The Obama administration has decided to keep secret the locations of nearly four dozen coal ash storage sites that pose a threat to people living nearby.
The Environmental Protection Agency classified the 44 sites as potential hazards to communities while investigating storage of coal ash waste after a spill at a Tennessee power plant in December. The classification means the waste sites could cause death and significant property damage if an event such as a storm, a terrorist attack or a structural failure caused them to spill into surrounding communities.
The sites have existed for years with little or no federal regulation.
The Army Corps of Engineers in a letter dated June 4 told the EPA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency that the public should not be alerted to the whereabouts of the sites because it would compromise national security.
"Uncontrolled or unrestricted release (of the information) may pose a security risk to projects or communities by increasing its attractiveness as a potential target," Steven L. Stockton, the Army Corps' director of civil works, wrote in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
Boxer: 'It is essential to let people know'
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., in a news conference Friday, questioned why coal ash storage ponds are not treated like other hazardous waste sites. For instance, the EPA readily discloses the location of Superfund hazardous waste sites and also annually reports pollution released by chemical facilities and other factories in neighborhoods.
"If these sites are so hazardous, and neighborhoods nearby could be harmed irreparably, I think it is essential to let people know," said Boxer, adding that she was told the location of the sites with the understanding that she could tell only Senate colleagues whose states have one or more of the storage facilities. The EPA was allowed to inform local emergency officials, but not the public.
The Army Corps of Engineers had no immediate comment.
December spill covered 300 acres
On Dec. 22, more than 5 million cubic yards of ash and sludge poured out of a storage pond after an earth dike failed at a power plant near Kingston, Tenn. The grayish, toxic muck covered 300 acres and destroyed or damaged 40 homes.
The EPA estimates that about 300 dry landfills and wet storage ponds are used across the country to store ash from coal-fired power plants. The man-made structures hold a mixture of the noncombustible ingredients of coal and the ash trapped by equipment designed to reduce air pollution from the power plants.
The latest Energy Department data indicates that 721 power plants nationwide produced 95.8 million tons of coal ash in 2005. The ash can contain heavy metals and other toxic contaminants, but there are no federal regulations or standard that govern its storage or disposal
The EPA is currently considering regulating the waste, but it is unclear whether the agency will classify it as hazardous or regulate it like household waste.
A March 2000 study by the agency found that coal ash wastes in landfills and ponds had the potential to present dangers to human health and the environment. In 2000, when it first floated establishing a national standard for the facilities, the agency knew of 11 cases of water pollution linked to ash ponds or landfills. In 2007, that list grew to 24 cases in 13 states with another 43 cases where coal ash was the likely cause of pollution
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Alaska's Rat Island rodent-free after 229 years
The rats appear to be gone from Alaska's Rat Island, more than 200 years after they scurried off a rodent-infested Japanese ship.
Helicopters dropped rat poison on the island last year in hopes of returning many bird species to the uninhabited island in the Aleutian Chain.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says two weeks of intensive monitoring shows no sign of invasive rats. It also shows that several bird species, including peregrine falcons and black oystercatchers, were nesting on the island
Scientists did find numerous carcasses of two types of birds: glaucous-winged gulls and bald eagles. The federal agency is conducting tests to try to determine why they died.
A shipwreck in 1780 brought rats to the island located some 1,700 miles from Anchorage.
Helicopters dropped rat poison on the island last year in hopes of returning many bird species to the uninhabited island in the Aleutian Chain.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says two weeks of intensive monitoring shows no sign of invasive rats. It also shows that several bird species, including peregrine falcons and black oystercatchers, were nesting on the island
Scientists did find numerous carcasses of two types of birds: glaucous-winged gulls and bald eagles. The federal agency is conducting tests to try to determine why they died.
A shipwreck in 1780 brought rats to the island located some 1,700 miles from Anchorage.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Health, education, and water in Nagaland, India
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.
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.
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.”
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