Sinking Cities by Ranjan K Panda: Article in 'Urban Update' August 2016 Issue

Mahanadi needs peace, not conflicts: Ranjan Panda's latest article in Big Wire!

Mahanadi needs peace, 

not conflict

ByRanjan Panda

Posted on July 29, 2016

India’s sixth largest river Mahanadi is now witness to a bitter political fight between its two major riparian states.

A river that is already fighting for its life because of excessive exploitation of the water by industrialization and negative impacts of climate change can hardly afford this fight.

But the states of Odisha and Chhattisgarh are fighting and it seems this will lead to a war. This war is not going to do any good for the cause it is being fought.

The current episode of the fight that started about a month back following the leaking of an internal letter from the Odisha government’s water resource department has already engulfed the entire state in a big movement against neighbouring Chhattisgarh.

Odisha’s ruling party Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has taken the lead in it and many others, including civil society and media, have joined the force.

Odisha says the upstream state is intercepting Mahanadi waters to an extent that will dry up the river and make the Hirakud Dam dysfunctional.

Chhattisgarh discards this allegation and claims it has all rights to utilise each drop of water of Mahanadi within its geographical territory.

Odisha is projecting itself as a victim in this, as all lower riparian states do in such cases.

The debate has travelled from streets to Parliament and the chief ministers of both the states have already flagged off war signals.

Responding to Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh’s claim over Mahanadi, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik has said that he will fight for Mahanadi water till his last breath.

In this political slugfest what subsides is the real debate about the health and well-being of the river herself, and the millions of people and other species dependent on her.

More than a half of people in each of the states depend on Mahanadi for all their needs including drinking water, irrigation, other livelihood needs and above all for maintenance of the ecological balance of this region.

The genesis of the conflict

Ever since the Hirakud Dam was constructed in 1957, both the states (Chhattisgarh was then part of Madhya Pradesh) have been engaged in battles of discontent and differences.

There was no bipartite agreement between the two states with regard to this largest earthen multi-purpose dam project of Asia.

In various meetings organised between the two states, Madhya Pradesh kept raising the issue of utilising Hirakud dam’s catchment areas to provide ensured water supply for the rice bowl of eastern India that falls in this region.

In fact, about 87% of the dam’s catchment lies in Chhattisgarh and 88% of water at the dam site is contributed by that state.

The Chhattisgarh government has been pursuing their Mahanadi irrigation plan to utilise each drop of water and augment irrigation up to 50% in the catchment.

They have also been pushing for 5% power from the Hirakud reservoir. These issues have always remained the bone of contention between both the states but not much of a coordinated effort was ever tried out.

In 1983, the CMs of both states reached into an agreement to establish a joint control board to review the progress from time to time of survey, investigation, planning, execution and operation of joint inter-state irrigation and or power project(s) and to discuss and resolve any issues.

However, this board was never established and the states continued to manage Mahanadi in their own ways and the coordination meetings were reduced only to discussions of flood control operations of Hirakud reservoir during monsoon.

Coal curse

Mahanadi, in official terminology of both the states, has been a water surplus basin and there has virtually been a competition between them to invite investments marketing the river water as a cheaply available natural resource.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the basin is bestowed with a huge coal reserve. Following economic liberalisation, the rush for establishing coal -fired power plants has put the river to severe stress.

Studies as early as 2010 pointed out that out of the 118 proposed projects being pursued by Chhattishgarh, for which data was available, 33 plan to draw water from the Mahanadi.

The water requirement of projects drawing water from the river stands at 1,500 mcm per year. If the water requirement of projects drawing from its tributaries – Lilagarh, Hasdeo and Seonath – is added, the withdrawal jumps to 2,700 mcm, adding to the withdrawal of around 1000 mcm by existing industries.

Thermal power plants, known to guzzle water, would be drawing close to 1,500 mcm every year. The estimate is based on data of just a fragment of the projects planned.

The dependable water availability in the Mahanadi (measured at Kasdol upstream of Raipur) over the last 10 years is an average 1,528 mcm annually, according to state water resource department. With industry set to withdraw 3,700 mcm, water budgeting in the state will clearly be highly deficit.

In fact, government spokespersons including ministers of Chhattisgarh government have openly admitted that most of the dams and barrages being built upstream are meant for coal fired power plants and other industries.

Downstream, Odisha also has been committing a major chunk of Mahanadi water to such industries.

River set to die,needs urgent attention

The real issue, therefore, is the way we are treating the river.

Chhattisgarh may have the right to obstruct the flow it thinks is its due share, however, without a cumulative impact assessment of the entire river basin it would be virtually impossible to tell how much of an obstruction would not harm the Hirakud Dam and the flow downstream.

All data that both the governments are now putting up are fragmented and outdated.

While the current spurt in political fight has brought in the right attention and awareness of both the public and policy makers, the solution is in a dialogue.

And such a dialogue is only possible by rebuilding the trust, which means transparency in information sharing and cordial approach in coordination.

The governments should trust each other as well as the people and form a coordination mechanism that takes on board not only the government officials and politicians but also others who are able to help resolve this issue amicably.

Ranjan Panda is an Indian environmentalist, water and climate change expert.

Source: http://bigwire.in/2016/07/29/mahanadi-needs-peace-not-conflict/

Drought management: Going beyond knee-jerk response - Ranjan Panda's article in Big Wire!

Drought management: Going beyond knee-jerk response

ByRanjan Panda

Posted on May 15, 2016

While participating in a seminar on climate change in August last year, I asked officials of the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) to expand their focus to drought.

In fact, for decades, I have been constantly trying to draw the Odisha government’s attention to the issue of drought, which has been the most silent but dangerous natural calamity for Odisha as well as the country.

The officials tried to convince me that since the drought was the domain of the revenue and agriculture departments, the OSDMA could do nothing about it.

OSDMA, one of the first state-level authorities to be formed in the country after the Disaster Management Act (DM Act) came into force in 2005, has been focusing its attention on cyclones and flood types of sudden disasters and not the slow and gradual disasters such as drought.

In February, however, it was reported that OSDMA will be entrusted with drought management from this year onward. Perhaps my suggestions were taken note of!

The question now is, will the management of drought be more effective under the OSDMA for Odisha or for that matter other states under such bodies formed under DM Act?”

The recent historic judgment of the Supreme Court exposing the reality of mismanagement of drought in the country does not make us much hopeful about that.

The SC judgment on the petition of the Swaraj Abhiyan begins with a quote by Lokmanya Tilak that says, “The problem is not lack of resources or capability, but the lack of will.”

The SC has found out a clear lack of ‘will’ from the states in acknowledging the problems, let alone responding to drought.  It was referring to states such as Bihar, Gujarat, and Haryana which almost refused to acknowledge the crisis.

The apex court commented: “Possible drought-like situation usually belongs to the most vulnerable sections of society. The sound of silence coming from these states subjects the vulnerable to further distress.”

Drought management efforts mostly begin only after drought is declared and efforts are largely limited to relief measures that do not really compensate the loss, nor does cater to mitigation in a strategic manner.

The court has pointed out a lot of loopholes in current drought management practices and shows how the existing mechanisms have failed in tackling this disaster in the country.

The DM Act 2005, that has been the statute book for disaster management, has also not been taken seriously.

The court finds out that despite much importance laid down in the Act for the formulation of a national plan for disaster management, no such plan has been formulated so far.

The court further observes that despite the requirement of the formulation of a National Disaster Response Force, under the Act, for the purposes of specialist response to a potential disaster or disaster, such a force has not been constituted yet.

The court seems further convinced that the central government is not doing much for mitigation of drought as a disaster when it remarks, “Although, the DM Act has been in force for more than 10 years, the National Disaster Mitigation Fund has not yet been constituted. There is, therefore, no provision for the mitigation of a disaster.”

The NDMF under the Act was to be formed to support projects exclusively for mitigation purposes.

The Centre and the states have engaged in political battles only around “declaration of drought and relief” rather than caring for real mitigation.

In scathing remarks the court says, “Evidently, anticipating a disaster such as a drought is not yet in the ‘things to do’ list of the Union of India and ad hoc measures and knee jerk reactions are the order of the day and will continue to be so until the provisions of the Disaster Management Act are faithfully implemented.”

In April, Uma Bharti, the central government’s minister for water resources, had said something completely opposite to what the apex court has said now. “Drought is a phenomenon for which it’s pointless to plan in advance,” she had said in defence of criticisms against the government on Maharashtra’s acute water scarcity this year.

Bharti and the central government need to take a U-turn on this thinking because drought is a disaster that is silently yet consistently increasing its grip over the country and needs the maximum preparations.

(Ranjan Panda is an Indian environmentalist, water and climate change expert. He can be contacted atranjanpanda@gmail.com).

Source: http://bigwire.in/2016/05/15/drought-management-going-beyond-knee-jerk-response/

Managing the heat wave: Ranjan Panda's article in the Deccan Herald!

Managing the heat wave

Ranjan K Panda, May 03, 2016,

Act now

The year 2015 was recorded as the hottest year in history. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), USA found out that May 2015’s combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces was the highest in a 136-year period. 

India saw the deaths of over 2,000 people due to the heat wave in 2015, as informed to the Parliament by the Union Minister for Science & Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences on August 5, 2015. As per this report, 67 people had died in Odisha that has been highly alert about heat wave ever since 1998, when over 2,000 people had died. By  April 18 this year, about 137 deaths were reported from across the country. The actual number may be much more.

Heat wave is a grossly underestimated and under-reported disaster, which kills and affects more people than disasters which strike suddenly. Many heat-related deaths go unreported because they are taken to be the consequences of existing ailments. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) lists out heat wave as a natural disaster. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “Heat wave is a period of abnormally hot weather”. 

In layman’s language, it is a prolonged period of excessive heat often combined with excessive humidity. In such cases, the human body starts gaining heat from the atmosphere. Experts believe that in cases of high humidity and temperature, a person can suffer from heat-stress disorders even with the temperature at 37 degree celsius. It leads to heat cramps, heat exhaustion and sunstroke, which are life threatening. Looking into the conditions that prevail this year, we may expect more deaths across the states. 

Abnormal heat levels
Caused by climate change-induced global warming and supported by local factors, the deaths in the 1998 heat wave had taken Odisha by shock as more deaths occurred in the coastal belt of the state. The state immediately stood up to the disaster and increased its efforts to cope with it. Odisha’s heat wave management has been largely hailed as a very effective one. The state issued its Heat Wave Management Protocol on March 18, 2016. 

As the world witnessed the warmest February in 2016, and was passing through the hottest ever March, Odisha’s temperature was also on a rising trend. Temperature in many districts in western and southern Odisha continued to rise and many began to cross 40 degree celsius by the end of March. More than 50 heat wave deaths have already been reported. Additionally, Odisha was gripped in a water crisis from mid-February. 

The conventional heat wave protocol of the state has not worked this year and Bhubaneswar, the state’s capital, has already recorded its highest temperature in history when it touched 45.7 degree celsius on April 10. The state’s dry areas that have experienced temperatures as high as 50 degree celsius in the past, are soaring gradually. The convention has failed because the state has put all its attention on adapting to the heat wave rather than preventing it. Prevention lies in ecological correction measures and the state has to understand it, before it is too late. 

The state has been a notorious playing field for climate change but the development models add to the woes as local factors are causing further devastations. Development has put the state on a high desertification path. Being a mineral-rich state, it has been blindly exploiting these resources at the cost of forests, rivers and water bodies. All this has meant a fast land degradation process that furthers heat wave conditions both by fuelling further increase in heat and being impacted by that further negatively. 

In 2006, Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO) had warned that many parts of Odisha, especially the western and southern uplands, are already showing symptoms of desertification. The state is ‘developing’ from a drought prone to desert prone region, when severe desertification leads to permanent land damages. In just 13 years, severely degraded land in the state had increased by 136%, barren land had increased by 69% and land converted to non-agricultural uses had increased by 34%. In 1991-92, about 10% of the state’s total geographical area was unfit for agriculture, forest and tree cover excluded. In 2004-05, such spread increased to nearly 17.5% of the state’s total area. The barren land has since increased by almost 50,000 hectares. Agricultural land given away for other purposes has increased by a whooping 2,99,000 hectares. This has added to the heat woes either by degrading water resources or increasing concrete cover. Then, the permanent pastures have also grown by a great margin of 51,000 hectares. And the net sown area of the state has decreased by as high as 2,43,000 hectares indicating the shrinkage of natural resources. 

Coal is another culprit in generating heat and draining water resources. Odisha has committed for almost about 75,000 megawatts of coal power plants, using water mostly from major rivers such as Mahanadi and Brahmani. Hence, Odisha has to redesign its intervention and factor in more ecological correction measures to be able to mitigate the impacts of the heat wave in a sustainable manner. 

Source:  http://www.deccanherald.com/content/543979/managing-heat-wave.html

Climate Resilience: A must for cities! My article published in Urban Update January 2016!

You can also read this at issuu.com. The page to look for is: urbanupdatemag

Thanks,

Ranjan Panda

Convenor, Combat Climate Change Network

Mob: +91-9437050103
Email: ranjanpanda@gmail.com

Rivers have just lost a great voice of theirs - My tribute to Ramaswamy Iyer published in SAWAS journal!

Urban India and Wastewater Management Issues: My Article in Infrastructure Today Magazine!

DECENTRALISED WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Ranjan K Panda

PERSPECTIVE  /  AUG 2015

Urban India is bracing for a unique and difficult challenge of shortage of freshwater as well as managing increased wastewater.

Urban India is experiencing an exponential growth. With about 377 million people, which means a third of Indians living in about eight thousand towns and cities, the urban Indian story is of both aspirations and challenges. More and more people are heading towards urban areas, dreaming of amenities and opportunities. Urbanisation has its own challenges because urban India seems grossly underprepared to house this highly ambitious immigration. Around 200 million people may be added to India´s urban landscape in about just the next two decades. And the challenges are not just limited to growth of population, but also the problems associated with that. In this article, we will talk mostly about the wastewater scenario in Indian cities, which is in a disastrous state at the moment. Estimates suggest that the more urban we become, the more water-guzzling our lifestyle. Experience and statistics both suggest that an average urban Indian uses at least three to five times more water than an average rural Indian. What´s more, the wastage of water in urban areas, with about 70 to 80 per cent of water supplied for domestic use, is also alarming.

Estimates of the Central Pollution Control Board put the total wastewater generation from only the Class I and Class II cities and towns at around 35,558 and 2,696 million litres per day (MLD) respectively, while the installed sewage treatment capacities are for 11,553 and 233 MLD only. However, the actual treatment is far too less. It is projected that by the year 2050, about 132 billion litres per day of waste water will be generated from Indian cities that is equivalent to 48.2 BCM. Further, experts also feel that the gap between wastewater generated and treatment capacity created will further widen. It, therefore, means urban India is bracing for a unique and difficult challenge of a shortage of freshwater as well as managing increased wastewater.

Polluted Water Bodies

A major threat of the untreated sewage and wastewater is to rivers and other water bodies. As per Census 2011, India has sewer systems linked to 32.7 per cent of urban households. The rest depend on onsite sanitation systems like septic tanks or public toilets. There is still a major section of the population in urban areas who defecate in the open. This is more in the slums that now comprise almost fifty per cent of the urban areas. Scant facilities of sewage treatment clubbed with unscientific disposal of septage pose a major challenge to the water systems and public health.

In fact, under various river action plans, the country has about 234 Sewage Water Treatment Plants (STPs). In class-I cities, oxidation pond or activated sludge process is the most commonly employed technology, covering 59.5 per cent of total installed capacity. This is followed by Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket technology, covering 26 per cent of the total installed capacity. Series of Waste Stabilisation Ponds technology is also employed in 28 per cent of the plants, though its combined capacity is only 5.6 per cent. But, the actual treatment has always been a grey area. In a recent event in Delhi, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javedkar said, ¨The actual treatment being done by all these plants would be somewhere between 15 to 17 per cent only. Delhi that boasts of the maximum coverage by sewer network, has only about 33 per cent of its habitations covered. The story is not so encouraging and the very vastness of the centralised treatment plants make them more difficult to cover in Indian cities, which face several physical and financial hurdles.¨

The problem is not domestic sewage alone. Some 12,368 MLD of wastewater is generated by industries. About 60 per cent of it is treated, but the ground reality is different because affluent treatments have so far been a very costly affair and many industries complain about their affordability. Small industries have been linked to Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) set up in clusters. Such plants adopt methods like dissolved air floatation, dual media filter, activated carbon filter, sand filtration and tank stabilisation, flash mixer, clariflocculator, secondary clarifiers and sludge drying beds, etc, to treat industrial effluents. The primary treatments remove coarse material and settable solids by screening, grit removal and sedimentation. Then the treated water is released into rivers. All these methods, however, have not properly worked, if one believes the river pollution statistics recently disclosed by the CPCB.

The CPCB has just come out with a report of pollution of India´s rivers. It points out the number of polluted rivers in India has doubled in just five years from 121 in 2009 to 275. Polluted stretches have also doubled from 150 to 302 in the same period. The report then reveals that the sewage generated from 650 cities and towns situated along the polluted stretches, has also increased from 38,000 MLD in 2009 to 62,000 MLD today. For instance, in Mahanadi River basin, the wastewater, including sewage load from major cities, has increased by almost 300 per cent in just two decades.

The planning in India is now undergoing a drastic change with the Prime Minister´s launch of three mega flagship schemes aimed at transforming urban India. It includes the scheme to build 100 Smart Cities, AMRUT (replacing JnNURM) in 500 cities, and ´Housing For All´. At least Rs 3 lakh crore is to be invested in these schemes in the coming five years. The JnNURM experience has not been that encouraging. India has spent USD 20 billion in 65 select cities between 2005-14 under the urban renewal mission. Despite that, the pollution of the rivers doubled. Six years after the National Urban Sanitation Policy 2008, only 13 states have initiated the mandatory state sanitation strategies, and only six of them have prepared complete sanitation strategies. Even the urban areas have lagged behind in forming the City Sanitation Plans (CSPs) that would have taken care of the wastewater treatment challenges along with other problems. About 200 CSPs have been prepared. Out of that only five have been finalised as per NSUP framework. All this calls for urgent attention.

Decentralised Wastewater Treatment Systems

Given the constraints involved in centralised systems, it is wiser to popularise and promote the Decentralised Wastewater Treatment Systems (DEWATS) approach. DEWATS has been hailed as a cost-effective and more successful approach that promotes people-centric waste to resource activities. As compared to centralised systems that are high on economic costs and require skilled manpower, decentralised systems can be promoted by involving local people and with low cost. It is important to note the system operates in a natural system, considering local conditions.

There are success stories of DEWATS approach dotting various cities in the country, with participation of several institutions. For instance, Kuchhpura in Agra is known for its location by the side of a large drain that takes wastewater from about five slums to Yamuna. A host of institutionsû starting from local to internationalû established a collaboration to design and construct a DEWATS using organic and natural water treatment processes. The objective was to treat and bring down the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) levels for reused water and recycling the processed wastewater for irrigation and safe disposal of compliant effluent. The system has developed a community management plan and as reports suggest it has helped the Kachhpura environment to improve drastically. This particular one was designed for treating 50 kL of wastewater.

Now that a lot of push is being seen for urban development, a mission mode is needed to promote decentralised wastewater treatment systems, such as the above, in massive scales. Of course, this alone cannot solve all the wastewater crisis. But this can solve a host of the problems. A lot of investments have to pitch in for promoting such systems. There is a need for strong regulations for industrial and municipal bodies. Technology has also to play a role in ensuring the implementation of regulations towards reducing pollu¡tion of the rivers, water bodies, and environment.

DEWATS Design

It uses a natural-three-step bio-remediation process. The first three chambers, which include the Screen Chamber (1.0 molecular weight (mw) + 1.1 millilitre (ml) + 1 metric ton (mt.) Deep), Pre-process filter Chamber (2.0 mw + 2.5 ml + 2.5 mt Deep), Baffled Septic Tank (2.0 mw + 7.5 ml + 3.0 mt Deep), are used for the sedimentation of the sludge, preparing the wastewater for filtration. The next chamber is Baffled Filter Reactor Chamber (2.0 mw + 22.0 ml + 2.5 mt Deep) that is filled with stone. This chamber accomplishes the filtration of the water. The last chamber is the Root Zone Treatment Chamber (2.0 mw + 22.0 ml + 2. 0 mt Deep), which is planted with Canna- the root of these plants treat the waste water.

This article has been authored by Ranjan K Panda. The author is the climate change researcher. He convenes a national online network ´Combat Climate Change Network, India.´ He can be contacted at ranjanpanda@gmail.com.

Source: http://www.infrastructuretoday.co.in/News.aspx?nId=CwSiXAW8tEiXFAnYhO6B3A==

My Latest Article on Sendai Framework published in Down To Earth!

Sendai framework on disaster risk reduction disappoints

Author: RANJAN K PANDA

Posted on: 19 Mar, 2015

Goals are without specific time plan and targets

On the midnight of March 18, representatives from 187 UN member states adopted the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 with seven targets and four priorities for action. After the marathon negotiations that preceded the convention,one would have expected a clear cut action plan and commitments from developed nations.  So far, it is understood, only Japan made some funding commitment for this proposal as the five-day-long conference wrapped up.

In 2013 cyclone Phailin ravaged over 300,000 houses in coastal Odisha in India's east coast, which is listed by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change among regions of maximum vulnerability

Earlier proposals for percentage goals were rejected, so the current set looks like vague targets.  The current framework for 15 years replaces the 10 year long Hyogo Framework for Action. The Sendai Framework aims to lower the global mortality rate from disasters between 2020 and 2030, compared with 2005 to 2015, and reduce the proportion of people affected.

Read more
Natural disasters will soon cost the world $314 billion annually: UN

Floods in 4 states lead to economic loss of Rs 19,000 crore in past one year

Disasters and the related devastations have increased in the last decade despite of the existence of the Hyogo Framework, the current Framework recognises.  During 2005-2015 alone, over 700,000 people lost their lives. More than 1.4 million people were injured and approximately 23 million became homeless due to disasters. 

The world’s worry about disasters, more so due to climate change, has aggravated manifold as more than 1.5 billion people were affected by disasters in various ways during the last decade. Women, children and people in vulnerable situations were disproportionately affected. The total economic loss was more than $1.3 trillion. In addition, between 2008 and 2012, 144 million people were displaced by disasters.

Disasters induced by climate change have in fact increased in frequency and intensity.  While there are more noises around large-scale disasters among planners globally, the conference rightly points out that recurring small-scale disasters and slow-onset disasters particularly affect communities, households and small- and medium-sized enterprises.  In fact, these sections of people face a high percentage of losses. 

While all countries face mortality and economic losses from disasters, in the case of developing countries these are disproportionately higher.  In fact, poor countries face increased levels of possible hidden costs and challenges to meet financial and other obligations.  And, as we know, they are the least prepared to handle the challenges.  Take for example India that faces huge losses due to climate change-induced disasters, so much so that the expenses on adaptation increased from 2.6 per cent in 2012 to 6 per cent of the country’s GDP in 2014. And the country is even not able to assess the real (covering all areas and all intensities) losses and damages due to climate change properly. 

Just take the water crisis faced by the nation, most of which is due to climate change—global and local (growth induced)—and you would realise the vastness of the problem that the country faces now. Eight of the 10 warmest years in the country’s history fell in the last decade; and almost 54 per cent of the country’s geographical areas face high to extremely high water stress.  Things are getting worse and we have not been able to cope with such disastrous situations.

The Sendai Framework recognises that the goals of sustainable development are being outsmarted by the gaps in progress and achievement agenda such as the Millennium Development Goals and have tried to give a perspective to overcome all these so as to contribute meaningfully and substantially to the new era December climate negotiations in Paris, however, the broadness of the goals without specific time plan and targets disappoint us. 

It recognizes the need to develop an action-oriented framework that Governments and relevant stakeholders can implement in a supportive and complementary manner that can help to identify disaster risks to be managed and guides investment to improve resilience.  It also recognizes some vital factors that are contributing to the disasters and rightly mentions about the role of unsustainable urbanisation. 

However, it completely fails to discuss the way we produce our energy and the impacts there from. Fossil fuel, especially coal, continues to be the major source of our energy.  The GDP growth oriented economy, that most of the climate change vulnerable countries such as India are following in fact not only contribute to global greenhouse gas emissions and disasters but also increase lot of local woes that club the impacts and devastate the poor the most. 

The commitments for the Sendai Framework are voluntary but unless the signing countries adhere to green growth models, most of the goals would remain to be addressed in the same light even after 15 years.  A new framework may then be developed but the gaps in implementation and disasters would have grown.

Ranjan Panda is convenor of Combat Climate Change Network, India

Source: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/sendai-framework-disaster-risk-reduction-disappoints

From smart cities to climate smart cities: My opinion piece published in Hindu Business Line!

From smart cities to climate smart cities

RANJAN K PANDA

Urban spaces are responsible for global warming and bear the brunt of it as well. They must evolve in sustainable ways

Bright future? Only if planners start thinking out of the box Ailisa/shutterstock.com

India is still unclear what its Prime Minister means when he talks about smart cities.

However, what everyone seems to be clear about is the fact that cities are defining the world’s fate at the moment.

Increasingly being recognised as the only place for ‘opportunities’, cities invite more and more people to their fold, consume huge amount of energy, have heavy transport use, create more unnatural space by destroying natural ecosystems, and emit a lot of greenhouse gases (GHGs).

Cities claimed a good amount of time during the COP 20 (conference of the parties 20) debates in Lima. It is now evident that no climate action would be possible without taking cities on board.

At the receiving end

Lima saw one of the biggest gatherings of mayors and climate action experts so far.

This gathering stressed on strong local actions with participatory governance for building climate resilient cities. Mitigation and adaptation should be addressed with equal focus, it was felt, and initiatives that are under way were highlighted.

Cities, it is already evident, would be at the receiving end of climate impacts too.

They would face major impacts, more so because of the growing population camping in unplanned settlements.

Every week, the urban population increases by about one million inhabitants. More than half of them live in slums with inadequate facilities making them more vulnerable to problems caused by climate change.

Such pockets in cities are less resilient than parts which have better infrastructure and facilities.

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report rightly points out: “Many global risks of climate change are concentrated in urban areas.”

Cities face the double challenge of keeping pace with urbanisation and adapting to climate change. They have to act fast.

New targets

In less than a year, in December 2015, a new international climate change agreement should be agreed upon in Paris at COP 21. Cities across the world should gear up to show that they can take the necessary steps to become climate smart.

Some examples are there to pave them the way.

Earlier this year, the Climate Alliance advocates in Europe resolved to take up three binding targets: 50 per cent less Co2, 40 per cent more energy efficiency and a 40 per cent share of renewable energy by 2020 with the objective of halving per capita Co2 emissions by 2030.

Many such local actions on energy savings, energy efficiency and renewable energy promotion would be helpful as examples for all cities.

A report shared during COP 20 points out that the Covenant of Mayors initiative, officially launched by the European Commission in 2008, has today exceeded all the initial expectations and has expanded far beyond the borders of the European Union. This initiative today includes more than 6,000 local authorities spread across 52 countries.

Covenant signatories have formally committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by more than 20 per cent by 2020.

What is remarkable about this initiative is the fact that each city is reported to have devised its own method.

Cities in India are growing mostly as concrete infrastructures at the cost of local biodiversity including rivers, water bodies and forests. They have to look within and find their indigenous solutions.

In designing our smart cities we should take cues from some of the global actions and most of our local knowledge and realities.

In the name of growth and modernity, ironically, many governments are adopting city plans from environmentally unsustainable cities.

This has to stop. Locally adapted plans that the local people can sustain should be adopted to make our cities climate smart.

The writer is the convenor of Combat Climate Change Network, India

(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated January 5, 2015)

My Latest Article: Small farms, big values...

Dear Friends,

Happy to share with you my latest article, co-authored by Ajit Panda, titled "Small farms, big values," published in the LEISA India magazine latest issue.  

A brief intro to the article:  Small scale farmers, many of whom are themselves among world’s hungry people, feed the world’s majority. In fact, family farmers not only produce the major share of the food consumed but also help preserve the environment. They continue to farm inspite of facing a number of challenges – like high production costs, lower yields, unsupportive policies, climate change impacts etc.

Farmers in Odisha have to continuously fight against the natural calamities to sustain in agriculture. While it is drought that affects farmers in districts like Nuapada, it is the recurring floods in coastal districts like Kendrapada which makes farmers vulnerable. Farmers are trying to cope with such climate aberrations with new initiatives like vegetable gardening and integrated farming. This article talks about how these initiatives are helping in sowing the seeds of hope among the small farmers in two different geographical regions.

Please find the link to the article below:

http://leisaindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/LESIA-India-Dec-2014-Page-No-6-Small-farms-big-values.pdf

Thanks and regards,

Ranjan Panda

Email: ranjanpanda@gmail.com