The Indian state of Nagaland spreads over an area of 16,527 square kilometers, bordered by Assam, to the west and north, and Burma, to the east. Its population resides mainly in rural areas. Kohima, its capital, Dimapur, and Mokokchung are its most important towns. Nagas have evolved into a generic term for many tribal communities in the NorthEast. Of the 32 such tribes, 16 major and numerous sub-tribes spread over Nagaland’s seven districts. The Konyak, Ao and the Rengma, are a few examples, each with their own distinct culture and lifestyle.
Ghani Zaman has been a frequent visitor to Mokokchung District in Nagaland since 1971. In late 2004, Zaman and Jason Powers, both photographers, met in Kolkata (Calcutta) for a photography tour of North East India. On their trip, these two became acquainted with the substantial needs of villagers in northeast India while trekking through the region over the next three weeks.
In particular, the small village of Yimjenkimong had a powerful impact on Mr. Zaman and Mr. Powers. Welcomed with a traditional tribal dance and offered locally made gifts upon arrival, he and his friends were informed that they were the first foreigners to visit that village since the late 1880's when a missionary, Dr. E.W. Clark, came to the area.
Sitting more than 3,000 feet above sea level, Yimjenkimong is a small, isolated village steeped in the traditions of the Ao tribe (pronounced ‘ow'). The Mokokchung district, where Yimjenkimong is located, is one of the great centres of Ao Naga tradition. The prowess of the Ao warriors is reflected in gorgeous red and black shawls with the white decorated band that signified their victory over their enemies. The Ao are also known for their many annual festivals. The town is home to about 800 people.
The North East India Project (NEIP) works along side villages to assist and support in the areas of health care, education, water resources, and economic development, while preserving their culture and basic way of life. Zaman and Powers launched this project as a way to contribute to Yimjenkimong. The NEIP is a project of The Mountain Fund.
The NEIP focuses on five major areas of development:
Economic Development
Children's Education
Computers and Training
Health Care
Water Infrastructure
A trip in late 2008, made possible through generous contributions, brought much progress in each of these areas.
Economic Development
One of the major issues in the village is simply the lack of opportunity and ability for each family to produce a basic household income. Farming is the most widespread occupation, but it is difficult for farmers to produce excess crops for wholesale. NEIP is helping residents to find ways in which they may be able to produce supplemental income.
On this most recent trip, NEIP held a vocational program for women, teaching them how to extract silk from the silkworm cocoon. Throughout this year, we will continue helping them to produce a good quality silk thread and find resrouces for them to sell this thread for one means of a supplemental income. The women in this village are also working on weaving and handicrafts, such as bookmarks and bamboo cups.
Children's Education
Through generous contributions from last year, NEIP was able to send 47 children back to school for this 2009 school year. On average, these children's parents make between US$20 and $100 per year. Most of the parents are only able to work in cultivation, which generally only provides enough food for the family, and little or no extra money for their child's education. NEIP will be working with the parents over the next year to help provide ways of producing a supplemental income, which the hopes that some of it can be used to send their own children back to school in the near future.
Computers & Training
In late 2007, NEIP provided the village with their first two computers ever. In December of 2008, the team brought them one more computer, a laptop. We also held computer training workshops for some of the teachers and youth. Everyone was very excited to learn.
Health Care
NEIP was also able to provide the village with basic health care packs. These packs included toothbrushes, toothpaste, antibiotic ointment, hydro-cortisone cream, q-tips, and more. There are no doctors in the village, and most of the people in the village could not afford one if they needed to go to the hospital for any reason. We hope that these basic health care packs will be just the begininng stage in the process of providing adequate health care.
Water Infrastructure
NEIP is working on installing a water system which will pump clean water to the village. Yimjenkimong Village is located on a hilltop, and the only nearby source for water is a natural spring down the mountainside. Most of the homes have set up bamboo rain water-harvesting systems on the rooftops, which catch and run the rain water into containers, which they in turn use for drinking and cleaning. Untreated water is one of the primary causes of health problems in teh village, causing many deaths each year.
NEIP is working on installing a pump system which will pump clean water from the natural spring. An engineer joined us for our most recent trip and details are being worked out for the purchase and installation of the new pump system.
The North East India Project is working to provide continuing support through 2009.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
We have poured money out. The people have got nothing back; no irrigation, no water, no increase in production, and no help in their daily life'. Rajiv Gandhi.
My earlier article described the mess that Indian agriculture is in. For the 750 million people living in its 680,000 villages, only half have all-weather roads; most do not have proper health centres or half decent schools. Half of all women cannot read. Each year, a million infants die from diarrhoea; nearly a half of under-five year olds are 'chronically malnourished'. Tonight, like every night, 300 million Indians will go to sleep on an empty stomach. As Martin Wolf of the Financial Times said:
"It's an outrage".
It need never be, if India's politicians pulled their socks up! Ever since Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister in 2004, he put India's economic challenge as how to modernise its agriculture and how to provide more jobs for its 450 million under employed workers. Here, we discuss the first challenge: agriculture. There are four major problems that need to be tackled in solving India's food needs.
One - water:
When India's Constitution was written in 1950, it spelt out the country's key functions: to eliminate hunger and provide clean water to all its citizens. Yet Fred Pearce (in his book: When The Rivers Run Dry, 2003) describes India's water conditions of today as a "colossal anarchy". He is right. Its water supplies are fast disappearing, too much sewage ends up (illegally) on farm land, some of its water gets polluted by textile factories and then used for drinking or irrigating the fields.
Pearce tells the story of Jitbhai Chowdhury from Kushkai, a small village in northern Gujarat. Local officials see him as the most efficient farmer for miles around. He uses manure and natural pesticides made on his family farm by soaking roadside weeds in water. He grows fruit trees around the edge of his fields and tends his cattle with care. He milks his cows each morning and evening, and delivers it for the state dairy. A perfect organic dairy farm!
Yet underneath this perfection lies a crisis.
There is madness in the water economics that underpin this enterprise. He has just five acres: land that would otherwise be a virtual desert if it was not for his abundant use of water. He has a small pump that brings the water to the surface - 3,200 gallons of water an hour. It takes him 64 hours to irrigate his fields - a task he does 24 times a year mostly to grow (water guzzling) alfalfa to feed his cows. His farm's main output is 6.5 gallons of milk a day. The arithmetic for that comes out at roughly 2,000 gallons of water for every gallon of milk.Calculated by the year, it means that Jitbhai is taking out from below the surface of his farm twice as much water as falls there in rain. The water table is now 500 feet down. It is getting twenty feet deeper each year.
But who cares? Jitbhai's electricity comes heavily subsidised as it does to all Indian farmers, courtesy of the government. Each farmer, with enough money to buy a pump, will do the same. Jitbhai knows what he is doing cannot last. "But what can I do?", he says. "I have to live. If I don't pump up the water, then my neighbours will".
Pearce points out that India began to build 246 large surface water projects in the thirty years before 1986; a time when Rajiv Gandhi complained that only a quarter of them had ever been completed.
Modern India has kept its population properly fed (well, most of them), thanks to the green revolution, sustained largely by irrigated water. But much of the South and the East-Central 'poverty square' is drought prone. So where did all his water come from? Such abundant supplies of water came from somewhere. The answer, says Pearce, is from under the soil. The green revolution was watered by plundering the India's underground water.
The International Water Management Institute (IMWI) estimates more than 21 millon farmers (about a quarter) in India now tap these underground reserves to water their fields. India has spent $21 billion on pumps and boreholes in the last twenty years. There are now more than a million new pumps being used to pump this water in India each year. Indian farmers are drawing about 200 million acre feet of water each year. That is about 80 million acre feet more than the rains replace. This is used to irrigate at least two thirds of India's crops. As Tushaar Shah (from the IWMI) points out: "Indian famers are living in a fool's paradise". Farmers are drawing water that the rains don't replenish. It means that 200 million Indian farmers could face a future without any water to draw.
Two thirds of Tamil Nadu's hand-dug wells have already failed. Only a half as much of the state's land is irrigated as a decade ago. There are 15,000 abandoned wells around Coimbatore, the state capital. Whole areas in states like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are emptying of people. As everyone knows, there are a spate of farmer suicides each year. Farmers are using excessive supplies of subsidized electricity to draw this water. Half the power supplies in fact. This costs $5 billon a year; more than one percent of GDP. While there is no easy way out, this cannot continue!
Two - corruption:
There's a widely quoted equation in India: "M + D = C" (Monopoly plus Discretion equals Corruption). India's rate of corruption is high. Transparency International rates India at 72 among 180 countries, along with Mexico and Peru. China's corruption is less! Thailand's even less. This corruption cancer eats at the fabric of society: it undermines India's ability to fix its poverty problems, in spite of growth and affluence at the top. Until it tackles corruption, aid money will seep through its system, ending up in the pockets of politicians and civil servants. But people at the top can't work out how the help poor people need so badly fails to reache them! Will politicians ever change? Too many hands still reach into India's honeypots. Prime ministers come; prime ministers go. They promise change. Nothing happens!
Officials freely admit it. Civil servants publish the figures every year. Eighty percent of subsidised food gets stolen. Electricity? Water? 'Fair price' food? The new rural employment laws? All ruled by corruption. Roads go unimproved. Rubbish stays uncollected. Factories pollute the rivers with toxic waste, and everyone decries it! Nothing happens. The govenment still plans to send a human into space before 2010!
In the Civil Service, making money on the side is universal. Rajiv Ganghi, its biggest critic, estimated 85 percent of all development spending was pocketed by bureaucrats. "You are accused of exagerating", some said. Others thought his guesswork was precise. Naresh Chandra (former cabinet secretary) told Luce: "corruption has reached such proportions in India, I sometimes wonder how much longer we can bear it". Pratap Bhanu Mehtra, a political scientist, says in his book (The Burden of Democracy, 2003): "At almost every point where citizens are governed, at every transaction where they are noted, registered, taxed, stamped, licensed, authorities, or assessed, the impression of being open for negotiation is given".
"In India, corruption is the system" (another cabinet secretary). Thus:
Indian state's failure of its food subsidies for those living below the poverty line is the first. Edward Luce (in his book on modern India, quoted in my earlier article) says that all Indian corruption studies point to 'a massive and glaring 'diversion' of public food from those supposed to be targeted'. The rates vary: in Tamil Nadu and Kerala - about twenty per cent; in the state of Bihar - more than eighty per cent. The all-India average - a quarter to a half gets stolen. Says Luce: "It conveys a pattern of routine larceny at all levels of the state".
Again: New Dehli's water board has 15 times as many 'workers' per kilometre of water pipe than the average for an industrialised city in the West. Those employees have a vested interest in resisting change! The city has a pretty good water supply. Luce says that if it worked properly, New Delhi could provide over 200 litres a day to all its population. But it doesn't! New Delhi has a population of fifteen million plus. Most receive little or no water. The poor usually buy water from the private 'water mafia'. The water bills that residents pay don't cover ten percent of delivery costs. The slums usually get none of it. Most water goes to the middle classes. Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister (ie. Mayor) of New Delhi, says she employs thousands of sanitation workers: many don't turn up for work and there's nothing she can do about it! If you think New Delhi has its problems, consider Mumbai. It used to be a desirable place for city dwellers to live: not any longer. Now, it's New Dehli. Why? One reason is that it's governed by what Luce calls 'the most inept Congress in the India'.
Three - crops:
The yield of Indian farmers' staples is only half that of Chinese staples! Indian farmers grow the wrong (water guzzling) crops, when they don't have enough water. They grow too much rice and wheat when they already have enough. Edward Luce points out they should be growing labour intensive fresh vegetables and fruits - mangoes, lychees, bananas, cherries, aubergines, okra. All sorts. (I don't know enough about the specifics that go with each climate zone). There is a huge demand for them from all those health conscious, rich middle classes. In Thailand, a jumbo-jet, filled with fresh produce flies to Britain every day. Why not India? The labour involved in growing vegetables and fruit is fifteen times more than needed to grow staples. That would increase rural labour demand along with small farmer incomes.
India desperately needs proper agricultural advice services. Above all, it needs to reform its regressive system of food subsidies. The incentive system needs to change so that farmers can properly adapt to these new demands!
Michael Lipton, adviser to Britain's Department for International Development, points out that agricultural economic history since 1700 (yes 1700!) shows that growth in non farm labour follows growth in small farm productivity. This important point is lost on the experts obssessed with large scale agriculture! Small farmers need proper help: lots of it, if they are to adapt!
Four - infrastructure:
India desperately needs better roads, ports, railways, and airports! Nothing new about that. Ten years ago the Sri Lanka government improved a quarter of all its rural roads to its 18,000 villages each year! Why not India? Indeed, why not? India's rural infrastructure is dismal. More all-weather roads to link villagers to their towns and markets. Decent rural schools, proper teachers, health centres that work, more trained midwives and doctors in the villagers. All rural people have the right to a proper start in life, and to be competent in modern day farming techniques, or to mend a motorbike. There needs to be support for chicken farming to boost India's impoverished villagers, as well as increase export earnings. Farmers also need reliable electricity; clean water; and a proper charging system for both so that people do not waste them.
reproducing gerrypopplestone as published in Now Public
My earlier article described the mess that Indian agriculture is in. For the 750 million people living in its 680,000 villages, only half have all-weather roads; most do not have proper health centres or half decent schools. Half of all women cannot read. Each year, a million infants die from diarrhoea; nearly a half of under-five year olds are 'chronically malnourished'. Tonight, like every night, 300 million Indians will go to sleep on an empty stomach. As Martin Wolf of the Financial Times said:
"It's an outrage".
It need never be, if India's politicians pulled their socks up! Ever since Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister in 2004, he put India's economic challenge as how to modernise its agriculture and how to provide more jobs for its 450 million under employed workers. Here, we discuss the first challenge: agriculture. There are four major problems that need to be tackled in solving India's food needs.
One - water:
When India's Constitution was written in 1950, it spelt out the country's key functions: to eliminate hunger and provide clean water to all its citizens. Yet Fred Pearce (in his book: When The Rivers Run Dry, 2003) describes India's water conditions of today as a "colossal anarchy". He is right. Its water supplies are fast disappearing, too much sewage ends up (illegally) on farm land, some of its water gets polluted by textile factories and then used for drinking or irrigating the fields.
Pearce tells the story of Jitbhai Chowdhury from Kushkai, a small village in northern Gujarat. Local officials see him as the most efficient farmer for miles around. He uses manure and natural pesticides made on his family farm by soaking roadside weeds in water. He grows fruit trees around the edge of his fields and tends his cattle with care. He milks his cows each morning and evening, and delivers it for the state dairy. A perfect organic dairy farm!
Yet underneath this perfection lies a crisis.
There is madness in the water economics that underpin this enterprise. He has just five acres: land that would otherwise be a virtual desert if it was not for his abundant use of water. He has a small pump that brings the water to the surface - 3,200 gallons of water an hour. It takes him 64 hours to irrigate his fields - a task he does 24 times a year mostly to grow (water guzzling) alfalfa to feed his cows. His farm's main output is 6.5 gallons of milk a day. The arithmetic for that comes out at roughly 2,000 gallons of water for every gallon of milk.Calculated by the year, it means that Jitbhai is taking out from below the surface of his farm twice as much water as falls there in rain. The water table is now 500 feet down. It is getting twenty feet deeper each year.
But who cares? Jitbhai's electricity comes heavily subsidised as it does to all Indian farmers, courtesy of the government. Each farmer, with enough money to buy a pump, will do the same. Jitbhai knows what he is doing cannot last. "But what can I do?", he says. "I have to live. If I don't pump up the water, then my neighbours will".
Pearce points out that India began to build 246 large surface water projects in the thirty years before 1986; a time when Rajiv Gandhi complained that only a quarter of them had ever been completed.
Modern India has kept its population properly fed (well, most of them), thanks to the green revolution, sustained largely by irrigated water. But much of the South and the East-Central 'poverty square' is drought prone. So where did all his water come from? Such abundant supplies of water came from somewhere. The answer, says Pearce, is from under the soil. The green revolution was watered by plundering the India's underground water.
The International Water Management Institute (IMWI) estimates more than 21 millon farmers (about a quarter) in India now tap these underground reserves to water their fields. India has spent $21 billion on pumps and boreholes in the last twenty years. There are now more than a million new pumps being used to pump this water in India each year. Indian farmers are drawing about 200 million acre feet of water each year. That is about 80 million acre feet more than the rains replace. This is used to irrigate at least two thirds of India's crops. As Tushaar Shah (from the IWMI) points out: "Indian famers are living in a fool's paradise". Farmers are drawing water that the rains don't replenish. It means that 200 million Indian farmers could face a future without any water to draw.
Two thirds of Tamil Nadu's hand-dug wells have already failed. Only a half as much of the state's land is irrigated as a decade ago. There are 15,000 abandoned wells around Coimbatore, the state capital. Whole areas in states like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are emptying of people. As everyone knows, there are a spate of farmer suicides each year. Farmers are using excessive supplies of subsidized electricity to draw this water. Half the power supplies in fact. This costs $5 billon a year; more than one percent of GDP. While there is no easy way out, this cannot continue!
Two - corruption:
There's a widely quoted equation in India: "M + D = C" (Monopoly plus Discretion equals Corruption). India's rate of corruption is high. Transparency International rates India at 72 among 180 countries, along with Mexico and Peru. China's corruption is less! Thailand's even less. This corruption cancer eats at the fabric of society: it undermines India's ability to fix its poverty problems, in spite of growth and affluence at the top. Until it tackles corruption, aid money will seep through its system, ending up in the pockets of politicians and civil servants. But people at the top can't work out how the help poor people need so badly fails to reache them! Will politicians ever change? Too many hands still reach into India's honeypots. Prime ministers come; prime ministers go. They promise change. Nothing happens!
Officials freely admit it. Civil servants publish the figures every year. Eighty percent of subsidised food gets stolen. Electricity? Water? 'Fair price' food? The new rural employment laws? All ruled by corruption. Roads go unimproved. Rubbish stays uncollected. Factories pollute the rivers with toxic waste, and everyone decries it! Nothing happens. The govenment still plans to send a human into space before 2010!
In the Civil Service, making money on the side is universal. Rajiv Ganghi, its biggest critic, estimated 85 percent of all development spending was pocketed by bureaucrats. "You are accused of exagerating", some said. Others thought his guesswork was precise. Naresh Chandra (former cabinet secretary) told Luce: "corruption has reached such proportions in India, I sometimes wonder how much longer we can bear it". Pratap Bhanu Mehtra, a political scientist, says in his book (The Burden of Democracy, 2003): "At almost every point where citizens are governed, at every transaction where they are noted, registered, taxed, stamped, licensed, authorities, or assessed, the impression of being open for negotiation is given".
"In India, corruption is the system" (another cabinet secretary). Thus:
Indian state's failure of its food subsidies for those living below the poverty line is the first. Edward Luce (in his book on modern India, quoted in my earlier article) says that all Indian corruption studies point to 'a massive and glaring 'diversion' of public food from those supposed to be targeted'. The rates vary: in Tamil Nadu and Kerala - about twenty per cent; in the state of Bihar - more than eighty per cent. The all-India average - a quarter to a half gets stolen. Says Luce: "It conveys a pattern of routine larceny at all levels of the state".
Again: New Dehli's water board has 15 times as many 'workers' per kilometre of water pipe than the average for an industrialised city in the West. Those employees have a vested interest in resisting change! The city has a pretty good water supply. Luce says that if it worked properly, New Delhi could provide over 200 litres a day to all its population. But it doesn't! New Delhi has a population of fifteen million plus. Most receive little or no water. The poor usually buy water from the private 'water mafia'. The water bills that residents pay don't cover ten percent of delivery costs. The slums usually get none of it. Most water goes to the middle classes. Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister (ie. Mayor) of New Delhi, says she employs thousands of sanitation workers: many don't turn up for work and there's nothing she can do about it! If you think New Delhi has its problems, consider Mumbai. It used to be a desirable place for city dwellers to live: not any longer. Now, it's New Dehli. Why? One reason is that it's governed by what Luce calls 'the most inept Congress in the India'.
Three - crops:
The yield of Indian farmers' staples is only half that of Chinese staples! Indian farmers grow the wrong (water guzzling) crops, when they don't have enough water. They grow too much rice and wheat when they already have enough. Edward Luce points out they should be growing labour intensive fresh vegetables and fruits - mangoes, lychees, bananas, cherries, aubergines, okra. All sorts. (I don't know enough about the specifics that go with each climate zone). There is a huge demand for them from all those health conscious, rich middle classes. In Thailand, a jumbo-jet, filled with fresh produce flies to Britain every day. Why not India? The labour involved in growing vegetables and fruit is fifteen times more than needed to grow staples. That would increase rural labour demand along with small farmer incomes.
India desperately needs proper agricultural advice services. Above all, it needs to reform its regressive system of food subsidies. The incentive system needs to change so that farmers can properly adapt to these new demands!
Michael Lipton, adviser to Britain's Department for International Development, points out that agricultural economic history since 1700 (yes 1700!) shows that growth in non farm labour follows growth in small farm productivity. This important point is lost on the experts obssessed with large scale agriculture! Small farmers need proper help: lots of it, if they are to adapt!
Four - infrastructure:
India desperately needs better roads, ports, railways, and airports! Nothing new about that. Ten years ago the Sri Lanka government improved a quarter of all its rural roads to its 18,000 villages each year! Why not India? Indeed, why not? India's rural infrastructure is dismal. More all-weather roads to link villagers to their towns and markets. Decent rural schools, proper teachers, health centres that work, more trained midwives and doctors in the villagers. All rural people have the right to a proper start in life, and to be competent in modern day farming techniques, or to mend a motorbike. There needs to be support for chicken farming to boost India's impoverished villagers, as well as increase export earnings. Farmers also need reliable electricity; clean water; and a proper charging system for both so that people do not waste them.
reproducing gerrypopplestone as published in Now Public
Desperate Farmers of a dying environment
For decades now Farm communities around the globe have been bleeding by several factors. Politics comes to mind as well as Industry and mismanagement by the WTO, the respective governments and IMF as well as WB. Countless UN and EU as well BMZ and JICA reports and studies have been warning of the stress and unreasonable demands put on the Farm communities through out the world.
News articles and documentaries over the past decades have been mentioning the negative impact of our policies, trade regulations and industry and the impact those have on the Farm communities as well as the environment over all.
One of the symptoms we can monitor is the ever-increasing suicide rate among farmers and statistics as well as environmental degradation and dept –equity ratios.
To look for a single villain here is not only dangerous, more so misleading. Why the problem is not so simple and wont be an easy one to fix either.
This started some 60 years ago with a serry of bad decisions followed by even worth decisions to fix the initial problems caused in the post WWII era.
After the second WW, we where left with massive devastation through out Europe and Asia, as well as with a incredible amount of bombs and ammunition stocks, that no one knew what to do with. Except for some very smart Chemist, that believed that they fund the way to solve the Weapons arsenal surplus as well as the food shortage dilemma that we where faced with at the time and not to forget the Baby Boom, meaning more food was needed.
This was the beginning of a long line of mismanagement that leads us to today troubles.
The compounds used in Bombs and ammunition are the same then in fertilizer, we simply converted Weapons into fertilizer and this lead to mass monocultures of Maize and soy as well as wheat, rice and potato.
We encouraged farmers to go big and when that did not work we forced them to do so with programs and penalizing those that would not comply because they believed that those mono cultures where a big mistake in the long run.
Once we established this new system through out North America, Europe and latter even Asia, Africa and South America we started to run into trouble with pollution due to excess fertilizer being washed away into the creeks and water table, this due to bare top soils and mono cultures over wast areas. Erosion of good organic matter followed as well, due to the burning of the topsoil with those synthetic fertilizers, and the monocultures as well as wind and water erosion wish are unavoidable in monocultures.
All those troubles caused by some bad political decisions lead to GMO, the believed saviour of all our troubles. As once the fertiliser and herbicides as well as pesticides where suppose to fix all problem of a post World War World, faced with a population explosion and needing all it s labour in the rebuilding of the nations rather then in agriculture. Why the farmers had to comply and become industrialised disregarding the environment and generations of common sense and know how.
After some time we where faced with massive over productions since Farmers ended up being better then expected and more innovative then anticipated. Why we forced on the creation of the WTO and forced third world countries to buy our surpluses or in many cases, we just gave them those in the name of aid and development. This lead to the destruction of local farm communities in Africa and Asia and forced a massive migration to the cities causing poverty and unemployment as well as the lack of farmers now able to produce food wish lead to a chronic dependence on food aid. This we cured with GMO. First, we gave away the GMO as a drug dealer would do with Crack or Cocaine and encouraged them to disregard their own seeds, promising them the sky and heaven with GMO.
Once they where hooked and had no longer their own seeds to fall back on. They discovered that the GMO where engineered so that they could not be used for planting again once harvested and that one was now forced to buy new seeds in order to be able to plant again.
This lead to massive problem and hight dept load for the farmers now forced to buy seeds and all that was left to buy where of course GMO seeds. No different then drug dealing only legal and in this case with the help of governments and taxpayers money.
We do have a real disaster on our hands and this through out the World. Trying to find genuine and original seeds today is as much a challenge as it would be to find a model T Ford truck. Wish bring the price up of course and makes it rather difficult to go back to the way Grand Dad farmed in a responsible way and in balance with the environment.
What make this even worth is the fact that Farmers are a special breed of people, they main goal is not to make money, even less to get rich, but rather to maintain the land and the history as well as the family farm. This is why death seems the only way out for more and more of them. Because Farming Is not a job, it their life and way of life, there are bound to the land and their environment as a tree would be and they die once uprooted or poisoned by Monsanto or bad government policies.
In Canada wile there we had several suicide that where covered up as Farm accidents so the family could at least get the life insurance to keep the farm and get out of the dept, at least partially. In Japan and Europe Life-insurance is not a choice and yet many chose death rather then having to see the farm go under, they die with the farm.
I was broth up differently and have become more of a weed then a tree. This due my family having lost the farms they build up and this five time since the seventeens century. Due to wars and invasions for the most part. We just learned to be stubborn, rebuild and fight back, maybe why we never feel into the Monsanto trap or the government grand trap forcing us into a direction that was not wise nor good for the environment. Had I not enjoyed the benefit of generations of hardship and learned to go my own way as a farmer, I may very well be among those that would have taken their own lives. I am still a thorn in the eyes of Monsanto and Purina as well as Pioneer and Hoechst. Eventually the parasite that they are will perish; unfortunately, not before they destroyed the host they feed on, unless the host destroys them first.
The task at hand to fix all this may seem overwhelming, however vital to undertake for the sake of all of humanity. No better time then right now to start, yet this time with out profit as primary goal but rather sustainability and ecology.
News articles and documentaries over the past decades have been mentioning the negative impact of our policies, trade regulations and industry and the impact those have on the Farm communities as well as the environment over all.
One of the symptoms we can monitor is the ever-increasing suicide rate among farmers and statistics as well as environmental degradation and dept –equity ratios.
To look for a single villain here is not only dangerous, more so misleading. Why the problem is not so simple and wont be an easy one to fix either.
This started some 60 years ago with a serry of bad decisions followed by even worth decisions to fix the initial problems caused in the post WWII era.
After the second WW, we where left with massive devastation through out Europe and Asia, as well as with a incredible amount of bombs and ammunition stocks, that no one knew what to do with. Except for some very smart Chemist, that believed that they fund the way to solve the Weapons arsenal surplus as well as the food shortage dilemma that we where faced with at the time and not to forget the Baby Boom, meaning more food was needed.
This was the beginning of a long line of mismanagement that leads us to today troubles.
The compounds used in Bombs and ammunition are the same then in fertilizer, we simply converted Weapons into fertilizer and this lead to mass monocultures of Maize and soy as well as wheat, rice and potato.
We encouraged farmers to go big and when that did not work we forced them to do so with programs and penalizing those that would not comply because they believed that those mono cultures where a big mistake in the long run.
Once we established this new system through out North America, Europe and latter even Asia, Africa and South America we started to run into trouble with pollution due to excess fertilizer being washed away into the creeks and water table, this due to bare top soils and mono cultures over wast areas. Erosion of good organic matter followed as well, due to the burning of the topsoil with those synthetic fertilizers, and the monocultures as well as wind and water erosion wish are unavoidable in monocultures.
All those troubles caused by some bad political decisions lead to GMO, the believed saviour of all our troubles. As once the fertiliser and herbicides as well as pesticides where suppose to fix all problem of a post World War World, faced with a population explosion and needing all it s labour in the rebuilding of the nations rather then in agriculture. Why the farmers had to comply and become industrialised disregarding the environment and generations of common sense and know how.
After some time we where faced with massive over productions since Farmers ended up being better then expected and more innovative then anticipated. Why we forced on the creation of the WTO and forced third world countries to buy our surpluses or in many cases, we just gave them those in the name of aid and development. This lead to the destruction of local farm communities in Africa and Asia and forced a massive migration to the cities causing poverty and unemployment as well as the lack of farmers now able to produce food wish lead to a chronic dependence on food aid. This we cured with GMO. First, we gave away the GMO as a drug dealer would do with Crack or Cocaine and encouraged them to disregard their own seeds, promising them the sky and heaven with GMO.
Once they where hooked and had no longer their own seeds to fall back on. They discovered that the GMO where engineered so that they could not be used for planting again once harvested and that one was now forced to buy new seeds in order to be able to plant again.
This lead to massive problem and hight dept load for the farmers now forced to buy seeds and all that was left to buy where of course GMO seeds. No different then drug dealing only legal and in this case with the help of governments and taxpayers money.
We do have a real disaster on our hands and this through out the World. Trying to find genuine and original seeds today is as much a challenge as it would be to find a model T Ford truck. Wish bring the price up of course and makes it rather difficult to go back to the way Grand Dad farmed in a responsible way and in balance with the environment.
What make this even worth is the fact that Farmers are a special breed of people, they main goal is not to make money, even less to get rich, but rather to maintain the land and the history as well as the family farm. This is why death seems the only way out for more and more of them. Because Farming Is not a job, it their life and way of life, there are bound to the land and their environment as a tree would be and they die once uprooted or poisoned by Monsanto or bad government policies.
In Canada wile there we had several suicide that where covered up as Farm accidents so the family could at least get the life insurance to keep the farm and get out of the dept, at least partially. In Japan and Europe Life-insurance is not a choice and yet many chose death rather then having to see the farm go under, they die with the farm.
I was broth up differently and have become more of a weed then a tree. This due my family having lost the farms they build up and this five time since the seventeens century. Due to wars and invasions for the most part. We just learned to be stubborn, rebuild and fight back, maybe why we never feel into the Monsanto trap or the government grand trap forcing us into a direction that was not wise nor good for the environment. Had I not enjoyed the benefit of generations of hardship and learned to go my own way as a farmer, I may very well be among those that would have taken their own lives. I am still a thorn in the eyes of Monsanto and Purina as well as Pioneer and Hoechst. Eventually the parasite that they are will perish; unfortunately, not before they destroyed the host they feed on, unless the host destroys them first.
The task at hand to fix all this may seem overwhelming, however vital to undertake for the sake of all of humanity. No better time then right now to start, yet this time with out profit as primary goal but rather sustainability and ecology.
Government’s War Against the Environment
Help! Costa Rica is under a terrorist attack by its own government! It’s no joke. The country’s vast and enviable nature, all its natural resources, rainforests and national reserves are at risk.
The most recent threat has been posed today as el Poder Ejecutivo has sent a project to the congress that is threatening to reduce Las Baulas National Park, which supports the largest nesting colony of leatherback turtles in the Pacific Ocean, to allow the expansion of real state projects on the area. This would put at risk not only turtles, but the water resources of the zone as well. Remember that leatherback sea turtles are now on the brink of extinction, and this national park is their only nesting haven in the East Pacific Ocean.
The project at hand, called "Ley de rectificación de límites del Parque Nacional Marino Las Baulas y Creación del Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre las Baulas de propiedad mixta" is the third attempt of the Arias Government to dismember the protected areas within the national park, which coincide with the real-state market’s interest in the zone, and exclude them to allow private expansion.
The Servicio Nacional de Aguas Subterráneas, Riego y Avenamiento (SENARA) had already declared the aquifer of Huacas-Tamarindo as in “extreme vulnerability”. The possibility of hotels, condos and other real property settling on this zone could put it at risk
The most recent threat has been posed today as el Poder Ejecutivo has sent a project to the congress that is threatening to reduce Las Baulas National Park, which supports the largest nesting colony of leatherback turtles in the Pacific Ocean, to allow the expansion of real state projects on the area. This would put at risk not only turtles, but the water resources of the zone as well. Remember that leatherback sea turtles are now on the brink of extinction, and this national park is their only nesting haven in the East Pacific Ocean.
The project at hand, called "Ley de rectificación de límites del Parque Nacional Marino Las Baulas y Creación del Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre las Baulas de propiedad mixta" is the third attempt of the Arias Government to dismember the protected areas within the national park, which coincide with the real-state market’s interest in the zone, and exclude them to allow private expansion.
The Servicio Nacional de Aguas Subterráneas, Riego y Avenamiento (SENARA) had already declared the aquifer of Huacas-Tamarindo as in “extreme vulnerability”. The possibility of hotels, condos and other real property settling on this zone could put it at risk
Rebuilding After Chinese Earthquake: Beautiful Bamboo Homes
It has been a year since the May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China that killed more than 70,000 people.
China’s strongest earthquake for more than half a century, with a magnitude of 8.0 (en.wikipedia.org), it devastated large parts of the province of Sichuan. More than 10 million people were made homeless, most of them poor and elderly villagers (cities were not badly damaged).
Getting Sichuan back to normal is critical for not only the province’s people, but for all of China. Sichuan is China’s rice bowl, growing more food than any other province. But despite the abundance of food, Sichuan remains poor and has seen its working age population move away for work. If it is to have a viable future then its communities need to get back to normal as fast as possible – and its farming economy back to full production.
The unprecedented media coverage of the disaster meant people across China saw the scenes of devastation and have since contributed large donations to help with the reconstruction. The Chinese government has pledged to spend US $151 billion on reconstruction projects.
Finding ways to re-house people after large disasters has become an urgent issue over the last five years. From the Asian tsunami to Hurricane Katrina in the United States and multiple hurricane disasters in the Caribbean, restoring communities is critical for the health of the people and the economies they rely on. Experience has shown that temporary shelters have many drawbacks, being usually of poor quality for long-term habitation and a source of health problems.
The temporary shelters erected for the Sichuan homeless are unsuitable for long-term housing: the 12 square metre grey boxes – two sheets of aluminium sandwiching a polystyrene core for insulation – have no heating. The occupants roast inside in the summer and freeze in the winter. They are also located away from the main source of income: the farms.
The dilemma is how to build new, long-term houses that will not cost too much. Inflation has increased the costs of conventional building materials: bricks, cement and steel.
But the use of traditional building materials and home designs offers an alternative. By drawing on the abundant bamboo and wood in Sichuan and by building to traditional designs, cheaper but sturdy and beautiful homes can be built.
An average home now costs around 80,000 yuan (US $11,688). The Chinese government estimates the price is now 820 yuan per square meter for a new home: bamboo homes cost between 300 and 400 yuan per square meter. Government compensation is between 16,000 yuan (US $2,337) and 23,000 yuan (US $3,360) per family. The bamboo houses range in size from 75 to 200 square metres, and in cost from 22,500 yuan to 80,000 yuan for a very large home.
In Daping village, Pengzhou Town, original homes destroyed by the earthquake sit at the edge of a forested hill. Their frames are more or less intact, but the walls and roofs have collapsed. The new houses replacing them are large, two stories high and have solid grey clay tile roofs. The beauty of the designs stands out and sits in stark contrast to the temporary shelters and concrete buildings.
“There are 43 houses and two public buildings being rebuilt in this project,” says team member Hu Rong Rong of the Green Building Research Centre of Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology. “The design and the main building material are based on the ecological and sustainable habitat idea. The place (Sichuan) is rich in bamboo and wood. These natural materials are cheap and friendly to the environment. In some buildings we use light steel which can be also recycled.”
The new homes are built to earthquake resistance standards. Led by Professor LiuJiaping, a team of 15 people from the research centre and two from a design institute developed the home designs and supervised the training of local people. They were joined by 10 people from an NGO called Global Village of Beijing, who managed the project to completion.
“All the designs were discussed with the local people,” continues Hu. “We trained a local construction team, which means the local people would build their own houses by themselves. Both our research center and the local people were involved in developing the home design.
“To get the trust from the local people is a challenge in the project. We resolved it by showing our respect to the local people. Before we started our design we discussed with the local people many times to know what kind of house they like. We built the first house to make them believe us.”
Hu believes it is possible to replicate the homes across Sichuan.
“The design is suitable for other villages in Sichuan which have a similar climate and culture with this village. To rebuild sustainable houses after a disaster we should know well about the local life, environment and culture – try to find the useful technique which was used in their traditional houses and upgrade the traditional house to meet the need of their modern life.”
Others have not been as lucky as these villagers. In the village of Yuan Bao, Chen Jingzhong, 66, has had to build a makeshift shack: “They wanted to get us to build our own houses but they didn’t give us enough money,” Chen told the Telegraph Magazine. “All we could afford was this shack, which we built ourselves, with our own hands and without any help from anyone.”
China’s strongest earthquake for more than half a century, with a magnitude of 8.0 (en.wikipedia.org), it devastated large parts of the province of Sichuan. More than 10 million people were made homeless, most of them poor and elderly villagers (cities were not badly damaged).
Getting Sichuan back to normal is critical for not only the province’s people, but for all of China. Sichuan is China’s rice bowl, growing more food than any other province. But despite the abundance of food, Sichuan remains poor and has seen its working age population move away for work. If it is to have a viable future then its communities need to get back to normal as fast as possible – and its farming economy back to full production.
The unprecedented media coverage of the disaster meant people across China saw the scenes of devastation and have since contributed large donations to help with the reconstruction. The Chinese government has pledged to spend US $151 billion on reconstruction projects.
Finding ways to re-house people after large disasters has become an urgent issue over the last five years. From the Asian tsunami to Hurricane Katrina in the United States and multiple hurricane disasters in the Caribbean, restoring communities is critical for the health of the people and the economies they rely on. Experience has shown that temporary shelters have many drawbacks, being usually of poor quality for long-term habitation and a source of health problems.
The temporary shelters erected for the Sichuan homeless are unsuitable for long-term housing: the 12 square metre grey boxes – two sheets of aluminium sandwiching a polystyrene core for insulation – have no heating. The occupants roast inside in the summer and freeze in the winter. They are also located away from the main source of income: the farms.
The dilemma is how to build new, long-term houses that will not cost too much. Inflation has increased the costs of conventional building materials: bricks, cement and steel.
But the use of traditional building materials and home designs offers an alternative. By drawing on the abundant bamboo and wood in Sichuan and by building to traditional designs, cheaper but sturdy and beautiful homes can be built.
An average home now costs around 80,000 yuan (US $11,688). The Chinese government estimates the price is now 820 yuan per square meter for a new home: bamboo homes cost between 300 and 400 yuan per square meter. Government compensation is between 16,000 yuan (US $2,337) and 23,000 yuan (US $3,360) per family. The bamboo houses range in size from 75 to 200 square metres, and in cost from 22,500 yuan to 80,000 yuan for a very large home.
In Daping village, Pengzhou Town, original homes destroyed by the earthquake sit at the edge of a forested hill. Their frames are more or less intact, but the walls and roofs have collapsed. The new houses replacing them are large, two stories high and have solid grey clay tile roofs. The beauty of the designs stands out and sits in stark contrast to the temporary shelters and concrete buildings.
“There are 43 houses and two public buildings being rebuilt in this project,” says team member Hu Rong Rong of the Green Building Research Centre of Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology. “The design and the main building material are based on the ecological and sustainable habitat idea. The place (Sichuan) is rich in bamboo and wood. These natural materials are cheap and friendly to the environment. In some buildings we use light steel which can be also recycled.”
The new homes are built to earthquake resistance standards. Led by Professor LiuJiaping, a team of 15 people from the research centre and two from a design institute developed the home designs and supervised the training of local people. They were joined by 10 people from an NGO called Global Village of Beijing, who managed the project to completion.
“All the designs were discussed with the local people,” continues Hu. “We trained a local construction team, which means the local people would build their own houses by themselves. Both our research center and the local people were involved in developing the home design.
“To get the trust from the local people is a challenge in the project. We resolved it by showing our respect to the local people. Before we started our design we discussed with the local people many times to know what kind of house they like. We built the first house to make them believe us.”
Hu believes it is possible to replicate the homes across Sichuan.
“The design is suitable for other villages in Sichuan which have a similar climate and culture with this village. To rebuild sustainable houses after a disaster we should know well about the local life, environment and culture – try to find the useful technique which was used in their traditional houses and upgrade the traditional house to meet the need of their modern life.”
Others have not been as lucky as these villagers. In the village of Yuan Bao, Chen Jingzhong, 66, has had to build a makeshift shack: “They wanted to get us to build our own houses but they didn’t give us enough money,” Chen told the Telegraph Magazine. “All we could afford was this shack, which we built ourselves, with our own hands and without any help from anyone.”
Incredible Medepally: so clean and green
Khammam (Women's Feature Service) - It takes less than 30 minutes to clean this village - the entire village. And it is no hamlet. With a population of about 3,000, Medepally, in the Mudigonda administrative mandal of Andhra Pradesh's Khammam district, is a village that is spread over a two-kilometre radius.
More than 500 women - all members of various self-help groups (SHGs) in the village - assigned themselves a stretch of each street that they clean twice a week. "I don't live in the village anymore. But, on Mondays and Thursdays, I commute to the village first thing in the morning to finish my part of the job," says Sudha Rani, who now lives in Kusumanchi, about 10 kilometres away. Sudha can be often seen zipping around the village in her two-wheeler, with a broom hanging onto the carriage.
The women behind Medepally's extraordinary progress pose for a group photo. From left to right: Drakshavathi, Nagamani Samineni, Shyamala Kollu, Ram Tulasi Akkineni, Nagalakshmi Kothapalli, Kanthamma Chinnam and Savitramma Perumalla. Pic: Sri Harsha Vadlamani.
But the 525 members of the 48 SHGs in Medepally haven't limited their good work to maintaining sanitation in the village. They have also got together to provide clean drinking water and ensure maintenance of the ground water, the chief source of drinking water here.
"It was more than a year ago that we noticed most of us were suffering from joint pains, hives and skin discolouration. But, it took us some time to link it with the water we drank and used," says Nagalakshmi Kothapalli, leader of a women's group and president of the Mandal Praja Parishad, a local body.
Although the neighbouring district of Nalgonda had hazardous levels of fluoride in its ground water, which had caused health problems and had led to mass migration, it was only recently that Khammam began to feel the impact of fluoride. In fact, the state government has identified the Palair region of the district, where a reservoir from the tail end of the Nagarjuna Sagar left bank canal was recently built, as a fluoride-affected region. Fluoride is essential, within permissible limits, for dental and skeletal strength. World Health Organisation (WHO) states the limit to be one ppm (parts per million). However, Nalgonda has reported 10 ppm in certain places and Mudigonda in Khammam has levels exceeding 2.5 ppm.
Recognising this as a hazard, the administration recently announced time-bound plans to pump in over Rs.1 billion (Rs.100 crores) for the provision of clean drinking water as the region is primarily dependent on ground water for all its water needs.
However, long before the authorities took any action, the women of Medepally decided to nip the problem in the bud. Acknowledging that ground water was their only source of water they consulted the sarpanch (village council head) and decided to build a water purification plant. Many meetings and plans later, the village launched a mineral water plant with an investment of about Rs.200,000.
The plant has been set up by the village-level federation of all SHGs, Snehita Mahila Grama Sangham. With the help of the sarpanch, some women leaders went to the district headquarters, Khammam, and collected the necessary information to build a water purification plant. They then sought a commercial estimate from a company, who came and set up the plant for them. The women contributed Rs.75,000 and collected the rest from the villagers. Money was also pooled in for the construction of the room that has the reverse osmosis machines and storage tanks.
The water purification plant set up underneath the main water tank of Medepally. Pic: Sri Harsha Vadlamani.
The work began in January this year and was completed within a couple of weeks. The plant itself has been set up under the village water storage tank, which is attached to the main water source, the ground water well. The filtered water is filled into a fibre tank, from which it is filled into cans through a tap. Since, the water is not stored for more than an hour at any given point of time there is no problem of moss or contamination and all the containers are periodically cleaned.
The women worked out cost of the purified water and also chalked out a timeframe in which to recover the money spent on the project. Today, a 20-litre can of purified water is sold at a mere one rupee. Similar sized cans bought from nearby towns come at the commercial price of Rs.40. A minimum of 300 cans are supplied to the village households in a day. This results in a monthly income of not less that Rs.10,000 to the woman's self help group.
Part of the money they earn goes to employ two workers of the panchayat towards returns for the money contributed by the villagers. "We did such pioneering work that three plants were set up in quick succession in the near-by villages. Even a popular hotel on the national highway followed in our footsteps. Now, we have leaders of SHGs visiting us from as far as Anantapur district (a severely drought-hit district about 400 kilometres away)," says a proud Drakshavathi Mikkilineni, president of the Snehita Mahila Grama Sangham.
A winner of both the Nirmal Gram Puraskar and State-level Shubhram Award, Medepally is a village that has achieved total sanitation. "Initially, when we got down to cleaning the streets, we were shocked at how much trash there was. Cow dung, weeds, garbage and open drains that buzzed with mosquitoes. It hit us hard, the combined fact that we were neither clean nor did we have proper drinking water," recalls Ram Tulasi Akkineni, Treasurer, Swayamkrushi group. Now, the SHGs have also employed two workers - with earnings from the water plant - to clean up the dung on the roads every day.
With a turnover of about Rs.12 million, the SHG has 856 life insurance policies among the members and does a whole range of activities from distributing calcium tablets to children to post office savings every month. They even managed to prevent liquor from being sold in their village, using a variety of techniques from cajoling their men to breaking arrack pots.
No other village is more eco-friendly than this one. From 100-per cent toilet coverage to rain water harvesting; from soak pits in every house to clean streets; Medepally has done it all. "The kids who study in our high school have a small session every morning to talk about sanitation and safe drinking water," says Savitramma Perumalla.
Under the Total Sanitation Programme, each household is given Rs.2,750 to build a toilet to which the owner adds another Rs.1,500, but in Medepally the target was achieved long before the government launched the scheme. "Now, we are so used to clean toilets that when we go visiting some other village, we just can't stand the muck," says Nagamani Samineni. "Even the kids in our village are so clued in, they mockingly threaten visitors against defecating in the public. They say 'you will be fined Rs 500 by our sarpanch'," laughs Hari Prasad Samineni, sarpanch. "And happily, we have not found a single offender until now," Savitramma adds.
Medepally, in the not-too-distant past, was the arena of a bloody feud between political leaders and their families, with rivals even having been hacked to death on its roads. The unity and the sheer pragmatism that the women of this village displayed stands as a great contrast to the violence and fear that had marked mainstream politics in the region. The women say that the happiest moment for them was when they could actually have a Rangoli (intricate floor patterns filled in with coloured powder) contest on their clean streets to celebrate the harvest festival of Sankranthi.
More than 500 women - all members of various self-help groups (SHGs) in the village - assigned themselves a stretch of each street that they clean twice a week. "I don't live in the village anymore. But, on Mondays and Thursdays, I commute to the village first thing in the morning to finish my part of the job," says Sudha Rani, who now lives in Kusumanchi, about 10 kilometres away. Sudha can be often seen zipping around the village in her two-wheeler, with a broom hanging onto the carriage.
The women behind Medepally's extraordinary progress pose for a group photo. From left to right: Drakshavathi, Nagamani Samineni, Shyamala Kollu, Ram Tulasi Akkineni, Nagalakshmi Kothapalli, Kanthamma Chinnam and Savitramma Perumalla. Pic: Sri Harsha Vadlamani.
But the 525 members of the 48 SHGs in Medepally haven't limited their good work to maintaining sanitation in the village. They have also got together to provide clean drinking water and ensure maintenance of the ground water, the chief source of drinking water here.
"It was more than a year ago that we noticed most of us were suffering from joint pains, hives and skin discolouration. But, it took us some time to link it with the water we drank and used," says Nagalakshmi Kothapalli, leader of a women's group and president of the Mandal Praja Parishad, a local body.
Although the neighbouring district of Nalgonda had hazardous levels of fluoride in its ground water, which had caused health problems and had led to mass migration, it was only recently that Khammam began to feel the impact of fluoride. In fact, the state government has identified the Palair region of the district, where a reservoir from the tail end of the Nagarjuna Sagar left bank canal was recently built, as a fluoride-affected region. Fluoride is essential, within permissible limits, for dental and skeletal strength. World Health Organisation (WHO) states the limit to be one ppm (parts per million). However, Nalgonda has reported 10 ppm in certain places and Mudigonda in Khammam has levels exceeding 2.5 ppm.
Recognising this as a hazard, the administration recently announced time-bound plans to pump in over Rs.1 billion (Rs.100 crores) for the provision of clean drinking water as the region is primarily dependent on ground water for all its water needs.
However, long before the authorities took any action, the women of Medepally decided to nip the problem in the bud. Acknowledging that ground water was their only source of water they consulted the sarpanch (village council head) and decided to build a water purification plant. Many meetings and plans later, the village launched a mineral water plant with an investment of about Rs.200,000.
The plant has been set up by the village-level federation of all SHGs, Snehita Mahila Grama Sangham. With the help of the sarpanch, some women leaders went to the district headquarters, Khammam, and collected the necessary information to build a water purification plant. They then sought a commercial estimate from a company, who came and set up the plant for them. The women contributed Rs.75,000 and collected the rest from the villagers. Money was also pooled in for the construction of the room that has the reverse osmosis machines and storage tanks.
The water purification plant set up underneath the main water tank of Medepally. Pic: Sri Harsha Vadlamani.
The work began in January this year and was completed within a couple of weeks. The plant itself has been set up under the village water storage tank, which is attached to the main water source, the ground water well. The filtered water is filled into a fibre tank, from which it is filled into cans through a tap. Since, the water is not stored for more than an hour at any given point of time there is no problem of moss or contamination and all the containers are periodically cleaned.
The women worked out cost of the purified water and also chalked out a timeframe in which to recover the money spent on the project. Today, a 20-litre can of purified water is sold at a mere one rupee. Similar sized cans bought from nearby towns come at the commercial price of Rs.40. A minimum of 300 cans are supplied to the village households in a day. This results in a monthly income of not less that Rs.10,000 to the woman's self help group.
Part of the money they earn goes to employ two workers of the panchayat towards returns for the money contributed by the villagers. "We did such pioneering work that three plants were set up in quick succession in the near-by villages. Even a popular hotel on the national highway followed in our footsteps. Now, we have leaders of SHGs visiting us from as far as Anantapur district (a severely drought-hit district about 400 kilometres away)," says a proud Drakshavathi Mikkilineni, president of the Snehita Mahila Grama Sangham.
A winner of both the Nirmal Gram Puraskar and State-level Shubhram Award, Medepally is a village that has achieved total sanitation. "Initially, when we got down to cleaning the streets, we were shocked at how much trash there was. Cow dung, weeds, garbage and open drains that buzzed with mosquitoes. It hit us hard, the combined fact that we were neither clean nor did we have proper drinking water," recalls Ram Tulasi Akkineni, Treasurer, Swayamkrushi group. Now, the SHGs have also employed two workers - with earnings from the water plant - to clean up the dung on the roads every day.
With a turnover of about Rs.12 million, the SHG has 856 life insurance policies among the members and does a whole range of activities from distributing calcium tablets to children to post office savings every month. They even managed to prevent liquor from being sold in their village, using a variety of techniques from cajoling their men to breaking arrack pots.
No other village is more eco-friendly than this one. From 100-per cent toilet coverage to rain water harvesting; from soak pits in every house to clean streets; Medepally has done it all. "The kids who study in our high school have a small session every morning to talk about sanitation and safe drinking water," says Savitramma Perumalla.
Under the Total Sanitation Programme, each household is given Rs.2,750 to build a toilet to which the owner adds another Rs.1,500, but in Medepally the target was achieved long before the government launched the scheme. "Now, we are so used to clean toilets that when we go visiting some other village, we just can't stand the muck," says Nagamani Samineni. "Even the kids in our village are so clued in, they mockingly threaten visitors against defecating in the public. They say 'you will be fined Rs 500 by our sarpanch'," laughs Hari Prasad Samineni, sarpanch. "And happily, we have not found a single offender until now," Savitramma adds.
Medepally, in the not-too-distant past, was the arena of a bloody feud between political leaders and their families, with rivals even having been hacked to death on its roads. The unity and the sheer pragmatism that the women of this village displayed stands as a great contrast to the violence and fear that had marked mainstream politics in the region. The women say that the happiest moment for them was when they could actually have a Rangoli (intricate floor patterns filled in with coloured powder) contest on their clean streets to celebrate the harvest festival of Sankranthi.
No to noise
Mumbai appears to stealing the thunder over other cities in cracking down on noise pollution, thanks in no small measure to the indefatigable efforts over six long years of Sumaira Abdulali, who runs the Awaaz Foundation. In February, the city designated as many as 1113 silent zones where honking is prohibited. About a fifth of these are in the commercial district of south Mumbai itself, which is most congested during the day. The World Bank recently declared that Mumbai is now the most crowded city in the world. Indeed, as much as 40 per cent of Greater Mumbai, which covers some 438 sq km, will be covered by the law.
In the last two months, without making too much of a noise about it, the traffic police have silently booked as many as 36,000 drivers, which means that they have got into the act without waiting for the silent zones to be declared. Offenders can be fine Rs.1000 and their licenses temporarily confiscated. Some 983 drivers have also been fined for using noisy or musical reverse horns, which are also banned, unknown to many users. The police have earned a windfall of Rs.42 lakhs in the crackdown, which only goes to show that anyone who has the will can do wonders. This should make a case for the department to hire more traffic cops, who will penalise motorists for parking offences as well. The fines alone should pay for their keep!
In Mumbai, Harish Baijal, Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Traffic, has been most proactive and working closely with the Awaaz Foundation, in sharp contrast to other official agencies. On 7 April last year, he designated a No Honking Day, with the help of many citizens' organisations. It had very limited impact; many citizens went about the day as if were like any other, but it set the ball rolling: old habits die hard. What is more, although relegated to a single day, the drive and education campaign lasted for the next three months.
The current crackdown is by no means restricted to the silent zones. The police can penalise anyone honking too loudly and insistently anywhere, which has left some motorists puzzled. As is only too well established with other driving offences, any latitude on the part of the traffic policeman in interpreting rules leaves the door wide ajar for money to change hands. One motorist interviewed by a newspaper had the temerity to state that the first priority of the police was to regularise traffic, whatever he interpreted that as meaning. "If you want to drive in Mumbai, you have to honk," he added for good measure.
This hits the nail on the head: motorists think they have the right to blow their horns; some might even think it is their duty, in order to avoid running into pedestrians or other vehicles. The damage that noise does, not least to hapless pedestrians and residents of arterial roads, is virtually ignored. Abdulali, in her writ petition before the Bombay High Court in 2007 notes: "The Petitioners state that Respondent No.1 [the Maharashtra government; others are the police and Transport Commissioner] has been charged with a statutory duty under the Noise Rules to ensure that noise levels are kept within the prescribed limits. However traffic noise in Mumbai and in all large cities in the state has reached alarming levels, much beyond the limits prescribed under the Noise Rules and the measures taken by the Respondents, if any, are wholly inadequate. Mumbai is said to be the third noisiest city in the world. The ill effects of noise are well established but however not known to most people as they are not immediately visible or discernible. The Petitioners seek directions from this Court for the strict implementation of the provisions of the Noise Rules and other statutory enactments..."
The court finally passed an order on 26 February earmarking the silent zones, which the municipal corporation has promptly put into effect. It is bound to have a salutary effect on drivers - particularly of the older, decrepit taxis and auto rickshaws - who will for the first time after several years be reminded that honking is an offence around schools and hospitals. In time, this will hopefully educate all drivers that the horn is a device to be used only in an emergency, and not as a method to alert others of one's impending arrival.
Health effects
Hardly anyone is aware of the health impacts of excessive noise. In an interview last November, the well-known Mumbai-based health activist Dr R K Anand (one of his earliest campaigns was to promote breast-feeding and discourage infant foods in the country) recounts going to a birthday party at a restaurant for a five-year-old and finding that fathers found it impossible to speak to each other because the music was turned on far too loud. I can cite a different experience from my own son's wedding some 15 months ago. I had grave misgivings that the reception would be a crashing bore because my son had banned all forms of music (or any amplification, for that matter!). However, in the end, everyone complimented us for being able to meet friends and actually talk to them, for a change.
As Dr Anand states, "It is little known that continuous exposure to such settings can cause temporary or permanent deafness in children. Loss of hearing due to extreme noise is well established. Young children and adults should know that if they cannot talk to a person two metres away, the background noise level is downright unsafe. This level of sound is not uncommon in birthday parties, dance floors and rock music shows. Noisy toys, certain fireworks, marriage bands and loud speakers during festivals only make it worse.
"The ear does not distinguish between different types of noise. All noise exposure is addictive. Sumaira Abdulali is very concerned about this issue. She studies the level of noise with a proper instrument. Sound exposure below 78 decibels (dB) is safe… Birthday parties using loud speakers often record unsafe noise levels. The levels during the final day of the Ganapati immersion varies from 90-100 dB. The noise levels increased through the use of loud speakers, especially when powered with generators, film music, bands and firecrackers. Children often participated in these processions. Some mothers had crying infants in their arms. Noise from most 'light based' crackers, used during processions and Diwali exceed 100 dB.
"Sound exposure above 78 dB should alert us to possible danger. Sounds above 85 dB may cause temporary hearing loss, as after one rock show or a birthday party, but the loss may worsen and become permanent with frequent exposure to noise. Sudden extreme noise of more than 140 dB due to a bomb or other source can cause permanent loss of hearing even after one exposure. Of course, there is a known individual variation in susceptibility to hearing loss induced by noise."
What Dr Anand doesn't add is the stress on the nerves which constant honking causes. When Mumbai autos went off the roads some weeks ago over some dispute, the silence on the city's streets was palpable (the noise caused by their engines is of course a much bigger contributory factor). While Bajaj and other two- and three-wheeler manufacturers have been pilloried for delaying the introduction of four-stroke engines and poisoning the atmosphere as a consequence, they have been let off the hook so far as their din is concerned. The ill-effects of air pollution or excessive heat or poor sanitation have been computed, but the full health and economic costs of stress due to noise haven't. We have become inured to this level of nuisance and take it for granted, so much so that when one goes to the West, one wonders whether there is a curfew in place or another ban on vehicles.
In her petition Abdulali cited the international norms: "The World Heath Organisation in its Report published in 1995 prescribes a safe noise level for a city as 50 dB. For the purpose of illustration, the sound of a bird chirping generates a reading on the sound meter of about 20 dB while the sound of an aeroplane is at about 130 dB. While the threshold of hearing is anything above 0 dB, the threshold of pain is at about 120 dB. While most people are familiar with the notion of loud noise causing harm, not many are aware that continuous exposure to low levels of noise over a period of time can also cause loss of hearing."
While enacting and enforcing laws is one part of the solution, education is surely another. Children, who now have to study the environment as part of their main curricula, ought to learn about the impact of noise on their well being and that of others. Consider that only 4 per cent of Mumbai's commuters - as distinct from the total population of 16 million - use private cars and another use 9 per cent taxis and autos, this minority of 13 per cent imposes a very heavy (dare one say deafening?) burden on pedestrians and residents. Needless to add, the longer-term solution is to encourage public transport and deter motorised transport of all kinds, not least because of the very harmful impact on the climate. ⊕
In the last two months, without making too much of a noise about it, the traffic police have silently booked as many as 36,000 drivers, which means that they have got into the act without waiting for the silent zones to be declared. Offenders can be fine Rs.1000 and their licenses temporarily confiscated. Some 983 drivers have also been fined for using noisy or musical reverse horns, which are also banned, unknown to many users. The police have earned a windfall of Rs.42 lakhs in the crackdown, which only goes to show that anyone who has the will can do wonders. This should make a case for the department to hire more traffic cops, who will penalise motorists for parking offences as well. The fines alone should pay for their keep!
In Mumbai, Harish Baijal, Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Traffic, has been most proactive and working closely with the Awaaz Foundation, in sharp contrast to other official agencies. On 7 April last year, he designated a No Honking Day, with the help of many citizens' organisations. It had very limited impact; many citizens went about the day as if were like any other, but it set the ball rolling: old habits die hard. What is more, although relegated to a single day, the drive and education campaign lasted for the next three months.
The current crackdown is by no means restricted to the silent zones. The police can penalise anyone honking too loudly and insistently anywhere, which has left some motorists puzzled. As is only too well established with other driving offences, any latitude on the part of the traffic policeman in interpreting rules leaves the door wide ajar for money to change hands. One motorist interviewed by a newspaper had the temerity to state that the first priority of the police was to regularise traffic, whatever he interpreted that as meaning. "If you want to drive in Mumbai, you have to honk," he added for good measure.
This hits the nail on the head: motorists think they have the right to blow their horns; some might even think it is their duty, in order to avoid running into pedestrians or other vehicles. The damage that noise does, not least to hapless pedestrians and residents of arterial roads, is virtually ignored. Abdulali, in her writ petition before the Bombay High Court in 2007 notes: "The Petitioners state that Respondent No.1 [the Maharashtra government; others are the police and Transport Commissioner] has been charged with a statutory duty under the Noise Rules to ensure that noise levels are kept within the prescribed limits. However traffic noise in Mumbai and in all large cities in the state has reached alarming levels, much beyond the limits prescribed under the Noise Rules and the measures taken by the Respondents, if any, are wholly inadequate. Mumbai is said to be the third noisiest city in the world. The ill effects of noise are well established but however not known to most people as they are not immediately visible or discernible. The Petitioners seek directions from this Court for the strict implementation of the provisions of the Noise Rules and other statutory enactments..."
The court finally passed an order on 26 February earmarking the silent zones, which the municipal corporation has promptly put into effect. It is bound to have a salutary effect on drivers - particularly of the older, decrepit taxis and auto rickshaws - who will for the first time after several years be reminded that honking is an offence around schools and hospitals. In time, this will hopefully educate all drivers that the horn is a device to be used only in an emergency, and not as a method to alert others of one's impending arrival.
Health effects
Hardly anyone is aware of the health impacts of excessive noise. In an interview last November, the well-known Mumbai-based health activist Dr R K Anand (one of his earliest campaigns was to promote breast-feeding and discourage infant foods in the country) recounts going to a birthday party at a restaurant for a five-year-old and finding that fathers found it impossible to speak to each other because the music was turned on far too loud. I can cite a different experience from my own son's wedding some 15 months ago. I had grave misgivings that the reception would be a crashing bore because my son had banned all forms of music (or any amplification, for that matter!). However, in the end, everyone complimented us for being able to meet friends and actually talk to them, for a change.
As Dr Anand states, "It is little known that continuous exposure to such settings can cause temporary or permanent deafness in children. Loss of hearing due to extreme noise is well established. Young children and adults should know that if they cannot talk to a person two metres away, the background noise level is downright unsafe. This level of sound is not uncommon in birthday parties, dance floors and rock music shows. Noisy toys, certain fireworks, marriage bands and loud speakers during festivals only make it worse.
"The ear does not distinguish between different types of noise. All noise exposure is addictive. Sumaira Abdulali is very concerned about this issue. She studies the level of noise with a proper instrument. Sound exposure below 78 decibels (dB) is safe… Birthday parties using loud speakers often record unsafe noise levels. The levels during the final day of the Ganapati immersion varies from 90-100 dB. The noise levels increased through the use of loud speakers, especially when powered with generators, film music, bands and firecrackers. Children often participated in these processions. Some mothers had crying infants in their arms. Noise from most 'light based' crackers, used during processions and Diwali exceed 100 dB.
"Sound exposure above 78 dB should alert us to possible danger. Sounds above 85 dB may cause temporary hearing loss, as after one rock show or a birthday party, but the loss may worsen and become permanent with frequent exposure to noise. Sudden extreme noise of more than 140 dB due to a bomb or other source can cause permanent loss of hearing even after one exposure. Of course, there is a known individual variation in susceptibility to hearing loss induced by noise."
What Dr Anand doesn't add is the stress on the nerves which constant honking causes. When Mumbai autos went off the roads some weeks ago over some dispute, the silence on the city's streets was palpable (the noise caused by their engines is of course a much bigger contributory factor). While Bajaj and other two- and three-wheeler manufacturers have been pilloried for delaying the introduction of four-stroke engines and poisoning the atmosphere as a consequence, they have been let off the hook so far as their din is concerned. The ill-effects of air pollution or excessive heat or poor sanitation have been computed, but the full health and economic costs of stress due to noise haven't. We have become inured to this level of nuisance and take it for granted, so much so that when one goes to the West, one wonders whether there is a curfew in place or another ban on vehicles.
In her petition Abdulali cited the international norms: "The World Heath Organisation in its Report published in 1995 prescribes a safe noise level for a city as 50 dB. For the purpose of illustration, the sound of a bird chirping generates a reading on the sound meter of about 20 dB while the sound of an aeroplane is at about 130 dB. While the threshold of hearing is anything above 0 dB, the threshold of pain is at about 120 dB. While most people are familiar with the notion of loud noise causing harm, not many are aware that continuous exposure to low levels of noise over a period of time can also cause loss of hearing."
While enacting and enforcing laws is one part of the solution, education is surely another. Children, who now have to study the environment as part of their main curricula, ought to learn about the impact of noise on their well being and that of others. Consider that only 4 per cent of Mumbai's commuters - as distinct from the total population of 16 million - use private cars and another use 9 per cent taxis and autos, this minority of 13 per cent imposes a very heavy (dare one say deafening?) burden on pedestrians and residents. Needless to add, the longer-term solution is to encourage public transport and deter motorised transport of all kinds, not least because of the very harmful impact on the climate. ⊕
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