People & Their Problems

New Delhi, 13 June 2008

War Against Malaria

NEED TO DEVELOP NEW WEAPONS

By Radhakrishna Rao

The ancient scourge of malaria, which on an average kills around one million people in tropical countries and is a major public health challenge has now received a shot in the arm from the steady increase in the global warming brought about by an increased emission of green house gases. According to the Malaria Research Centre (MRC) in New Delhi the variations in temperature could increase the incidence of malaria even in areas with low temperature that are not infested with the mosquito which spreads the disease. Now they will also have more incidence of malaria because of global warming and rise in temperature.

Incidentally, the mosquito strains spreading malaria do not breed in locations where the temperature is below 18 degrees, according to renowned malaria expert Dr. Dhiman. In order to attract global attention on the threat posed by malaria in tropical countries, the United Nations (UN) has marked 25 April as the World Malaria Day. Observed UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, “ending malarial deaths can breathe a new life into our broader campaign to stamp out poverty, once for all. It is one of the key millennium development goals — the vision adopted by all the world’s governments for building a better world in the 21^st century. We have all the resources and know-how.”

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that more than one million lives could be saved annually if insecticide-treated bed nets were used in malaria endemic zones. Significantly, India’s Health Ministry has taken up a project to introduce insecticide bed nets on a large scale in malaria-prone regions of the country. According to WHO’s Regional Advisor on malaria Dr. Krong Thong Thimasain, “around 548 million Indians live in malaria-endemic areas. The number of long lasting nets required to cover the population at risk in India is 30 million”.

In a development that could help fight malaria with greater vigour, medical researchers have devised a technique that is much faster and more cost-effective than the current diagnostics techniques. An international team led by researchers at Exeter and Coventry Universities have a perfected a technique that uses a magnetic optic system to detect haemozoin, a waste product of the malaria parasite in the human blood circulation system. Parallelly, the team has developed a devise which gives a positive or negative reading for malaria in less than a minute.

In another significant development, French researches at the Pasteur Institute have reported trials of a malarial vaccine that mimics the natural immunity some people develop against the disease. However, the vaccine would need to undergo a series of further rigorous trails before it is accepted for mass use. Conversely, the biggest problem associated with a malarial vaccine is that the antigen the vaccine could target might vary depending on what stage of its life cycle the parasite is at. In other words, a single vaccine might not work against all the strains of the disease-causing germ.

Of the four malarial parasites, Plasmodium Falciparum is by far the most dangerous and virulent, especially to the under-nourished, weak and young. In recent years, there has been a steady resurgence in malarial incidence in India. States like Karnataka, Orissa and the North-East region have been reporting an increasing number of malarial cases.

Besides, in keeping with the national trend, urban centres like Mumbai, Mangalore and Goa have also reported a spurt in malarial cases mainly due to the migration of people from various parts of the country. Mangalore has been witnessing a sharp increase in malaria cases due to the unsanitary conditions created by a boom in real estate and construction activities. Notwithstanding, a 1988 WHO strategy to substantially reduce the cases of malaria by 2010.

Indeed, the proliferation of slums and shanty towns in the urban centres of the country has contributed in a big way to the explosive spread of this emaciating disease leading to a loss of “productive manpower.” Sadly, the conventional method of monitoring the potential breeding ground of the disease-spreading mosquito strains across the urban India sprawl has become a cumbersome and complex task in terms of money, time and human resources.

Against such a bleak scenario, the MRC has been making use of the high resolution data available on a string of earth observation and weather monitoring spacecraft systems to map the potential malariogenic areas in the country. In the long run, the repeated observation from space over a period of time could provide comparable data which would add to the malaria eradication strategy.

But the grim ground reality is that in recent years, the much-touted malaria control programme in India and other Third World countries has run into rough weather owing to the parasites causing the disease developing resistance to potent anti-malarial drugs and to a range of potent pesticides. According to a WHO spokesman, “our biggest concern is to treat patients with safe and effective medication to avoid the problem of drug resistance.”

Plainly, drug resistance is now a major problem in the war against malaria. For instance, sulfa doxine pyrimthanine, which was 100% effective about two decades back, has now lost much of its efficacy and punch. Thus to control malaria we need safer water, efficient public health facilities, education, supply of latest genre drugs and insecticide-coated bed nets to people vulnerable to malarial infection.

Simultaneously, researchers working on devising new and novel strategies to combat malaria are veering round the view that climatic fluctuations could be used to predict the spread of malaria. Researchers are quite optimistic that the system which is based on computer models of climate change can predict outbreak upto five months in advance. ---- INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Environment Special

New Delhi, 2 June 2008

Future Challenges: Food, Poverty

WORLD ON COLLISSION COURSE

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

On 5 June humankind celebrated World Environment Day. But underlining the merrymaking were issues of grave environmental concern. Which are going to challenge our future, specially food shortage, poverty and environment degradation.

The Green Revolution in agriculture finds itself trumped by the Green Evolution because of changing climatic developments. Years of world-wide concerns about global warming needing urgent corrective action expressed by scientists and environmentalists to prevent a catastrophe has led to new enthusiasm for bio-fuels, an ideal solution to bring down pollution levels and curb CO2 emissions.

Many developed countries, especially US, have turned swathes of agricultural land to grow crops that could be processed with ethanol, a less polluting fuel than petrol or diesel while in the developing countries land is being diverted for industrial and urbanization usages. However, this has resulted in land previously used to grow grains for human consumption now being devoted to crops for vehicles. The effect over the last 2-3 years has led to a crisis situation in food, which might get accentuated in future, leading to escalating food prices because of shortages.

Though the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) has predicted an increase in global rice production of 12 million tonnes (2 % this year), demand would outstrip supply as Australia, a major wheat producer-exporter is facing drought. Observed outgoing Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, “something must be done to ensure that both the US and Europe stop producing fuel in competition with food. People can no longer be allowed to starve to death in Africa simply because some people in the US or EU consider that the votes of farmers or landowners are worth more than the survival of millions of men and women.”

Prodi was echoing what the Union of Scientists expressed in 1993: “Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and the animal kingdom, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know”.

Man’s fight against hunger has taken a new turn and Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug’s prediction in 1970, that “the green revolution can provide food for sustenance during the next three decades”, rings true today. The green revolution has run its course and is facing environmental consequences of intense industrial, soil salinity due to high degree of chemicals and pesticides and water shortages.

Besides, nearly 30 per cent of the world’s population suffers malnutrition, some 850 million are undernourished, 2.8 million children and 300,000 women die annually in developing countries on this account. The UN mid-year update of the World Economic Situation & Prospects estimates that almost 3 billion or about half of the world’s population is food insecure. Meanwhile, the wheat price has risen nearly 130% over last year and the rice price in Asia has almost doubled in the first quarter of 2008. According to the Asian Development Bank Director General, a billion Asians have been hit by these surging prices, including 600 million who live under a-dollar-a-day resulting in more malnutrition, suicides and starvation deaths.

Unless the food crisis is tackled effectively, we would face riots, terrorism, political instability and more failed States. Already, food riots have broken out in over 12 countries in Africa and Asia. Namely, Egypt, Haiti, Cameroon, Bangladesh and Indonesia due to food shortage, record oil costs, severe droughts, diversion of corn for ethanol use and rapidly growing demand. The World Bank President has warned that around 30 nations are at risk of social unrest.

Worse, by 2012, the population will be 7 billion. India will add 500 million totalling 1.6 billion and Africa’s 960 million will grow by one billion. According to the Earth Policy Institute just to feed the additional people would require 640sq miles of good farmland, roughly Los Angeles’s size or 18 million football fields every year. More. With forests chopped for timber and farmland in the Amazon, Indonesia, Congo etc, the land available for agriculture has shrunk due to desertification and soil pollution. Also, with the Third World, including India, converting farmland to develop townships or industrial projects, where returns are higher, has led to displacement and migration of the rural population to cities resulting in the farm yield declining to 1.2% during the last decade..      

However, experts believe that the situation is retrievable and the current food crisis would lead to an ever-green revolution, designed to improve productivity with associated ecological harm. The climate change problem may turn into a blessing in certain parts of the world through reorientation of agricultural research and development strategies based on the principles of ecology, economics, food and energy security and sustainable growth. Such a revolution would be through organic farming and/or green agriculture and is based on integrated pest and nutrient management, crop livestock integration, use of productive genetic stains, adoption of dryland farming and low water-use techniques.

Another view is that increasing productivity this way might be insufficient to meet the increasing demand of an exploding population in the coming years. True, in India the average crop yield has roughly doubled in 2006 to 3.12 tonnes per hectare from what the farmers were getting in the 1960s. But this pales in comparison with China where the yield was 6.26 tonnes per hectare in 2006 and the Asian average of 4.17 tonnes per hectare, almost 25 per cent better than that ours.

According to Dr M. S. Swaminathan, the conversion of farmland to SEZs should be stopped and these be set up on barren lands if the country has to ensure food security and prevent increasing poverty. Clearly, high GDP sans a decrease in poverty and upgradation of the lives of the rural poor does not mean real development. Further, to maintain social peace we need work on the rural sector and ensure that the basic necessities of the people are met. It is necessary to maintain demographic equilibrium as economic growth alone cannot tackle the problem. The demand on resources and the consequent effects on nature would become a critical problem if population growth is not restrained.

An expert aptly pointed: “The size of the human population is inextricably woven with global warming; yet seldom will ‘population’ be found on the agendas of global economic and sustainability forums”. Observed James Lovelock: “We have grown in number to the point where our presence is perceptibly disabling the planet like a disease.” --- INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)

Water Crisis

New Delhi, 26 May 2008

River Management

CENTRAL CONTROL DESIRABLE

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

Ten of the largest rivers in the world are dying. Amongst these are the Ganga, Indus, Nile, Yangtze, Mekong and Danube that are the lifeline of millions of people. These rivers are not merely water sources but repositories of history, myths and cultural memories. And, the greatest threat to these and many other rivers is industrial pollution apart from natural sewage channels.

In India, as also in many other countries pollution of rivers has been a big problem. The developing world, particularly India and China, needs to learn from Europe’s experience of reviving and maintaining rivers. In our country, the Supreme Court has come out with a number of judgements along these lines, but effective action has yet to be taken. The projects that have been taken up are far from satisfactory. The 2006 official audit of the Ganga Action Plan has revealed that it has met only 39 per cent of its sewage treatment target. Moreover, the Plan is behind schedule by over 13 years. According to the legal counsel, Central Pollution Control Board, Vijay Panjawani, even after spending Rs. 24,000 crores, the Ganga remains as dirty as ever. The same holds true of the Yamuna Action Plan where progress is unsatisfactory. 

Apart from the problem of sewage flowing into the Yamuna, the problem is largely attributed to the large-scale extraction of water in upstream Delhi for drinking and irrigation purposes, leading to negligible flow in the river after Wazirabad, as per reports of the Environment Ministry. This problem has also been witnessed in Kolkata (of the Hooghly river, an offshoot of Ganga) after the water-sharing agreement was signed between India and Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, following the directions of the apex court on August 4, 2004, a high-power committee was constituted for preparation of an integrated action plan to stop pollution of the river. Another committee was formed with representatives from the five riparian states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan to consider the issue of maintaining a universal flow of water in the Yamuna and to suggest both short and long-term measures for the same. 

Keeping in view the persistent problem of pollution of these rivers, some are likely to be declared as ‘national rivers’. This would facilitate the Centre’s direct intervention in projects to clean up such rivers and ensure proper upkeep. Moreover, since the big rivers pass through several States and there is a multiplicity of authorities, monitoring at the central level would be better, even though it’s a State subject, Ambitious projects viz Ganga and Yamuna so far are unable to achieve the desired results within a specified time frame.

The ‘national rivers’ concept has long been mooted and deliberated upon by the Central Water Commission (CWC) and the criteria for rivers that would fall under this head is being finalized. This exercise became necessary after States like West Bengal asked the Centre to take up river cleaning projects. It is understood that half a dozen highly polluted rivers, including Ganga, Yamuna, Krishna, Cauvery, and Teesta are likely to figure in this list.

Moreover, water sharing has led to disputes between States and consequent appointment of tribunals under the inter-State water disputes act to mediate between warring parties. Tribunals set up so far are looking into disputes over the Narmada, Ravi, Beas, Krishna, Godavari and Cauvery. Regrettably, this has given rise to a complex and highly litigious process as the States have moved the Supreme Court challenging the awards given by the tribunals in spite of these being binding on the States.

There is a high-level of vitriol in the endemic clashes between States on inter-State water issues which have grave political consequences. The intensity of these disputes and the complexity arising thereof has possibly influenced the parliamentary committee on water resources to recommend that water be put on the concurrent list from the present List II of the seventh schedule, a State subject. The move has enough justification, as it would entail Centre’s control over the rivers-- maintaining these properly from the environmental point of view and ensuring regulated flow.

In the coming years, with rapid industrialization and urbanization the demand for water would increase considerably, making it necessary that control in matters pertaining to water sharing, pollution and management be exerted by Central authorities, in consultation with respective State governments, if necessary. It is in this context that the question of river interlinking has also to be considered in a judicious manner, keeping in mind, the geological, environmental, economic and practical aspects.         

As is well-known, some States are already facing water crisis, both in the urban centres and rural areas, while States like Assam face floods almost every year. Besides, the 11^th Plan has aimed at expanding irrigation by 2.5 million hectares a year, and, recently at a meeting of the National Development Council (NDC), most States voiced the need for additional allocation for increasing their irrigated area. In such a scenario, there is need for judicious management of water and ensuring its optimum use throughout the country. How this could be made practicable, however, remains a big challenge?

The only way in which change will take place is if reform-minded political leaders shift the balance of power between the State machinery, on the one hand, and users -- farmers, industries, citizens – on the other. The State needs to surrender those tasks which it may not be fit to perform, while develop the capacity to do such things which it can and should do. Water management, let’s face it, is one of the several tasks, which only the State can discharge. A monitoring mechanism at the central level may be necessary or the Central Water Commission be given additional powers. However, collaboration and consultation with the States would be necessary.

The institutional changes in building the “new Indian water state” could well be: the public sector will continue to have an important role in providing irrigation and water supply; vibrant non-governmental sector, private sector and cooperatives will too be given a role in providing formal irrigation and water supply services in a competitive manner with the State authorities; as service provided by the above improves, large number of people will move from the informal, self providing, water economy onto the formal service sector and the public sector will play an expanded role in the financing and provision of public services such as flood control, pollution control, sewage treatment etc.

In addition, the government will deliver a set of laws, policies, capacities and organizations for defining and delivering an enabling environment with special emphasis on the establishment and management of water entitlements and the regulation of services and resources. A clean flowing river thus could be of immense benefit to the country and the States. ---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

POLITICAL DIARY

New Delhi, 31 May 2008

Uncork The Champagne…

UPA FIZZ JUST RAN DRY!

By Poonam I Kaushish

Celebrations are normally great fun. Lots of masti, some khaana-peena and loads of mirch-masala gup-shup. A time to wipe the worries, dismiss the problems and rejoice in the vacuous rhetoric of a litany of achievements. Enjoy!

At the risk of sounding a party pooper, are you kidding? The festivity at the Prime Minister’s dinner said it all. Never mind the phony assurances served to the aam aadmi as the tastiest dish. The high point was the grand entry of dushman-turned- dost Samajwadi leader Amar Singh even though he came an hour late.

The relief on Manmohan Singh’s face was palpable as he scurried from his table to sit with his khaas invitee to the exclusion of all present. Forgotten in the euphoria was the irony that the 2004 gate-crasher at Sonia Gandhi’s dinner for the UPA allies had become the most–prized guest. Never mind that Sonia and Amar Singh did not exchange greetings.  Should we measure this as the UPA’s success or desperation?

Less said the better of the “there is no reason to party’ Left brigade who after much dilly-dallying attended the dinner because it didn’t want to loose its numero uno position of being the main benefactor of the Congress. It was worried that if it distanced itself now then other parties would occupy its prime place at Sonia’s high table.

Moreover, Messers Karat and Yechury could not stomach the fact that the Congress was seeking to replace it with the Samajwadi and other new allies. Which would put to rest its dreams of forming a grand Third Front. Thus, the back seat driving and tu-tu-mein-mein could resume later. Should we measure the souring of Congress-Left ties as success or failure?

What of the Grand Dame of Indian Politics. It was all dressed up with no invites of a promising future, no grooms and no swayambar. In the last four years it has lost 14 State Assembly elections out of 25. Since 2005, the only major wins for the Party have been in Haryana and Assam.

In 2007-08 it has lost critical states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and, recently, Karnataka. Worse, there is no Congress rainbow in sight in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Mizoram which go to the polls later this year and the general elections next year.  Should we make merry that the Party is looking at the situation (read power) skidding out of its hands?

Given the Party’s penchant for dynasties, it has insulated its ruling Goddess Sonia-who-can-do-no-wrong and ‘yuvraj deity’ Rahul against any finger-pointing backlash. If the ground beneath the Congress is slipping fast, very fast in State after State, blame it on intra-party politics, backstabbing and fighting between senior leaders, stick-in-the-mud recalcitrant allies, the moon, sun, stars et al. But not Sonia-Rahul. No matter that everything from A to Z is decided by the undaata, her alone.

Should we celebrate the tragedy that the raison de atre for the Party’s defeat is because the Congress has tied its kundalini to Sonia’s stars and refuses to see what the asli stars foretell: time has cut the dynastic umbical cord?  Yesterday it was UP, today Karnataka, tomorrow Lok Sabha, who knows?

This not the only problem. The link between the Congress’s electoral underperformance and organisational disarray cannot be overstated. Karnataka is only the tip of iceberg where former Chief Minister Krishna made no bones that the blame for the Party’s defeat rests squarely on the “central leadership. My not contesting was a crucial mistake. I would have led from the front and the situation would have changed.” This was a "grave blunder," he added. Are we to rejoice that another senior leader has joined the Arjun Singh bandwagon of cribbers? Recall, the Union Human Resource Development Minister was the first to indirectly question Sonia’s style of functioning and coterie culture.

Things are no better in the Party unit in Madhya Pradesh. Union Ministers Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia and former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh have to play second fiddle to handpicked ‘Sonia-stooge’ Suresh Pachouri, who hasn’t one electoral victory to his credit. In Chhattisharh, the Party is caught between the claims of warring Ajit Jogi and VC Shukla for the top slot. In Maharashtra governance has gone for a toss as the Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is busy keeping tabs on thorn-in-the-flesh leader Narayan Rane’s audiences with Sonia. What to speak of the near-complete decimation of its grassroots organisations in UP and Bihar.

Adding to its woes is the spiraling prices and rising inflation. Pulses, wheat, vegetables, tomatoes, potatoes, oil et al have become the bane of the aam aadmi. Bin bijli, bin jal, bin aloo (without power, without water and without potato). Whatever happened to the Congress ka haath aam aadmi ke saath!

Increasing unemployment, illiteracy, ill-health and suicides by farmers are the touchstone of the much-hyped and illusionary deal of roti, kapada aur makan. Look at the irony. Cellphones go abegging, yet people continue to beg for food. Do we measure success by the fact that the common man is being made to pay for the follies of the Government which waited much too long to read the signs of the agrarian crisis facing the country leading to spiraling prices?

Besides, the Congress defeat in Karnataka has not only rendered the Government lame duck but a domino effect has started surfacing in New Delhi. The UPA is branded as unpopular and the Congress a sinking ship. Already staunch ally RJD Chief Lalloo Yadav has castigated the Finance Minister for ‘giving short shrift’ to the aam aadmi and the plight of the farmers. He is reported to have said, “yeh GDP, FDP kya hai, aloo-pyaaz itna mehanga kyuin hai?” The other allies followed suit.

The Left has made up its mind to snap ties with the Grand Dame. But when and on what issue would be decided later. Till yesterday it was the nuclear deal today it has a plethora of issues: price rise, inflation and terrorism. Prakash Karat understands that the law of diminishing returns has set in and there are no political gains if they continue to support the Government. Do we cheer the curious political setting where the Left is confronting the UPA and also desperately looking for an exit route to re-establish its credibility? That too after enjoying power without responsibility.

Ironically, while all its allies have done their electoral calculations for the next round of elections, Sonia has yet to disclose her mind. Raising a moot point: Can such a Party hope to ride the crest of victory again? Sadly, as oft is the case, power breeds arrogance and absolute power breeds absolute arrogance. Ultimately, much will depend upon Sonia’s political will and priorities in the weeks and months ahead. If she can do no more than cleanse the stinking sycophancy cesspool and replace ‘I’ with ‘We’, the Congress could still stand a chance. Or else let the UPA fizz continue to run dry.  ------ INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)