India Stems Tide of Pollution Into Ganges River Legal rulings block development projects in bid to enhance water quality.

By Dan Morrison in Allahabad, India, For National Geographic News
This story is part of a special National Geographic News series on global water issues.

Even as pollution levels in the Ganges River continue to rise, recent legal rulings may offer up a new defense of the sacred waterway.

Last month, the Allahabad High Court, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, ordered the closure of more than 100 tanneries that pour tons of toxic chromium into the Ganges each year in the industrial city of Kanpur.

The ruling was the latest in a series of decisions by the court that have stopped giant construction projects in the Ganges floodplain and mandated the construction of new waste treatment plants in cities along its banks.

"It's the great achievement of my life, if it succeeds," says public interest attorney Arun K. Gupta, who took part in the litigation.

(Related: Spectacular Time-Lapse Video Shows Historic Dam Removal)

Three sacred rivers meet at Allahabad: The Ganges, born of clear Himalayan tributaries that first trickle and then rage down from India's border with Tibet; its sister, the Yamuna, which shadows the Ganges to the west before curving past Delhi and the Taj Mahal to join her; and the mythical Saraswati, ancient and invisible, which is said to run beneath the earth.

Only the Saraswati reaches Allahabad in a pristine state.

In the dry season the Ganges limps into town, dark with sewage and industrial waste. Pollution is heavy even at the height of the monsoon. The Yamuna arrives burdened by raw sewage from New Delhi, some 1,900 million untreated liters (502 million gallons) each day.

These waters meet at one of the holiest spots in Hinduism. Allahabad, Persian for "Settled by God," plays host every dozen years to the Kumbh Mela, the biggest gathering of humanity on Earth, when tens of millions of pilgrims come to wash away their sins at the confluence of the three rivers.

A recent visit to the Triveni Sangam, as the confluence is called, found hundreds of pilgrims walking under a blazing white sun to bathe and to collect water in plastic jugs to take home. S.P. Pandey, a recently retired judge, directed a visitor toward a spot in the expanse of water. "That, there, is the Sangam."

Even an untrained eye can see just where the two temporal rivers meet, before the Yamuna is subsumed into the Ganges: The Yamuna has a bluish cast; the Ganges is a turbid yellow.

Duality?

There is a strange duality in India's approach to its holy rivers.

The Ganges is unmistakably holy, made so by thousands of years of religious practice. At the same time, India treats the river as a septic tank.

Past rescue efforts have failed due to fatal gaps in planning, implementation, and administration, said professor B.D. Tripathi, of the Center for Environmental Science & Technology at Benares Hindu University.

A new cleanup plan for the entire 416,000-square-mile (1 million-square-kilometer) Ganges River basin is gathering steam, but it will take decades and cost tens of billions of dollars, according to the World Bank.

(Related: India and Pakistan at Odds Over Shrinking River)

Meanwhile, important changes are happening on the ground, thanks partly to rulings by the Allahabad High Court that:

* Squashed both a planned eight-lane, 650-mile(1,050-kilometer) expressway and giant housing projects destined for its floodplain.

* Forced construction of more than a dozen waste treatment plants in Kanpur, Allahabad, and Varanasi.

* Stopped the excessive diversion of Ganges water to upstream irrigation projects and cities.

* Last month ordered the closure of tanneries in Kanpur.

These orders, if properly carried out, will change decades-old practices, costing developers and factory owners many millions of dollars. They could also harm the bureaucrats and politicians who often feed off public works projects and big industrial polluters.

Court orders are one thing. Implementation is another, cautions Rakesh Jaiswal, of the Kanpur-based NGO EcoFriends. "The court has directed the government not to release untreated sewage and industrial effluent into Ganga [the Ganges] on several occasions," he said, "but it's still happening."

Pollution's Problem

Pollution has only worsened on the Ganges during the years that Gupta and others have been battling in the courts, according to data seen by National Geographic News.

Upstream of the confluence, where the Salori sewage canal meets the Ganges, biochemical oxygen demand—a measure of organic pollution—increased from an average of 3.5 milligrams per liter to nearly 5 mg/l between 2006 and 2011. The government limit is 3 mg/l.

Coliform—an indicator of human and animal waste—reached a jaw-dropping average of 15,000 mpn* per 100 milliliters at Salori in September 2010, falling to 8,875 mpn/100ml by the time it reached the confluence a few miles away.

The government limit for coliform in rivers is 500 mpn/100ml. At no time in 2010 were coliform levels at the confluence, where millions bathe each year, lower than 5,500 mpn/100ml.

(Related: 13 Scariest Freshwater Creatures)

Upstream in Kanpur, chromium levels were more than 100 times the official limit.

In 2013, the Kumbh Mela will again come to Allahabad.

By that time, Arun K. Gupta says, nearly 60 percent of the 70 sewage canals that currently dump human waste into the river at Allahabad will have been capped. Those many millions of believers, Gupta said, will indulge in a cleaner, healthier holy river.

* MPN stands for "most probable number," a scientific method used to estimate the number of microbes in a discrete sample.

"Switching from fashion smart to water & food smart"
Theme: 'Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care'

By: Riaz Darmal

This article is written for submission to the UNEP 2015 World Environment Day Blog competition  highlighting sustainable lifestyles and consumption for this year.

This planet is observing an era of peak anthropogenic madness since long times. its face has been deteriorated by adding billion tons of waste, toxic chemicals and persistent pollutants, but the story does not ends here, as the current world population of 7.2 billion is projected to increase by almost one billion people within the next twelve years, reaching 9.6 billion in 2050. ¹

The growing population need food, water, and shelter to live. The resources are depleting with every passing day and new challenges are few years away to appear. are we ready to accept it now? If YES, what a whistleblower should look for, first? Obviously, Change! Bringing change depends upon how smart we are to anticipate and feel the sufferings of our planet and its to be inhabitants.

We need to re-consider the way we eat, drink and flush. In fashion world, we try to be smart and attractive. What if we make ourselves food and water smart too?? Well, that seems strange, but have you ever tried? If NO, this article is for you.

Globally, one million⁴ plastic bags are produced every minute!!! These bags finds its way finally to oceans where every square mile of water contains 46,000 pieces² of floating plastics, remaining there for more than one thousand years³ while posing threat to hundreds of different species in the oceans. That is completely insane as humans are responsible for such a big mess.

If you carry a small cotton/fabric bag in your purse or bag you can stop buying plastic shopping bags on every purchase. If you are in US and have a family, doing so can save 1500 plastic bags⁴ every year, Even if some of us start practicing the same, we can reduce the annual consumption of plastic bags from hundreds billions to few tens of billions.

About 800 million⁵ people in world do not have enough food to lead a healthy life while 1.6 billion tons ⁶of food waste is produced annually and the economic consequences of food waste are more than enough to eradicate the world hunger in less than a year; need a little management only.

On your way back to home or work, you stop by a restaurant or grocery shop. Buy only enough food, you can eat and avoid intuitive estimations. That is not only about being food smart and thrifty but it is also an environmental friendly step, if everyone in Europe starts adopting optimal food behaviors, we can save 90 million tons⁷ of food waste annually.

Bottled water is another modern curse, In US out of each five bottles, only one bottle is recycled and others are accumulated in our environment⁸, wasting million barrels of oil and emitting thousands tons of greenhouse gases which are main contributors to climate change.

In 2013, the production volume of bottled water in US reached to 10 billion gallons⁹ with expected annual increase. If we have cutting edge drinking water treatment facilities, cheap water pitcher filters and healthy tap water, why would we go for bottled water?? Stop it!! Isn’t it more logical and humane to spend this amount on 780 million people¹⁰ round the globe who don’t have access to clean drinking water??

We assert that this world is growing and more than sure that we have only one planet to live on, If we feel responsible for future generations then the alarm has already been triggered and now reshaping our lifestyles can only guarantee their lives. Let’s pledge today for a change in lifestyle and show our predecessors that “we were not only advance robots but responsible humans too”.

References

1.United nations world population prospects. Available at http://esa.un.org/wpp/documentation/pdf/wpp2012_press_release.pdf, consulted on [22 Jan, 2014]

2. Secretariat of the pacific regional environmental program. Available at <http://www.sprep.org >consulted on [22 Jan, 2014]

3. Barnes DKA, Galgani F, Thompson RC, Barlaz M. Accumulation and fragmentation of plastic debris in global environments. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2009;346: 1985–98.

4. Plastic bag statistics, Inspiration green. Available at <http://www.inspirationgreen.com/plastic-bag-stats.html> consulted on [22 Jan, 2014]

5. Hunger statistics, World food program. Available at <http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats> consulted on [21  Jan, 2014]

6. Food wastage: Key facts and figure, UNFAO. Available at http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/196402/icode consulted on [21 Jan, 2014]

7. PPT  presentation, European commission. Available at <http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_food-safety/information_sources/docs/speeches/speech-food-waste-expo-07022013_en.pdf >consulted on [22 Jan, 2014]

8. Bottled water is wasteful, the water project. Available at <http://thewaterproject.org/bottled_water_wasteful > consulted on [22 Jan, 2014]

9.  Cover story, Bottled water organization. Available at <http://www.bottledwater.org/public/2011%20BMC%20Bottled%20Water%20Stats_2.pdf#overlay-context=economics/industry-statistics > consulted on [22 Jan, 2014]

10. Facts and figures, UN water. Available at < http://www.unwater.org/water-cooperation-2013/water-cooperation/facts-and-figures/en/>  consulted on [22 Jan, 2014]

If you want to have a quick overview over river basins of Kabul shared with six neighbors. For basic information, it is really helpful.
http://mercury.ethz.ch/serviceengine/Files/ISN/113057/ipublicationdocument_singledocument/32a43945-331e-49ad-9ca7-bb37afdd7a97/en/2010-02_Making-the-most-of-Afghanistans.pdf

 Image: wadsam.com

Preliminary assessment of air quality in Kabul

http://www.afghan-web.com/environment/kabul_air_quality.pdf

UNEP report on Afghanistan's environmental recovery

http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/UNEP_afghanistan_lr.pdf

Afghanistan’s Forest Cover Illegally Stripped Away

Environmental news service:
By Zabihullah Ghazi

KHOST CITY, Afghanistan, August 28, 2013 (ENS) – Once-green mountainsides across Afghanistan are still being stripped of their trees as the long-running process of deforestation continues.

The head of the agriculture department for Khost province in eastern Afghanistan, Dr. Naqibullah, says that about half of the 1,300 square-kilometre area that was once covered in forests has been cleared over the last three decades.

A view of the deforested landscape of Khost Province, Afghanistan (Photo courtesy U.S. Army)

This reporter visited Qalandar district, in the northern part of Khost, where loggers were hard at work with axes and chainsaws.

They have parceled out sections among themselves, and are steadily turning green woodland into arid desert.

Local people say they have no option but to cut down the forests, as they possess neither farmland nor any other means of earning an income.

Migration or death, an environmental dilemma in Afghanistan

By Riaz Darmal

Introduction
The ecological environment of Afghanistan has been witnessing huge disturbances in the pre and post war era, particularly when people were going after their lives on any cost. Zero attention was given to environmental considerations and existing natural resources has been deteriorated to their culmination. 

Deforestation, erosion, climate change, scarce water resources and impoverished air quality are the main challenges we have to deal with, being residents of the same ecology.

The environment can be simply defined as “the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates”. It becomes our social and moral obligation to take good care of our surroundings due to its importance as a medium to live and interact. Unfortunately we are lagging behind in all very initial and important efforts made to lessen the adverse environmental impacts. The recent worrying conditions of our environment warn us of an alarming situation and ask for serious attention to cope with the pertaining challenges.

Challenges

Various factors from individuals to industrial activities contribute to maximizing adverse environmental impacts, although being less industrialized country, individual's participation in such conditions counts much. Un-institutionalized disciplines, weak environmental laws, curb maintenance, and less social awareness can be the most prominent reasons for the growing dilemma.

 Government is always kept responsible for the worse situations but in a country like Afghanistan where political instability ranks fourth among the world states (Political risk index assessment, 2013), expectations of a determined and institutionalized environmental safety program requires hard work and participatory individuals volunteer support.

Air Quality

Ambient air quality of Afghanistan especially capital city, Kabul has ranked first among most polluted cities in the region by recent research findings. If immediate measures for establishing environmental protection policies and programs are not made, there is a strong risk of environmental migration of residents to other parts of the country for their health security. The existing concentration of pollutants found in air samples of capital cities is being multiplied up to 100 times international standards suggested by USEPA. E.g.  "The level of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was 52 ppm (Parts Per Million) on an average day in Kabul in 2008." On the other hand, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigation result indicates that the air quality standard for NO2 (annual average concentration) is 0.053 ppm in Kabul”. The vast difference between existing and suggested limits warns us of our most endangered surrounding and risky situation.

Deforestation

 Deforestation can be easily examined when a glimpse of change in land use patterns is made using maps in different provinces of Afghanistan. A map of Kunar province published by UNEP shows about 80 percent reduction in the number of forest trees between 1977 and 2002, another report from Ministry of agriculture states that “Afghanistan once had more than 450,000 hectares (1,737 square miles) of pistachio trees, encompassing a broad band across the northern portion of the country in at least nine states. Today, 40 percent of these pistachio forests have been destroyed”.Similar examples can be found all over the country and this harsh behavior with cutting down of forest trees ultimately poses a grave threat to biodiversity. Strong determination for growing new forest trees and combating timber smuggling to neighboring countries especially Pakistan can be the best way to keep critical balance between current deteriorating circumstances and future hazardous impacts.

Figure 1: Deforestation in kunar province between 1977 and 2002, Source (UNEP)

Sustainability
Sustainability being a hot issue in consumption of natural resources is equally needed to be addressed in environmental issues especially when it comes to individual usage. Sustainability can be excused as “Capable of being continued with minimal long-term effect on the environment”. Water, agriculture and air formulate triangle of sustainability and contributes to cost effective paradigm in an environmental scenario. Propagation of sustainable methods and approaches in rural areas of Afghanistan should be kept in utmost priority levels because of their greater contribution (80% of the population) in creating the environment less conductive for an animation.

Conclusion

If the recent chaos continuous for coming thirty years without treatment, migration or death can be the only alternative left with residents of polluted cities in Afghanistan. Launching strict environmental policies on government level and pursing sustainable use of natural resources at the individual level can be the most efficient and prompt solutions to hinder the future issues and risks arising from the current state of affairs. The national environmental protection agency still needs hard work to draw the attention of the international community in assisting Afghanistan to rebuild its declining ecology.

References:

Afghanistan environment., 2008, UNEP annual report.
Luigi Antonello Di Lella, Stefano Loppi, Giuseppe Protano, Francesco Riccobono., 2006, Toxic trace elements and organic compounds in the ambient air of Kabul,Afghanistan.

<http://outlookafghanistan.net/topics.php?post_id=4102#ixzz2kxccbK70> [consulted on 26th December,2013].
<http://www.irinnews.org/report/77304/afghanistan-kabul-s-air-pollution-putting-people-s-health-at-risk> [consulted on 26th December,2013].

News: UN Climate change report

U.N. climate change report points blame at humans

By Dave Hennen, Brandon Miller and Eliott C. McLaughlin

(CNN) -- The world's getting hotter, the sea's rising and there's increasing evidence neither are naturally occurring phenomena.

So says a report from the U.N. International Panel on Climate Change, a document released every six years that is considered the benchmark on the topic. More than 800 authors and 50 editors from dozens of countries took part in its creation.

The summary for policymakers was released early Friday, while the full report, which bills itself as "a comprehensive assessment of the physical science basis of climate change," will be distributed Monday. Other reports, including those dealing with vulnerability and mitigation, will be released next year.

Here are the highlights from Friday's summary:

Man-made climate change is almost certain

Climate scientists are 95% confident -- that is to say, surer than ever -- that humans are responsible for at least "half of the observed increase in global average surface temperatures since the 1950s."

This is the major headline from the report, as it marks a stark spike in confidence over the last 12 years, as scientists were 90% confident in 2007 and 66% confident in 2001 of the same conclusion.

An increase in carbon dioxide concentrations that is "unprecedented" in the last 20,000 years, along with increases in other emissions, have driven up average temperatures by about 0.6 degrees Celsius (1 degree Fahrenheit) since 1950, the report states.

Worst-case predictions are that by 2100, temperatures could increase by as much as 3.7 degrees Celsius (6.6 Fahrenheit), the report says.

Climate change is already affecting extreme weather

Since 1950 we've seen a dramatic increase in extreme weather. This is especially true of record heat and heavier precipitation events.

While it's difficult to determine the exact role climate change plays in an individual event, such as Hurricane Sandy or the EF-5 tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma, because there are so many ingredients necessary to brew a single storm, the links are clearer when you look at overall patterns.

According to a study released this month in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, scientists found strong links between global warming and extreme weather around the globe in 2012.

Among the 2012 events were the July heat wave in the northeastern and north-central United States, the spring heat wave in the eastern United States, the Great Plains drought, the winter drought in Spain and Portugal and the heavy rains and flooding in Europe.

According to a paper in the journal Nature, this year, weather events that have previously been classified as "storms of the century" could become the storm of "every 20 years or less."

"Climate change will probably increase storm intensity and size simultaneously, resulting in a significant intensification of storm surges," the paper said.

The last 30-year period is "very likely" the warmest in the last 800 years

Scientists are 90% sure that 1981-2010 was the warmest such span in the last eight centuries, and there's a 66% chance that it was the warmest 30-year period in the last 1,400 years.

While the last 15 years have not warmed as quickly, we've seen steady warming over most of the globe, and we haven't seen a below-average temperature month since February 1985.

Scientists are also 99% certain that we will see more hot days and nights -- and fewer chilly ones -- as the 21st century progresses.

"Each of the last three decades has been significantly warmer than all preceding decades since 1850," according to the IPCC report.

To give you an idea of how the Earth has heated up, the combined land and ocean temperature increased by about 0.8 degrees Celsius between 1901 and 2010, yet between 1979 and 2010, the temperature spiked about 0.5 degrees Celsius.

Sea level rise will increase due to warming oceans and loss of ice

Better climate models give scientists more confidence that sea level rise will accelerate in the 21st century.

Scientists are 99% sure that sea level rise has accelerated over the last 2 centuries at a rate higher than at any time in the last 2,000 years.

They're also highly confident that if the global surface temperature increases by more than 2 degrees Celsius over present temperatures we could see "a nearly ice-free Arctic Ocean in late summer."

The report further notes that there is increasing evidence that ice sheets are losing mass, glaciers are shrinking, Arctic sea ice cover is diminishing, snow cover is decreasing and permafrost is thawing in the Northern Hemisphere.

As for the rise in sea level, scientists asserted in the IPCC report that tide gauges and satellite data make it "unequivocal" that the world's mean sea level is on the upswing.

Even if we end emission tomorrow, climate change could continue for centuries

This may be one of the more harrowing findings in the report, as it suggests we're too far gone to effect any meaningful change in our lifetimes.

Even if we end carbon dioxide emissions today, effects could linger for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. And certain changes may already be irreversible.

"Many aspects of climate change will persist for centuries even if concentrations of greenhouse gases are stabilized. This represents a multicentury commitment created by human activities today," the report states.