The New Nation - Internet Edition

Increased CO2 level threatens coral reefs

Mohammad Shahidul Islam

A coral reef is made up of thin layers of calcium carbonate (limestone) secreted over thousands of years by billions of tiny soft bodied animals called coral polyps. Coral reefs are the world's most miscellaneous marine ecosystems and are home to twenty-five percent of identified marine species, including 4,000 species of fish, 700 species of coral and thousands of other plants and animals. Coral reefs occupy less than one quarter of one percent of the Earth's marine environment, yet they are home to more than a quarter of all known fish species.

And these largest living structures on Earth and the millions of livelihoods which depend upon them are at risk, the most definitive review yet of the impact of rising carbon emissions on coral reefs has concluded. If world leaders do not immediately engage in a race against time to save the Earth's coral reefs, these vital ecosystems will not survive the global warming and acidification projected for later this century.

It is very important that the public realises that the lack of sustainability in the world's carbon emissions is causing the quick loss of coral reefs, the world's most biodiverse marine ecosystem. The rise of carbon dioxide emissions and the resultant climate warming from the burning of fossil fuels are making oceans warmer and more acidic, which is triggering extensive coral disease and choking coral growth toward "a tipping point for functional collapse."

The coral scientists point out that rising global CO2 emissions embody an 'irreducible risk' that will quickly outdo the capacity of local coastal managers and policy-makers to sustain the health of these critical ecosystems, if CO2 emissions are allowed to prolong unrestrained.

Coral reefs have already undergone a big blow from recent warm temperatures, but rapid rises in carbon dioxide cause acidification, which adds a new threat: the inability of corals to create calcareous skeletons. Acidification actually threatens all marine animals and plants with calcareous skeletons, including corals, snails, clams and crabs. The levels of CO2 could become unsustainable for coral reefs in as little as five decades. The livelihoods of 100 million people living along the coasts of tropical developing countries will be among the first major casualties of rising levels of carbon in the atmosphere.

The warmer and more acidic oceans caused by the rise of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels threaten to destroy coral reef ecosystems, exposing people to flooding, coastal erosion and the loss of food and income from reef-based fisheries and tourism. And this is happening just when many nations are hoping that these industries would allow them to alleviate their insolvent state.

Coral reefs are commonly depicted as natural wonders of great beauty which makes them an important tourism attraction. In Australia, revenue from international tourism to the Great Barrier Reef exceeds $6.8 billion per year. It is estimated that coral reef-related tourism generates tens of billions of dollars per year worldwide. They are the economic engine of a vast number of economies around the world.

Coral reefs occupy a unique niche in the world's environment, where water temperatures and other environmental factors are 'just right'. But raising as little as 1°C the temperature that ocean surface waters reach in summer subjects coral reefs to stresses which lead quickly to mass bleaching. Raise the temperature a little more, and the corals that build reefs die in great numbers. No coral, no coral reef ecosystem.

If current CO2 emission trends continue, then even the most conservative estimates predict CO2 concentrations exceeding 500ppm and global temperature increases of 2°C or more by the end of the century. Under these conditions coral reefs are likely to dwindle into insignificance; they will be reduced to rubble, threatening the fate of those tens of millions of people whose livelihoods depend upon them. Time is running short. We unmistakably have to do more to reduce CO2 emissions and still more in preparing vulnerable communities to the almost inevitable problems that they will face as a result of already entrained climate change.

As world leaders gathered in the month of December 2007 at the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting in Bali, the CRTR [Coral Reef Targeted Research] scientists argued that the issue of global CO2 emissions demands leadership at the international level, including a collective agreement on carbon emission reductions.

Says Dr Marea Hatziolos, CRTR Team Leader, World Bank, and a co-author of the Science Paper: "There is an urgent need for high carbon growth countries to reduce their total CO2 emissions and a responsibility on the part of industrialised nations to assist the most vulnerable coral reef states adapt to climate change impacts while reducing local risks to reefs." Dr Hatziolos points out that most coral reefs occur within developing countries where poverty and reliance on ecosystem goods and services place great pressure on them.

In developing countries, tourism based on ecosystem services provided by coral reefs is a vital and rapidly expanding industry. Much of the protein consumed by poor coastal communities is supplied in one way or another by coral reefs. Less visible, but no less important, is the essential role played by coral reefs in providing habitat for a vast array of marine species which contribute to a complex food chain that extends across the oceans.

The threats to this natural capital from increased CO2 emissions generated on a global scale simply raise the urgency for local reef managers and policy-makers to take responsibility for the 'reducible risk' to coral reefs, such as over-fishing, pollution and unsustainable coastal development. However, this is unlikely to happen, at the intensity and scale required, unless industrialised nations make funds available to assist the most vulnerable coral reef states manage these reducible risks. A range of policy and management tools are readily available, some of which have been refined through support from the CRTR Programme, and no time should be lost in applying them more widely and successfully.

These tools take account of coastal zone management, co-management arrangements between governments and local communities to foster effective stewardship, integrated catchments approaches to managing water quality and environmental flows, enforcement and compliance with fishing regulations, restoration of reefs and coastal flora and responsible tourism.

Trial with eco-friendly toilets in trains

R K Srinivasan

If you happen to travel in Rewa Express, you will notice a slight change in its coaches: small steel tanks fitted between the wheels. These are part of environment-friendly toilets, where the excreta is treated and stored. Coaches in Rewa Express, running between Delhi and Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, are being equipped with biological treatment facility.

Unlike a normal toilet, in the bio-toilet only the water trickles down the track, while the sludge is retained in the tank.

Bio-toilets are part of an experiment to try out different types of eco-friendly toilets in trains. The Indian Railways plans to install eco-friendly toilets in all its 9,000 trains by 2011-13.

And it is about time the railways changed tracks from open to 'biological' toilets, for an estimated two million passengers use its toilets daily, wasting a huge amount of water and creating hygiene problems. Presenting the Railways Budget, union minister Lalu Prasad Yadav announced a provision of Rs 4,000 crore for "discharge-free green toilets" in all 36,000 coaches in the eleventh plan period.

It is a tough challenge and the railways' previous experiments with eco-friendly toilets have not always been successful. Nonetheless, a beginning has been made. The bio-toilet developed by the railways' Research Designs and Standards Organisation with Microphor of the US and Faridabad-based Aikon Technology, was first tested in the Delhi-Allahabad Prayagraj Express. In this system the excreta is collected in a tank, which is divided into two chambers. The first chamber contains a patented bacterial culture that breaks down waste in six-seven days by enzyme action. The resulting liquid is led into the second section where it is treated with chlorine before disposal.

This toilet uses less than 5 litres of water per flush against uncontrolled use of water in open toilets. In a year, about a kg of waste will be collected in the tank, which will be cleared manually. Though it will save water, the bio-toilet comes at a price. For every coach, the railways will have to shell out Rs 8 lakh as equipment cost and Rs 1.5-2 lakh as operations cost per year.

It is not the only eco-friendly toilet the railways is experimenting with. IIT Kanpur has developed a cheaper "zero-discharge" toilet that will separate 90 per cent of the liquid from the waste and reuse it for flushing. It will soon be tested in a Chennai train, says N S Vyas, coordinator, Technology Mission on Railway Safety, and professor at the Mechanical Engineering Department of IIT Kanpur.

There are critics who say bio-toilets will be a flop. T S Seshadri, who patented his model of a toilet in 2000, says, "In 1994, bio-toilets of Microphor were installed in the Tamil Nadu and Grand Trunk Express coaches, and were a complete failure." Seshadri, who had then reviewed the functioning of bio-toilets, says clogging of the filter led to foul smell, cockroaches and worms, and the toilets had to be removed within six months. Bio-toilets, however, are back, and this time the emphasis is on maintenance. Aikon Technology has been given the contract of maintaining them in Rewa Express.

In the prevalent system in trains the excreta is dropped on tracks through a hole. Stained tracks are manually cleaned at the station and excreta discharged into drains, which are usually chocked. The 2006 Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report says of the 358 stations it reviewed, drainage systems in 101 stations were clogged. Therefore, it is necessary to shift to zero-discharge systems.

Collecting and treating excreta from 9,000 trains, handling approximately 1.4 crore passengers per day, is a tall order. G Raghuram, professor, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, estimates that every day 2,74,000 litres of excreta is dumped on rail tracks.

Seshadri suggests railways should focus on collecting and disposing of toilet waste, not treating it. In his model, a tank of 600-900 litres capacity for each commode will be fitted between the wheels. He claims his model will cost only Rs 60,000-excluding commode, flush and overhead tank-with an annual maintenance cost of Rs 5,000. The Janshatabdi Express uses a similar system called the controlled discharge toilet system (CDTS). In this the excreta is stored in a sealed tank and emptied slowly when the train leaves the station and hits a speed of more than 30 km per hour. The cost is Rs 7.5 lakh per coach.

Under the Integrated Railway Modernisation Plan, the railways has to install CDTS in 5,000 coaches by 2010. Until March 2006, only 261 coaches had been fitted with CDTS, said the CAG report. The railways have not yet exhausted their options. Says Arvind Nautiyal, director, mechanical division, coach maintenance: the railways will also be trying out the vacuum toilets, a technology used in aircraft. In vacuum toilets the excreta will be sucked out using minimum water and the collected waste will be discharged in closed drains at railway stations.

The idea smells good.

(CSE/Down To Earth Feature Service)

Coalition of rainforest nations complain

Keya Acharya

A 15-country coalition of rainforest nations has complained that the UN climate change mechanism encourages countries to replant forests they have cut down, but fails to reward 'good' countries that have not deforested in the first place.

The Coalition of Rainforest Nations, led by Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), have told the UN climate change summit in Nairobi, Kenya that they want to be rewarded for the vast swathes of rainforest they have left intact.

The Coalition says it wants to receive 'carbon credits' similar to ones given to countries like Brazil, which has chopped down many of its rainforests and is now receiving credits for new plantations.

The carbon credits system evolved out of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. That agreement, aimed at mitigating climate change, assigns emissions targets to signatory industrialised nations, which in turn divide them among businesses involved in large air-polluting activities.

Firms that exceed their targets have an option to 'buy' credits from others who are not using up their full allowance, or offset their excess emissions by 'buying' an equivalent amount of carbon that is naturally trapped in trees.

The seller must have approved 'carbon credits', which are endorsed under the CDM and given only to new afforestation projects. That, the Coalition says, is wrong.

"The positive impact of [intact] forests has not been taken on by the Kyoto Protocol," complained Georgette Koko, the minister of environment of Gabon, where 70 per cent of forests remain.

"Our sustainable development efforts may be seriously slowed down unless we get the support of the international community for the rational and sustainable use of our forests," she said at the Nairobi conference.

"Central African countries consider that their efforts made in managing forests deserve to be recognised and supported, because they are positive for climate," the Coalition said in its proposal to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

It says the proposal - which describes the claim for credits as 'avoided deforestation' - should be adopted after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and a new regime is put into place.

The move has the support of the Washington-based Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, which calculates that in 2005 - at the rate of US$20 for a one-ton unit of carbon dioxide - the forests of the 15 nations were worth around US$1.1 trillion in carbon credits.

Credits for 'avoided deforestation' are also supported by Kenya's respected Nobel peace prize winner, Wangari Maathai, who said that the Congo basin forests are second only to the Amazon.

"The efforts by their government to retain them should be an incentive for them, instead of them being just observers in the climate change market," she said to reporters at the Nairobi summit.

Maathai added that it was a "serious misrepresentation of climate mitigation that no incentives should be given to these countries".

The rainforest network wants the conservation of its forests to benefit from a tax on large over-polluters, and through any other fund that the Convention might build up. Costa Rica already has a similar tax on fuel, the money from which goes towards small landowners and local communities to keep their forests intact.

The Rainforest Coalition does have opponents, among them India, a strong member of the G77 developing-nations alliance.

"There are too many scientific uncertainties present to support primary forest in the carbon market today," commented India's Secretary of the Environment, Dr Prodipto Ghosh, on the sidelines of the Nairobi conference.

"It is not our intention that those taking steps to reduce deforestation should not be awarded, but this cannot be through the carbon market", Ghosh stated.

But the DRC's Kasulu Seyas Makonga is equally determined. "We will push for our stand till we get it, because we believe it to be fair," he said.

(Source: Panos Features)

Kathmandu drinking water management

Ratan

Foreign experts in drinking water management By Kantipur correspondent The drinking water management of the Kathmandu valley will be managed by the three foreign experts after Nepal Water Supply Corporation (NWSC) was disconnected from the Kathmandu valley. The experts will start their job by the end of this month. According to the source of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works, a German technical advisor Joseph has already arrived through the pre-permission of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He is a technical advisor. According to the pre-conditionalites, to operate the Kathmandu valley's drinking water management system through Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL), a public limited company, the General Manager has to be a foreigner. Now, to assist the general manager, one financial and one technical advisor is to be appointed. The technical advisor Joseph was appointed by the KUKL. These foreign experts through KUKL will manage the Kathmandu valley's drinking water for 18 months.

Their remuneration, accommodation and fooding would be provided under the ADB's technical assistant. Assistant General Manager of the KUKL Mr. Gyaneshnand Bajracharya said to the Kantipur daily that these (foreigners) shall make the operational strategies of the KUKL and Nepali will implement these strategies, there will be Nepali counterparts as well. Following the ADB's three institutional structure conditionalites, the Kathmandu Valley Drinking Water Board has agreed to provide the water management system to the KUKL on lease for 30 years. As per the conditionalites, the Tariff Fixation Commission and the KUKL have been already constituted, however the Board has not been formed yet. For the lease, the KUKL will pay NRs. 1.5 million (approximately US$ 2,38,095) to the Board per annum. It will also have to pay five percent of the annual gross income to the Tariff Fixation Commission.

The KUKL has undertaken the responsibility of Kathmandu valley drinking water management system since 1 Phagun 2064 (February 13, 2008). According to the ADB's conditionalites, the team of foreign experts will be working until the management is properly handed over to the private sector.

The government has to appoint the private sector within 18 months through the process of global tender. Before the Maoist joined the government, the then government had decided to handover the management contract to the Severn Trent Water International, a British notorious multinational company, accepting the conditionalites of the ADB. Source: Kantipur daily, 2064 Chaitra 14 (27 March 2008) www.ekantipur.com This is unofficial translation of WAFED. Please visit our website www.wafed-nepal.org for more details about Kathmandu Valley Water Privatization.

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