Open Forum

New Delhi, 26 February 2010

Water Scarcity

BETTER MANAGEMENT IMPERATIVE

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

Water demand will be the highest in the world in the next two decades and the crisis is expected to get worse. As far as India is concerned, demand for water will double by the year 2030 from 700 billion cubic metres to 1498 billion cubic metres, according to the study by the Water Resources Group, released recently. The biggest deficits will be in the most populous river basins – Ganga, Krishna and Indus. The demand is nearly double of China’s projected 818 billion cubic metres demand. 

The majority of the requirement, around 80 per cent, will be in agriculture as farmers plant more rice, wheat and sugar to feed the country’s growing population. The shortfall can be prevented, the report pointed out, by adopting basic conservation measures, specially in the agricultural sector. Drip irrigation, where a pipe delivers water directly to plant roots rather than over the field, and no-till farming could conserve water to meet the future demand. It needs to be pointed out here that conservation technology which exists in the country should be put to proper use and around 40 per cent wastage averted.

The study estimates that it would cost around $ 6 billion (Rs27,000 crores) to implement enough water conservation strategies to meet the projected demand. But since agricultural income could increase to $ 83 billion (Rs385,950 crores) by 2030, water management and wastage control would have to be given top priority.

The dwindling availability of water in most parts of the world has become quite severe and certain experts have talked about ‘water wars’ taking place in the coming years. In India, the water crisis has now become a reality with per capita availability declining from 5150 cubic metres in 1947 to 2200 cubic metres in 2000 and is expected to be anything around 1600 cubic metres by 2015-16. In most parts of the country, the crisis is quite severe and effective conservation measures and stoppage of water wastage has yet to be implemented in all seriousness.  

Apart from this, unrestricted groundwater usage, stimulated by electricity supplies below cost or even free in some States has led to groundwater depletion, diversion to water intensive crops and growing salinity of land. There is no national watershed development programme, checking dams, irrigation canals and judicious water pricing. Productivity for most crops are falling and climate change may make matters worse as water scarcity looms large.

Meanwhile, the issue of the major rivers drying up in the country has emerged as a major issue. Moreover both the Ganga and the Yamuna have become extremely polluted. As regards the Yamuna is concerned the Supreme Court had set three deadlines – 1999, 2003 and 2005 – for the authorities concerned to ensure the water was able to meet the lowest potable standards but nothing tangible has been achieved though Rs 1800 crores has been spent on various schemes.

As per the Ganga Action Plan (GAP), formulated way back in 1985, the water was to be kept clean by setting up primary treatment plants for treatment of tanneries of all types of sewage, including water flowing from tanneries and industrial effluent from 29 major and 23 small cities as well as 48 towns from Uttarakhand to West Bengal. But the Comptroller and Auditor General had taken a poor view of the Clean Ganga initiative as he thought that Rs 1000 crores had gone down the drain without any tangible improvement in the river’s water quality. According to reliable reports, nearly 2600 million litres of untreated sewage and effluent get into the Ganga daily out of which not more than 20-30 per cent gets treated. 

The issue of water management and keeping the water bodies clean are no doubt a big challenge before the country. It is indeed quite strange that 19 to 20 per cent of the population in the country still do not have access to potable water for drinking. Thus groundwater contamination has to be resolved by careful analysis of actual groundwater conditions followed by accurately positioned monitoring boreholes to provide a detailed view of the spatial distribution of the pollutant. Once the extent of pollution is assessed, an action plan needs to be evolved to control the sources of pollution and take necessary clean-up measures though, however, it would be necessary to have a clear understanding of the geology of the region.

It is in this context that the reported decision of the Government to set aside Rs 4000 crores for the Repair, Renovation & Restoration (RRR) Scheme, a joint Centre-state project to restore and/or increase the capacities of lakes and ponds and freshen their water, assumes significance. It is expected to reduce water shortage and various types of illness caused by the use of dirty and contaminated water.

The first-ever census of the country’s water bodies, believed to number more than 13 lakh, is expected to be completed by the middle of this year and about one lakh chosen for restoration in the first phase, according to sources in the water resource ministry. Although the census will cover every water body, only public ones will be restored and this task would have to be carried out by the panchayats and the municipalities.

The restoration job will primarily include de-silting, repair of the conveyance system (through which the water is replenished), strengthening of banks, prevention of soil erosion and the like. It would be better if the non-governmental organizations working in areas of scientific development and environment and having expertise in the field of water and sanitation are entrusted this task by the panchayats.

It is a well-known fact that community water bodies are significant to the preservation of ecology and well-being of the users. Community participation in cleaning these bodies and preservation and maintenance of its hygienic content can be possible only if the NGOs and CBOs wholeheartedly join this campaign. This would also ensure that water borne, water-based and water-related diseases are brought down in the community as clean water is a sure and tested remedy for good health.--- INFA    

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Open Forum

New Delhi, 22 February 2010

Nuclear Power

MEETING CLEAN ENERGY TARGETS?

            By Dhurjati Mukherjee

The need for cleaner sources of energy is being advocated by experts and environmentalists to check pollution. Apart from the thrust on solar energy, the option that has been doing the rounds is nuclear energy to tackle the country’s ever-increasing energy demands. It is understood that five sites across the country have been finalised the Nuclear Power Corporation for construction of power plants. Work has already started at Kudamkulam in Tamil Nadu while the process of land acquisition is underway at Jaitapur in Maharashtra with Mithi Virdi in Gujarat, Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh and Haripur next in line.

The Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Dr. Srikumar Banerjee, recently said that the five energy parks are critical to India achieving the target of 35,000 MW of installed nuclear power capacity by 2020 and 60,000 MW by 2032. Out of this, 40,000-45,000 MW would come from energy parks and the balance from other installations. Further, environmentally, nuclear power is a lot cleaner than thermal, which requires large fly-ash collection ponds and railway yards.

As of now, contiguous land of around 2.5 km is proposed to be acquired across the sea coast and 1.25 km in radius. The proposed investment at each site is $ 2.2 billion or around Rs 10,000 crores. It is understood that for the Kudamkulam project the deal for reactors have been signed with the Russians while for the one at Jaitapur, negotiations are at an advanced stage for French reactors.

Responding to the concerns that green activists raised over the Haripur project, the DAE has reassured that extensive studies had been conducted and more were under way to ensure that the impact on the environment was minimal. For five years, eight universities studied the tolerance of sea water temperature variation so that aquamarine life is not affected. The findings have shown that at no point should the water released from the nuclear plants should be more than 7.5⁰ above the sea water. Additionally, the extensive baseline study was intended to track changes minutely.  It may be mentioned here that the plan in Haripur is to build six 1000 MW each.

Thus, one cannot deny the need to develop nuclear power in the country from various considerations. However, opponents of nuclear power refer to the risk factors though these are no longer quite valid as many safeguards are in place and these work quite effectively. Moreover, compared to the innumerable disasters at coal mines and considering the aspect of carbon emissions that is now a subject of concern the world over, nuclear power is relatively safe. One may mention here that a staggering 300,000 coal pollution-related deaths take place every year. As regards, nuclear waste, it is no longer a big problem and is well under control.

It is a well-known fact that carbon dioxide emissions are a serious threat to human welfare and the Copenhagen Accord has urged the need to reduce such emissions. Ironically, on an average the Chinese emit 3.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year compared to nearly 10 tonnes by the Britons and 20 tonnes by the Americans. Though Indian emissions are much lower than the Chinese, these are likely to increase in view of large-scale energy requirements of the country, if proper steps are not taken. It may also be added here that most coal available in the country is not high grade quality and the ash content is high, leading to more environmental pollution and not conducive for use in power plants.

An important consideration for generating power through nuclear sources is the dwindling natural resources. At the current rate of consumption, crude oil can last for 20 years, coal for 150 years but, with only a 5 per cent increase in demand, for only 50 years and gas for a mere 30 years. With the discovery of new sites, the life span of these resources can be extended only marginally. Though it is being argued that nuclear power may not provide energy security to the nation but it also cannot be denied that a substantial amount of energy can be generated from this source without any pollution-related problem.

The Indo-US nuclear deal paved the way for supply of uranium to the country and subsequent setting of nuclear power plants in the country. But a section of nuclear scientists believe that India should have experimented with thorium-based reactors as the country has huge resources of this atomic mineral. However, little is known on the status of research on thorium-based power plants and whether in the coming years such indigenously manufactured reactors could help in setting up power plants. 

Land is no doubt a big problem for setting up mega nuclear projects, as is the case with nuclear project at Haripur. While environmental concerns have to be clarified, it is also necessary that the land losers should be properly rehabilitated which means, apart from compensation at market rates, either one family member should be given a job in the power plant or provided with alternative sources of employment. This should help in acquiring the land without any resistance and not lose time in setting up the power plant. This process should be applicable for all types of power plant in future. 

It goes without saying that if human civilization were to escape the greenhouse nightmare, it is necessary to tap every possible source of renewable energy to obliterate the dependence on fossil fuel. Apart from nuclear power, the government has also launched the National Solar Mission and there are plans to achieve the target 1000 MW of solar power by the year 2013 and 20,000 MW by 2022 as the country receives about 5000 trillion kilo watt (kWh) equivalent of energy per year through solar radiation. Just one per cent of the country’s land area can meet its entire electricity requirement till the year 2030, if properly harnessed.

Experts believe that nuclear and solar power could go a long way in realizing the government’s dream of electrification of the villages of the country and meeting the increasing energy requirements in the coming years. It is indeed regrettable that nearly 400 million people in the country do not have access to electricity and it is imperative that electricity has to reach every village if the living conditions of the masses have to be improved. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Open Forum

New Delhi, 12 February 2010

Of Profit & Greed

WHY SHUN CAPITALISM?

By Dharmendra Nath (Retd IAS)

Capitalism as an economic system is odious to many. In the public mind it somehow has got identified with colonialism. Recent financial debacles in the West have further eroded public confidence in it. The matter needs to be put in perspective.

Some of the opprobrium arises out of its nomenclature which gives undue importance to capital. More appropriately, it should be called market mechanism, thus giving equal importance to all factors of production, as communism/socialism should more appropriately be called State/command mechanism for that system relies chiefly on government dictats.

Market ethics essentially means that it is unjust for a man to consume more than he produces. That it is possible to succeed by one’s efforts. That money is important for happiness. That people pursue material success but they also observe norms and can be trusted and failing that the law can be enforced. These principles seem unexceptionable. They affirm the dignity of work and of man.

Market system fully recognises the need for special consideration for the weak, the handicapped and the needy.  In fact, it has given to the world some of the biggest charities. Gates Foundation leads with assets of $60 billion, followed by Stichting Ingka Foundation (IKEA) $38 billion, Wellcome Trust (UK) $22 billion, Ford Foundation $14 billion, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation $10 billion. Socialist world has nothing to match this. India’s own tradition of private enterprise coupled with private philanthropy is long and illustrious.

Whereas communist/socialist economies create monopolies or near-monopolies (by the mechanism of licensing) and then use government dictats to curb profits (by fixing prices and then revising them periodically, which necessarily involves a time lag in response), the market logic relies on competition in the market place to achieve this purpose – Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’, a mechanism which is largely self-actuating and self-regulatory. 

As for the charge of exploitation of workers, the wheel has come full circle. Current problem is not of exploitation but of excessive attrition. All of us honour labour. We in India honour Vishwakarma. The US celebrates Labour Day and has an extensive social security network. Today’s problem is how to retain a worthwhile workforce? Modern legal safeguards and the emphasis on human rights have so totally changed the situation that no one can take employees for granted.

Far from fulfilling Marx’s prediction of social domination either by the bourgeoisie or the proletariat, free market societies of the world have enlarged and enmeshed the two. They have created a combined class to which you and I belong. This class and its institutions own the joint-stock companies of the world. The conflict, if at all, is not so much between capital and labour as between the producer and the consumer or the buyer and the seller.

For many of us the chief attraction of market mechanism lies in the incentive and environment it provides to work and to save and to live a life of dignity and self-esteem. In sum, the freedom is to live by your light. It honours the individual’s contribution. It therefore has the capacity to lead in ideas and innovations which form the bedrock of our progress.

 Rise of east European prosperity after the fall of the Berlin Wall in1989 is a testimony to free market achievement. In our own case, our growth rate stagnated at about 3% while we chased socialism for nearly forty years after independence. It has now risen to 7% and more with progressive unshackling and liberalization of the economy. China’s liberalization has produced even more dramatic results.  Russians too conceded that they have to change their ‘system of economy’.

A persistent and not so irrational vision of human happiness is embodied in the Omar Khayyam’s lines ‘A book of verse, a flask of wine…and thou beside me singing in the wilderness’. How do we get this man to work? How does he earn his keep? How do we overcome the very natural human aversion to work? Communism/socialism has no answer.

 The theory of ‘from each according to his power, to each according to his want’ is all very well but it suffers from a fatal flaw. While awarding to each according to his want it fails to extract from each according to his/her power, which is but natural considering the way humans are made. What if workers demand wages without work? Sloth was always a deadly sin.

Communism has the potential to make us all equally poor by progressively dividing less and less. If it actually does not do so or it takes time doing so it is because some manage to escape the circle of cherished equality. They beat the system but provide it with a breather which prolongs its life.

Work is a reality whereas needs and desires are dreams and there is no end to them. Supply side world of work and demand side world of dreams can hardly be matched as they exist on two different planes. Socialism’s economic idealism forces it into a vain effort to yoke together a reality and a dream.

The parameters of extracting work and of rewarding for it have got to be the same if we are going to balance the society’s books. Distribution has got to be production-linked. Failing this we are deliberately creating a gap. With the wisdom of hindsight we can see that the communist world fell precisely into this gap. 

Let us be reminded though that, like all games, the market game too is to be played by the rules because the dividing line between private profit and dishonest greed can blur. Freedom can degenerate into license. Hence the need for what President Obama calls ‘a watchful eye’. If overseeing regulatory mechanism fails and unabashed greed takes over, that is a real canker for the market economy’s soul. Greed is capitalism’s ersatz for the communist sloth.

What we are seeing today in the US and the world led by it is a failure on this score. It is a failure of men manifesting the unraveling of their fraudulent long-winded financial engineering which by default or design was accompanied by official oversight and neglect. Traffic lights did not work or were ignored. No one dared to spoil a party taking place at the expense of the common man.

The West has no monopoly over market mechanism. The collapse it is facing is of its own making. We are living through a tragedy not of failed markets, but of vicious freewheeling cowboy capitalism. One regrets not so much sub-prime assets as sub-prime professionalism and substandard morality. It has nothing to do with the spirit of free enterprise which ever shines like a beacon and urges us on ‘to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield’. Nothing else provides that incentive. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Open Forum

New Delhi, 6 February 2010

“Good” Taliban

WHERE DO YOU FIND THEM?

By Prakash Nanda

India may have been the most popular country in Afghanistan according to a recent opinion poll there, but, ironically, last week its Afghan policy did not seem to interest enough the major powers having a stake in Afghanistan. Turkey, which hosted an international summit on Afghanistan in its capital Ankara on January 26, did not even invite India as a participant, reportedly under the pressure of Pakistan, which, according to the same opinion poll, is the least popular country among the Afghans. 

Two days later, January 28 to be precise, at the London conference on Afghanistan, not only was Foreign Minister S M Krishna made to sit in the second row of world leaders, but India also had to “grudgingly accept” the outcome of the meet, which emphasized on buying peace in Afghanistan by first distinguishing the so-called  “Good Taliban” from “Bad Taliban” and then literally buying out the former out of a special fund worth of $140 million to begin with.

However, as far as the Afghan people are concerned, India’s Afghan policy has been a great success, thanks to its “soft power.” That explains why 71 per cent of Afghans who participated in the poll conducted between 11-23 December voted for India as the most favored country. In contrast, Pakistan was viewed favourably by only 2 per cent. In fact, the results echo the findings of a Gallup survey on Afghanistan released last November, in which 56 per cent of the people voted for India when asked which group or country played the best role in resolving the situation in Afghanistan.

The latest poll, commissioned by the BBC, the American Broadcasting Company and the German broadcaster ARD, showed India ahead of all other countries in popularity. Germany polled 59 per cent at second spot while the United States came third with 51 per cent. Iran followed with 50 per cent of the votes and Britain got 39 per cent.

The vote in favor of India is seen as a reflection of its goodwill and the developmental activities undertaken on a large scale in the war-ravaged country. Since 2001, India has contributed US$1.3 billion in developmental assistance programs, including road construction, transportation, healthcare, education, energy and telecommunications.

There are more than 4,000 Indian workers and security personnel working on relief and reconstruction projects in Afghanistan. India has also completed the construction of the Zaranj-Delaram highway in southwest Afghanistan near the Iranian border. It is building Kabul’s new Parliament building, set for completion by 2011. Afghanistan’s best hospital in Kabul was built and is managed by Indians. India is also constructing the Salma Dam power project in Herat province. Besides, it has trained Afghan police officers, diplomats and civil servants.

Bilateral trade between India and Afghanistan has been rising. New Delhi  is hoping that its investment in the Iranian port at Chabahar will allow it trading access to Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan. Pakistan currently allows Afghanistan transit rights for exports to India, but does not allow goods to move from India to Afghanistan.

Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor has a point when he says that soft power is India's “greatest asset" in Afghanistan. Indian films and television programmes are extremely popular in Afghanistan and are now translated into the local Pashto language. Tharoor believes that the positive thing about such Indian influence is that it engages the population in a way that takes into account what it wants.

India has also opened consulates in Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Jalalabad and Kandahar, all bordering Pakistan. So it is no surprise that Islamabad sees India's growing influence in Afghanistan as a threat. Islamabad alleges that the consulates provide cover for Indian intelligence agencies to run covert operations against it, as well as foment separatism in Pakistan's Baluchistan province.

One of the biggest ironies of international politics is that the United States and NATO invariably follow Pakistan in fighting al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan despite the fact that the latter is surviving and flourishing with the connivance of the Pakistani establishment.

It was Pakistan that first floated the theory that the Taliban could be separated from al-Qaida, as there were some “good” Taliban and some “bad.” For Pakistan, the good Taliban are those in Afghanistan fighting against the Western alliance, and the bad are those fighting Pakistani forces in Wazirabad and the Swat region.

With NATO forces perceived as “not winning” in Afghanistan and the Western public increasingly worried over the prolonged presence of their troops in the country, Pakistan has literally goaded NATO commanders and United Nations officials into opening various channels of communication with the Taliban.

In this endeavor Saudi Arabia – which apart from Pakistan was the only country to maintain diplomatic relations with the Taliban when they ruled Afghanistan – is lending great support to Pakistan. As veteran Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid noted, one such meeting with Taliban leaders took place on January 8 in Dubai.

“According to my last count and information, diplomats or intelligence agents from Britain, Norway and Germany as well as several humanitarian agencies such as the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have met with Taliban officials either in Pakistan or Afghanistan over the past 12 months,” Rashid wrote in a guest column on BBC.

The theme, “If you do not win over the Taliban, just buy them out,” dominated the London conference. Economic development and good governance in Afghanistan – things that India pays attention to – turned out to be of very low priority in London.

But if recent history is any indication, the concept of “good Taliban and bad Taliban” has already failed miserably in Pakistan. Under this plea, Islamabad entered into peace agreements twice with the so-called Pakistani Taliban, and on both occasions, the results were nothing short of disaster. Similar disaster awaits NATO forces in Afghanistan if they persist with a similar policy.

Can Taliban followers be categorized? The so-called good Taliban also believe in the ideology of a chauvinistic theocracy that wants to push the modern Muslim world into a regressive region. They discourage a modern education system and women’s liberation and discard a modern judiciary ruefully. Women are the worst sufferers wherever Taliban seize areas and control them.

To pacify the “good Taliban,” Afghani President Hamid Karzai’s government recently introduced the Family Law Bill with the consent of his U.S. masters. Among other things, the law states that the husband of the family is the complete master; that women need permission from their husbands wherever they move; and that women have no right to the custody of their children.

Let there be no confusion that evil is evil. There is nothing like good evil and bad evil. The Taliban represent evil. Any victory for them, whether perceived or real, will have ominous implications for more than 1 billion Muslims all over the world.

After all, the Taliban and their al-Qaida masters talk of uniting all Muslims and establishing a government that follows the rule of the Caliphs. Is the world prepared to go back to the 14th century? ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)