diversification, knowledge on weather patterns and irrigation system are the best farmers could adapt to impact positively on climate change.
Source
Dr Dilys MacCarthy, a scientist at the Soil and Irrigation Research Centre of the University of Ghana has noted that water catchment and storage systems are important to farmers to adapt to changing climate.
She said most farmers in Ghana rely on rainfall for water and yet the pattern and quantities are becoming irregular, hence the need for them to learn technologies and practices which can be used in adaptation to climate change.
Dr MacCarthy said this at a “Meet and Greet,” interactive knowledge sharing programme for non-governmental organisations (NGOs), farmers and researchers to promote climate change networking in Ghana organised by Africa Adapt (AA), an NGO.
She briefed the participants on rainwater harvesting facility and soil formations adapted to flood conditions.
Madam Jacqueline Nnam, Programme Director of AA reiterated that climate change is causing immense havoc to the people and it is therefore important for immediate action to bring together stakeholders to share ideas on how to assist the vulnerable to adapt to the phenomenon.
She said the programme was organised to promote climate change networking.
Dr Ramadjita Tabo, Executive Director of Forum For Agricultural Research in Africa, a subsidiary of New Partnership For African Development, emphasised the reality of climate change and its negative impact and cited the recent heavy rains in Ghana that caused flooding resulting loss of lives and property.
He underscored the need for Africa to adequately prepare itself against such negative impacts of climate change.
Mr Lovans Owusu-Takyi, Executive Director of Youth Volunteers for the Environment in Ghana, an NGO said knowledge sharing workshops are important initiatives to educate farmers and NGOs on the impact of climate change and to provide guidance on adaptation strategies.
He said the most vulnerable are the youth in agriculture who contributed the largest to food security and the national gross domestic product.
Mr Owusu-Takyi, who is also a lecturer at Kumasi Institute of Tropical Agriculture said over flooding of crop farms, low soil fertility and crop yield, conflict over land resources are hampering the development of small-scale farming and a threat to peace in Ghana.
He said sustainable technologies, such as agro-forestry, farm diversification, knowledge on weather patterns and irrigation system are the best farmers could adapt to impact positively on climate change.
Source
Bhutan's Moving Gold: How water is powering the country
By Sara Sidner, CNN November 8, 2011
Bhutan is the last of the Himalayan kingdoms. The small country is situated in the nooks and crannies of the highest mountain range on earth.
It's a special place that didn't have paved roads until the 1960s, was off-limits to foreign tourists until the 1970's, and didn't have television until 1999, the last country in the world to get service.
The altitude and scenery are enough to take your breath away.
In this country the environment is cherished. The kingdom lists environmental protection as one of the four pillars of happiness, a state of mind the country takes so seriously that "gross national happiness" is considered more important than gross domestic product.
Still, Bhutan is modernizing and looking at how to use its resources responsibly. Water is one of its most abundant resources.
Bhutan holds a royal wedding
"Some people tell me that it's the 'moving gold,' " Sherup Tenzing, the executive engineer for Druk Green Power Corporation in Chhukha, said. "Since the river patterns in Bhutan are naturally designed in such a way that it can produce huge amount of energy -- that is also clean energy."
Bhutan is tapping into that clean energy on a massive scale. Hydropower is the sole source of electricity in the country and experts say the country is only using about 5 percent of its potential right now.
"After 2020 we have a target of accomplishing 15 additional power plants and 3 are already under construction and they have achieved good progress," Tenzin said.
Bhutan's very first hydropower plant was set up in Chhukha, about a two-hour drive from the capital Thimphu.
The dam that harnesses the water is a spectacle in and of itself. It is beautifully painted with Buddhist deities, including the water goddess. Even in the belly of the plant, the most utilitarian space has a wall covered with a colorfully painted mural depicting the life of Buddha. The mural adds beauty to what would normally be quite drab and dank.
In Bhutan hydroelectricity has become big business; actually, the biggest business.
The clean energy created in this small country (it's about the size of Switzerland with a population less than that of San Francisco) is being sold to one of Bhutan's power-starved and highly populated neighbors: India.
"More than 60 percent of our GDP comes from hydro-power," Bhutan's Prime Minister Jigme Thinley told CNN. He says the clean energy business is a perfect fit for the country.
"Bhutan is ecologically a very fragile region, being located in the vulnerable Himalayas. And in fact, even with respect to hydropower, we are engaging in its realization only because it is ecologically friendly, these are all run-of-the river schemes with minimum or no damage to the ecology," the prime minister said.
Not everyone is convinced. Government adviser Dasho Paljor J. Dorji worries too many dams may harm the creatures that live in the water.
"It's a shame that so much of our rivers are being tapped. The aim is good. [But] it happens so quickly. I thought that, perhaps, we might be able to leave some of our rivers, still pristine with its natural beauty instead of damming them all," Dorji said.
Still, Dorji is well aware of all the benefits from an energy source that doesn't pollute the air.
Eighty percent of the country now has electricity and the goal is to have the entire nation electrified by 2013, all of it provided by hydropower.
The clean energy has changed many lives in Bhutan.
Farmer Zangmo, who uses only one name that is typical in the country, got electricity for the first time in 2000.
"Earlier, when electricity wasn't there, we faced a lot of problems. We had to depend on firewood for everything. Everything was dark, back then," Zangmo said.
Electricity has helped increase the family income too. Earlier, after backbreaking work harvesting rice in the fields, the family would have to spend their days beating the husks off the rice.
Now Zangmo flicks a switch and the electrical machine does the de-husking, making work more efficient and faster.
She says she doesn't know how the electricity is made but she is thankful for it.
In fact, many of the people benefiting from hydropower have no idea that the pristine water in their rivers is generating the lights in their homes and businesses.
When we told Zangmo that running water was helping create the electricity in her home her eye opened wide and she said: "We didn't know that water could produce electricity. It is unbelievable."
Source
Bhutan is the last of the Himalayan kingdoms. The small country is situated in the nooks and crannies of the highest mountain range on earth.
It's a special place that didn't have paved roads until the 1960s, was off-limits to foreign tourists until the 1970's, and didn't have television until 1999, the last country in the world to get service.
The altitude and scenery are enough to take your breath away.
In this country the environment is cherished. The kingdom lists environmental protection as one of the four pillars of happiness, a state of mind the country takes so seriously that "gross national happiness" is considered more important than gross domestic product.
Still, Bhutan is modernizing and looking at how to use its resources responsibly. Water is one of its most abundant resources.
Bhutan holds a royal wedding
"Some people tell me that it's the 'moving gold,' " Sherup Tenzing, the executive engineer for Druk Green Power Corporation in Chhukha, said. "Since the river patterns in Bhutan are naturally designed in such a way that it can produce huge amount of energy -- that is also clean energy."
Bhutan is tapping into that clean energy on a massive scale. Hydropower is the sole source of electricity in the country and experts say the country is only using about 5 percent of its potential right now.
"After 2020 we have a target of accomplishing 15 additional power plants and 3 are already under construction and they have achieved good progress," Tenzin said.
Bhutan's very first hydropower plant was set up in Chhukha, about a two-hour drive from the capital Thimphu.
The dam that harnesses the water is a spectacle in and of itself. It is beautifully painted with Buddhist deities, including the water goddess. Even in the belly of the plant, the most utilitarian space has a wall covered with a colorfully painted mural depicting the life of Buddha. The mural adds beauty to what would normally be quite drab and dank.
In Bhutan hydroelectricity has become big business; actually, the biggest business.
The clean energy created in this small country (it's about the size of Switzerland with a population less than that of San Francisco) is being sold to one of Bhutan's power-starved and highly populated neighbors: India.
"More than 60 percent of our GDP comes from hydro-power," Bhutan's Prime Minister Jigme Thinley told CNN. He says the clean energy business is a perfect fit for the country.
"Bhutan is ecologically a very fragile region, being located in the vulnerable Himalayas. And in fact, even with respect to hydropower, we are engaging in its realization only because it is ecologically friendly, these are all run-of-the river schemes with minimum or no damage to the ecology," the prime minister said.
Not everyone is convinced. Government adviser Dasho Paljor J. Dorji worries too many dams may harm the creatures that live in the water.
"It's a shame that so much of our rivers are being tapped. The aim is good. [But] it happens so quickly. I thought that, perhaps, we might be able to leave some of our rivers, still pristine with its natural beauty instead of damming them all," Dorji said.
Still, Dorji is well aware of all the benefits from an energy source that doesn't pollute the air.
Eighty percent of the country now has electricity and the goal is to have the entire nation electrified by 2013, all of it provided by hydropower.
The clean energy has changed many lives in Bhutan.
Farmer Zangmo, who uses only one name that is typical in the country, got electricity for the first time in 2000.
"Earlier, when electricity wasn't there, we faced a lot of problems. We had to depend on firewood for everything. Everything was dark, back then," Zangmo said.
Electricity has helped increase the family income too. Earlier, after backbreaking work harvesting rice in the fields, the family would have to spend their days beating the husks off the rice.
Now Zangmo flicks a switch and the electrical machine does the de-husking, making work more efficient and faster.
She says she doesn't know how the electricity is made but she is thankful for it.
In fact, many of the people benefiting from hydropower have no idea that the pristine water in their rivers is generating the lights in their homes and businesses.
When we told Zangmo that running water was helping create the electricity in her home her eye opened wide and she said: "We didn't know that water could produce electricity. It is unbelievable."
Source
Monday, November 7, 2011
Brazil’s waste recyclers take on vegetable oil
By Angela Hojnacki OurWorld 2.0 (November 7, 2011)
On the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro lies the world’s largest trash dump, receiving more than 9,000 tonnes of garbage per day. Jardim Gramacho (Gramacho Gardens) is literally overflowing with garbage. Fractures in the dump site’s structure were noticed several years ago, but no decommission strategy has yet been successful because of illegal dumping and other issues.
Research has found that each day, Gramacho emits 800 cubic meters of liquid containing organic and inorganic compounds from domestic refuse, rubble, hospital and industry waste that drains into the Guanabara Bay. This leachate contains high levels of ammonium, nitrogen, chloride, sodium, and potassium and is considered highly toxic.
At the end of 2012, this dump and others across Brazil will close due to a law passed by the national parliament in 2010 that eradicates open dumps. But instead of celebrating the end of this environmental disaster, the city is faced with the search for a new home for 70% of Rio’s waste, plus all the refuse produced by neighbouring cities, as well as the 15,000 people that earn a living from the income generated by the dump.
Despite the horrible environmental conditions, catadores, or waste recyclers, have been collecting high-value recyclables found amongst the trash and selling it for profit for the past 30 years. When the dump closes, 3,000–4,000 people will be forced off of the landfill grounds and will no longer have the income to support their families that live in the nearby favelas, or slums.
Traditionally, waste recycling cooperatives in Brazil have had little influence upon legislation. However, this new law does give recognition to the work of the catadores and prescribes integrating them into the recycling industry, while also attempting to regulate their working conditions to improve their health and safety.
Cooperative solutions
Seven hundred miles southwest of Rio de Janeiro in São Paulo, Rede CataSampa provides a successful example of organizing waste recycling cooperatives. This network includes fifteen cooperatives in and around São Paulo that collect recyclables, including plastic, paper, glass, Styrofoam and waste vegetable oil, from local restaurants, households, and centralized collection sites.
Typically, the catadores bring the recyclables back to the cooperative by the truckload, where other catadores sort them. The facilities of the cooperatives range from open spaces protected by highway overpasses to large buildings provided by the city. Most of the cooperatives are equipped with compacters, so that the catadores can easily store separate materials before recycling companies buy the materials they need, typically in large quantities.
One example of how the cooperatives in the network cooperate is how, in the case of paper, all the materials are brought to a single cooperative, CRUMA (an acronym for the Portuguese of “Recycling Cooperative United for the Environment”), which sells recycled paper in bulk for a higher price and then distributes the income amongst the contributing cooperatives. Another cooperative, formed of members from a local favela, has raised money to invest in a machine that makes brooms out of recycled plastic soda bottles.
In Arujá, a small city just outside of São Paulo, a cooperative called CORA (Association of Collectors in Arujá and Region) not only collects and sorts 80–100 tonnes of recyclable materials per month, but also supports environmental education within the local community by holding lectures. The cooperative now employs about 20 catadores, operates large collection trucks donated by the city, and will soon be moving to a larger site that is currently being constructed.
The unique approaches of Brazil’s waste recycling cooperatives are attracting international attention. In May 2011, a group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of São Paulo, the Institute of Aeronautical Technology, and the State University of Campinas, worked with one cooperative to install an inexpensive waste vegetable oil filtration system in order to raise the value of the waste vegetable oil they collect. Started at MIT in January of 2010, the Green Grease Project’s aim is to find uses for the waste vegetable oil (WVO) that São Paulo’s catadores collect. The team was formed of MIT students from the Biodiesel Group, who recycle WVO into biodiesel using the processor that the group had installed on campus.
Although the tranesterfication process (which reacts an alcohol, like methanol, in the presence of a catalyst, usually a strong alkaline like sodium hydroxide, with the triglycerides contained in vegetable oil) required to neutralize the free fatty acids in the WVO is relatively straightforward, it requires hazardous chemicals and proper knowledge and training. With this in mind, the group of students, advised by Libby McDonald from MIT’s Community Innovators Lab, elected to focus on a more traditional technology — running a diesel engine on unconverted WVO using only excess heat from the engine.
After a pilot workshop at CRUMA, the group converted two diesel vehicles using recycled and locally-available materials. This technology dates back to the invention of the diesel engine, which Rudolf Diesel, its inventor, intended to run using vegetable oils so that farmers and artisans could utilize a locally-available fuel. The technology today, however, is severely limited by the lack of accessible information and regulations on WVO as a fuel. Although this technique is not as complex as biodiesel production, it does require careful maintenance and properly filtered WVO, both of which require specific infrastructure and communication.
The WVO challenge
Compared to other recyclable materials, waste vegetable oil poses several challenges, particularly in terms of storage and safety. Unlike paper or plastic that can be easily salvaged from other waste, litres of WVO are often lost down the drain, where they have the potential to pollute water very quickly. According to BioAuto, a waste vegetable oil recycling company in Sao Paulo, one litre of improperly disposed WVO can contaminate up to 23,000 litres of water, so diverting this from the waste stream to more productive uses, such as biodiesel production or direct combustion, reduces water pollution and also has the potential to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
São Vicente cooperative, located in São Jose dos Campos, collects WVO from other cooperatives in order to have larger quantities to sell to biodiesel manufacturers. The catadores distribute containers to oil suppliers, collect the oil using an efficient suction technique, and then filter it in a sophisticated system with a capacity of 250,000 litres. This system was partly donated by the city authorities, and the rest was purchased using a loan. The cooperative must collect 40,000 litres of WVO per month in order to break even, but are currently only collecting 10,000 litres per month.
After seeing this filtration system, the Green Grease Project team decided to develop a smaller, inexpensive system using recycled and locally-available materials. The system they installed at CORA has a capacity of 200 litres, effectively removes 86% of the water from the WVO and all particulates larger than 5 microns, and costs only 150 reais, or about US$80 — more than 1,000 times less expensive than the system São Vicente operates. Since its installation in May 2011, the cooperative has been able to double the value of their product.
Although WVO is still not recognized as a fuel by the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States, these initiatives are influencing others throughout the world. The Green Grease Project itself was inspired by a Boston-based company, Green Grease Monkey, that collects WVO and converts diesel vehicles to run on WVO. Another group of students from MIT is now working with a local worker-owned cooperative, Roxbury Green Power, to increase the collection of WVO throughout the Boston area and to optimize the cooperative’s profits by selling the oil to biodiesel manufacturers and “grease car” owners.
The collection of WVO for alternative fuel sources won’t clean up dumps like Jardims Gramacho overnight, but the establishment of systems founded on environmentally and socially sustainable practices can begin to change our concept of waste. If initiatives like the Green Grease Project can take root in Rio de Janeiro, catadores can operate WVO-powered collection trucks and sort recyclables in safe and sanitary working conditions. As the amount of waste we generate only continues to grow as our population does, such initiatives have the power to draw attention to the incalculable value that lies in our landfills.
Source
On the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro lies the world’s largest trash dump, receiving more than 9,000 tonnes of garbage per day. Jardim Gramacho (Gramacho Gardens) is literally overflowing with garbage. Fractures in the dump site’s structure were noticed several years ago, but no decommission strategy has yet been successful because of illegal dumping and other issues.
Research has found that each day, Gramacho emits 800 cubic meters of liquid containing organic and inorganic compounds from domestic refuse, rubble, hospital and industry waste that drains into the Guanabara Bay. This leachate contains high levels of ammonium, nitrogen, chloride, sodium, and potassium and is considered highly toxic.
At the end of 2012, this dump and others across Brazil will close due to a law passed by the national parliament in 2010 that eradicates open dumps. But instead of celebrating the end of this environmental disaster, the city is faced with the search for a new home for 70% of Rio’s waste, plus all the refuse produced by neighbouring cities, as well as the 15,000 people that earn a living from the income generated by the dump.
Despite the horrible environmental conditions, catadores, or waste recyclers, have been collecting high-value recyclables found amongst the trash and selling it for profit for the past 30 years. When the dump closes, 3,000–4,000 people will be forced off of the landfill grounds and will no longer have the income to support their families that live in the nearby favelas, or slums.
Traditionally, waste recycling cooperatives in Brazil have had little influence upon legislation. However, this new law does give recognition to the work of the catadores and prescribes integrating them into the recycling industry, while also attempting to regulate their working conditions to improve their health and safety.
Cooperative solutions
Seven hundred miles southwest of Rio de Janeiro in São Paulo, Rede CataSampa provides a successful example of organizing waste recycling cooperatives. This network includes fifteen cooperatives in and around São Paulo that collect recyclables, including plastic, paper, glass, Styrofoam and waste vegetable oil, from local restaurants, households, and centralized collection sites.
Typically, the catadores bring the recyclables back to the cooperative by the truckload, where other catadores sort them. The facilities of the cooperatives range from open spaces protected by highway overpasses to large buildings provided by the city. Most of the cooperatives are equipped with compacters, so that the catadores can easily store separate materials before recycling companies buy the materials they need, typically in large quantities.
One example of how the cooperatives in the network cooperate is how, in the case of paper, all the materials are brought to a single cooperative, CRUMA (an acronym for the Portuguese of “Recycling Cooperative United for the Environment”), which sells recycled paper in bulk for a higher price and then distributes the income amongst the contributing cooperatives. Another cooperative, formed of members from a local favela, has raised money to invest in a machine that makes brooms out of recycled plastic soda bottles.
In Arujá, a small city just outside of São Paulo, a cooperative called CORA (Association of Collectors in Arujá and Region) not only collects and sorts 80–100 tonnes of recyclable materials per month, but also supports environmental education within the local community by holding lectures. The cooperative now employs about 20 catadores, operates large collection trucks donated by the city, and will soon be moving to a larger site that is currently being constructed.
The unique approaches of Brazil’s waste recycling cooperatives are attracting international attention. In May 2011, a group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of São Paulo, the Institute of Aeronautical Technology, and the State University of Campinas, worked with one cooperative to install an inexpensive waste vegetable oil filtration system in order to raise the value of the waste vegetable oil they collect. Started at MIT in January of 2010, the Green Grease Project’s aim is to find uses for the waste vegetable oil (WVO) that São Paulo’s catadores collect. The team was formed of MIT students from the Biodiesel Group, who recycle WVO into biodiesel using the processor that the group had installed on campus.
Although the tranesterfication process (which reacts an alcohol, like methanol, in the presence of a catalyst, usually a strong alkaline like sodium hydroxide, with the triglycerides contained in vegetable oil) required to neutralize the free fatty acids in the WVO is relatively straightforward, it requires hazardous chemicals and proper knowledge and training. With this in mind, the group of students, advised by Libby McDonald from MIT’s Community Innovators Lab, elected to focus on a more traditional technology — running a diesel engine on unconverted WVO using only excess heat from the engine.
After a pilot workshop at CRUMA, the group converted two diesel vehicles using recycled and locally-available materials. This technology dates back to the invention of the diesel engine, which Rudolf Diesel, its inventor, intended to run using vegetable oils so that farmers and artisans could utilize a locally-available fuel. The technology today, however, is severely limited by the lack of accessible information and regulations on WVO as a fuel. Although this technique is not as complex as biodiesel production, it does require careful maintenance and properly filtered WVO, both of which require specific infrastructure and communication.
The WVO challenge
Compared to other recyclable materials, waste vegetable oil poses several challenges, particularly in terms of storage and safety. Unlike paper or plastic that can be easily salvaged from other waste, litres of WVO are often lost down the drain, where they have the potential to pollute water very quickly. According to BioAuto, a waste vegetable oil recycling company in Sao Paulo, one litre of improperly disposed WVO can contaminate up to 23,000 litres of water, so diverting this from the waste stream to more productive uses, such as biodiesel production or direct combustion, reduces water pollution and also has the potential to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
São Vicente cooperative, located in São Jose dos Campos, collects WVO from other cooperatives in order to have larger quantities to sell to biodiesel manufacturers. The catadores distribute containers to oil suppliers, collect the oil using an efficient suction technique, and then filter it in a sophisticated system with a capacity of 250,000 litres. This system was partly donated by the city authorities, and the rest was purchased using a loan. The cooperative must collect 40,000 litres of WVO per month in order to break even, but are currently only collecting 10,000 litres per month.
After seeing this filtration system, the Green Grease Project team decided to develop a smaller, inexpensive system using recycled and locally-available materials. The system they installed at CORA has a capacity of 200 litres, effectively removes 86% of the water from the WVO and all particulates larger than 5 microns, and costs only 150 reais, or about US$80 — more than 1,000 times less expensive than the system São Vicente operates. Since its installation in May 2011, the cooperative has been able to double the value of their product.
Although WVO is still not recognized as a fuel by the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States, these initiatives are influencing others throughout the world. The Green Grease Project itself was inspired by a Boston-based company, Green Grease Monkey, that collects WVO and converts diesel vehicles to run on WVO. Another group of students from MIT is now working with a local worker-owned cooperative, Roxbury Green Power, to increase the collection of WVO throughout the Boston area and to optimize the cooperative’s profits by selling the oil to biodiesel manufacturers and “grease car” owners.
The collection of WVO for alternative fuel sources won’t clean up dumps like Jardims Gramacho overnight, but the establishment of systems founded on environmentally and socially sustainable practices can begin to change our concept of waste. If initiatives like the Green Grease Project can take root in Rio de Janeiro, catadores can operate WVO-powered collection trucks and sort recyclables in safe and sanitary working conditions. As the amount of waste we generate only continues to grow as our population does, such initiatives have the power to draw attention to the incalculable value that lies in our landfills.
Source
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Geo-engineering as a solution to climate change: Milestone or Mirage?
By Kimbowa Richard
Geo-engineering schemes are projects designed to tackle the effects of climate change directly, usually by removing CO2 from the air or limiting the amount of sunlight reaching the planet's surface.
In this blog, I explore some arguments that have been put forward by both the advocates and critics of geo-engineering schemes.
What does geo-engineering involve?
According to The Guardian Newspaper, the projects designed to remove CO2 from the air – include machines (sometimes called "artificial trees") that pull the gas from the atmosphere using plastic polymers. Other proposals seek to increase the amount of CO2 absorbed by the oceans.
Geo-engineering also involves schemes to harness the capacity of trees and plants to absorb CO2 from the air. These include burning large quantities of wood in power plants with carbon-capture technology; making and burying large amounts of charcoal to lock carbon into the soils; and grazing cattle in a way designed to turn grasslands into giant carbon sinks.
Other geo-engineering schemes are designed to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching Earth. This involves firing sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight back to space; using unmanned ships to increase above-ocean cloud cover by spraying sea water into the air; and floating thousands of tiny mirrors in space between Earth and the sun.
What are the pros of geo-engineering?
According to the Hudson Institute – a US based Think Tank, proposed dramatic cuts in American carbon emissions alone would not solve the problems of climate change. American emissions would just be replaced by emissions from others like India and China
In this case, successful geo-engineering would permit Earth's population to make far smaller reductions in carbon use and still achieve the same retarding effect on global warming at a lower cost. Hence it is seen along with nuclear power, as the only practical planetary way to avoid catastrophic climate change.
What do critics of geo-engineering have to say?
Geo-engineering evokes ideological, political and financial passions. It is seen as an irresponsible move into the unknown by the rich world that will inevitably have unintended consequences, most probably for the poorest.
According to Civil Society groups opposed to Geo-engineering, climate manipulation has been on the radar of powerful Northern governments for decades. Originally conceived as a military strategy, climate manipulation has been rebranded as geo-engineering: a weapon in the war on climate change
The groups add that, in altering the climate using high-risk technologies such as blasting particles into the stratosphere to mimic volcanic eruptions (to block sunlight) and “fertilizing” oceans to grow plankton blooms for carbon sequestration could modify monsoon and wind patterns and put at risk the food and water sources for 2 billion people."
According to Silvia Ribeiro of the ETC Group, “ the climate is a complex system; manipulating climate in one place could have grave environmental, social and economic impacts on countries and peoples that had no say on the issue.
Meenakshi Raman from another civil society organisation - Third World Network - Malaysia, argues that it is misguided for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to assume that geo-engineering has any place at all in what they call the ‘portfolio of response options’ to climate change.”
All in all, geo-engineering might be a milestone for the developed world - seeking to achieve desirable CO2 emission targets as soon as possible without destabilizing their ‘lifestyles and way of life’. But it is a mirage for the developing countries, where vulnerable communities are uncertain whether this manipulation will not generate unintentional adverse effects that will further marginalize them.
Geo-engineering schemes are projects designed to tackle the effects of climate change directly, usually by removing CO2 from the air or limiting the amount of sunlight reaching the planet's surface.
In this blog, I explore some arguments that have been put forward by both the advocates and critics of geo-engineering schemes.
What does geo-engineering involve?
According to The Guardian Newspaper, the projects designed to remove CO2 from the air – include machines (sometimes called "artificial trees") that pull the gas from the atmosphere using plastic polymers. Other proposals seek to increase the amount of CO2 absorbed by the oceans.
Geo-engineering also involves schemes to harness the capacity of trees and plants to absorb CO2 from the air. These include burning large quantities of wood in power plants with carbon-capture technology; making and burying large amounts of charcoal to lock carbon into the soils; and grazing cattle in a way designed to turn grasslands into giant carbon sinks.
Other geo-engineering schemes are designed to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching Earth. This involves firing sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight back to space; using unmanned ships to increase above-ocean cloud cover by spraying sea water into the air; and floating thousands of tiny mirrors in space between Earth and the sun.
What are the pros of geo-engineering?
According to the Hudson Institute – a US based Think Tank, proposed dramatic cuts in American carbon emissions alone would not solve the problems of climate change. American emissions would just be replaced by emissions from others like India and China
In this case, successful geo-engineering would permit Earth's population to make far smaller reductions in carbon use and still achieve the same retarding effect on global warming at a lower cost. Hence it is seen along with nuclear power, as the only practical planetary way to avoid catastrophic climate change.
What do critics of geo-engineering have to say?
Geo-engineering evokes ideological, political and financial passions. It is seen as an irresponsible move into the unknown by the rich world that will inevitably have unintended consequences, most probably for the poorest.
According to Civil Society groups opposed to Geo-engineering, climate manipulation has been on the radar of powerful Northern governments for decades. Originally conceived as a military strategy, climate manipulation has been rebranded as geo-engineering: a weapon in the war on climate change
The groups add that, in altering the climate using high-risk technologies such as blasting particles into the stratosphere to mimic volcanic eruptions (to block sunlight) and “fertilizing” oceans to grow plankton blooms for carbon sequestration could modify monsoon and wind patterns and put at risk the food and water sources for 2 billion people."
According to Silvia Ribeiro of the ETC Group, “ the climate is a complex system; manipulating climate in one place could have grave environmental, social and economic impacts on countries and peoples that had no say on the issue.
Meenakshi Raman from another civil society organisation - Third World Network - Malaysia, argues that it is misguided for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to assume that geo-engineering has any place at all in what they call the ‘portfolio of response options’ to climate change.”
All in all, geo-engineering might be a milestone for the developed world - seeking to achieve desirable CO2 emission targets as soon as possible without destabilizing their ‘lifestyles and way of life’. But it is a mirage for the developing countries, where vulnerable communities are uncertain whether this manipulation will not generate unintentional adverse effects that will further marginalize them.
African farmers struggle to fund green projects
By msn News
As South Africa prepares to host UN climate talks at the end of the month, African farmers say they are struggling to access a key programme meant to help them take part in the fight against climate change.
The continent's farmers were meant to be among the main beneficiaries of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which lets industrialised countries and their companies fund green projects in the developing world in exchange for credits toward their emission-cutting targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
But as climate negotiators prepare for a tough round of talks on the future of Kyoto -- the only deal to date with legally binding commitments to cut greenhouse gases -- farmers in Africa complain the CDM's complicated paperwork puts the emissions trading programme out of their reach.
"Small-scale farmers do not have the knowledge to present projects," Effatah Jele of the Zambia National Farmers union told AFP.
"My major concern is that it affects the small farmer, who is usually a woman. I'm a dairy farmer and I want to know how to feed my cattle so they produce less gas."
Zanele Phiri, director of Swaziland's farmers union, said applying for CDM projects is too expensive for ordinary farmers.
"Why was it made in that way? It costs a lot of money," she said.
The women were speaking on the sidelines of a recent conference of the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU), which drafted a resolution calling for climate negotiators to simplify the CDM at the Durban talks, to be held November 28 to December 9.
The resolution said the programme's funding mechanisms should be revised "to make them accessible to farmers in developing countries."
China, India and Brazil have won the bulk of the 3,000 projects the CDM has financed since 2005 -- initiatives like reforestation, solar panel use or generating energy from waste.
Africa enjoys only a fraction of the carbon credit market, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, which put the number of African projects at a mere four percent of the total in 2008.
South Africa hosted 14 of the continent's 18 projects, and only six of those were linked to agriculture, according to SACAU information from two years ago.
And little has changed, said farmers at the organisation's conference.
"The CDM aims to support sustainable development in Africa, but developing CDM projects in the region turns out to be a challenge," writes geographer Paul Desanker of Penn State University, in a paper that cites prohibitive start-up costs, lack of investors and complex project requirements as barriers.
Questions are now being asked about how farmers can access the carbon market or some dozen other initiatives like the Climate Change Adaptation Fund, which has given money to only two African projects in two years -- an irrigation programme in Eritrea and coastal erosion prevention in Senegal.
Climate change is already hitting Africa's farmers at home, as sugar production falls in Mauritius and drought devastates Somalia, while increased flooding plagues Malawi, Zambia and other countries.
But administrative and technical challenges scare off many farmers, even those who worry about climate change and want to adapt.
"It is complicated and a long process," admitted the Food and Agriculture Organisation's Christina Seeberg-Elverfeldt.
"But it can be initiated by farmers if there is an idea. It should at least involve 50,000 farmers."
Projects on that scale are hard to put together without government involvement -- something farmers complain has not been forthcoming.
"If the government is not in the picture, it seems very difficult," said Felix Jumbe, president of the Farmers Union of Malawi.
Source
As South Africa prepares to host UN climate talks at the end of the month, African farmers say they are struggling to access a key programme meant to help them take part in the fight against climate change.
The continent's farmers were meant to be among the main beneficiaries of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which lets industrialised countries and their companies fund green projects in the developing world in exchange for credits toward their emission-cutting targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
But as climate negotiators prepare for a tough round of talks on the future of Kyoto -- the only deal to date with legally binding commitments to cut greenhouse gases -- farmers in Africa complain the CDM's complicated paperwork puts the emissions trading programme out of their reach.
"Small-scale farmers do not have the knowledge to present projects," Effatah Jele of the Zambia National Farmers union told AFP.
"My major concern is that it affects the small farmer, who is usually a woman. I'm a dairy farmer and I want to know how to feed my cattle so they produce less gas."
Zanele Phiri, director of Swaziland's farmers union, said applying for CDM projects is too expensive for ordinary farmers.
"Why was it made in that way? It costs a lot of money," she said.
The women were speaking on the sidelines of a recent conference of the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU), which drafted a resolution calling for climate negotiators to simplify the CDM at the Durban talks, to be held November 28 to December 9.
The resolution said the programme's funding mechanisms should be revised "to make them accessible to farmers in developing countries."
China, India and Brazil have won the bulk of the 3,000 projects the CDM has financed since 2005 -- initiatives like reforestation, solar panel use or generating energy from waste.
Africa enjoys only a fraction of the carbon credit market, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, which put the number of African projects at a mere four percent of the total in 2008.
South Africa hosted 14 of the continent's 18 projects, and only six of those were linked to agriculture, according to SACAU information from two years ago.
And little has changed, said farmers at the organisation's conference.
"The CDM aims to support sustainable development in Africa, but developing CDM projects in the region turns out to be a challenge," writes geographer Paul Desanker of Penn State University, in a paper that cites prohibitive start-up costs, lack of investors and complex project requirements as barriers.
Questions are now being asked about how farmers can access the carbon market or some dozen other initiatives like the Climate Change Adaptation Fund, which has given money to only two African projects in two years -- an irrigation programme in Eritrea and coastal erosion prevention in Senegal.
Climate change is already hitting Africa's farmers at home, as sugar production falls in Mauritius and drought devastates Somalia, while increased flooding plagues Malawi, Zambia and other countries.
But administrative and technical challenges scare off many farmers, even those who worry about climate change and want to adapt.
"It is complicated and a long process," admitted the Food and Agriculture Organisation's Christina Seeberg-Elverfeldt.
"But it can be initiated by farmers if there is an idea. It should at least involve 50,000 farmers."
Projects on that scale are hard to put together without government involvement -- something farmers complain has not been forthcoming.
"If the government is not in the picture, it seems very difficult," said Felix Jumbe, president of the Farmers Union of Malawi.
Source
Pollution, Neglect and too much love killing once idyllic Himalayan lake
By Climate Himalaya, November 5, 2011
Time is running out for Kashmir’s premier tourist attraction, writes Ben Doherty, in Srinagar.
Through the dawn mist, Dal Lake is beautiful.
As the first shafts of sunlight break over the Himalayan foothills that hug the lake’s perimeter, the still waters are slowly brought alive by the silent ferrying of the shikaras back and forth across the lake.
But as the golden glow of early morning gives way to the harsher light of day, the true state of Kashmir’s famous lake becomes apparent.
”Dal Lake is dying,” the Herald’s shikara driver says, as he pilots the narrow, low-slung boat through the back channels of the lake.
”People put everything into the lake, all their rubbish, they build toilets on the side of the lake, and the sewage goes in. The pollution is much worse now and we worry about the water.”
A series of continuing environmental calamities – including the dumping of raw sewage and industrial waste, fertiliser run-off from farms, a burgeoning population living on it and the ”building” of more new land on the water’s edge – is slowly strangling the lake and threatening the livelihoods of all who depend on it.
Once promoted as the most beautiful lake in India, it has halved in size in a generation to about 12 square kilometres, and, clogged by weeds, its average depth is now 1.2 metres, in some places a 10th of what it was.
Dal Lake’s water, which still provides the city of Srinagar with the bulk of its drinking water, has been found to contain dangerous levels of arsenic and lead. Fish stocks are dwindling and the lake vulnerable to massive algal bloom outbreaks.
But Dal Lake is suffering from too much love as much as from chronic neglect.
For generations, tourists have flocked to stay on the lake, living in houseboats introduced by the British in the late 19th century.
Currently, 1200 houseboats – many of them grand, hand-carved cedar floating palaces with unlikely names such as Kashmir Hilton – have permits, but they are unconnected for sewage or garbage disposal.
The government wants to move them to a centralised land bank where they can be connected to services, but owners are resisting.
The lake is permanent home to 11,000 families that were granted the right to live on the water, or at its edge, during the days of Kashmir’s maharajah.
About 70,000 people call the lake home, and depend on it for their livelihoods. As families grow larger, more land is reclaimed by dredging mud from the shallow lake bottom and creating new banks of soil for farming.
These people cannot survive without the lake, but the lake cannot survive with them.
Every morning the vegetable growers meet, produce piled carefully in their boats, to trade and barter.
”The vegetables are not as good now, not as large, and they taste different,” our driver says. ”The growers won’t tell you, but everybody knows, they notice.”
Deeper into the lake’s waterways are the decaying ”suburbs”, where most of its residents live. Here the narrow canals are filthy, smelly and choked with mud and rubbish. There is a moratorium on new building here.
The permanent brick homes have pipes from their bathrooms directly into the lake, allowing untreated sewage to run into the water. Some of the pipes gush putrid brown water unceasingly.
The government plans to move lake-dwellers into new residential estates elsewhere in Srinagar, and has even set aside land for the the purpose, but it does not have the money to buy them out of their properties.
From his lakeside office, landscape architect Fida Iqbal says constant encroachment on the lake and the rampant corruption that allows people to pollute with impunity, frustrate government and private sector efforts to clean it up and improve the way it is managed.
”The lake is running out of time,” Iqbal says. ”Experts say [it] will die; they say there is no doubt. The possibility is there for it to be rehabilitated, but people need to move quickly.”
Community authorities and governments have been aware of Dal Lake’s deterioration for 20 years, Iqbal says but they have used the ”cover” of Kashmir’s violent insurgency to excuse their neglect.
”We have wasted that time,” he says. ”Now, everybody has to get involved, and get seriously involved, because we all depend on the lake.”
The head of the research and monitoring division with the state government’s Lakes and Waterways Development Authority, Sabeh Ul Solim, says education and enforcement can bring change to the lake.
”We need to bring in enforcement,” Dr Solim says.
”People in this part of the world don’t have a lot of concern about their own actions. They keep on … saying ‘lake is gone, lake is gone’, but at the same time, they don’t take care of their natural resources.
”And we need to make the people aware of how crucial the lake is for the survival of the city. It is not only beautiful, but the people of Kashmir depend on it.”
By the standards of Jammu and Kashmir’s poor state government, significant amounts of money have already been committed towards Dal Lake – 2.98 billion rupees ($58 million) has already allocated to rehabilitate it, while 3.5 billion rupees has been promised to relocate people from it (when that money can be found in budgets). With federal money, more than 11.4 billion rupees has been spent.
But Dr Solim says that regardless of money spent, turning around decades of neglect and deliberate pollution will take time.
”We are positive about the future about the lake,” he says. ”We are doing a lot of work. Still, a lot more needs to be done … and if you want to see the impacts, it will take at least a decade’s time.”
Source
Time is running out for Kashmir’s premier tourist attraction, writes Ben Doherty, in Srinagar.
Through the dawn mist, Dal Lake is beautiful.
As the first shafts of sunlight break over the Himalayan foothills that hug the lake’s perimeter, the still waters are slowly brought alive by the silent ferrying of the shikaras back and forth across the lake.
But as the golden glow of early morning gives way to the harsher light of day, the true state of Kashmir’s famous lake becomes apparent.
”Dal Lake is dying,” the Herald’s shikara driver says, as he pilots the narrow, low-slung boat through the back channels of the lake.
”People put everything into the lake, all their rubbish, they build toilets on the side of the lake, and the sewage goes in. The pollution is much worse now and we worry about the water.”
A series of continuing environmental calamities – including the dumping of raw sewage and industrial waste, fertiliser run-off from farms, a burgeoning population living on it and the ”building” of more new land on the water’s edge – is slowly strangling the lake and threatening the livelihoods of all who depend on it.
Once promoted as the most beautiful lake in India, it has halved in size in a generation to about 12 square kilometres, and, clogged by weeds, its average depth is now 1.2 metres, in some places a 10th of what it was.
Dal Lake’s water, which still provides the city of Srinagar with the bulk of its drinking water, has been found to contain dangerous levels of arsenic and lead. Fish stocks are dwindling and the lake vulnerable to massive algal bloom outbreaks.
But Dal Lake is suffering from too much love as much as from chronic neglect.
For generations, tourists have flocked to stay on the lake, living in houseboats introduced by the British in the late 19th century.
Currently, 1200 houseboats – many of them grand, hand-carved cedar floating palaces with unlikely names such as Kashmir Hilton – have permits, but they are unconnected for sewage or garbage disposal.
The government wants to move them to a centralised land bank where they can be connected to services, but owners are resisting.
The lake is permanent home to 11,000 families that were granted the right to live on the water, or at its edge, during the days of Kashmir’s maharajah.
About 70,000 people call the lake home, and depend on it for their livelihoods. As families grow larger, more land is reclaimed by dredging mud from the shallow lake bottom and creating new banks of soil for farming.
These people cannot survive without the lake, but the lake cannot survive with them.
Every morning the vegetable growers meet, produce piled carefully in their boats, to trade and barter.
”The vegetables are not as good now, not as large, and they taste different,” our driver says. ”The growers won’t tell you, but everybody knows, they notice.”
Deeper into the lake’s waterways are the decaying ”suburbs”, where most of its residents live. Here the narrow canals are filthy, smelly and choked with mud and rubbish. There is a moratorium on new building here.
The permanent brick homes have pipes from their bathrooms directly into the lake, allowing untreated sewage to run into the water. Some of the pipes gush putrid brown water unceasingly.
The government plans to move lake-dwellers into new residential estates elsewhere in Srinagar, and has even set aside land for the the purpose, but it does not have the money to buy them out of their properties.
From his lakeside office, landscape architect Fida Iqbal says constant encroachment on the lake and the rampant corruption that allows people to pollute with impunity, frustrate government and private sector efforts to clean it up and improve the way it is managed.
”The lake is running out of time,” Iqbal says. ”Experts say [it] will die; they say there is no doubt. The possibility is there for it to be rehabilitated, but people need to move quickly.”
Community authorities and governments have been aware of Dal Lake’s deterioration for 20 years, Iqbal says but they have used the ”cover” of Kashmir’s violent insurgency to excuse their neglect.
”We have wasted that time,” he says. ”Now, everybody has to get involved, and get seriously involved, because we all depend on the lake.”
The head of the research and monitoring division with the state government’s Lakes and Waterways Development Authority, Sabeh Ul Solim, says education and enforcement can bring change to the lake.
”We need to bring in enforcement,” Dr Solim says.
”People in this part of the world don’t have a lot of concern about their own actions. They keep on … saying ‘lake is gone, lake is gone’, but at the same time, they don’t take care of their natural resources.
”And we need to make the people aware of how crucial the lake is for the survival of the city. It is not only beautiful, but the people of Kashmir depend on it.”
By the standards of Jammu and Kashmir’s poor state government, significant amounts of money have already been committed towards Dal Lake – 2.98 billion rupees ($58 million) has already allocated to rehabilitate it, while 3.5 billion rupees has been promised to relocate people from it (when that money can be found in budgets). With federal money, more than 11.4 billion rupees has been spent.
But Dr Solim says that regardless of money spent, turning around decades of neglect and deliberate pollution will take time.
”We are positive about the future about the lake,” he says. ”We are doing a lot of work. Still, a lot more needs to be done … and if you want to see the impacts, it will take at least a decade’s time.”
Source
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