BACKGROUND
This book comprises of a collection of burning topics that caught the attention of various forums particularly. Institution of Engineers India (J&K Centre Srinagar) during the last couple of years. These subjects reflect a useful data that shall go a long-way in planning future course of action both at individual and collective level. This effort may serve as a safeguard in preservation of the interest in the areas of concern lest it is lost in the course of changing times and resulting diversion of attention.
(2003 AD) Author
CONTENTS
1 OUR EARTH, OUR FUTURE JUST SAVE IT
2 2000: THE ENVIRONMENT MILLENIUM
– TIME TO ACT
3 STEPS TOWARDS A SECURE FUTURE
4 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT APPROACH
5 THE LIVING EARTH
6 EARTH’S ENVIRONMENTAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS
7 EARTH OUR GIFT
8 PROTECTION OF WATER
RESOURCES IN KASHMIR
9 ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
CAUSES DISEASES
10 SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
OF GREATER SRINAGAR CITY
11 HARNESSING OF WATER
RESOURCES IN KASHMIR
12 ROLE OF ENGINEERS IN DEVELOPMENT
OF J&K STATE
13 PROPOSED APPROACH TO REMOVE
RURAL URBAN DISPARITY
14 IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION
ON OUR INDUSTRIES
15 SOLAR ENERGY AND
BUILDING ARCHITECTURE
16 HOUSING SCENARIO IN J&K STATE
17 INLAND WATER TRANSPORT ON
RIVER JEHLUM FORM PAMPORE
TO CHATTABAL
18 PEACE THROUGH FAITH
19 WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY-2003
20 WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY-2003
1
OUR EARTH, OUR FUTURE
JUST SAVE IT
You may be surprised to know that the Earth does not belong to man rather man belongs to the earth. The earth in turn belongs to the family of stars called Solar System, which in turn is a part of the galaxy comprised of about a billion stars, which in turn is one of the innumerable galaxies gathered in clusters of millions of light years apart which form the vast expanse of the Universe which again in turn ultimately belongs to the Super-intelligent, All powerful Creator. Thus to begin with Universe:
Our Universe (From Big Bang to uncertain future)
Our universe began in a single point ‘a minute cosmic egg’ about 15 billion years ago. During the 1st billionth of second, the infinitely hot dense point went through accelerated expansion growing from the atomic nucleus to the size of volley ball. After a millionth of a second expanding to fire ball about 10 billion miles in radius. After one minute to a great thermonuclear reactor of a million billion miles across. After a few hundred thousand years with a few billion degrees of temperature sinking to just 4000oC no hotter than the surface of Sun and after a few billion years the galaxies were born as vast cloud of gas began to contract triggering an epidemic of star formation. We live near the outer edge of a spiral galaxy. The whole galaxy is turning on its axis. From our position inside the galaxy 28000 Light years from the centre we have sideways view. Like a plate seen edge-on we see our galaxy compressed onto the band of stars we call the Milky Way.
Today the galaxies are gathered in super clusters 100 to 400 million light-years apart in great sheets and filaments with darkness between them. The explosive heat of the big-bang has dwindled to a faint background radiation.
“The Heavens and the Earth were joined then we clove them asunder and we got every living thing out of water”. (Quran 21:30)
He turned to heaven when it was smoke and said to it and to the Earth, “Come willingly or unwillingly! They said, “We come in willing obedience.” (Quran 41:9-12)
Heavens, we have built if with power verily we are expanding it. (Quran 51:47)
Uncertain Future
Astronomers cannot be certain about the future of the Universe. It will either collapse again under its own gravity to a single point or continue its expansion for ever, becoming cold, empty, dead and dark.
However, the last day is predicted as under:
1) The day we roll up the sky as a, scroll for writing is rolled up (Quran 69:13-15)
2) (The day) when the sun is overthrown and when mountains, fly out their position and when the stars fall losing their light. (Qruan 81: 1-4)
3) And the Heaven will be split asunder and the stars dispersed (Quran 82: 1-2)
4) When the earth is shaken by an earth quake (Quran 56:4)
5) When the mountains are blown away and the hills are ground to powder and that they become scattered dust (Quran 5-6) and a leap of running sand (Quran 73-14) Like flakes of wool (Quran 70-9) and like a mirage.
6) When the Sun is dazzled and the moon is darkened, the Sun and Moon being brought together (Quran 75-78)
7) When the Sun is overthrown and when the Stars go dark and when Hell is lighted and the Garden is brought near. (Quran 78:19) Then every soul will know what it has present (Quran 81: 12-14) what it has sent ahead and kept behind.
8) Are thou not aware of the fact that Allah has created the Heavens and the Earth with a divine purpose. He can if He so wills, do away with you, And bring forth an entirely new creation. It is not difficult for Allah (Quran 14: 19 -20)
Solar System
Some 4.6 billion years ago spinning cloud of cosmic dust and gas contracted to form a young star and its retinue of planets what envisaged was the highly ordered structure of the solar system.
The star, our Sun weighs almost 1000 times as much as the rest of system, put together. Its massive gravitation force guides the 9 planets, dozens of satellites and comets and hundreds of thousands of asteroids around the star.
The influence of Sun is all-important for controlling the orbital velocities of the planets; composition and mass vary according to their distance from the Sun.
It is almost certain that our solar system is not unique. Astrophysicists reckon that around each of about 20 billion of the stars in our galaxy, there is likely to be at least one planet at the right distance for the life to emerge.
EARTH
The Birth of Earth
About 4.6 billion years ago Earth was born along-with the other planets out of a cloud of gas surrounding the early Sun. Particles of dust in this swirling cloud collided and coalesced to create our embryonic world. The atmosphere was cold and dark, as the Sun was still too young to radiate large amounts of heat and light into the Solar system. Meteorites constantly bombarded the earth with the passage of time. The Earth passed through various stages from melting pot 4.6-4.2 billion years ago to crusted earth 4.2-3.8 billion years ago. The first sparks of life appeared 3.8-2.5 billion years ago, the air that we breathe formed 2.5 billion to 600 million years ago and the foundation for the Modern world was laid only 600 million years ago.
EARTH CLOCK
On Earth clock if 12’o clock midnight is considered “zero Hour” the time at which the earth reaches its present size and weight is approximately 4.6 billion years ago. As the clock moves forward to today – 12’o clock noon -each hour spans 383.3 million years. A minute equals 6.4 million years. For almost 1/4th of its existence the earth’s crust was cooling and settling down and the atmosphere and oceans were evolving towards their present states.
I. At 2.365 AM. The oldest known rocks showed up and estimated to be about 3.6 billion years old. At this point the earth’s geological history begins to come into focus clearly for the first time.
II. At 3.39 AM the Earth aged another 400 million years before life evolved enough to produce the oldest known fossils.
III. At 11.29 AM dinosaurs appeared after life evolved for an enormous span of time 3 billion years.
IV. At 11.50 AM before arrival of placental mammals dinosaurs dominated the earth for 135 million years.
V. Till date 12 noon the age of a mammal has lasted for 65 million years.
At 12 noon man’s portion is just 2.6 million years ie. Only 24 seconds in the 12 hours life span of our Earth.
THE CRUST OF EARTH
Scientists are of the opinion that millions of years ago this earth of ours was a globe of fluid matter and hot gases revolving round the sun. In the course of time it radiated its heat in to space and its outer portion cooled and solidified. This hard and solid portion of the Earth is called its crust or lithosphere. It is now covered with soil. The thickness of this crust in average is about 50 Kms. Moreover the crust always undergoes change it expands, contracts and breaks.
The crust of earth consists of the following elements.
Oxygen = 49.85%
Silicon = 26.03%
Aluminum = 7.28%
Iron = 4.12%
Calcium = 3.18%
Soda = 2.33%
Interior: Earth’s interior is extremely hot and heavy. At the centre is the inner core as big as our moon, which is composed mostly of iron, with temperature of up to 6000oC. Next comes the liquid metal outer core, stretching up to about half the radius of earth. This in turn is surrounded by the mantle – a layer of hot rock comprising the bulk of earth and is made up predominantly of silicon, magnesium, iron, aluminum and oxygen. At a boundary known as Mohorovidic discontinuity after the Yugoslav scientist who discovered it, the mantle interfaces with the solid crust. To us on its surface, nothing seems as solid and substantial as the crust but compared with the rest of the earth it is as thin as the eggshell.
Soil: The loose material which forms upper layer of Earth on which vegetation can grow is called the soil. The soil consists of clay, sand, humus etc. The crust of earth (Lithosphere) is everywhere covered with soil, the depth of which varies from place to place. The soils are Alluvial, black soil, Red soil and latarite soil.
The Surface of Earth
The surface of earth is divided into five spheres:
| 1. | Lithosphere: | The solid crust consisting of soil and hard rocks which is elatively thin and in which different land forms are formed. |
| 2. | Hydrosphere: | All the waters of earth including the oceans, lakes, rivers ice, sheets and the water in the atmosphere. |
| 3. | Atmosphere: | The envelope of air that surrounds Earth extending to several hundred Kms half of it lies in 5 Kms of earth’s surface. |
| 4. | Magnetosphere: | The space surrounding Earth in which there is a magnetic field. Extending about 64,000 Kms above the surface. |
| 5. | Biosphere: | The portion of earth occupied by the various forms of life. |
Composition of Atmosphere:
Pure air contains by volume:
Nitrogen = 78.03%
Oxygen = 20.99%
Carbon dioxide = 0.03%
Water vapours = traces
Dust impurities = traces
Inert gases = 0.95%
Motion of The Earth:
a) Rotation:
Earth rotates around its axis from West to East once in 24 hours. This rotation of earth is the real cause of the apparent rising and setting of the sun. The speed of rotation at equator is about 1666 Km/ hour slowing towards poles where it becomes Zero. Average speed is 28 Kms/minute.
b) Revolution:
Earth revolves round the sun once in approx. 365¼ days i.e a year. Earth revolves in a fixed elliptical path at a speed of 1, 06,560 km/hour.
Man’s Relation with Earth
It is believed that Man was created out of Earth, it eats the products of earth throughout his life and ultimately at the end it returns to the mother earth. Thus man is born out of earth, lives on the earth and dies to return to the mother earth.
However, life may have originated in space and been brought to earth aboard a comet according to a theory published in 1978 by the English astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle and Sri Lankan astronomer Chandran Wickramesinghe. The creation of living material involves too many coincidences for it to have occurred on Earth, they say: It required all the sources of space. They argue that life probably formed elsewhere, then was deposited here by accident and thrived in the favorable conditions.
Earth People
The Earth does not belong to man rather man belongs to the earth. We of present age have no right to treat Earth as if it were the exclusive property of our own, meant only for our total use. We of this generation are after all only a link in the long chain of generations of mankind and we must be loyal to the over all chain which the total life of humanity makes upon us. We of this generation have no right to alter the equilibrium or the proportions all set by its creator. By our ignorance we have already done so and this has gravely jeopardized the possibility of continued expansion and enrichment of human life on this planet. So also the causing of the nuclear explosions is, after all, a rash attempt to irritate and annoy our mother earth.
About six billion people are alive today. Every second three more are added to the total, a growth of more than 10,000 an hour, over 80 million in the span of a year. The world population has more than doubled since 1950. The massive expansion has been fuelled not by an increasing birth rate but by a gradual extension of life- expectancy and by a huge reduction in the number of children who die when young. More than half the people now living are under 25.
Agents of Change
The appearance of land is constantly changing caused by the agents of change. The surface of earth is uneven with low and level plains, deltas, caves, lagoons, sand dunes etc. The surface has been subject to changes throughout history, which are taking place even today, these changes have made mountains plateaus, plains, deltas, valleys etc.
In the beginning when Earth was extremely hot these changes were sudden and violent. As the surface cooled gradually, the changes become slow and gradual. Even now changes are taking place on the surface of Earth, for example, the Isles of Japan are slowly rising while the coasts of South Sweden and East England are sinking, but these changes are so slow and gradual that they can hardly be seen.
Weathering: This means breaking up or disintegration and decay of rocks. The chief agents of weathering are temperature, rain, frost, air, plants and animals. Weathering is of mechanical, chemical and biological type.
Denudation: This means the laying bare the rock which was previously covered, it implies the disintegration and breaking up of the rock and the removal of that disintegrated material i.e weathering and transportation. The chief agents of denudation ate; temperature, water in its various forms, plant life and animal life.
The agents of change are both internal and external ones.
Internal agents: The internal agents are forces having origin in the interior of Earth and bring about changes on its surface such as slow interior movement of Earth, volcanic action, earthquakes etc. These generally lead to mountain building. Their action is sometimes very sudden and abrupt. Some of the important internal agents of change are:
1. Slow interior movement of Earth.
2. Volcanic action.
3. Earthquakes.
External agents: These are those farces, which work on the surface of earth such as water, air, wind, temperature etc. They gradually tend to level the land by wearing down the raised parts. Their action is very slow. The most important external agents of change are:
1. Water in its various forms viz; rain, underground water, rivers, sea, frost, glaciers and icebergs.
2. Temperature. 3. Air and wind. 4. Plant life.
5. Animal life. 6. Man
Difference: These two kinds of agents work in opposition to each other. The internal forces tend to make the surface of the land uneven but the external forces toy and level down the surface of the land and make it even.
Contribution of Man:
Life on earth is made possible by joint venture of Lithosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere and Solar energy. Our ancestors named these as Aab – Hydrosphere, Aatash – Solar energy, Khak – Lithoshere and Baad – Atmosphere, the prime necessities of our life. In this sphere of life called biosphere, all the organisms are interdependent and each in turn depends upon the physical environment of the area in which they live, the science, which deals with this relationship, is known as ecology.
In the natural environment there is perfect balance or equilibrium between the various organisms in the biosphere.
He has set up the balance (Quran 55:7)
This equilibrium is known as ecological balance. Under balanced system there is no dearth of food and other requirement and resources for any one of the organisms present. To maintain the food chain, in balance the small weaker organisms are more numerous and reproduce at a faster rate than the larger and the stronger ones.
As the change is the law of nature, therefore under natural conditions also, due to change in physical environment on the earth, during different geological periods, some plant and animal species, which were not able to adapt themselves suitably to the changed environmental circumstances, died out and in some cases, new species came into existence, this process is a continues one and scientists estimate that 90% of all species (both animal and plant) have virtually vanished since life began.
However, the rate of extinction has increased considerably since last century. About Twenty five thousand plant species and over one thousand animal species are at the verge of extinction. This rapid rate of extinction is not due to the natural change but the man is responsible for destroying and transforming the nature. For the sake of meeting the requirement of his food, fodder, shelter etc. he has dislodged the food chain, the ecological balance by raking and misuse of natural resources. The increasing uses of mineral resources such as coal, petroleum and natural gas for power production, industrialization and transport has created atmospheric and water pollution. This pollution is specifically marked in the industrial regions of the world such as Europe , USA Japan Bhopal India USSR India Polar Regions and submergence of vast areas in low lying lands. Even one percent decrease in ozone content could lead to 4-6% increase in skin cancer and change in normal rainfall patterns (as experienced by us during current years).
Pollution of water in seas, rivers, lakes, springs and other water bodies is increasing to abnormal proportions due to effluents, urban waste, use of insecticides and pesticides, acid rain and hydrocarbons etc. The organism living in water and those dependent on water are sufferers; land resources meet a step motherly treatment. The fertile soil is being wasted and drawn to deep oceans, along with precious water by faulty cultivation, removal of vegetable cover and by the process of mining, Large-scale deforestation leads to formation of gullies, ravines wastelands and deserts. Due to this wanton destruction many varieties of useful species have met the sad end. The animal life found in nature – in forests, wilderness, cites, towns, rivers, lakes, and oceans has considerably reduced and some have completely vanished due to unregulated killing for food, hides, tusks, feathers, furs etc. and due to destruction and transformation of their natural habitat.
OUR FUTURE
Managing Future of Earth:
The dauntingly difficult task that now confronts the human race is to reconcile two equally urgent and in some ways, contradictory imperatives, 1st to reduce the terrible poverty and hunger in the third world and second to lessen the strains on the biological system of the planet.
The attention towards this understanding was drawn by the photographs taken by the 1st astronauts giving a new vision of the world as fragile oasis in the sterile vastness of space from being a place that could be exploited and used at will, the world became a global environment to be managed and sustained. Scientists began to voice fears over continued indifference to the health of such global systems as the atmosphere in the tropical forests, and the world genetic pool, in which diversity, the only final guarantee of survival was being ignorantly and widely reduced.
Since man is a part and parcel of the biosphere he alone is responsible for this catastrophe. Increase in human population especially in under developed countries since the beginning of twentieth century is responsible for draining the resources. (By 2000AD the population of world shall be touching to a new height of about six billion) Containing the population growth monster at an average of 1% per annum, a proper understanding of the processes taking place in the ecosystem and harnessing of solar energy are some of the methods and means that may help in proper utilization of natural resources. Thus man shall be obeying Allah’s command.
So establish weight with justice and fall not short in the balance (Quran 55:09)
JUST SAVE IT
What is needed is a care of life, harnessing clean energy, maintaining the tropical forests, care of Antarctica (World Park) and care of changing climate, these form separate subjects to be dealt with.
The environmental imbalances which face this planet today are serious threat to the extent that it is feared that technology alone is no longer capable of averting an “Environmental Collapse”. To avert the inevitable breakdown, efforts are required by all nations and experts should try, to workout a formula, for controlling some of the global environmental problems, confronting the mankind today. The disagreements over how to do that are likely to be sharp.
We as parents should be duty bound to teach our children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of their grandfathers so that they should respect the land. Tell our children that the earth is their Mother. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. If man spits on the ground, they spit upon themselves, we must teach them that the earth is Allah’s beautiful creation and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator.
2
2000: THE ENVIRONMENT MILLENIUM
– TIME TO ACT POPULTION EXPLOSION LEADS TO SCARCITY OF RESOURCES
The new millennium has dawned with grand hopes, carrying some spectacular successes of the past. Humanity faces serious problems and challenges centered around the issue of population. Man has been on earth for about five million years and already eyebrows are raised on an overburdened, depleted world.
Though living standards have improved dramatically dice to achievements in science and technology, yet it has resulted in the phenomenal growth in population. We welcomed the second millennium with a population of less than two billion and shall be seeing it off with just a six billion! If the population clock maintains the same time, we shall reach the seven billion mark in the next 14 years. Developing countries shall be major contributors toward this growth.
The multiplication of the population beyond the optimum levels brings with it a cascade of other problems – the need for more living space, more food and water, the need to manage the stupendous waste generated by rapidly increasing urban population and so on; already the environment has been significantly depleted by the population increase.
The consumption of natural resources by modern requirements are very high (45-85 tones annually). To meet the demand of an expanding population there is bound to be a rapid turnover in the agricultural mining industrial sectors. This at a tremendous cost of environmental depletion.
The stage has reached when natural resources cannot be exploited further. Development has to take place without destroying the environment. The massive consumption of natural resources by a rapidly escalating population amounts to change in the natural ecosystem, at a much larger scale than ever before.
It is estimated that if the current trend in resources continues and if the world population grows as projected {8-9 billion by 2030 and leveling off at 11.5 billion around 2150} then by 2010 per capita availability of range land will drop by 22% and fish catch by 10%. The per capita area of irrigated land which now yields about one third of the global food harvest, will drop by 12% and crop land area and forest land per person will shrink by 21% and 31% respectively. The world’s economy by the middle of this century is expected to increase five times from the current level of 16 trillion dollars, causing depletion of the world’s natural resources at a gigantic scale.
Most of the environmental problems including the recent water crises faced by India India India USA India China China
The fertility rate of an average Indian woman is 3.6 children, which is significantly higher than the replacement level fertility of 2.1. Thus there are more births than deaths in the country. In U.P. the total fertility rate is 4.8 for a population of 150 million. In Kerala and Tamil-Nadu however, it is reported to be 1.8 and 2.1 respectively. The North South difference can be judged by the divide in the education levels between the two regions.
In Mega cities like Delhi Calcutta
An average of 3-4 persons live in one room in a metropolis. In American mega cities, on an average there are two rooms for every person.
The story of damage inflicted upon nature by mankind is not new, but the environment crises which the world now faces is qualitatively and quantitatively different from anything before. So many factors have been contributing towards environmental degradation that the system as a whole is in danger.
Due to migration from rural to urban areas. Most cities in the world have become highly polluted. Increase in industries and motor vehicles has contaminated the air immensely. Suspended particulate matter results in about 4,60,000/- additional deaths every year. The Chembur region of Mumbai with a concentration of chemical industries is described as a gas chamber. In Calcutta Delhi
The greatest threat that a rapidly growing population poses is the scarcity of resources as is evident in the country side drought. India reeling under this threat, has already attained perilous proportions, about 1/3rd of Worlds population live in countries that are experiencing moderate to severe water scarcity. Due to the limitations in resources an estimated 84 million people in the world are undernourished, 1.2 billion do no have access to safe water 1.6 billion are illiterate and two billion do not have access to electricity. The resource crunch enhanced by the population explosion has also widened the gap between the rich and the poor. Whether it is the inhabitant of jhuggi jhopri colony in Delhi Harlem in New York
If the spiraling population is not checked there will be immense damage inflicted on the environment and the people living in it whether in an affluent developed country or in a developing nation which has just ushered in its billionth citizen. Serious efforts are required to stem the growing tide of humanity.
Towards the Green world:-
There has been a tremendous internationalization of the world environment movement since the mid 1980’s Numerous efforts have been made to bring governments to negotiating tables to thrash out legally binding international conventions and protocols to deal with transnational environmental problems; convention on trade in toxic wastes and protection of ozone layer have been prepared, signed and ratified by numerous countries, the other two on global warning and biodiversity conservation are being negotiated and a third on forests has been proposed.
The International aid and trade are getting linked to environmental concerns. The World Bank, UNEP and UNDP have set up a global environmental facility and numerous aid-giving countries are putting high priority on environmental projects, ranging from tree plantation to pollution control.
This growing global concern for nature and a rising spirit of international environmental solidarity aught to be applauded, almost as if a “new morality” has at last sprung upon us.
If the world were seriously to address the problems of global environmental management together with the equally urgent problems of economic and political inequalities, the co-existence of wealth and poverty, power and powerlessness and knowledge and ignorance, together with the problems thrown up by the environmental destruction, all of which are indeed quite related to each other, the world would no doubt become a better place to live in. Thus we hear about efforts being made on:
1. Greening of Aid Trade and Debt: - policing the 3rd world environment.
2. Western Green politics: - Asserting participatory democracy without Global Equity.
3. The state of the South: - Degraded lands and desperate finances.
4. The action frame work:- Building blocks for global environmental democracy.
4.1 Community environmental democracy:- The village republic.
4.2 National environmental democracy:- The right to a clear and healthy environment.
4.3 Global environment democracy:- A fair world in which all pay the full costs of their consumption.
4.3.1 The global right to survival.
4.3.2 Right to information.
4.3.3 Equal right to the atmosphere.
4.3.4 Appropriate compensation for community biological knowledge.
All these form separate subjects for discussion.
Above all this we must keep in mind that:-
“Human inhumanity to nature cannot be controlled unless the World is able to reduce man’s inhumanity to other human’s.
“The study released today by UN population fund (UNFPA) on the eve of World Environment day says, “Though the decline in forests cover has been arrested to some extent in the last decade, the quality continues to deteriorate.
These forests declined by 3% between 1980 & 1997, while open forests increased by one (1) % during the same period. However the expansion was at the cost of dense forests that were converted into open forests through deforestation.
Moreover rising live stock and growing demand for fodder, fuel wood timber and paper due to a 2.8 times rise in its population, since 1951, have added to the problem. Poverty, corruption, weak institutions a wasteful expenditure have also contributed to the forests loss.
The study shows the rural and urban population are both responsible for putting pressure on the forest resources. Forests cover in the country as a percentage of total land area has halved since the beginning of this century.
Paste Picture
See page No: 14
3
STEPS TOWARDS A SECURE FUTURE
As the century has begun, natural resources are under increasing pressure, threatening public health and development. Water shortages, soil exhaustion, loss of forests, air and water pollution & degradation of coastlines afflict many areas. As the world's population grows, improving living standards with-out destroying the environment is a global challenge.
Most developed economies currently consume resources much faster than they can regenerate. Most developing countries with rapid population growth face the urgent need to improve living standards. As we humans exploit nature to meet present needs are we destroying resources needed for the future?
Einironment Getting Worse
In the past decade in every environmental sector, conditions have either failed to improve, or they are worsening.
Public Health
Unclean water, along with poor sanitation, kills over 12 million people each year, most in developing countries. Air pollution kills nearly 3 million more. Heavy metals and other contaminants, also cause wide-spread health problems.
Food Supply
Will there be enough food to go around? In 64 of 105 developing countries, studied by the UN food & Agriculture Organization, the population has been growing faster than food supplies, population pressures have degraded some 2 billion hectares of arable land -an area the size of Canada U.S.
Fresh Water
The supply of fresh-water is finite, but demand is soaring as population grows and use per capita rises. By 2025, when world population is projected to be 8 million, 48 countries containing 3 billion people will face shortages.
Coastlines and oceans:
Half of all coastal ecosystems are pressured by high population densities and Urban Development. A tide of pollution is rising in the world's seas. Ocean fisheries are being over exploited and fish catches are down.
Forests
Nearly half of the world's original forest cover has been lost, and each year another 16 million hectares are cut, bulldozed or burned. Forests provide over US $ 400 billion US dollars to the world economy annually and are vital to maintaining healthy ecosystems. Yet, current demand for forest products may exceed the limit of sustainable consumption by 25%.
Biodiversity:
The earth's biological diversity is crucial to the continued vitality of agriculture and medicine & perhaps even to life on earth itself. Yet human activities are pushing many thousands of plant and animal species into extinction. Two of every three species, is estimated to be in decline.
Global Climate Change
The earth's surface is warming due to green-house gas emissions, largely from burning fossil fuels. If the global temperature rises as projected, sea levels would rise by several meters, causing widespread flooding. Global warming also could cause droughts and disrupt agriculture.
Toward a liveable future
How people preserve or abuse the environment could largely determine whether living standards improve or deteriorate. Growing human numbers, urban expansion, and resource exploitation do not bode well for the future. With-out practicing sustainable development, humanity faces a deteriorating environment and may even invite ecological disaster.
Taking Action
Many steps toward sustainability can be taken today. These include using energy more efficiently managing cities better, phasing our subsidies that encourage waste; managing water resources and protecting fresh-water sources; harvesting forest products rather than destroying forests; preserving arable land and increasing food production through a second Green Revolution; managing coastal zones and ocean fisheries; protecting biodiversity hotspots: and adopting an international convention on climate change.
Earth People: Health and Wealth
About 6 billion people are alive today. Every second three more are added to the total, a growth of more than 10,000 an hour, and over 80 million in the space of a year. The world population has doubled since 1950 and even though the rate at which it is growing has slowed down from its peak 2.4 percent a year in 1965, it was projected to rise to over 6 billion by the turn of the century. This massive expansion has been fueled not by an increasing birth rate but by a gradual extension of life expectancy and by a huge reduction in the number of children who die when young. More than half the people now living are under 25. In Africa , almost half are under 14.
In Europe , Japan North America , however the number of births has already dropped so as to be almost in balance with the number of deaths, and the population there is now virtually stable. For the world as a whole, this balance will not come according to U.N. predictions, until about the year 2110, when there might be 10.5 billion people striving for living space.
Population is concentrated now, as it always has been, in those tolerable climatic belts where people can live most comfortably and where enough food can be grown to support them. These areas have given birth to the great cities that are hallmark of modern industrial society. Nearly half of the world's population- over 3.00 billion people -are now urbanized, half of them in cities of more than 500,000 people. This increasing concentration of the species in great urban patches is true of both the developed and the developing world. By the turn of the century, twice the number of people are living in the cities of the third world, where the great bulk of population growth is occurring, as in those of the relatively stable north.
Stabilizing Population
While population growth has slowed, the absolute number of people continues to increase - by about 1 billion every 13 years. Slowing population growth would help improve living standards and would buy time to protect natural resources. In the long run, to sustain higher living standards, world population size must stabilize.
Feeding a Future World
Food is everyone’s basic need and concern will there be enough food to go around. Rapid population growth, environmental degradation, and inadequate international food distribution raise this question. About 2 billion people lack food security-defined by the U.N Food and Agriculture organization (FAO) as a “State of affairs where all people at all times have access to safe and nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.
In many countries over the past two decades growth in the food supply has lagged behind population growth. World-wide, the grain harvest increased about 1% annually between 1990 and 1997, a rate of growth substantially slower than the average population growth rate in the developing world, at 1.6%.
In 64 of 105 developing countries studied by FAO between 1985 and 1995, food production lagged behind population growth. Among regions, Africa fared the worst during this period. Food production per person fell in 31 of 46 African countries.
More-over, water shortages are becoming constraints on development in general and on food production in particular. While population tripled in the last century, water withdrawals grew six fold.
Countries fall into three groups (1) those that have the agricultural capacity to be self-sufficient in food production; (2) those that are not self-sufficient in food production but have enough other resources to import adequate supplies of food; and (3) those that are not self-sufficient in food production and do not have the financial resources needed to fill the gap with imports.
In the first group, the agriculturally self-sufficient countries are some European countries plus Australia Canada United States Japan Singapore Arabian Gulf .
The third group consists of the “low-income food deficit countries,” to use the term coined by FAO. The low-income food- deficient countries comprise most of the developing world, including nearly all of sub-Saharan Africa .
To-day, about 3.8 billion people - nearly two-thirds of the world’s population - live in low-income food-deficit countries. In these countries millions know hunger, malnutrition, and even starvation when harvests fail, unless other countries provide emergency food aid in time. World -wide, about 825 million people are chronically malnourished, according to a recent estimate by FAO.
Many low-come food-deficit countries have among the world's highest population growth rates. By 2050 about 6 billion people will live in countries that have food deficits to-day.
In many low-income food-deficit countries, the situation is worsening. Food production capacities are deteriorating. These countries face a number of serious constraints to achieving food security.
A Global Harvest
Food is mankind’s energy resource - the fuel that fires the human boiler - and maintaining supplies constitutes man's biggest single concern.
Agricultural efficiency has increased at a staggering pace; in 1980, the world’s farms produced twice as much food as they did in 1950. As a result, the earth today grows enough food to support its population, with plenty to spare. But the pattern of production is uneven, and many areas still go short.
Thousands of different types of plants are consumed by man, but first three wheat, corn and rice - account for about half of the world harvest. By no means, every inch of the planet's, surface can be exploited for crop farming, however, for a combination of three basic factors, sunshine, moisture and soil, determines where the global harvest can be gathered in. At present only 11 percent of the earth's land surface is farmed for crops, while a further 20 percent is thought to be cultivable.
Limited Arable Land
Most fertile land already is under cultivation. Most uncultivated land is marginal, with poor soils and either too little rainfall or too much. Without massive technological improvements or substantial investments from external sources increases in food production in low-income food deficit countries will soon have to come from existing agricultural land-thus putting ever more pressure on its productive capacity.
Shrinking Family Farms
In most developing countries, family farms are divided into smaller and smaller parcels for each new, larger generation of heirs, Rapid population growth has shrunk the average family farm by half over the past four decades. In 57 developing countries surveyed by FAO in the early 1990’s, over half of all farms were less than one hectare in size, not enough to feed the average rural family with four to six children. In India
Land Degradation
Population pressures on arable land contribute to the land’s degradation, as more and more marginal land is brought into cultivation to feed more and more people. Land degradation claims 5 million hectares of farm-land each year. When soils are over-worked, wind and water erode them faster. Soils also can become poisoned from improper irrigation techniques and from improper use of agricultural chemicals. More-over, in most developing countries vast amounts of agricultural land are being lost as cities expand.
Nearly 2 billion hectares of crop and grazing land are suffering from moderate to severe soil degradation -an area about the size of Canada US Kazakhstan
Irrigation Problems
Badly planned and poorly built irrigation system have reduced yields on one-half of all irrigated land, according to a 1995 estimate by FAO. Irrigation is key to agricultural production. Although only 17% of all cropland is under irrigation, irrigated croplands produce one-third of the world’s food supply.
Roughly, 70% of all water withdrawn for human use goes to irrigate crops. Yet, less than half of all water withdrawn for irrigation reaches the crops. Most soaks into unlined canals, leaks out of pipes, or evaporates on its way to the fields. Although some of the water “lost” in in-efficient irrigation systems returns to streams or aquifers, where it can be tapped again, water quality invariably is degraded by pesticides, fertilizers, and salts that run off the land.
Salt build-up in soil has severely damaged 30 million hectares of the world's 255 million hectares of irrigated land. FAO estimates, A combination of salinization and water logging affects another 80 million hectares. The world’s irrigated crop-lands may actually be shrinking at a time when they should be expanding to meet demand.
What can be done?
Achieving food security means addressing several related issues, slowing population growth, increasing food production and safeguarding the environment. Since, of course, not every country can be self-sufficient in food production, international trade will become increasingly important in the future to achieve food security worldwide. In low-income food deficit countries slower population growth would allow time to achieve food security.
To provide food security for all of the 8 billion people projected by 2025, the world would have to double food production over current levels. Achieving this goal would require a second “Green Revolution” in agriculture, like the one in the 1960’s that boosted food production in the face of population increases.
Recent years have brought some promising developments. These include a new strain of super rice capable of boosting yields by 25%, improved varieties of corn that could increase yields perhaps by 40% and that could be grown on marginal land, and a new b1ight-resistant potato.
To achieve food security, the food-deficit countries must reverse the current course of land degradation and begin to manage soil and water resources on a sustainable basis. There are many ways to protect agricultural land. In many areas, for example, irrigated land could be managed better by using hand pumps and traditional water harvesting techniques rather than relying on large-scale automated sprinkler systems. Specific solutions will vary from one area to another. Virtually every-where, however, protecting the environment will help produce more food to feed more people.
Managing the Planets Future
Mankind got a new vision of the world from the photographs taken by the first Astronauts, as a fragile oasis in the sterile darkness of space. This image, above all others, crystallized a new understanding of the earth. From being a place that could be exploited and used at will, the world became a global environment to be managed and sustained. Scientists began to voice fears over continued indifference to the health of such global system as the atmosphere, the tropical forests and the world genetic pool, in which diversity the only final guarantee of survival was being ignorantly and widely reduced.
Like an oil tanker at sea, the course the world is following cannot be changed in an instant. The difficult task that now confronts the human race is to reconcile two equally urgent and in some ways contradictory imperatives; first, to reduce the terrible poverty and hunger in the third world, and second to lessen the strains on the biological systems of the planet.
4
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT APPROACH
Developing countries to-day face the twin crises of environmental deterioration and maldevelopment more seriously than ever before. This is despite so many U.N. World conferences including Rio Summit on Environment and Development (1992) and the Copenhagen Summit
Concern has been raised at these U.N. conferences by political leaders and vociforous citizen groups, showing that there is no lack of concern.
But the more powerful forces and institutions that represent the dmominant trend of globalization and liberalization overwhelm the efforts of the environmentally conscious and those who care about eradicating poverty.
The third world countries are sinking deeper into environmental problems although global and national knowledge about ecology has grown manifold in the last two decades.
In Asian region alone the major problems are:
Land
850 million hectares of soil that is degraded is in Asia and the Pacific accounting for 24 percent of the regions land.
Forests
Deforestation remains one of the major environmental issues in Asia due to industrialization, agricultural expansion and forestry product trade. Deforestation in the Asia Pacific region increased from 2 million hectares per year during 1976-81 to 3.9 million hectares per year during 1981-90. Tropical forest area decreased by 6.7 percent during 1981-90 and natural tropical forest area by 11.1 percent, the highest rate observed for this type of forest as compared with other regions.
Water
Increasing water scarcity is the likely scenario for many countries in Asia . Fresh water availability of below 1000 cubic meters per capita per year indicates water scarcity. Singapore Iran India
The rapid 3.6 percent annual growth of every demand for the whole region in 1990-92 is an important implication of economic growth in Asia ; Urban air pollution is serious in many major cities in the region, while health threats arise from indoor pollution. Acid rain has emerged as a significant problem.
Biodiversity
The drive for increased agricultural production has resulted in the loss of genetic diversity. The flora and fauna of region are threatened now more than ever before. India Indonesia
Urban and Industrial Environments
Urbanization generates the environmental stress with region which is related to poverty as well as economic growth and affluence. The rise of cities has been accompanied by a proliferation of slums and squatter settlements without access to basic infrastructure, clean water and sanitation, with associated health risks; the lack of basic infrastructure also results in local environmental degradation.
Mean-while urban environmental problems resulting from growth and affluence include congestion, increasing air and water pollution, loss of productive agricultural land, loss of coastal habitats to conversion and land reclamation over extraction of ground and water resources resulting in land subsidence, and deforestation as a consequence of increased demand for construction timber.
This information gives just a few slices of the environmental challenges before us.
Bearing the main brunt of the problems are the local communities and the poor, who live close to the natural environment and whose land, forests and resources are being negatively affected by the forces of global and national commerce. The communities and groups in developing countries which are adversely affected by globalization and commercialization are: -
Local Communities in rural and urban areas which have to make way for development projects as economic growth and modernization continues to sweep across the region. These include farmers and indigenous people making way for large dams, mining projects, logging of forests, Conversion of land to plantations and urban settlers and squatters who have to make way for urban projects such as highways, golf courses & hotels, office buildings and housing estates.
Rural Villagers and Urban squatter areas near toxic dumps or hazardous industries which are usually located in areas where the poor communities live, and workers facing hazards at the work-place including toxic chemicals, heavy metals and dangerous work processes.
Small farmers who may find that, as a result of agricultural liberalization, they will have to reduce the prices of their products (thus reducing their net incomes) some of them) may have to close their farms as being uncompetitive.
Govt. and public employees (including of public enterprises) who face retrenchment from their jobs as a result of privatization, Lower income and poor consumers who may no longer be able to receive the same level of subsidised health care, water supply, housing or welfare services as Governments reduce or eliminate social spending or change their financing system towards the cost recovery and the user must-pay approach.
Because of poverty and the unemployment situation, many children are forced to work, often in conditions of misery; while many women are pressurized into prostitution.
Hopes Belied
The ecological crises continues to unfold at breakneck speed under the influence of commercial interests, now driven even further by the competitive pressures of globalization. At the same time the globalization process has pitted company against company, country against country and individuals against one another. Under the vicious fight for market shares and for profits to survive globalization and liberalization have replaced every environmental and social item on the high priority agenda list. More-over because of its unequal nature, globalization may benefit a small number (of countries, of people) but alienates, marginalizes and even impoverishes large number of countries and peoples.
Some years ago, at the Earth Summit, 1992, hopes had been high that the world’s political leaders had at last recognized the environmental crises and would take steps to forge a new North South partnership to tackle both environmental and development problems together in a package and through a comprehensive plan.
Ten years later, these hopes seem to have vanished. The RIO plus Five Summit at the U.N. in New York
In the years after the RIO Summit the environment has dropped many notches down the global and national agendas. More-over, “development” by which is meant the solidarity or partnership shown towards people in developing countries to help them eradicate poverty and social ills, is also fast vanishing as a principle and an agenda item, in the countries of the North and thus in the international agenda.
The major reason is that, in the years after RIO the process of globalization linked to liberalization has gained so much force that it has undermined, and is undermining, the sustainable development agenda. Commerce and the perceived need to remain competitive in a global market and to pamper and cater to the demands of the companies and the rich have become the top priority of Govt. in the North and some in the South. The environment welfare of the poor, global partnership have all been dislodged and sacrificed in this wave of free market mania.
Humble Warriors
However there are thousands of gras-root movements & groups that have taken their own initiative to fight for their survival, livelihoods or the larger public cause. These are the groups and the heroes and heroines of sustainable development that include:-
The indigenous people of the rainforests, who are desperately guarding sometimes with their lives the remainder of the world’s rain forests.
The local communities and environment activists of the North who are also fighting to save the remains of their old forests from the logger’s axe, who are bravely battling the toxic dumps and hazardous industries located in their neighborhood.
The communities in every region that have had to bravely defend their lands, homes and resources from the encroachment of commercial interests and big billion dollar projects that all too often run out to be economically unviable and ecologically destructive creating millions of environmental refugees.
The thousands of farmers around the world, who have suffered from the ill effects of Chemical based agriculture, have switched to organic farming on their own, and are rebuilding the land, despite the lack of support from the agriculture establishment.
The consumers and consumer movements that are fighting against unhealthy products and unsustainable consumption patterns who campaign for breast-feeding instead of baby foods, who raise the alarm over hazardous pesticides and pharmaceutical drugs dumped into the third world who have taken the tobacco industry to courts & faced it, in the U.S at least its liability and pay billions of dollars in compensation, and to agree to request that the Govt. regulate their behavior.
The individuals, the campaigners and two scientists who are exposing the dark side of genetic engineering in the midst of the industry media hype, and who are waging a campaign against the patenting of life and the cloning of natures creation.
The women, who are all too often in the forefront of the communities fight for survival, hugging the trees to prevent their being chopped, standing with the men to face the bulldozer, fighting against toxic industries and dumps to prevent the poisoning of children.
The brave ordinary, people, often the poorest and most humble of their societies are the true practitioners and the real heroes of the sustainable development that the rest of us only talk about. They are in the forefront of the battle to defend their rights and to save not only their world but our world and on our behalf, always with hardship and bravery, and some-time paying with their lives.
These hundreds and thousand of local community leaders and the millions of ordinary people around the world have provided us the hope that something is being done to save the earth in other words to give chance to earth to live the life ordered to it.
The time is indeed right ripe for a paradigm shift, away from a model based on competitiveness, greed and market expansion to the sustainable development approach, premised on cooperation and international partnership that stresses the rights of people and balances economic activities with social and environmental goals.
5
THE LIVING EARTH
The Mother Earth is bountiful and beautiful. It is the only planet in universe the man knows so far which has “Life” and life in myriad forms and nature. In the Quran Allah Says:-
1. We made from water every living thing:
2. He (Moses) said, our Lord is He who gave to each (created) thing its form. And nature, and further gave (it) guidance.
3. Thou cause the Night to gain on the Day and thou causes the Day to gain the Night: Thou bringest the Living out of the Dead. And thou bringest the Dead out of the living, and Thou give sustenance to whom thou please, without measure.
4. The living from the dead; And bring out the dead from the living, and who gives life to the Earth After it is dead; and thus shall ye be brought out (from the dead).
Allah has created all things with specific design and set measures and proportion.
It is he who created the heavens and the earth in true proportion (V.I:73) and 39:5-6.
It is He who created all things and ordered them in due proportions (25-2)
And the sky He had uplifted, and He hath set a measure (54:49).
The Sun and the moon are made punctual (55:5), And he has constrained the hight and the day and the Sun and the Moon to be of service into you and the stars are made subservient by his command O! herein indead are portents for people who have sense (16:12 ).
All systems therefore run in perfect order and in accordance with set physical laws and which govern every-thing according to the assigned orders of Allah. But Allah’s will always prevails and He is the Doer of what He Wills.
All the life on earth is confined to a life zone of the Earth, as a thin veneer, known as biosphere. Organisms are characterized by typical structures which enable them to live and function at a particular place, called Habitat. The natural life supporting regions and the earth known as “Biomas” are 1. The oceans, ii, Tropical rain forests. iii. Coniferous forests iv. Deserts v. Grass land vi. The high Arctic .
The oceans constitute about 70.8% of the Earth’s surface with 130 million cubic metres of water and 2,14,900 cubic kilometers of salt. The oceans are there because the Earth has a surface temperature in the very narrow range of 0oC-100oC, within which water remains liquid. Below 0oC-100oC water freezes and above 100oC it goes into gaseous State.
There exists an intricate web of predator (killer) and “Prey” (killed) relationships, for example the snake killing the frog can itself become the prey to the eagle. In effect the food chain and the food web demonstrate the precise, complex inter-relationship among plants and animals. This and other relationships between the physical environment (soil, water, air) and the organism environment (plant, animal life) constitute the study of “Ecology”.
The most important aspect of the environment we learn from the above is the concept of “inter-dependence” in nature.
For divine book interprets the law of nature.
Every soul shall have A taste of death (:185)
It is Allah who has created you;
further, He ha provided for your sustenance:
Then He will cause you to die and again
He will give you life.
The researchers say that human beings are relatively newcomers to this earth. They argue that hundred million years back, the earth was already inhabited by plants and animals. Nevertheless, the human being inherited a special gift of nature, the superior brain”.
Man is a supreme creation of the Lord. The great beginning was made when the Lord announced His will to His angels.
Said Lord to the angels,” I will create a vice-regent on earth”. They said, “will thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? whilest we do celebrate Thy praise And glorify Thy holy (name)”?
However, inspite of the objection raised by the angels, on the creation of man, the Lord created the structure of the first ever man. The material used for the construction was the clay brought by the angels from this very planet. The Holy book says;
“We created man from sounding clay, from Mud molded into shape; And Allah did create you from dust; then from sperm-drop. Then He made you in pairs”.
“It is he who placed you with Authority on earth and provided you therein with means for the fulfillment of your life. Small are the thanks that Ye give”.
Indeed man should have been humble because of the process of physical creation by which he comes into being. Yet he is arrogant in life and neglectful of future.
It is He who hath made you (His) agents inheritors of the earth (Anam: 65)
Man is just the custodian of earth. In his capacity as its successor he has inherited everything what is on the earth. On the contrary whatever is on the earth, it is for the service of the man.
We have honoured the Sons of Adams, provided them with transport on land and sea, given them for sustenance things Good and pure; and conferred on then special favours, above a great part of our creation (BA: 70)
Allah has made subject to you (men)
All that is on the earth and the ships that sail through the sea by his command? (Haj: 65)
You are the best, of people , evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right , for bidding what is wrong.
However the status of man as inheritors of earth belong only to him who is righteous, the keeper of the law, the self controlled one, the uprighteous one, the evil doers, are orphans in this inverse and are trespassers in the treasurhouses of the earth. He who is unrighteous can’t for the long drawn nourishment and sustenance from earth. The evil doers can’t in reality over posses the earth or have power over it.
Allah ha promised , to those among you who believe And work righteous deeds; that He will of a surety, grant them in the land inheritance (of power) as He granted to those before them (Al-Noor: 55)
Allah, by creating man provided to Mother Earth, the mirror for her to see herself with. The epistemologists believe that within the inner life of man. Nature through the miracle of mans perception preaches the highest pinnacle of creative vigour and sublimity. The interaction between earth and man is a form of self consciousness and without any doubt whatsoever of a supra-personal and supra terrestrial power, of mode of transcendental experience on the part of Mother Earth, a sort of fusion in oneness, a confluence life that animated the Mother and her child.
The beauty of earth formations like the mountains , valleys, rivers, lakes, seas, oceans etc of the endless procession of day and night, the rhythm of seasonal changes that take place during the annual cycle, the mystery of the formation of precious stones in the depths of earth, the phenomenon of the formation of clouds and the falling of rain, the grandeur of the vast expanses of the high seas all these have given to man the stimulus which has awakened in him the divinely bestowed gifts of comprehension and creation. Man has mastered nature only after he first mad himself to be his pupil. He has had to stop in humility before he could win the secrets by which nature goes about doing her work and then to harness its benefits to serve him.
The creation of man is not for idle sport or play. The creator has a serious purpose behind it. The man has been created to serve his Lord, to obey His commands to pass his allotted time on the earth as He has wished for him.
Life with its pleasure and ambitions divides mankind and makes men rivals, enemies. Death the mighty and silence leveller makes mankind as one (i.e. unites). It is nothing but a perpetual warning, set before all of us never to forget that all are brothers in the sight of Allah, and that our pride ambition, wealth and power, all that here, makes distinction between man and man, will fall from us, when we reach that awful boundary. Death is, indeed the most important fact of life. To belittle or ignore this is nothing but fallacious. At the same time, to spend ones precious life in contemplating of the fact of death would be to neglect the duties of this world.
Indeed the aim of human life in this world is to attain a higher life after death. If the life of a man has been well spent and his faculties have developed in the short span of his existence in this world he will be granted a higher spiritual life in paradise (free from all pollution). But then man who has wasted his opportunities in this life and who has corrupted his soul by evil deeds of all kinds, piety, righteousness, patience, chastity, charity, almsgiving, regard for bounds, truthfulness, abstention from variety and giving good advice to others, are the chief qualities of those who will enter into the paradise of the Lord.
Earth is Alive
The Last revealed book is quite clear that Mother Earth is very much a living being pulsating with life, worshiping the Lord. That all created things in the universe by their very existence proclaim the Glory and the praises of Allah. He has dominion over all things, but He uses his dominion for just and praiseworthily ends. He has power over all things, therefore, He can combine justice with mercy, and His plan and purpose cannot be frustrated by the existence of Evil, along with Good in His Kingdom.
The Ayats of Quran make it clear that not only the earth is a living being, but even the water, wind, fire, sun moon, stars, trees, shrubs etc. etc. are living entities. How can a dead body render worship and glorify the Lord? No doubt, it is only possible when that body has “Life”. No matter, whether man can “understand” that life or not. Every thing in the universe has life-life of its own, ever-ready to obey the command from the Almighty.
Nevertheless, unless in some sense the earth is a conscious being, how could she recount that of which she is supposed to be a direct witness? And of course, she has existed before man turned up on her bosom and will survive the very disappearance of the human race upon it. Whereas she can live without man, man cannot possibly live without her.
The divine book asserts that whatever is in heaven and earth glorifies the Lord, and indeed, the creation itself is a hymn of praise for Him, who is the Mighty and the wise. So the Mother Earth perpetually announces through its rotary and revolutionary motions, the majesty of its Maker. It obediently carries us across space conformably to some order it has received from its creator. Apparently, man’s, craze to ride the space-ships for probing into the mysteries of the Heaven, are comparatively speaking, a poor replica of what our Mother Earth has been like for millions of years. What a grand thought these verses of the Holy Quran presents to man! Only man could be so conscious to be constantly aware that something so close and so tangible as the Mother Earth he treads upon is an ever-watchful witness to what he does, how very significant and meaningful can his life become of him. It is possible, one believes, for man to develop his inner resources to a point where these visitations of the high truth about the universe acquire a concrete and tangible reality.
Obtigations
The mans dependence on the Mother Earth is not only physical and biological but spiritual and aesthetic as well. The bonds that tie man to this planet are too many to be enumerated. He depends upon it for the supply of food and drink, may the very air he breathes, as also the material of his shelter and tools.
Man must work humbly on earth. He is here to work and be worked upon. Indeed he is in this world to work hard and struggle for his passage through this world. The Quran says “Verily we have created man into toil and struggle”.
He is not necessary for earth’s survival, although very apparently, without for his abode he cannot himself survive. No wonder, Allah admonishes man not to be proud and to walk humbly on earth. The glorious Quran educates man how he should walk and talk on earth.
“And swell not thy cheek, (For pride) at men, Nor work in insolence through the Earth.
For Allah Loveth not any arrogant boaster And the servants (of Allah) Most Gracious are those who walk on the earth in humility.
And be moderate, In the pace; and lower thy voice, for the harshest of sound without doubt is the braying of the ass.
The Quranic advice that man must walk humbly shows that the Mother Earth is a sacred Place and it is obligatory on man to respect it.
The Almighty calls the Earth as man’s couch and has spread out the Earth as a carpet.
Who had made the Earth your couch.
And the heaven your canopy.
He who has made for you. The earth like a carpet spread out; has enabled you to go about therein by roads (and channels); and has sent down water from the sky.
This should make man to realize that earth is a sacred carpet for him to worship the Lord. the accursed man is precisely the one who is proud, defiant, irrelevant, walks proudly on Earth, defying the very demand which his own nature makes upon him to serve the Almighty. Reverence to what is beneath us to our Mother Earth should be cardinal and paramount to the man.
Earth does not belong to man; man belongs to earth. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family on Mother Earth. We of this age have no right to treat earth as though it were the exclusive property of our own, meant only for our total use. We of this generation are after all only a link and no more than a link in the long chain of generation of mankind and we must be loyal to the overall claim which the total life of humanity makes upon us. We are therefore only here as trustees to pass on the products of evolution to our children and we have to be conscious of our responsibility to put the earth to minimum misuse. We of this generation have no right to alter the equilibrium or the proportions of which Allah has spoken. In His last siripture. By our ignorance we have already done so and thus have gravely jeopardized the possibility of continued expansion and enrichment of human life on the planet. So also the causing of nuclear explosions is, after all, a rash attempt to initate and annoy our Mother Earth.
Reverence for Mother Earth demands that man should limit his interference with and exploitation of natures processes to the irreducible minimum and confine it to the pursuits of those purposes that are suggested by the nature of our existing needs. Although Modern man’s feet are on Earth, he is not in the sense close to it. He is insulated from the Mother Earth by asphalt or concrete restricted in out look by the high-rise buildings and the filthy haze. He is running away from the country side into the steel and glass canyons of big cities. Instead of hearing the twitter of birds easily in the morning, it is now the easily din created by the motor vehicles. He is getting away from his natural habitat. He is fast becoming decrepit, forlom and in the last resort, unhappy.
Man no doubt ha been created in the best of the forms but so is everything else, that the creator has created. How could it be otherwise but in the case of man the complaint is that he has degraded himself, nay, having accepted to shouder the burden that the rest of the creation declined to sustain, has himself become unjust and ignorant.
History is full of examples of these great mystics who highlighted mans obligation to treat the Mother Earth with due respect and Love. Bashir Ibn Al Hareth (R.A.) (so called because he always walked bare-footed on Earth) is one of the examples. When asked “why, do you not wear shoes”, he answered, “I was barefooted the day when I made my peace with Allah and ever since I am ashamed to wear shoes. The history records that so long as he was alive, no mule or other cattle let drop its dung in the streets of Baghdad
To what a high pitch of excellence does the humanity in man rise if only he could, with reverence and devotion, treat that which is beneath him The Mother Earth.
Nevertheless man has a number of other obligations to the Mother earth. The promotion of harmony and mutual respect on earth is also one of the touch-stones of the Quranic universal order. It obterates and eradicates evils of violence emanating from ethnic and racial enemities on Earth.
The Quran says.
O Mankind; we created you from a single (Pair) of a male and a female, and made you in to Nations and tribes, that ye may know each other. Not that ye may despise (earth-other). Verily, the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).
The ideal contained in this verse constitutes the code of conduct of Human, Fraternity and Equality which a man has to practise on the Mother Earth.
One of the attributes of Allah is that He is the source of peace and bestower of security. From this source only peace and order can flow, nothing else can emerge. Therefore mankind has been ordered by the Lord to engage itself in the establishment of peace on the Earth. The Holy Quran says:
“Do not mischief in the earth. After it hath been set in order, but call on Him with fear and longing (in your hearts) for the mercy of Allah is (always) near to those who do right”.
And remember how He made you inheritors After the Ad people And gave you habitations In the land. Ye build for yourselves palaces and castles In (open) plains and carve out Homes in the mountains; so bring to remembrance. The benefits (ye have received) from Allah, and refrain from evil and mischief on the earth.
The Quranic order does not limit itself to the lives of individuals and communities, but also covers in its preview the relationship between nations and provides definite directions in situations of resolving disputes. The hall mark of these directions is the value of absolute justice and fairness in Earth. So Allah Commands the mankind to observe absolute justice in all affairs including international affairs.
This emphasis on equity, justice and righteousness is a unique contribution of the Quranic teaching in human relationships. A world society based on these values can never be an arena for disorder. A state-craft based on Quran can guarantee peace, nationally and internationally.
Man is here to adorn the Mother Earth to beautify it. He is here to make this brown planet of the Lord Green. Who can deny it? Instead, that is the highest act of worship which a man is capable of performing here below. Prayer, fasting, Zakat, pilgrimage all these are undoubtedly valuable in so far as they constitute the necessary conditions of man to fulfill the law of his being. Before he can at all qualify himself for the task of transferring this dear creation of Allah into becoming an expression of the Divine he must conform to these disciplines. What seems to be absolutely clear is that Allah loves the Earth and has created man as an act of Divine Mercy and Grace. The Lord then appointed him to serve the needs of the Earth. That is to beautify it, to keep it clean, May, averitable paradise for the best of his creatures to live in.
A religions Scholar puts it:-
“Evaluating life will be yours if you deserve it- your present belief or disbelief does not affect the issue. But make sure of this: if you are going to be a great soul in the Heaven, you have got to begin by being a great soul on the Earth”.
Indeed the Mother Earth is the valley of soul-making; can there be anything other wise?”
6
EARTH’S ENVIRONMENTAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS
After 1945, when first electronic computer was designed which had more pervasive effect than the Wright Brothers inventions, setting the stage for the evolution of the information economy. In first few decades it progressed even more rapidly, going from the era of large mainstreams to personal computers. The stage was set for the evolution of Internet a novel concept that has tied the world together as never before facet of our lives-changing communication commerce work, education and entertainment.
Intoxicated with this economic excitement we seem to have lost sight of the deterioration of environment systems and resources. The contrast between our bright hopes for the future of the information economy and the deterioration of Earths economy leaves us with a schizophrenic outlook.
Though the contrast between our civilization and that of our hunter-gatherer ancestors could scarcely be greater, we do have one thing in common. We, too, depend entirely on Earth’s natural systems and resources to sustain us. Unfortunately expanding global economy, as currently structured, is outgrowing those ecosystems. The proof of which can be seen in shrinking forests, eroding soils, falling water tables , collapsing fisheries, rising temperatures, dying coral reefs, melting glaciers, and disappearing plant and animal species.
With each passing year as pressure mounts more local ecosystems collapse. Soil erosion has forced Kazakhstan Aral sea , producing over 40 millions Kg of fishing a year as recently as 1960, is now dead. The Philippines
With the onslaught of 21st century, several well established trends are shaping the future of civilizations like population growth, rising temperature, falling water tables, shrinking cropland per person, collapsing fisheries, shrinking forests and the loss of plant and animal species.
Environmental Trends
The projected growth in population over the next half century many more directly affect economic progress than any other single trend, exacerbating nearly all other environmental and social problems. Between 1950 and 2000, world population increased form 2.5 billion to 6.1 billion, a gain of 3.6 billion. Recent projections show that population is projected to grow to 8.9 billions by 2050, a gain of 2.8 billion, despite fall in birth rates.
Our numbers continue to multiply and expand, but earth’s natural systems do-not. The amount of fresh water produced by the hydrological cycle is essentially the same to-day as it was in 1950 and it is likely to be in 2050. So too, is the sustainable field of oceanic fisheries, of forests, and of rangelands. As population grows, the shrinking per capita supply of each of these natural resources threatens not only the quality of life but, in some situations, even life itself.
Another trend that is affecting the entire world is the rise in temperature that results from increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (co2). When the industrial Revolution began more than two centuries ago, the Co2 concentration was estimated at 280 parts per million (ppm). By 1959, when detailed measurements began, using modern instruments, the Co2 level was 316 ppm, a rise of 13% over two centuries. By 1998, it had reached 367 ppm climbing 17% in first 39 years. This increase has become one of Earth’s most predictable environment trends.
Rising Temperature
Global average temperature has also risen during the last 3 decades. The period when Co2 levels have been rising most rapidly, the average global temperature for 1969-71 was 13.99o C. By 1996-98 it was 13.43o C, a gain of 0.44oC.
If CO2 concentrations double pre-industrial level during this century, as projected, global temperature is likely to rise by at least 1oC and perhaps as much as 4oC. Meanwhile the sea level is projected to rise from a minimum of 17 cm to as much as one meter by 2100. This will alter every ecosystem on earth.
Already, coral reefs are being affected in nearly all the world’s oceans including the rich concentrations of reefs in vast Eastern Pacific and in Indian Ocean , stretching from the east coast of Africa to the Indian subcontinent. For example, record sea surface temperatures over the last two years may have wiped out 70 percent of the coral in the Indian ocean . Coral reefs, complex ecosystems that are sometimes referred to as the rainforests of the sea, not only serve as breeding grounds for many species of marine life, they also protect coastlines from storm and storm surges.
Deficit of Water:
One of the least visible trends that is shaping our future is falling water tables. Although irrigation problems, such as water logging, salting and silting, go back several thousand years, aquifer depletion is a new one. Confined largely to the last half century, when powerful diesel and electric pumps made it possible to extract underground water at rates that exceed the natural recharge from rainfall and melting snow. According to the Global Water Policy Project, over-pumping of acqifers in China India North Africa , Saudi Arabia U.S. U.S.
The largest single deficits are in India China India India
In China China China
For the projected growth in population, it shall be more difficult to feed adequately over the next few decades due to worldwide shrinkage in cropland per person. Since the mid-20th century grain land per person has fallen in half from 0.24 hectares to 0.12 hectares. If the world grains are remains more or less constant over the next half century, the area per person will shrink to 0.8 hectares by 2050.
Threatening of Food Security
If worldwide grain land productivity which climbed by 170 percent over the last half century were to rise rapidly over the next half century, the shrinkage in cropland area per person might not pose a serious threat. Unfortunately the rise is slowing from 1950 to 1990, world grain yield per hectare increase at more than 2 percent a year, well ahead of population growth. But from 1990 to 2000, it grew at scarcely 1 percent a year. While biotechnology may reduce insecticide use through insect resistant varieties, it offers little potential for raising yields. Humanity also depends heavily on the oceans for food, particularly animal protein. From 1950 until 1997, the oceanic fish catch expanded from 19 million tonnes to more than 90 million tonnes. This fivefold growth since mid century has pushed the catch of most marine biologists believe, the oceans cannot sustain an animal catch of more than 95 million tonnes, the catch per person will decline steadily in the decades head as world population continues to grow. This also means that all future growth in demand for food will have to be satisfied from land based sources.
These three parallel trends – Falling water tables shrinking crop land areas per person and levelling off of the oceanic fish catch – all suggest that it will be far more difficult to keep up with the growth in world demand for food over the next half century if the world remains on the U.N. media population trajectory of adding nearly 3 billion people and if incomes continued to rise.
Irreversible Trends
Forests too, are being over-whellned by human demands over the past half century, the world’s forested area has shrunk substantially, with much of the loss occurring in developing countries. And the forested area per person worldwide is projected to shrink from 0.56 hectares today to 0.38 hectares in 2050.
In some ways, the trends that will most affect the human prospect is an irreversible one -the accelerated extinction of plant and animal species. The share of birds, animals, and fish vulnerable or in immediate danger of extinction is now measured in double digits; 11 percent of the worlds 8,615 bird species, 25 percent of the worlds 4,355 mammal species and an estimated 34 percent of all fish species. The leading cause of species loss is habitat destruction, but habitat alterations from. rising temperature or pollution can also decimate both plant and animal species.
If the trends outlined earlier cannot be reversed, we face a future where continuing environmental detioration almost certainly will lead to economic decline. The challenge is to redesign economic system so that it will not destroy its environmental support system, so that economic progress can continue. In the Global economy, the market is a remarkably efficient device for allocating resources and for balancing supply and demand, but it does not respect the sustainable yield thresholds of natural systems. In a world where the demands of the economy are pressing against the limits of natural systems, relying exclusively on economic indicators to guide investment decisions is a recipe for disaster. Historically for, instance if the supply of fish was inadequate the price would rise, encouraging investment in additional fishing trawlers. This market system worked well. But today, with the fish catch already exceeding the sustainable yield of many fisheries, investing in more trawlers in response to higher seafood prices will simply accelerate the collapse of fisheries. A similar situation exists with forests, range lands and aquifers.
Economists see a world economy that has grown by leaps and bounds over the last half century, but ecologists see growth based on the burning of vast quantities of cheap fossil fuel which is destabilizing the climate. Again while economists see booming economic indicators, ecologists see an ecologist that is altering the climate with consequences that no one can foresee.
Carbon Emissions
To-day ecologists look at the deteriorating ecosystem and see a need to restructure the economy, the need for a shift. For example stabilizing earth's climate now depends on reducing carbon emission by shifting from fossil fuels to a solar Hydrogen energy economy Solar is here defined broadly, including not only direct sunlight but also indirect forms of solar energy wind power, hydropower and biological sources, such as wood. Fortunately, the technologies for tapping this enormous source of energy already exist. We can now see electricity generated from wind being used to electrolyse water and to produce hydrogen. Hydrogen then becomes the basic fuel for the new economy, relying initially on the distribution and storage facilities of the natural gas industry. Put simply the principles of ecological sustainability now require a shift from carbon based to a hydrogen based energy economy.
A threshold - a concept widely used in ecology in reference to the sustainable yield of natural systems is a point that, when crossed, can bring rapid and sometimes unpredictable change. In the social world, the thresholds of sudden change are no less real, though they may be more difficult to identify and anticipate.
Sing of Shift.
The awareness reports and media coverage carries effect among masses as witnessed by us about changing attitude of people regarding smoking habits. In early sixties smoking in the U.S. Houston
Two months later, Shell Oil and Daimler Chrysler announced they were leading a consortium of corporation whose goal is to make Iceland Iceland
In mid August 1998, after several weeks of near record flooding in Yangtze river basin, Beijing Beijing
A chastened tobacco industry, oil companies investing in hydrogen, reformed forest management are just some of the signs that the world may be approaching the kind of shift. Collapsing fisheries, shrinking forests and falling water tables illustrate how human demands are exceeding the sustainable yield of natural systems. Exactly when these sustainable yield thresholds are exceeded is not always evident. When expanding demand for a resource first surpasses the sustainable yield the additional demand can be satisfied and it typically is, by consuming the resource base. At first the shrinkage is scarcely detectable, but with each passing year the excess of demand over sustainable yield typically increases and is satisfied by consuming over more of the fish stocks, the forests or the aquifers.
The risk in a world adding nearly 80 million people annually is that so many sustainable yield thresholds will be cross & in such a short period of time that the consequences will become unmanageable. Historically, when early civilizations lived largely in Isolation, the consequences of threshold crossing were strictly local. To-day, in the age of global economic integration, a threshold crossing in one major country can put additional pressure an resources in other countries. When Beijing Yangtze River basin East Asia intensified the pressure on the regions remaining forests.
The over riding challenges facing over global civilization as the new century begins are to stabilize climatic and populations. Success on these two fronts would make other challenges, such as reversing the deforestation of earth, stabilizing water tables, and protecting plant and animal diversity, much more manageable. If we cannot stabilize climate and population, there is not an ecosystem on earth that we can save. Every-thing will change.
The exciting thing about the climate and population challenges is that we already have the technologies needed to succeed at both. Restructuring the energy economy to stabilize climate requires investment in climate benign energy sources. It is the greatest investment opportunity in history.
Stabilizing population though it requires additional investment in reproductive health services and in the education of young women in developing countries, is more a matter of behavioural change of couples having fewer children & investing more in the health and education of each.
Stabilizing climate means shifting from a fossil fuel or carbon based energy economy to alternative sources of energy. Nuclear power, once seen as alternative to fossil fuels has failed on several fronts. The issue is no longer whether it is economical to build nuclear power plants but given the high operating costs whether it even makes economic sense in many situations to continue using those already built.
Feasible Alternative
The only feasible alternative is a solar/ Hydrogen based economy, one that taps various sources of energy from the Sun, such as hydropower, wind power, wood or direct sunlight. The transition to a Solar/ Hydrogen economy has already begun, as can be seen in energy use trends from 1990. But the transition is not moving fast enough to avoid potentially disruptive climate change.
Enormous Potential
Wind and solar cells are likely to be the corner-stones of the new energy economy, though the use of all sources of energy that derive from the Sun directly or indirectly will expand. Already Denmark Germany Spain U.S. California Iowa Oregon Wyoming Texas
With-in the developing world, India China Inner Mongolia , a region of vast wind wealth. The world wind energy potential can only be described as enormous. Today the world gets over one fifth of all its electricity from Hydropower, but this is dwarfed by the wind power potential.
With the costs of wind electric generation dropping from $2600 per kilowatt in 1981 to $ 800 in 1988, wind power is fast becoming one of the world’s cheapest sources of electricity, in some locations undercutting coal, traditionally the cheapest source. Once cheap electricity is available from solar sources, it can be used to electrolyze water, producing hydrogen - an ideal means of both storing and transporting solar energy.
While wind and solar cell use are soaring, the world wide growth of oil use has slowed to less than 2 percent a year and may peak and turn downward as early as 2005. The burning of natural gas, the cleanest of the three fossil fuels is growing by 2 percent per year. It is increasingly seen as a transition fuel, part of the bridge from the fossil-fuel based energy economy to the solar hydrogen energy economy. The goal is to convert small positive growth rates for fossil fuels into negative rates, as they are phased down and to boost dramatically the growth in wind power and solar cells. Because wind energy is starting from such a small base and because the urgency of stabilizing the climate is mounting it should perhaps be growing at triple digit annual rates, not just in double digits.
If coral reefs are dying and if the Antarctic ice cap is beginning to break up, because earth’s temperature is rising, may be wind generating capacity should be doubling each year, much as the number of host computers linked to the internet died each year from 1980 to 1995.
One way of dramatically boosting the growth in wind power would be to reduce income taxes and off set them with a carbon tax on fossil fuels, one that would more nearly reflect the full costs, associated with air pollution, acid rain and climatic disruption. Such a move would raise investment not only in wind power, but also in solar cells and energy efficiency.
Changing Reproductive Behavior
Stabilization of population is more a matter of changing reproductive behavior. The annual addition to world population increased steadily from 38 million in 1950 to the historical peak of 87 million in 1989. After that it dropped to 78 million in 1998.
The key to stablishing world population is for national Governments to formulate strategies to do so humanely rather than wait for nature to intervene with its inhumane methods as it has done in Africa . Once these strategies are developed, it is in the interest of international community to support the stabilization effort.
In 1994 at the U.N conference on population and development in Cairo U.S. U.S.
Fortunately, the same family planning services that provide reproductive health counselling and that supply the condoms to help slow population growth also help to check the spread of the HIV. Investment in efforts to slow population growth can thus also help to check the spread of the virus.
No Substitute for Leadership
Saving the planet earth, including the stabilization of climate and population is a massive undertaking by any historical yardstick. This is not as spectator sport. It is some- thing everyone can participate in. Few activities offer more satisfaction. The world desperatively needs both leadership and time which are scarce resources. There is no substitute for leadership in stabilizing climate and population.
We can participate not only as indviua1s but also in an institutional sense. All of society institutions -from organized religion to corporations -have to play a role. Although many individuals and corporations want to do something about the environment, few recognize the need for system, change. Corporations take pride in listing in their annual reports the steps they have taken to help protect the environment. They will cite gains in office paper recycling or reduction in energy use. These are obviously moves in the right direction. And they are to be applauded.
But they do not deal with the Central Issue, which is the need to restructure the global economy quickly. This is not likely to happen unless corporations use some of their political leverage with Governments to actively support tax restructuring.
There is no middle path. The challenge is either to build an economy that is sustainable or to stay with our unsustainable economy until it declines. It is not a goal that can be compromised one way or another, the choice will be made by our generation but it will affect life on earth for all generations to come.
7
EARTH OUR GIFT
Madrice F. Strong (Chairman of the Earth Council and the President of the U.N. University
The new millennium we have just entered will decide the fate of human species. The unprecedented increase in human population and in the scale and intensity of human activities over the past century have reached a point where they are impacting on the resource and life support systems on which human life and its well being depend. Our fate is literally in our own hands. The principal determinant to shape our future shall be in what we do or fail to do in managing the process in that direction.
Decisive shall be the first three decades of the century in setting the direction that will determine the survival or the demise of human life as we know it.
Although science and technology has made it possible to bring to all people of the earth – prosperity, well being and opportunities undreamed of by earlier generations, yet it has also produced a series of deepening environmental and social imbalance which are undermining the basic foundation for a sustainable future.
For centuries, the dominant attitude towards the natural world was that it existed for the benefit of humankind, to exploit it as we saw fit, “The world is made for man, not man for the world”- Frances Bacon wrote 400 years ago. This prevailed until recent times & even today conditions the attitudes of many.
Changing Attitude to Nature
The negative impacts of the industry revolution and the increased. Urbanization which arose from it, led to the development of a number of voluntary associations which were the precursors of the conservation movement and sustainable development which evolved from it.
The insight that humans inflict damage on themselves by damaging nature has become a basic premise of modern environmentalism which emerged as a major and influencial movement during the second half of the 20th century.
Air and water pollution, urban blight, desecration of natural resources and undermining of human health and well-being became more widespread and visible. Attention was driven to this direction by great thinkers through their publications. These have helped faster growing public awareness and concern in Industrial countries which led to the decision by the United Nation General Assembly in 1969, on Sweden
Framework for Negotiation
The conference was held in Stockholm , Sweden
It placed the environment issue firmly on the global agenda and provided the political impetus which led to the convening of several other global conferences on related issues: the: Population Conference in Bucharest in 1974 and Cairo in 1994, the Habitat Conference in Vancouver in 1976 and Istanbul in 1996, the Women’s Conference in Mexico city in 1975, Copenhagen in 1980, Nairobi in 1985 and Beijing in 1995 and the Social summit in Copenhagen in 1995. Each of these was patented on the model pioneered by the Stockholm
The environment issue and the more comprehensive concept of sustainable development which evolved from it, provided a broad framework in which economic, social, population, gender and human settlements issues can be seen in their systemic relationship to each other and are the common thread which links the agendas and the results of each of these conference. In this sense Stockholm
The Stockholm Conference clearly brought out the differences between the position of developing and the industrial counties, but did not resolve then. Indeed, the issues of finance and the basis for sharing responsibilities and costs continue to be the principal sources of differences and controversy between the developing and developed countries.
These have become central and International negotiations on virtually every environment and sustainable development subjects notably in respect of the climate change and Biodiversity conventions.
The Stockholm Nairobi , Kenya
A Historic Summit
It recommended led to the decision by the U.N. General Assembly in Dec. 1989 to hold the U.N. conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). To underscore the importance of the conference, it was decided that it should be held at the summit level and is now known as the Earth Summit.
As an event in itself the UNCED – the Earth Summit RIO-de-Janeiro in 1992 was clearly remarkable, indeed historic. Never before had so many of the world’s political leaders come together in one place and the fact that they came to consider the urgent question of our planets future, put these under an enormous internal spotlight. This was helped by the presence at RIO , both in the conference itself and the accompanying Global Forum, of an unprecedented number of people and organizations representing every sector of civil society, & more than double the number of media representatives that had ever covered a world conference.
The Earth Summit validated the concept of sustainable development which had been articulated by the Bund land commission, not as an end in itself, but as the indispensable means of achieving, in the 21st century, a civilization that is sustainable in economic and social as well as environmental terms.
The Earth Summit also made it clear that sustainability in physical terms can only be achieved through new dismensions of cooperation among the nations and peoples of our planet and most of all a new basis for relationships between rich and poor, both within and among nations.
Despite shortcomings, as the result of compromises made to reach consensus, the agreement reached at the earth summit represent the most comprehensive programme ever agreed to by governments for shaping the human future. The declaration of principles, agreed on at RIO reaffirmed and built on the Stockholm
So far the record is mixed. There have been many positive achievements which demonstrate that the transition to sustainable development call for at RIO is possible. The conventions on climate change. Biodwersity & desertification have come into force, although progress towards agreement as the protocols necessary to give them “Teeth” has been disappointingly slow.
Innovative Mechanism
The Global environment facility, established as a result of the earth summit, as an innovative mechanism for financing the incremental costs of meeting these needs has been notably successful, but its resources are limited. Official Development Assistance has declined and deeply entrenched difference over intellectual property rights, in respect of the biological resources of developing countries has brought negotiations on a Biodiversity convention to a virtual standstill. While at the meeting of the parties to the climate convention in Kyoto , Japan
In the principal countries to which we most look for leadership- The U.S Canada, members of the European Union and Japan-
Our environmental future and with it the future of our species will depend primarily on whether or not developing counties notably India
It every one in the world were to adopt the current consumption patterns of the rich nations, an extra three planets like earth would be required to support them. This is clearly an untenable and unsustainable situation, especially when considered within the context of the evidence at the earth summit. Chapter 4 of Agenda 21. points out, the major cause of the continued deterioration of the global environment is the unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, particularly in developed countries.
Potential for Conflict
The 21st century is likely to see the re-emergence of some basic, traditional issues with significant potential for conflicts access to water, food, energy, land, resources and livelihoods. The issue about which we have become dangerously complacent is food security.
Dr. M.S. Swaminathen humanitarian and eminent Indian scientist in his research made the case for a greatly strengthened, cooperative programme of research scientific and policy to ensure that the revolutionary advances in biotechnology, which will radically change traditional patterns of food production and the movement to accord new technologies intellectual property rights, benefit the poor and do not impose on them a new generation of risks and vulnerabilities.
The dichotomies which characterizes our global society today are clearly manifest in India India India
Cooperative Management
The system of cause and effect through which human policies and activities have their impacts on the process that are shaping our future is global in scale and complex in nature. And as significant dimensions of space and time often separate cause and effect, their real consequences are not always readily discernable. The principal challenge faced by our civilization in making the transition to the sustainable way of life is the management of this system. The processes which have given rise to the phenomenon we now call globalization transcends the traditional boundaries of nations, of sectors and disciplines. No nation, however powerful can go it alone, in realizing the principal benefits for its people and safeguarding them from the potential risks and vulnerabilities of globalization. The only real option is to develop a more effective system of managing these issues cooperatively.
The various sectors of civil society have organized themselves around a wide variety of interests and causes on which they have demonstrated, as they did at the W.T.O meeting in Seattle last year, to mobilize broad support and public opinion on issues about which people feel strongly.
The business community, notably transnational cooperation’s, which today command more economic power and influence than many nations must also have a place at the table when issues in which they are major actors are being resolved. Any effective system for cooperative management of these issues requires the participation and cooperation of these key actors as well.
However due to unwillingness of Governments to address the need of the fundamental restructuring of these institutions, the multilateral organizations, of which the U.N. and its specialized agencies are the centerpiece, are not geared to carry out the new generation of tasks that will be required of them as the instruments of cooperative Governance.
The reluctance of the nations that currently dominate the power structure of the global community to dilute their powers by a more effective and democratic enfranchisement of the developing country majority is clearly one of the principal reasons why strengthening the multilateral institutions has proven so difficult. This is a reflection of the great divide that still separated the more industrialized from the developing nations and the difficulties that have been encountered in reaching the agreements and affecting the cooperation necessary to move towards global sustainability.
Best Illustration
The environment is the best illustration of the need to bring all key actors into any system of cooperative management of those issues which none can manage alone, if such a system is to be effective. The same is true of other issues that are critical to the common future of humanity. But not all issues need to be dealt with at the Global level and in may cases, the principal global function is to provide the framework, context and legal regime required to initiate actions which can best be taken at the local and regional levels. In fact the principle of solidarity calls for all issues to be dealt with at the level closest to the people concerned where they can be dealt with effectively.
An effective system of Governance at the global level require a legal and institutional framework for cooperative management of those issues which affect fundamentally the prospects for survival and well-being of the whole human community. This means extending into our international life the basic principals of law and justice which provide the foundations for the effective functioning of democratic national societies.
The sum total of the behavior of individuals the main source of human impact on the global environment of which the risks of climate change are a principal manifestation. People’s behaviour is driven ultimately by their own principal values and priorities. The changes called for at the Earth Summit in RIO in 1992 were fundamental in nature and will not come quickly or easily. Individuals often believe that they can make little difference in the larger scheme of things. But indeed, without individual change there cannot be social change.
One of the greatest disappointments is the result of the Earth Summit was the inability to obtain agreement in an Earth charter to define a set of basic moral and ethical principles for the conduct of people of nations towards each other and the Earth as the basis for achieving a sustainable way of life on our planet Governments were simply not ready for it. But now the Earth Council has joined with many other organizations around the world to undertake this important piece of unfinished business from RIO through a global campaign designed to stimulate dialogue of a peoples Earth Charter. This is intended to be a compelling and authoritative voice of the world’s people which will ultimately have powerful and possessive influence on Government, hopefully leading to endorsement of the Earth Charter by the U.N.
The 21st century will be decisive for the human species for we are now, in a very real sense, trustees of our own future. The direction of human future will largely set in the 1st. decades of this century. For all the evidence of environmental degradation, social tension and inter-communal conflicts have occurred at levels of population and human activity that are a great deal less than they will be in the period ahead.
The risks we face in common from the mounting dangers to the environment, resource base and life support systems which all life in Earth depends, are far greater than the risks we face or have faced in our conflicts with each other. A new paradigm of cooperative global governance is the only feasible basis on which we can manage these risks and realize the immense potential for progress and fulfillment for the entire human family which is within our reach.
8
PROTECTION OF WATER RESOURCES IN KASHMIR
The creation of earth and the skies as well as their contents is a science that is beyond the conception of human brain, not to speak of making an idea about the nature of the creator. As Allah tells us “We got everything out of the water, will they not believe.
The modern idea that “the origion of life is aquatic” confirms it.
Again “And we send down from the Sky, water in measure and we give it lodging in the Earth and Lo”? We are able to with-draw it” (23- 18)
“And caused the earth to gush forth springs, so that the water met for a predestined purpose” (54:12)
History is witness to the fact that Man’s habitation started on the banks of water resources like springs, rivers and lakes, water being most essential for sustenance life. Great civilizations of the world have thrived on the river banks so has been the story of the valley as well.
Geological evidence and mythological tradition confirm that the valley of Kashmir Kashmir came to be the abode of a permanent and a prosperous agricultural community.
The valley of Kashmir
In recent past about 100 years back these water resources existed in the form of besides glaciers more than 100 known springs, 25 No. rivers including tributaries, lakes and wet lands.
A number of these water bodies are now either extinct or are at the verge of extinction due to high pressure of urbanization with rising population, generation liquid and solid wasters besides denudation of forests causing excessive siltation.
With the rising of global temperature by a degree or so, perhaps it was for the first time in the known history that River Jehlum in the valley ran almost dry in the winter months of 1999-2000 due to unprecedented dry spell for which environmental degradation like depletion of ozone layer, deforestation and environmental population are responsible.
Though there is good potential of harnessing the available water falls for development of hydro electric power, the valley has suffered due to existing “Sindh water treaty” between India Pakistan
Once Kashmir claimed to have the purest natural drinking water. Springs and lake water used to have healing effects, but strangely enough at present, mineral water is brought from outside the state for drinking purposes. The water quality has deteriorated emanating obnoxious smell at Brari Numbal, Khushal Sar and River Jehlum. The Nallah Mar running through the heart of the city also got sacrificed, on this account.
Siltation
Siltation needs to be got arrested by suitable measures like: afforestation construction of check dams and settling basins, besides, resorting to manual/ mechanical dredging/ deweelng.
Liquid wastes
Liquid wastes need to be got arrested by construction of catch water drains leading to treatment plants before pouring the same into water bodies.
Solid wastes
Solid wastes need to be managed on scientific basis to avert their menacing effect on the environment. Since the air/ water quality of the valley particularly that of Srinagar city has direct bearing on the National/ International health (being a tourist place), attention needs to be given on top priority for improvement of the fast deteriorating environment for which international funding could also be tapped.
Attention is, therefore, drawn towards the management of wastes of the Srinagar
a) Environmental Pollution Causes Disease.
b) Solid Water Management of Greater Srinagar City
c) Harnessing of Water Resources in Kashmir .
9
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION CAUSES DISEASES
In the Natural environment, there is perfect balance or equilibrium between various organisms in the biosphere known as “Ecological Balance”.
Man has been found responsible for upsetting the "Ecological Balance" by destroying and transforming nature. The absence of proper sanitation and increasing use of mineral resources such as Coal, petroleum and natural gas for power production, Industrialization and transport has created atmospheric and water pollution.
Pollution of water bodies is increasing to abnormal, proportion due to effluents. Urban wastes, Use of insecticides and pesticides acid rain and hydrocarbons etc.
Increase in human population since the beginning of 20th Century is responsible for draining the resources. By 2000 AD the population of world shall be touching about 6: billion (every second three more are added to the total, a growth of 10.000 per hour or 80 million per year). The population has more than doubled since 1950. An average adult exchanges 15kg air, I.5kg of food and 2.5kg of water per day resulting in rise of 20 billion tons per year of Co2 in the atmosphere, 110 million tons of solid waste, 2 billion tons of excreta, 5 billion tons of liquid waste.
Most of the solid and liquid waste finds their way into the water bodies like rivers, lakes and springs etc., and thereby to Food-borne, water-borne and soil-borne diseases.
Water, food and soil are essential for life, but when contaminated they also transmit bacteria, viruses and parasites that cause some of the worlds most menacing diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, intestinal worms, hepatitis and tetanus. Almost half the world's population suffers from diseases associated with insufficient or contaminated water and is at the risk from water borne and food borne disease as per WHO report of 1996.
Food and Water Borne Disease:
Diarrheic disease caused more than 3 million deaths in 1995 of which more than 80% were among children under age 5. It was long thought that contaminated water- supplies were the main source of pathogens causing diarrhea but it has now been shown that food has been responsible for upto 70% of diarrhoeal episodes.
In 1993 USA Milwaukee
Infections
That 200 million people in Asia , Africa and Latin America have symptoms of the
Intestinal infection giardiasis, there are some 5, 00,000 new cases a year, majority being among children. The infection causes acute and persistent diarrhea, abdominal pain and rapid weight loss. Lack of sanitation and poor basic hygiene assist its spread. Epidemics of cholera and dysentery are frequent, striking adults as well as children, cholera alone causes 1,20,000/- deaths a year and is particularly deadly in Africa , where epidemics have become more widespread and more frequent since the 1970’s. A pattern of global epidemics that literally circle the world is being repeated. At least seven such pandemics have been recorded in the last 150 years. In 1993 Cholera was reported an endemic in some 80 countries, affecting lacs of people.
A new strain of cholera code-named- 0139 emerged in India Pakistan China Bangladesh
The economic impact of cholera epidemics in losses of trade and Tourism can be enormous. In 1991 epidemic in Peru Asia and rest in Africa and Latin America .
The hepatitis-virus causes outbreaks in Asia , North Africa and Central America particularly in countries where environmental sanitation is inadequate.
The problem of food borne disease is very serious in developing countries, but is not limited to them. The estimated annual incidence of food-borne disease in USA
Salmoncllosis has increased tremendously in industrial Countries over past few years. In many countries, poultry meat, eggs and food containing eggs have been identified as the predominant sources of the pathogen. In certain countries upto 60-100 persons of poultry meat is contaminated with species of salmonella, and beef, frogs-legs and chocolate and milk have also been implicated. In 1985, some 1,70,000 to 2,00,000 persons were involved in an out-break of Salmoncllosis in Chicago (U.S.A) caused by contaminated pasteurized milk.
Hepatitis is common all over the world; some 10 to 50 persons per 1,00,000 are affected annually. An epidemic of shell-fish borne hepatitis-A in China
Soil Borne Infections
Diseases that come from the soil affect several million people annually. The most deadly of these diseases neonatal tetanus is responsible for the deaths of at least 4,50,000 children every year. While intestinal worm infections are the most widespread.
Tetanus can affect all age groups but is a problem particularly for new borne and their mothers. It is a bacterial disease caused through the infection of a wound by the tetanus bacillus. In early 1980’s between 8,00,000 and 1 million new borne were estimated to die of neonatal tetanus every year (upto 25% of infant deaths in many developing countries) of all soil borne disease, intestinal parasitic infections caused by worms account for by far the greatest proportion. These causes by hookworm, rundown, and whipworm predominate. WHO estimates that as many as 305 billion people are infected by worms and that at any time some 450 million, most of them children are ill as a result. The number of those is increasing and most of these cases can be fatal. In 1995 hookworm infection killed 65,000 people and roundworm killed 60,000. Chronic infections impair the physical and mental growth, nutrition development of children in general and girls and young women in particular.
The infections are spreading rapidly in slums and squatter settlements in and around many cities in developing countries. Poor sanitation and consequent contamination of the environment with excreta are among the commonest hazards, contributing to the transmission. Soil is the breeding ground, when contaminated by infected individuals, defecating in open spaces or human excreta carried by open drains into the water bodies like most of the Srinagar City.
Preventing and Controlling Food Borne, Water Borne and Solid Borne Diseases:
All depends upon how communities deal with human feaces and solid wastes. At least 2.5 billion people in developing countries lack an adequate system for disposing of their feaces. For the poor in many developing countries, feaces deposited near their homes constantly threaten household hygiene by direct contact with people or by being carried into homes and kitchens by children, domestic animals or insects like mosquitoes and flies. Domestic neighborhood or District water supplies such as Municipal taps, wells, tanks and reservoirs may be contaminated by poorly designed or maintained sewage disposal systems. The importance of washing hands after defecation and before preparing food is fundamental to controlling diseases.
Improving the quality of drinking water, ensuring proper sewage, solid waste disposal and providing more water for both personal and domestic hygiene are the keys to the prevention or control of major sources such as diarrheic diseases (including cholera) typhoid, guinea-worm disease, schistosomiases and giardiasis. The last estimates relating to the developed world for 1995 indicate that about 25% of the population do not have access to safe water and over 66% lack adequate sanitation.
Cost Effective Solutions
Technological advances in water supply, sanitation, drainage and solid waste management in recent years offer cost-effective solutions that can be adopted to local circumstances and can greatly improve health and environmental conditions. Personal hygiene is immensely important in the prevention of contamination of food and drinking water.
Education of public through mass media, education of children in schools and partnerships between communities and organized public and private sectors including NGO’s Government Ministers concerned with education, development, and Industry have a major role to play.
10
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
OF GREATER SRINAGAR CITY
The population of Srinagar Srinagar Srinagar
Solid Waste
Solid waste is the term used internationally to describe non-liquid waste material arising from domestic, commercial, Industrial, Agricultural and mining activities and from public services. These include materials such as food waste, discarded packaging and other materials in the form of paper, metals, plastic or glass, leather, discarded clothing and furnishings, garden wastes, construction wastes, which are daily generated in homes, farms, factories and other establishments.
The total solid wastes generated in 2000 AD in the Srinagar Town
The UEED engaged Delhi based Universal Environsience as consultants in 1981 for preparation of feasibility report on solid waste management of Greater Srinagar City who made the following recommendations besides suggesting improvement to the then existing collecting and transporting system.
The chemical analysis report revealed that the solid waste of Srinagar is amenable to composting as it contains appreciable amount of organic matter and that C/N ratio are within the desirable limits of 20:1 to 35:1.
The guiding approach for solid waste disposal should be to segregate as much as possible the reusable materials from the solid waste to be followed by the under mentioned methods of disposal as is the practice in other cities like Delhi etc.
I. Maximum possible quantity (which is readily decomposable) is to be disposed off by composting .This would involve construction of compost plant on Delhi
II. The fraction which is hardly decomposable or inert is to be disposed off by sanitary land-fill.
III. The minimum necessary fraction like hospital waste is to be incinerated.
IV. In the congested areas of the city a separate system of night soil disposal to produce manure and also bio-gas need to be adopted, on the similar pattern as in the city of Tokyo (having same latitude and similar climatic conditions as Srinagar), which is having an effective system of collection, transportation of night soil and treatment and disposal in night soil digesters. Besides where space permits low cost pit type flush latrine could be popularized which has changed many towns/cities into clean ones? The experiment of Sulabh International for construction/maintenance of even community type latrines has proved to be success on pay and use basis. This has been adopted by 21 UNDP countries.
V. Keep at least 200 meters distance on the banks of river Jehlum and lake fronts free from littering by introducing necessary prohibitive civic regulations (like the one that exists in Singapore). Violators of such regulation may be made to pay heavy penalty. This would immensely help to keep the city water front clean.
VI. For preventing water pollution caused by discharge of various solid wastes including night soil from the house boats and Donga boats, the following methods are recommended:
a) built in digester plant for such individual house boats (like Clovis digester developed in Sweden
b) Providing two suitably placed containers, one each for garbage and night soil in each boat with the provision of regular collection of wastes by a scavenger boat for safe dry disposal at selected disposal site(s).
c) Providing collective water carrying system for the night soil of the boats and installation of treatment facility(s) in the land nearest to the boats before its disposal.
Alternative (b) was recommended feasible in the context of present arrangement and location of house boat and Donga boats in the lakes and river Jehlum and also due to practical constraints of rear arrangement/modification of the boats and non-availability of land area near the boat.
Kitchen waste could be converted into compost by digging underground pits of size 1Mx1Mx1. 5M duly covered with a wooden lid in which alternate 1’ layer of decomposable waste duly covered with a little lime and earth could be deposited. This compost can be used for Kitchen garden, where space permits.
Solid waste collection system could be improved by providing 2 number plastic containers in each home with decomposable bags, in which decomposable and non- decomposable waste would be stored separately and carried away along with the replaceable bag by the service people, who would be paid for the same. This would avoid menace of stinking garbage sheds in the localities.
After exploring various sites it was desired that Syedpora near Idd-Gah may be used for solid waste dumping till the “compost plant” is ready at Waniyar Noorbagh (as an interim arrangement for about five years).
The project was proposed to be implemented in the next five years from 1981 with a capital expenditure of Rs. 5.00 crores, and it was expected that the Srinagar Municipality would be in a position to develop the required management infrastructure in a phased manner., which could be delineated after necessary schemes, designs and other components of the solid waste management system were worked out in the 2nd stage of the scope of the consultancy work.
The final project report may be available from UEED or Delhi New Delhi Srinagar Municipality
11
HARNESSING OF WATER RESOURCES IN KASHMIR
The planet Earth is enriched with abundant sources of water, so vital for our existence. 72% of its surface area is covered with water.
The different forms of its availability are salt water. Icebergs, glaciers, snow, Clearwater
The salt water and the frozen assets are not available for useful purposes, by recycling by evaporation of fresh water hardly 20% fails as precipitation over land areas, out of which 10 to 20% is limited as useful. This too being distributed unevenly.
Equity demands that land areas which are thirsty for water are supplied with the required quantities of the same. Besides prudence demands that we do not allow the quality of our water to deteriorate. Thus it should be our earnest endeavour to manage this Natural gift in an equitable and sensible manner.
“Kashmir had the highest initial purity of water supply in the world”. We have witnessed shocking transformation of clean waters of Dal Lake Lake and use its water for all purposes. We used to swim in Nallah Mar % cluld se people bathing in river Ghats , in the mornings. The entire catchments area of Dal Lake
The people had the good sense of respecting the purity of this gift of nature. Illiterate and poor masses considered it a sin to pollute water, the dry pit system confined the nuisance to specific areas. Most of the water got absorbed in the soil as the streets were not paved. The houseboats were provided with commodes on dry pail system, which were cleared at suitable intervals. None touched the fish in springs. No pesticides wore used for spraying food crops and fruit trees. Sewage from lavatories and from septic tanks were not allowed to run into streams and water bodies.
In the present advanced age, we have witnessed.
1. Raw human excrete being emptied in the lake from water closets provided to house boats.
2. Effluents and sewage in poured into the lake and the river in raw form without any treatment of any kind.
3. Early kind of solid wastes including containers and polythene bags are freely dumped into rivers, Water bodies.
4. Raw sewage is let on the surface drains of public roads/lanes.
5. Septic tanks of hotels are connected directly to the drains flowing into lakes/rivers.
6. Septic tanks are built in all the new colonies where the water table is hardly two or three feet below the ground level in springs.
7. The subsoil water table has been allowed to rise by filling the drainage sluices out of order.
8. Nallah Mar was filled without first building the trunk sewer.
9. Residential houses are being put up rapidly in the flood absorption basins.
10. Houses constructed in unplanned colonies manage to get water connection and electric supply while as the legal colonies have to starve for water all the more when they are charged the development cost including the facilities. (Bemina colony extension being one example).
Instead of improving the navigation system, we have allowed it to deteriorate, draining out limited resources on P.O.L which add to air pollution. A shikara boat ride along River Jehlum or around the Dal Lake
We have provided drinking water facilities in rural areas where it was not available who depended upon springs and Nallahs but simultaneous arrangement to take care of the effluents for using these in irrigation instead of polluting the streams was not envisaged. This negligence is causing irreparable harm to the entire community.
With the use of pesticides in orchards, vegetables and food crops, the stream got poisoned and even water supply sources get contaminated. Recently in some places use of insecticides has been banned to safe guard human health, besides that of the cattle and birds, fish and insects like bees.
Every foot of water fall could be used to generate electricity as in China
We could plan quick yielding mini hydel projects instead of major ones which take decades to complete.
To obviate electric energy for lift irrigation, tributaries of river Jehlum could irrigate Karewas and higher lands and the lower reaches could be irrigated by Jehlum directly. This would reduce lift height and pumping. Integrated drainage cum irrigation schemes in areas particularly subjected to floods and where water table is high or is likely to rise. This would require sets of supply and drainage channels on different levels.
To help regenerate springs tank irrigation would be resorted to particularly on the Karewas, with terracing of slopes preventing sheet erosion.
By siltation the level of flat areas rises about a foot in a century. This silt could be used to reclaim swamps for raising levels of cultivated lands under controlled conditions and prevent rise of beds of channels due to siltation.
Redevelopment plan needs to be proposed from the highest possible contours to the lowest ones, extend to all uses of the waters and benefits to be derived from their control. This shall include both flood control drainage and reclamation of swamps, extension of irrigation and prevention of rise of water tables, improved navigation development and utilization of electric power, protection and development of fish and fowl.
In the name of progress and affluence, care need to be taken not to disturb balance between man and nature. Thus air borne pollutions are accumulating in upper layer affecting the protective ozone layer. Toxic chemicals are being discharged by industries into water making it poisonous.
Flowing water follows gravitation and other hydraulic laws and is not related to political interests. Even India Pakistan
Water Resources of Kashmir Valley
A) Jehlum Basin
January 80 cumees
February 124 cumees
March 241 cumees
April 421 cumees
May 496 cumees
June 458 cumees
July 395 cumees
August 310 cumees
September 235 cumees
October 136 cumees
November 94 cumees
December 82 cumees
Total: 4792 cumees
Total land inigated 4.84 Lac acres
Total annual yield at Bla 90 lac aft.
B)
| Distt: | Geographical areas in sqkms | Land as per village sqkms | Cultivated area 1000 hec | Irrigated area 1000 hec. |
| | 2228 | 510 | 23 | 18.2 |
| Budgam | 1371 | 780 | 55 | 35.2 |
| Pulwama | 1398 | 980 | 54 | 35.6 |
In Kashmir division out of 3.10 lac hect, 2.02 hectares are irrigated.
C) Power Potential in Jehlum Basin
| S.No | Name of scheme | Installed capacity | Name of tubulary |
| 1. | Lidder stage I | 50 (MW) | Lidder |
| 2. | Lidder stage II | 50 (MW) | do |
| 3. | Pahalgam | 4 (MW) | do |
| 4. | Nunwan Balkote | 23 (MW) | do |
| 5. | Balkote | 36 (MW) | do |
| 6. | Aro-Pahalgam | 30 (MW) | do |
| 7. | Vishew | 15 (MW) | Vishew |
| 8. | Bringi | 6 (MW) | Bringi |
| 9. | Sandran | 4 (MW) | Sandaran |
| 10. | Hirpura | 2 (MW) | Rambiare |
| 11. | Brewari | 2 (MW) | Doodganga |
| 12. | Tangmarg | 2 (MW) | Ferozpur |
| 13. | Athwatu | 7.5 (MW) | Madhumah |
| 14. | Kahmil | 4 (MW) | Pohne |
| 15. | Mewar | 5 (MW) | Pohne |
| 16. | Wangat | 25 (MW) | Sindh Nala |
| 17. | Shitkari | 84 (MW) | do |
| 18. | Gangbal | 100 (MW) | Gangbal |
| 19. | Kishan Ganga | 390 (MW) | kishanGanga |
| 20. | Uri Stage II | 200 (MW) | Jehlum |
| 21. | Banyar stage I & II | 8 (MW) | do |
| 22. | Asthan Nalla | 6.9 (MW) | Kishan Ganga |
| 23. | | 105 (MW) | Sindh Nalla |
| 24. | Uri stage I | 480 (MW) | Jehlum |
| | Total | | |
Useful data
A) Population of Srinagar
1981 : 5,90,000
2000 : 12,00,000
2010 :
B) Consumption and waste generated per day:
a) Consumption:
i) Exchange of air: 18000 tones
ii) Consumption of food: 18000 tones
iii) Consumption of waste: 3000 tones
b) Generation:
i) Solid waste: 500 tones
ii) Liquid waste: 2500 tones
iii) Carbon dioxide: 4000 tones
c) Availability Drinking water: (2000 AD)
i) Nishat - 15 MGD
ii) Alsteng - 6.8 MGD
iii) Rangil - 20 MGD
iv) Dood Ganga - 7.75 MGD
Total 49.55 MGD Requirement in Sgr. City - 41.31 MGD
Requirement in 2005 AD - 72.55 MGD
% increase - 46.41 %
Future Proposals
i) Pokhribal : 4 MGD
ii) Sindh Extension : 10 MGD
iii) Dood Ganga : 2.25 MGD
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