The New Nation - Internet Edition

People, Millennium Development Goals and climate change

Global call to action against Poverty (GCAP) is a global campaign with national platforms in more that 100 countries that is committed to the agenda of achieving and exceeding the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and lessening of inequality. People's Forum on MDGs (PFM) is the GCAP Alliance in Bangladesh. PFM Bangladesh is a forum of diverse group of stakeholders particularly networks and coalitions including Women's Group, Trade unions, Youth Groups, Environmental activist, Farmers Group, Research organisations, disability group, economic association, health activist group, indigenous group, Teacher's association, cultural groups, Media and other professional groups.

Comate change is a key component of Goal 7 of MDGs to ensure environmental sustainability as a poverty reduction measure. Target 9 of MDG-7 in particular promotes measures that reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, energy use and the use of solid fuel. Climate change will also impact on the achievement of all the MDGs.

We know that no development efforts can be successful and effective without if environmental sustainability. Reflecting the fact, Target 9 of MDG 7 particularly calls for measures that reduce carbon emission, energy use and the use of solid fuels. Unplanned use of fuel and emission of green house gases give rise to climate change. This threatens achievement of MDGs directly or indirectly. We are the people of LDC's are the first and worst victim of climate change and the disasters, induced by climate change. The Disasters including severe floods and cyclones, disproportionately affecting the people of Bangladesh in terms of health, housing, employment, livelihood and above all the food security.

The impact of climate changes on agriculture and fisheries in immense. Due to climate change resulting in possible sea-level rise, many countries or part of the countries is under threats of inundation. An initial estimate is that with half a meter sea Level riser, about 20% of Bangladesh in the coastal area will go under the water which is very alarming situation for a densely populated poverty stricken country like Bangladesh.

Unfortunately, the developing countries like Bangladesh mostly bear the consequences of climate change though we have the least contribution to the build up of greenhouse gases. According to the United Nations (UN) Human Development Report-200B, Bangladesh is among the possible counties to be most affected by the climate change, which may cause a large-scale reversal in human development. The UN report notes that climate change could affect more than 70 million people in Bangladesh.

It Resolves That:

We the concerned citizens and civil society action groups believe that climate change is an emergency and if this is not tackled urgently, all other development efforts in coming decades run the risk of being wiped out. We also take note with great concern that the global emissions of carbon dioxide along with other greenhouse gases are rapidly contributing to al overall rise in global temperatures, as well as in sea levels.

The first and worst hit countries are the LDCs where billions of people live below the poverty line. These people are experiencing the negative impacts of climate change today. They experience climate change in from of tropical cyclones, delayed winters, heavier monsoon, landslides and drier winter. Unpredictable weather patterns are playing havoc with livelihoods of millions of farmers, fisher-folk and others who rely on regular weather. in addition , access to safe drinking water and sanitation is becoming more scare due to pollution, river erosion, increased salinity and other sources. The recent IPCC report noted that the sea level could rise by up to one meter by 2050 potentially creating 30 million refuges in Bangladesh alone as one third of the countries lad mass is inundated. Recently millions of people in India suffered the lass of their homes in devastating floods. The same floods also severely affected parts of the region especially Bangladesh and Nepal. Here in Bangladesh, Cyclone SIDR affected the lives of 10 million people and caused damages worth US$ 3 billion as it raged through the coastal areas wiping out whole communities, crops and livestock. Extreme weather events such as Cyclone SIDR are becoming more frequent due to climate change.

We also note with concern that other drastic changes in the weather patterns have caused serious damages to the agriculture pattern, livelihood and natural resources further adding to the already worse poverty situation in the South Asia. The irony is that neither national governments nor global forces are willing to take the responsibility or any role in providing remedy or any sustainable solutions to their plight.

PFM Bangladesh therefore demands:

1. All the government of SAARC countries in the region should urgently pay attention to these climatic changes and their causes to the world especially the weaker and vulnerable communities. Efforts need to be accelerated to address all those I, factors that cause such damages.

2. We demand that climate change and its effects and immediate remedies should be the key agenda item at the official SAARC summit in Sri Lanka and there should be a common voice of South Asia in all regional and international forums

3. South Asian governments must take a common position and consorted engagement at the national and regional levels as well as in all the international forums to safeguard the common interests of people with respect to environmental sustainability and security

4. Climate refugees must get the legal rights to provide rehabilitation and right to migrate in developed countries

5. Bangladesh must get the compensation in form of carbon tax as proportionate carbon emission of developed and industrialised countries

6. Industrialized countries must declare now the road map to reduce the amount GHG emission of 30% from the current level by 2020

7. Voices of the poorest and most marginalised are heard and listed to during all negotiations relating to climate change

8. Immediate agreements on increased funding for poor nations to adapt to climatic changes. further that these commitments must be over and above any existing international aid commitments

9. SAARC governments must take a strong stand for Climate-proofing international river-management initiatives and in protecting cross - border eco systems

10. Create SAARC Climate Change Fund to tackle Climate Change. Adopt bold resolution to act the rich countries immediately to setup the fund to help developing countries as they made specific commitment at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Bali, in December 2007. According to Hyogo Framework principles, rich country governments need to provide at least 0.7% of their GNI in international aid for disaster risk reduction.

11. Adopt viable mechanism for strengthening and effective use of institutions established by SAARC, like- SAARC Disaster Management Centre (DMC), Meteorological Research Centre and Coastal Zone Management Centre to share cross-border data and support effective initiatives for disaster risk reduction.

12. The World Bank and all other founders should stop funding fossil fuel exploitation and honor its earlier commitments that such funding should not contribute to climate change, whose impacts hit poor people disproportionately hard

13. The World Bank should phase out its investments in oil production by 2008 and aggressively increase investments in renewable energy and other measure that delink energy use from greenhouse gas emissions. it should also stop funding investments in greenhouse gas· producing projects, big dams that cause mass displacement of populations and damaging ecosystems instead invest in small scale hydro

14. Developed countries must stop transfer of polluting industries from north to south including unsustainable production systems

We the civil society will not rest until these factors are addressed and the justice is brought to these people.

(Position paper on climate change of the People's Forum on MDGs, Bangladesh)

Four-decade ban on lentil lifted

Aparna Pallavi

On may 28, the Maharashtra government issued an order revoking a 47-year-old ban on the sale of Lathyrus sativus, a pulse variety grown widely in the state's tribal districts. Known locally as lakhodi, and as khesari, tikhadi and tiwda in parts of Nothern India, lathyrus was incriminated for a crippling motor-neuron disease of the lower limbs, lathyrism, and its sale for human consumption was banned in Maharashtra in 1961.

The decision to lift the ban came largely as a result of an 86-day fast by Nagpur-based nutrition scientist Shantilal Kothari, known for starting India's first indigenous soya milk plant. Kothari has been engaged in a lone battle with the Maharashtra government since 1983 for the removal of the ban, during which he produced ample evidence to prove that lakhodi was wrongly blamed for lathyrus.

Research on effects of lathyrus on human health began in the 1920s. A 1928 study by R McCarrison, director, Deficiency Diseases Inquiry, Pasteur Institute, Coonoor found no connection between the lentil and lathyrism. Lathyrus was also exonerated by the British scientist, R L H Minchin in 1940 and C Gopalan, the then assistant director of Nutrition Research Laboratory, Hyderabad (now called National Institute of Nutrition, NIN) in 1950.

But Gopalan went on to head an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) committee whose October 1961 report was critical in the Maharashtra government banning lathyrus a month later. The report, in fact, came eight months after the centre recommended that states ban lathyrus.

"This warped chronology proves that the decision to ban was a pre-fabricated one. It's useful to question if the research was influenced by the recommendation," Kothari says. Gopalan was made NIN's director soon after, and his 1950 paper did not find any mention thereafter.

In 1969, Maharashtra banned the sale of lathyrus for animal consumption and in 1971 the government ordered the burning of all standing lathyrus crop in the state. The pulse variety was banned in Madhya Pradesh in 2000. But the other lathyrus-producing states in the country, Bihar, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, haven't banned the pulse. In fact, India is the only country where lathyrus is banned. The pulse is extensively cultivated and consumed in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Ethiopia and Pakistan-and even France.

Even in Maharashtra, Lathyrus continues to be cultivated and consumed widely in Nagpur, Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur, Amravati, Yavatmal, Gadchiroli, Parbhani, Nanded, Latur, Thane and Aurangabad districts. According to the state government figures, 31,000 hectares (ha) in Maharashtra is under lathyrus cultivation. Kothari's surveys, however, put this figure at around 300,000 ha. Since a hectare produces 2.5 tonnes (according to the estimate of the state's agriculture department), the annual production in the state is about 7.5 lakh tonnes.

The crop also makes its way into the market quite easily. Much cheaper than tur and chana, the popular pulse staples of the state, lathyrus is routinely used to adulterate besan (gram flour) and other pulse products and eateries use it as a cheap substitute for expensive dals. Deceptively similar to tur dal, husked lathyrus is used to adulterate the more expensive pulse variety. Kothari says that "the ban's only effect has been to give traders a stick to intimidate farmers into selling their crop cheap."

The nutritionist has been studying various medical reports connected with the ban since 1983, and has found them replete with loopholes. "Medical texts say a person 'may' get lathyrism if he consumes 400 gm of lathyrus daily over a period of three months or more. Is such a high level of consumption possible?" he asks.

The Gopalan Committee report, on the basis of which lathyrus was banned, drew on research carried out in just 20 villages in Rewa and Satna districts of Madhya Pradesh. "A nation-wide survey was not deemed necessary," Kothari says.

The research itself is flawed in many aspects, and does not prove a definite connection between the dal and the disease. It mentions that lathyrism has symptoms very similar to manganese poisoning, but fails to take into consideration the fact that the manganese is mined extensively in both the survey districts. The report's diet survey also does not confirm the connection between average per-head daily consumption and incidences of lathyrism. For instance, the disease afflicts more than 10 per cent people in village Maanjan (Rewa), where consumption is just 0.7 ounce, while in Kotar (Satna), where the per capita consumption is 9.1 ounce the disease affects just 0.7 per cent of the population.

Kothari has highlighted these inconsistencies in several petitions to the Maharashtra government. In response, two committees were constituted. In 1992, a committee chaired by S R Sengupta of the Haffkine Institute in Mumbai, entrusted NIN to study the connection between lathyrism and lathyrus. And in 1994-95, a high powered committee headed by Sanjay Deotale, an MLA, asked the Lucknow-based Industrial Toxicology Research Centre and Central Drug Research Institute, to carry out similar research.

NIN never conducted any study while the Lucknow-based institute failed to find any connection between the pulse variety and the disease.

In 2003, the Sanjay Deotale Committee, of which Kothari was a part, carried out extensive research in the high lathyrus consumption districts of Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli, but failed to find a single patient of lathyrism in the last five years. The committee recommended that the ban be lifted.

But it took the government more than four years to act on the committee's recommendation.

Kothari believes that now that lathyrus can be officially sold, its production will go up dramatically "Since it is cheaper than other pulses by half (the per kg retail price at present is Rs 13-15 in rural bazaars where it continues to be sold), it will help bring down the skyrocketing pulse prices in the state." That the pulse has a good future in the state is also brought out by a state government letter dated March 11, 2005 requesting the Centre for permission to lift the ban.

(CSE/Down To Earth Feature Service)

Experimenting with eco-friendly toilets

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.

(Source: CSE/Down To Earth Feature Service)