Social Issues and Environment

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 From Unsustainable to
Sustainable
• G.H Bruntland, (Norwegian Prime Minister and Director of World Health Organisation) :
“meeting the needs of present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs”

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 Current status
• Until now development has been human oriented.
• We have touched greatest heights of scientific and
technological developments.
• At WHAT COST????

• Everyone talks and walks sustainability

• Earth Summit in Rio de Janerio in 1992 (United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development - UNCED)
• Many programmes have been initiated.
Agenda- 21 proposed

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Key aspects of Sustainable
development
• Inter- generational equity
❖ Stop overuse
❖ Reduce Impacts
❖ Maintain ecological balance
❖ Hand over a safe, healthy and resourceful
environment to our future generations
• Intra-generational equity
❖ Minimize gap between and within nations
❖ Support economic growth of poorer countries
❖ Provide technological help

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 Measures for Sustainable
development
• Using appropriate technology: concept of “Design with nature”
• 3-R approach: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
(Minimization of resource use, use again and process to get new product
from same material)
• Promoting environmental awareness and education
• Resource utilization as per carrying capacity.
• Improving quality of life including social, cultural and
economic dimensions

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 Indian Scenario
• tremendous population and natural diversity
• makes planning sustainably all the more important but
complex.
• National Council of Environmental Planning and
Coordination set up in 1972.
• Ministry of Environment and Forests set up in 1985 has
formulated guidelines keeping in view SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT

• .

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 Social Issues
• Urban problems related to ENERGY
• WATER CONSERVATION
• Resettlement and Rehabilitation issues
• Climate Change
• Global Warming
• Acid Rain and Ozone layer Depletion
• Nuclear Accidents and Holocaust
• Waste land Reclamation
• Consumerism and waste products

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1. Urban problems related to energy
• Cities are the main centers of economic growth,
trade, education, employment
• Now 50% population lives in Urban areas
• Urban sprawl
• Difficult to accommodate
• Uncontrollable and unplanned growth
• Densely populated, consume more resources,
NEED MORE ENERGY

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Energy demanding activities
• Residential and Commercial lighting- Malls, offices,
hotels.
• Private and Public transport.
• Modern life style: electronic gadgets.
• Industries
• Waste disposal
• Prevention and Control of pollution

Effects ▪Unequal distribution of energy

▪Power cuts and load – shedding
▪Demand energy from other states
▪Overall society suffers
▪Economic development hampered.

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2. Water Conservation
• Water is a vital resource.
• Majority of water resources
are polluted heavily
• Its amount is limited for use
• So conservation is Extremely important
• Water conservation refers to reducing the
usage of water and recycling of waste water for
different purposes such as cleaning,
manufacturing, and agricultural irrigation.

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 Actions…
• Some researchers have suggested that water conservation efforts
should be primarily directed at farmers, in light of the fact that
crop irrigation accounts for 70% of the world's fresh water use.
• Drip irrigation instead of sprinkle irrigation.
• Common strategies include: public outreach campaigns, tiered
water rates (charging progressively higher prices as water use
increases), or restrictions on outdoor water use such as lawn
watering and car washing.
• 100’s of ways to conserve water

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Rain Water Harvesting

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•
Introduction
In urban areas, the construction of houses, footpaths and
roads has left little exposed earth for water to soak in.
• In parts of the rural areas of India, floodwater quickly flows
to the rivers, which then dry up soon after the rains stop. If
this water can be held back, it can seep into the ground and
recharge the groundwater supply.
• This has become a very popular method of conserving water
especially in the urban areas.
• Rainwater harvesting essentially means collecting rainwater
on the roofs of building and storing it underground for later
use. Not only does this recharging arrest groundwater
depletion, it also raises the declining water table and can
help augment water supply.

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 Status
• Town planners and civic authority in many cities in India
are making rainwater harvesting compulsory in all new
structures.
• No water or sewage connection would be given if a new
building did not have provisions for rainwater harvesting
• A number of government buildings have been asked to
go in for water harvesting in Delhi and other cities of
India.

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Process

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 Case study
• The area surrounding the River Ruparel in Rajasthan, is an
example of proper water conservation. The site does not
receive even half the rainfall received by Cherrapunji, but
proper management and conservation have meant that more
water is available than in Cherrapunji.
• The water level in the river began declining due to extensive
deforestation and agricultural activities along the banks and,
by the 1980s, a drought-like situation began to spread.
• Under the guidance of some NGOs (non-government
organizations), the women living in the area were encouraged
to take the initiative in building johads (round ponds) and
dams to hold back rainwater.

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• Gradually, water began coming back as proper methods
of conserving and harvesting rainwater were followed.
• The revival of the river has transformed the ecology of
the place and the lives of the people living along its
banks. Their relationship with their natural
environment has been strengthened.

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WATER SHED
MANAGEMENT

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 Concept of Watershed
• Watershed is a geo hydrological unit or piece of land that
drain at a common point.
• A watershed is defined as any spatial area from which
rain or irrigation water is collected and drained through a
common point.
• The watershed and drainage basin are synonymous term
indicating an area surrounded by a ridge line that is
drained through a single outlet.

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• A watershed is simply the land that water
flows across or through on its way to a
common stream, river, or lake.
• A watershed can be very large (e.g. draining
thousands of square miles to a major river
or lake or the ocean), or very small, such as
a 20-acre watershed that drains to a pond.

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Objectives of watershed management
1. To control damaging runoff and degradation and thereby
conservation of soil and water.
2. To manage and utilize the runoff water for useful purpose.
3. To protect, conserve and improve the land of watershed for
more efficient and sustained production.
4. To protect and enhance the water resource originating in the
watershed.
5. To check soil erosion and to reduce the effect of sediment yield
on the watershed.
6. To rehabilitate the deteriorating lands.
7. To moderate the floods peaks at down stream areas.
8. To increase infiltration of rainwater.
9. To improve and increase the production of timbers, fodder and
wild life resource.
10. To enhance the ground water recharge, wherever applicable.

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Watershed management practices
• Watershed management involves many techniques
• The techniques can be summarized as : Grassland
development, Gully Plugs, Tree plantation and
contour trenching on hill tops and slopes, Contour
bunding, Water conservation structures, Lift irrigation
schemes, Land leveling etc.
• Public participation and awareness

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 INTEGRATED WATERSHED
DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
• The Integrated Watershed Development Project (Hills-II) started in
April 1999.
• It has a budget of US$24.4 million and is being run by experts from
different line departments.
• It is World Bank-funded and operated in Haryana, Jammu and
Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal.
• One of its working areas lies in northeast Haryana in the most
degraded watersheds of the Siwalik hills and their adjoining
piedmont plains. The project area has been identified as one of
India’s eight most degraded rainfed agro-ecosystems.

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3. Resettlement and
Rehabilitation

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 Intro
• Development projects very very essential.
• For development natural resources are utilized.
• Most affected are locals or native people
• Poorest of poor and underprivileged people
• Various types of project lead to displacement of locals
• Displacement due to dams
• Displacement due to mining
• Displacement due to formation of PA’s

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 Displacement due to dams
• Need space for such huge project.
• Locals, tribals and natives are affected.
• Families have to leave the ancestral place and need to settle
elsewhere.
• Hirakund dam: 20000 people in 250 villages
• Bhakra Nangal : not even half of displaced resettled.
• Sardar Sarovar: 41,000 families will get displaced due to reservoir.
• Tehri dam: 10000 people of Tehri town
• A review by the World Bank posits that an average of 13,000
people are displaced by each new large dam constructed currently
(Cernea 1996b).
• By this estimate, Indians displaced by the country’s 3000+ large
dams would number over 39 million.

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Displacement due to mining
• Several thousand hectares of land are covered
in Mining operations
• Mining accidents also cause displacement.
• Jharia Coal Mines, Jharkhand: 0.3 million
people asked to leave the place
• Reason: Underground fires
• No alternative provided yet.
• Cost of R & R: 18000 crores

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Displacement due to creation of Protected area
• Displacement also takes place where protected areas
are established as compensatory measures for the
forest lands and natural habitats that are lost.
• A welcome step for natural resource conservation
• But tribals loose the right to their natural homes
• Entry is prohibited in core areas.
• Valmiki Tiger reserve: 142 villages in Bihar of Tharu
Community
• Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary: 53,472 tribal families in
Kerala.

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Rehabilitation- issues and policies
• Right to housing a basic human right
• Government acquires land for various reasons
• Already poor tribals most affected.
• Loss of land, food, home, jobs, property assets,
social isolation
• Cash compensation not enough, tribals are
unaware so might be a case of cheating.
• Communal settlement does not happen.

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 Policy
• Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development
has formulated a National Policy on Resettlement and
Rehabilitation for Project Affected Families, 2003 with the
objectives to:
• Minimize displacement and to identify non-displacing or least-
displacing alternatives;
• Plan the resettlement and rehabilitation of Project Affected
Families, (PAFs) including special needs of tribals and
vulnerable sections;
• Provide better standard of living to PAFs; and
• Facilitate harmonious relationship between the Requiring Body
and PAFs through mutual cooperation.
• National Policy on Rehabilitation and Resettlement 2007.

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 4. Climate change
• Climate is average weather of an area
• Control temperature, evaporation rate,
seasons, moisture content.
• Conditions if prevail for 30 years…its said to
be the climate of an area
• Currently Climate is Changing

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 GLOBAL WARMING
• Overall increase in temperature by a few
degrees.
• It happens when greenhouse gases (carbon
dioxide, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and
methane) trap heat and light from the sun in
the earth’s atmosphere, which increases the
temperature.
• This hurts many people, animals, and
plants.
• Many cannot take the change, so they die.

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 Facts
• Unsustainable consumption patterns of the rich industrialized
nations are responsible for the threat of climate change.
• Only 25% of the global population lives in these countries,
but they emit more than 70% of the total global CO2
emissions and consume 75 to 80% of many of the other
resources of the world.
• Impacts are already being seen in unprecedented heat
waves, cyclones, floods, salinisation of the coastline
and effects on agriculture, fisheries and health.

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 Climate change Evidence
• Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change.
• Published evidence of climate change (IPCC report, 2007)
• Observed that earth’s climate has changed over years.
• Average temperatures have fluctuated by 0.5 to 1 0 C.
• Anthropogenic activities are affecting climate
• Its not uniform in all places. Poles will be more warmer

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 Why should India be Concerned about Climate
Change?
• India is home to a third of the world’s poor, and climate change will
hit this section of society the hardest.
• Set to be the most populous nation in the world by 2045, the
economic, social and ecological price of climate change will be
massive.
• The three main ‘categories’ of impacts are those on agriculture,
sea level rise leading to submergence of coastal areas, as well as
increased frequency of extreme events. Each of these pose serious
threats to India.
• India’s main energy resource is coal. With the threat of climate
change, India is called upon to change its energy strategy based on
coal, its most abundant resource, and to use other energy sources
(e.g. oil, gas, renewable and nuclear energy) which may turn out to
be expensive.

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 Green House Effect
• The greenhouse effect is a naturally occurring process that aids in heating
the Earth's surface and atmosphere.
• It results from the fact that certain atmospheric gases, such as carbon
dioxide, water vapor, and methane, are able to change the energy balance
of the planet by absorbing longwave radiation emitted from the Earth's
surface.
• Without the greenhouse effect life on this planet would probably not exist as
the average temperature of the Earth would be a chilly -18° Celsius, rather
than the present 15° Celsius.
• Anthropogenic activities increase the concentration of green house gases.
• Enhanced green house effect : CO2, CH4, NO2, CFC’s

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 Effects
• Change in Wind current patterns
• Ocean currents will change
• Hydrological cycle will intensify
• Sea level rise: submergence of areas.
• Changed agricultural production
• Cases of flood, droughts, cyclones on a
rise.

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• Global warming is affecting many parts of the world. Global warming
makes the sea rise, and when the sea rises, the water covers many low
land islands. This is a big problem for many of the plants, animals, and
people on islands.
• The water covers the plants and causes some of them to die. When they
die, the animals lose a source of food, along with their habitat. .
• When the plants and animals die, people lose two sources of food, plant
food and animal food. They may also lose their homes. As a result, they
would also have to leave the area or die. This would be called a break in
the food chain, or a chain reaction, one thing happening that leads to
another and so on.

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• The oceans are affected by global warming in other ways, as
well. Many things that are happening to the ocean are linked to
global warming. One thing that is happening is warm water,
caused from global warming, is harming and killing algae in the
ocean.
• It is killing algae, but it is also destroying many huge forests.
• Global warming is also causing many more fires that wipe out
whole forests. This happens because global warming can make
the earth very hot. In forests, some plants and trees leaves can be
so dry that they catch on fire.

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 Solution
• Renewable energy
• Biofuels
• Afforestation
• Reduce the current rate of CFCs use
• Trap methane for fuel
• Potential of algae in Carbon dioxide
utilization
• Sustainable agriculture

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Acid Rain

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• "Acid rain" is a broad term referring to a mixture of wet and dry
deposition (deposited material) from the atmosphere containing
higher than normal amounts of nitric and sulfuric acids.
• Acid rain occurs when these gases react in the atmosphere with
water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form various acidic
compounds. The result is a mild solution of sulfuric acid and nitric
acid.
• When sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are released from power
plants and other sources, prevailing winds blow these compounds
across state and national borders, sometimes over hundreds of
miles.
• pH less than 5.6

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• If The acid chemicals in the air are blown into areas
where the weather is wet, the acids can fall to the
ground in the form of rain, snow, fog, or mist.
• As this acidic water flows over and through the ground,
it affects a variety of plants and animals.
• The strength of the effects depends on several factors,
including how acidic the water is.
• In areas where the weather is dry, the acid chemicals
may become incorporated into dust or smoke and fall to
the ground through dry deposition, sticking to the
ground, buildings, homes, cars, and trees.
• Taj Mahal in Agra

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Ozone layer depletion

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Natural sunscreen: Ozone layer

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• The production and emission of CFCs, chlorofluorocarbons, is by
far the leading cause.
• CFCs in the stratosphere. There, the chlorine atom is removed from
the CFC and attracts one of the three oxygen atoms in the ozone
molecule. The process continues, and a single chlorine atom can
destroy over 100,000 molecules of ozone.
• In 1984, ozone layer hole was discovered over Antarctica
• Increase risk of Skin cancer
• Loss of phytoplankton: they are sensitive to UV.
• Fair people at higher risk

• MONTREAL PROTOCOL
• Phase out the use of CFC’s

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Resource and Environmental
issues
 Environmental issues

• Deforestation
• Environmental Impacts of Mining
• Global Warming
• “Tragedy of the commons”—overfishing and other
Deforestation
Jungle burned for agriculture in southern Mexico
Logging in
Malaysia.
 Environmental impacts caused
by deforestation
• Burning forests and decay of wood after logging
contribute to the release of greenhouse gases
• Loss of biodiversity
• Forests are important parts of hydrologic cycle in
nature
Mining
Chuquicamata, the largest open pit copper mine in the world, Chile
Iron hydroxide precipitate
stains a stream receiving acid
drainage from surface coal
mining.
Environmental impacts of mining
• Land/soil erosion
• Formation of sinkholes,
• Loss of biodiversity in the area
• Contamination of groundwaters by chemicals from
the mining process and products.
• Abandoned mines can still pose safety hazards
such as deadly gases
 Chemicals used for mining

• Sodium cyanide for extraction of gold

• Sulphuric acid for extraction of copper from copper
oxides
• If these chemicals are not handled properly,
serious environmental impacts may occur to the
neighbouring environment
Global Warming
 “Tragedy of the Commons”
• Free access and unrestricted demand for
a finite resource ultimately dooms the
resource through over-exploitation.
• Release of carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere is one example. As everyone
can release carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere with little personal
consequence, people tends to care very
little about limiting its emission.
• Overfishing in the open sea is another
example. If everyone with a fishing boat
can fish as much as they like, they will
eventually drive the fish stock to
commercially extinct.
 State of Global Fisheries
• The FAO State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture
2004 report estimates that in 2003, of the main
fish stocks or groups of resources for which
assessment information is available,
"approximately one-quarter were overexploited,
depleted or recovering from depletion… and needed
rebuilding.“
• edible fish are endangered in 14 of the world's 16
major fishing areas
 ENVIRONMENTAL
LEGISLATION
• India first country to have made provisions for environment protection in
its constitution
• After Stockholm Conference , 1972
• Many laws and rules have been made
• Article 48- A : The state shall endeavour to protect and improve the
environment and to safeguard forests and wildlife of the country.
• Article 51 A (g): - It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect
and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and
wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures

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 ACTS
• Wildlife (Protection ) Act, 1972
• Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974
• Forest (Conservation )Act, 1980
• Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981
• The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
• The Biomedical waste (Management and Handling) Rules , 1998
• The Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000
• The Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2002
• The Biological Diversity Act,2002

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Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974
The main objective of this act is to provide prevention and control of water
pollution and maintaining purity of water (in the streams or wells or on
land)

•The Act regulate the authority in State Pollution Control Boards and
empowers these Boards to establish and enforce effluent standards for
factories discharging pollutants into water bodies. A Central Pollution
Control Board performs the same functions for Union Territories and
formulate policies and coordinates activities of different State Boards.

• The State Pollution Control Boards control sewage and industrial effluent
discharges by approving conditions while granting consent to discharge.

• The Act grants power to the Board to ensure compliance with the Act by
including to take the sample for the purpose of analysis of water from any
stream or well or sample of any sewage or trade effluents.
•

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Features of Act

To protect the water from all kinds of pollution and to preserve the quality of
water in all aquifers

1. Establishment of Central & State Board for prevention of water pollution

2. The states are empowered to prevent any person discharging a pollutant

into a water body without the consent of board.

3. Any contravention of guideline would attract penal action

(6months-6 years)

4. The Act is not clear about the definition of pollutant, which allow scope for
misinterpretation at the time of decision whether the law is violated or not.

5. The amendment Act of 1988 requires permission to set up an industry

which may discharge effluent.

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 Environmental Ethics
• Ethical behaviour is of most importance
• We believe and think: Man is all powerful and supreme creature of the
earth.
• Nature has provided us with resources and she nourishes us like our
mother, so we should respect and take care of her
• Live sustainably.
• Two views: Anthropogenic and Eco centric.
• Earth ethics or environmental guidelines help us to protect our mother
earth.
• DO NOT’s and DO’s
• Having fewer wants = limits to growth = good environment

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THANK YOU

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