CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS AND GREEN TECHNOLOGY IN KERALA
Dr.M.K.P. Roy
Director, Centre for Community Health Research (CCHR)
roycchr@sify.com; http://www.cchrindia.org
Kerala is a small strip of land lying at the south-west tip of India. It lies to the north of the equator between 8° 18' and 12° 48' north latitude and 74° 52' and 77° 24' east longitude. Kerala extends over an area of 38,863 sq.km which is only 1.03 percent of the total area of India. It has a total coastline of 580 km. Its width varies greatly from west to east. It is about 120 kilometres at its maximum and just 30 kilometers at its minimum.
Although Kerala lies close to the equator, its proximity with the sea and the presence of the fort like Western Ghats, provides it with an equable climate which varies little from season to season. The temperature varies from 28° to 32° C. Southwest Monsoon and Retreating Monsoon ( Northeast Monsoon) are the main rainy seasons. Owing to its diversity in geographical features, the climatic condition in Kerala is diverse. It can be divided into 4 seasons - Winter, Summer, South-West Monsoon and North-East Monsoon.
Temperature: Temperature data for seven IMD (India Meteorological Department) stations of Kerala were collected from National Data Centre of IMD, Pune from 1956 to 2004.(49years) There was an increase in maximum temperature over Kerala by 0.64° C during the period of 49 years. It was further observed a clear upward trend in surface air temperature of Kerala.
Rainfall pattern: Kerala showed decreasing trend in monsoon rainfall for the period 1901-2007. After 1999,rainfall was below long term average rainfall (except in 2006). Another study showed that Kerala experienced decline in annual monsoon rainfall during the recent past decades(1961 and 2003 ). Rainfall data for the IMD stations of the State of Kerala for the period from 1871 to 2008(140 years) revealed a declining trend in annual and southwest monsoon rainfall during the past 60 years.
Lowering of water tables: It was observed by the Central Groundwater board that lowering of water tables in certain regions of Kerala reported to be critical and alarming.
Rise in sea level: Observations based on tide gauge measurements along the Indian coast, for a period of 20 years and more for which significantly consistent data is available indicate that the sea level along the Indian coast has been rising at the rate of about1.3mm/year on an average. The mean sea level rise trends in Kochi (Kerala), based on 54 years of available data, is 1.75mm per year. Estimation of inundation of coastal areas due to sea level rise was made for one location (Kochi) along the west coast of India. The estimate shows that the inundation area will be about 169 km2 of the coastal region surrounding Kochi for a 1.0 m rise in sea level. The potential impacts of global climate change in coastal Kerala are salinity intrusion into aquifers and rise in salinity of wetlands (Thrivikramaji,2008). It has also been observed that over exploitation of ground water in certain stretches of kerala coast has contributed to the entry of salinity into the coastal aquifers from the sea.
Water-borne diseases: In 2008, World health Organisation (WHO) reported that an outbreak of chikungunya in Kerala in the last two years (2006 and 2007) was mainly due to climate change. Climate change was one of the key factors of the chikungunya outbreak in Kerala during 2006 and 2007,” says Poonam Khetrapal Singh, deputy regional director (Southeast Asia) of WHO. In the last two years, over 100 people died, while more than 100,000 were affected by the mosquito-borne disease in the coastal state.“There are other reasons of the spread of the disease but climate change cannot be denied as a prime reason. Due to change in climate, it becomes conducive for mosquitoes to spread to new areas and affect people,”. Chikungunya is a viral disease that spreads through the bite of infected mosquitoes. It is characterised by severe, sometimes persistent, joint pain, as well as fever and rash. Malaria is a climate-sensitive disease and its transmission dynamics are greatly affected by climatic conditions. The development of the parasite takes place in a mosquito . “Global warming is a major cause of surge in chikungunya, dengue and malaria in Kerala. These vector borne diseases will intensify with climate change and more people and new areas will fall prey to it,” according the report of WHO in 2008.
Decline of agricultural crops: Kerala state was facing serious crisis in major areas of food security, agriculture and marine resources due to climate change. The agriculture sector in Kerala was badly affected due to continuous rain. The untimely rain in Kerala, which hit the entire region since March 14, 2008 has caused crop damage and flooding. It is estimated that farmers could not harvest paddy worth about Rs. 128 crores (1280 million rupees) due to unexpected flooding in the Kuttanad fields.
The thermo-sensitive crops like black pepper, cardamom, tea, coffee and cocoa will be badly affected as temperature range (the difference between maximum and minimum temperatures) is likely to increase and rainfall is likely to decline. Heavy pre-monsoon showers (and a lethal attack by wasps) may hit pepper production in Kerala, the main producer of the commodity in India. Increase in maximum temperature of 1-3° C during summer 2004 adversely affected thermo-sensitive crops like black pepper and cocoa in Kerala (Rao et al.,2008). Records show that almost all the plantation crops suffered to a great extent in 1983 and 2004 due to disastrous summer droughts. Climate change and unseasonal rain in November and January over the last two years(2009 and 2010) had been dampened the prospects of mango farmers in Palakkad district in Kerala.
Green technology
Green Technology or Environmental technology or Clean technology is the application of one or more of environmental Sciences, Green chemistry, environmental monitoring and electronic devices to monitor, model and conserve the natural environment and resources, and to curb the negative impacts of human involvement. Green technology is a field of new, innovative ways to make changes in daily life. Currently, this Clean Technology is in the beginning stages of its development, so the future will only bring bigger and better things for this field. Green Technology is part of Business Exchange (from developed countries to developing or reverse order). Green Technology is the safeguard against environmental pollution.
Adopting the green technology, we are intending to make the earth green free from any danger. Our environment needs salvage from pollution. With the help of recycling process we can reduce the waste material. Reusable things are better to introduce to improve the cleanliness level. Water is the basic for green life which is the symbol of cleanliness. Impure water causes many diseases. Water is the basic ingredient of Green Technology without water there is nothing fresh.
Planting more and more trees is the demand of present environment. They absorb carbon dioxide from surrounding and release oxygen which helps us to breath (United Nations has declared the year 2011 as the ‘International Year of Forests’). Developing proper sewage system needs innovative green technologies. This waste water should be directed towards the places where it can be used like fields.
Recycling
Recycling is processing used materials (waste) into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" waste hierarchy.
Sewage treatment
Sewage treatment or domestic wastewater treatment is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff (effluents) and domestic. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants. Its objective is to produce an environmentally-safe fluid waste stream (or treated effluent) and a solid waste (or treated sludge) suitable for disposal or reuse (usually as farm fertilizer). Eg.ECOSAN-Technology.
Environmental remediation is the removal of pollutants or contaminants for the general protection of the environment. This is accomplished by various chemical, biological, and bulk movement methods, in conjunction with environmental monitoring.
Solid waste management is the purification, consumption, reuse, disposal and treatment of solid waste that undertaken by agencies including Governments/local bodies ( Panchayats/ Municipalities / Corporations).
Incineration
Incineration is a disposal method in which solid organic wastes are subjected to combustion so as to convert them into residue and gaseous products. This method is useful for disposal of residue of both solid waste management and solid residue from waste water management.This process reduces the volumes of solid waste to 20 to 30 percent of the original volume. Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are sometimes described as "thermal treatment".
Waste-to-energy (WtE) or energy-from-waste (EfW) is the process of creating energy in the form of electricity or heat from the incineration of waste source. Incineration, the combustion of organic material such as waste with energy recovery is the most common WtE implementation.
Landfill
Disposing of waste in a landfill involves burying the waste, and this remains a common practice in most countries. Landfills were often established in abandoned or unused quarries, mining voids or borrow pits. A properly designed and well-managed landfill can be a hygienic and relatively inexpensive method of disposing of waste materials.
Non-renewable energy and renewable energy
Non-renewable energy is that source of energy which can not be used again and again. These non-renewable energies like coal, oil and gas are getting scarce. Energy sources like oil, coal and gas are known as fossil fuels. Renewable energy is the energy from natural sources and objects like sun, wind, and tides; nuclear and hydroelectric power.
Renewable energy is energy that can be replenished easily. For years we have been using sources like wood, sun, water, etc. for means for producing energy. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of Government of India is mainly responsible for research and development, intellectual property protection, and international cooperation, promotion, and coordination in renewable energy sources such as wind power, small hydro, biogas, and solar power. The broad aim of the Ministry is to develop and deploy new and renewable energy for supplementing the energy requirements of India. Another form of renewable energy is hydropower. Water energy can be in many different forms such as hydroelectric energy, micro hydro, hydro power without dams, and ocean energy. Today there are many hydroelectric power stations in the world and together they are providing about 20% electricity across the globe.
Solar power
The development and research in the field of alternative fuel generation has also given rise to improvement in the utilization of solar energy. The various applications of solar energy include solar power houses, solar vehicles, cooking, water purification, solar lighting and use of solar thermal energy. The heat from the sun is converted to electricity using Photovoltaic (PV) . The use of Photovoltaic was limited to very small applications like solar calculators. But now this mechanism is used to generate electricity in very large power houses of up to 14MW.
Mitigation/adaptation measures
The Government of Kerala recently creates a new Department called Directorate of Environment and Climate Change in order to deal with the emerging impacts and implications of climate change in the State of Kerala in India.
An “Environment Impact Assessment Authority” has been formed in Kerala State for monitoring and assessing the environmental impacts. Kerala State budget for year 2010-11 called “Green budget” with a corpus fund would be used for regeneration of forests and related activities. Green Budget is the first of its kind in Indian and will replicate in other Indian States in coming days.
A momentum has been created in the State of Kerala in order to utilize more “renewable energy sources” like wind, solar, hydro power, tide, waste etc. Subsidies have been given at household level for using renewable energy projects like bio-gas plants, solar energy projects (solar lantern, solar cooker, solar water heater etc), wind energy projects etc.
Implementation of Carbon credit programme by the Government of Kerala is a very successful by supplying CFL (Compact fluorescent light) lamps through Government Departments. This programme has been replicated and scale up in other Regions/States of the country based on the level of success.The Project on “My Tree Programme” (Ente Maram Padhathi ) is a joint programme of Dept. of Forests and Dept. of Education as a mitigation programme on the impacts of climate change. The scheme is for tree planting with involvement and participation of school children
Efforts are going on the transfer of “Green Technology” in order to accelerate the efforts on reducing carbon emissions in the State of Kerala. NGO networks like FANSA (Freshwater Action Network) are in the forefront on propagating the message of Green technology as a solution for the impacts and implications of Climate change in the state of Kerala in India
The key outcome
Dissemination of information on green technology at the grass-root level is a reality in the case of the State of Kerala. Government allotted more funds to the green technology is a positive step in order to reduce carbon emissions as well as to minimize the impact of climate change in the State of Kerala.
Following are key outcome: (1) New Department on Climate change (2) Green budget and Corpus Fund (3) New projects on renewable energy sources (4) Success story on carbon credit programme; (5) My tree programme (6) involvement of civil society organizations in the field of climate change mitigation (7) Launching of year-long waste-free campaign and utilization of waste into resources. Ten Indian States under FANSA-India network disseminate the information on various levels of activities including capacity building and advocacy actions on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Monitoring
Various agencies both governmental and non-governmental are monitoring and studying the impact and implications of climate change in India particularly in Kerala. The studies are going on the various aspects like rainfall patterns, carbon emissions, depletion of groundwater tables, depletion of mangrove vegetation, reduction of crops, sea level rise, prevalence of vector-borne diseases etc. Projects are going on under the auspicious Governments/NGOs on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Implementation and replication potential
The information on various mitigation activities of Climate change in Kerala is well disseminate in ten Indian States since FANSA-India is committed to implement the project on climate change. “Green Budget” of Kerala State is the first of its kind in Indian and will be replicate in other Indian States in coming days. More funds from State budget will be allotted for climate change adaptation and mitigation in due course as per the commitment made by the respective State governments. Implementation of Carbon credit programme by the Government of Kerala on supplying CFL (Compact fluorescent light) lamps found to a model and may be replicate and scale up in other Regions/States of India based on the level of success.
Key lessons learnt
Utilization of information is th
e key to success. Technology transfer especially “Green technology” at the grass-root level is important for a change. Advocacy at all level is needed. Capacity building is an important component for scaling-up. Programmes should be people-centered and participatory.
No comments:
Post a Comment