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Clean Up, Or The Environment Will Clean Us Out!

Clean Up, Or The Environment Will Clean Us Out!

Ashish Joseph | TNN | April 21, 2018

Times of India

What will happen to Chennai’s topography 10 years hence? Will we lose our green cover? Will the sea level rise and submerge Chennai? What about pollution? Agricultureand environment? Experts paint a bleak picture, unless we take up cudgels and do something drastic to save the city… with some even hinting at the possible introduction of oxygen cylinder stations, on the lines of bus stops, in the city by 2028, to let us breathe in the required amount of oxygen to survive… loss of flora and fauna, and more… But our agriculturists are looking ahead, hoping 2028 would bring more technology into this sector.

The future is going to be bleak, unless we commit to change

Says environmentalist Nityanand Jayaraman, “I am not talking only about environment. It is not a standalone issue. Environment cuts across various aspects that decide whether or not life can be sustained in the city. I don’t know if 10 years is enough to kill the city, but at least, there will be irreversible damage if things go as it is now. If the second scenario is where things are little more aggressive, well, in another 10 years, we will have a dead city. What I mean is, economy would have collapsed, and instead of planned downsizing of the city, we’ll have a crash downsizing. By doing what we have been doing in a more aggressive way, which is what we’re planning to do with the expanded Chennai city, the city would have ended its life as a dynamic place and economic powerhouse even before that nightmare of expanded city becomes a reality. The third one is the good-news scenario, where we develop a commitment and do something to heal the environment, especially by reducing the inflow of people into the city and making other places of Tamil Nadu attractive as places of habitation, work, etc. Also, we need to have defined policies on solid waste management, sewage, water harvesting/conservation and zero tolerance to encroachments of waterbodies and coastal areas. In that case, we will be able to repair most of the damage and move towards being a pretty cool city.”

We will have to use oxygen stations
 

To a great extent, the reason for many fatal diseases these days is because of the lack of oxygen. So, what we need is enough green cover for good oxygen supply, says green crusader, K Abdul Ghani. “Any city needs to have 33.3% green cover. But Chennai has only 6% green cover. A decade from now, if things continue to be the same, the city’s green cover would have depleted further. We’d have come to a stage where we will have to use oxygen stations just like how people are using in China these days; we will have to pay for oxygen, too. Now, we’re fighting for water, soon we will be fighting for fresh air. And what’s next stage of drought? It’s acid rain. That’s impending.”

Chennai will become a global model

Due to recent natural calamities, everybody in Chennai is aware of what nature is capable of. So, there’s a lot of positive energy in Chennai about how we can participate to resurrect the city from its current environmental mire, says Arun Krishnamurthy, founder, Environmentalist Foundation of India. “But the question is, will Chennai translate its positive energy into action? If it does, we will be the water capital of the world in 10 years. We’re a city of three rivers, 300-plus lakes, a large marshland and a fine coast. There’s no other city with such water intensity. What Chennai does with her experience and knowledge to safeguard its water resources can become a global model. And if we don’t do it, then, too, we would have become a model for other cities. So, what happens in Chennai in the next decade will have a global impact.”

We would have optimised waste water management
 

Professor Sudhir Chella Rajan, Project Scientist at Indo-German Centre for Sustainability (IGCS) who also teaches Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Madras says, “Chennai would have integrated transport planning with land-use planning. Existing and new areas of the city would have been built around high density, diversity of land-uses and destination accessibility involving plenty of opportunity for using non-motorised modes such as walking and cycling, while vastly improving the efficiency and scope of bus infrastructure while expanding other public transit networks such as the Metro and BRTS, he says, and adds, “Water and wastewater management would have improved through the expanded use of decentralised neighbourhood-scale technologies that emphasise the usage of recycled water, and we would be generating value from waste, using low levels of energy. And hopefully, we would have in place, land-use planning and management strategies for expanding biodiversity regions, maintaining water bodies, protecting the shoreline and river channels.”

We would have an all-inclusive wildlife policy
 

Wildlife researchers, however, do not see a bright future for the city. “I don’t want to be pessimistic about the scenario 10 years from now. But we have already lost quite a few species; several others have been displaced. Fresh water aquatic fauna are the most threatened, especially, the fauna of our rivers. We have so little information on them, that we do not know how much we have lost,” says Hopeland P, wildlife researcher and consultant. He adds, “We would have hopefully drawn up a plan to safe keep wildlife and encourage more private entities like apartment complexes, community blocks and corporates to work in this direction.”

People’s attitude would have changed
 

D Suresh, popularly known as Solar Suresh, tells us, “Awareness has been increasing, but that hasn’t translated into implementation and execution. In the next decade I hope to see people’s attitude change, even though I don’t expect to see a dramatic change, I do expect all of us, the government and the people, to find a solution.” “I have done about 20 biogas installations, 40 solar installations, 15 terrace kitchen gardens out of 3,000 enquiries. The government should also step in to give helping hands by creating awareness, giving recognition to people who are involved into this,” he adds.

We will go back to the villages

Athher Ahmed, former IT professional and founder of Chennai Urban Farms, a trending Facebook page, opines, “I am very positive about it; grow your own food would have caught on as a concept in the next decade. And agriculture would see revolutionary changes — I see drone playing an important role in soil and field analysis, planting systems, decreasing costs by 85 percent. Dronescan also is used for crop monitoring and assessment of crop health, aid disease management, and yield.” He also adds that a decade later, he sees more and more people moving back to the villages and adapting to agriculture. “Today people visit their farmhouses on weekends and holidays, but it is going to reverse a decade later, apartments in cities will become a place to visit on weekends and farmhouses will be places to live in.”

Pollution control measures would be in place

The main contribution to air pollution comes from the increasing number of personal vehicles, say the officials from the Pollution Control Board (PCB). “We can generate more awareness, provide better public transport so that people use public transportation, and also maintain the health of their personal vehicles,” says a PCB official. “But air-pollution will be minimised, because we are contemplating strict measures. We are also in talks to ban vehicles that are more than 15 years old,” he adds.

WISH LIST FOR THE FUTURE

Chinmayi, singer

  1. Reclaim Adyar River and stop dumping garbage into it
  2. Increase the green cover of the city
  3. Install solar panels in every apartment
  4. Lead a lifestyle that's gentle on the environment
  5. Reclaim our lakes and remove encroachments from the Pallikaranai marshland
  6. Dig compost pits in apartments

-Ashish.Joseph1@timesgroup.com and Purnima.Sah@timesgroup.com