Kuttanad :Terrible price of progress

Kuttanad: a case in point

IT TOOK a recent outbreak of an epidemic of Japanese encephalitis with 27 resultant fatalities to focus attention on the widespread environmental degradation in Kuttanad. The Kuttanad basin; in central Kerala extends over 1600 sq km. The region 'is nestled between the foothills of the Western Ghats in the east and the comparatively elevated plains of coastal Alappuzha in the west. Most aggravating among the region's problems is the severe degradation of the aquatic environment mainly caused by human intervention leading to depletion of fisheries resources and health hazards posed to the population.

A crisis of water
Kuttanad's monsoons bring with them the perennial problem of floods, engendered by the region's four major rivers. These rivers - the Pampa, the Achenkoil, the Manimala and the Meenachil - drain into the Kuttanad trough, taking a weblike course from Veeyapuram, about 35 km to the south of Alappuzha town. Heading north through the length of Kuttanad, they empty into the Arabian Sea through the Vembanad lake.

The first of the development projects to be implemented in Kuttanad aimed at diverting the flood waters into the sea before they entered the region. The project based on suggestions of the Vaidyanathan commission set up in 1954 involved the construction of a channel from Veeyapuram the confluence of the rivers Achenkoil and Pampa (at the southern end of Kuttanad) to Thottappally, as well as that of a spillway. However the channel and the spillway did not have the desired effect.

Development seems to have upset the applecart here. The numerous roads which have come up in the area act as dams preventing easy drainage of flood waters. Extensive land reclamation in the area has also brought about restricted water-logging in pockets.

Moreover, according to the Kerala pollution control board (KPCB) which was associated in a detailed study of the region's various problems under a three-year Indo-Dutch programme the Kuttanad water balance study project (KWBSP) - a) qut 25,000 tonnes (t) of fertilisers and 500 t of highly toxic pesticides are used in the region's 55,000 ha of paddy fields annually. A considerable portion of this enters the water bodies when the water drains from the fields.

Initiated following the visit of an agricultural identification mission from the Netherlands in 198 1the KWBSP was aimed at studying ways to solve Kuttanad's various problems and evaluate possible solutions to flooding, environmental deterioration and its adverse effects on public health and the problem of poor sanitation. The recommendations of the project included the construction of check dams in the upper reaches of the four rivers as measures to control the floods. The mission also put forward definite proposals for preservation of the region's ecology and development of agriculture and fisheries besides drawing up schemes for housing sanitation and drinking water supply.

According to the study referred to above the use of fertilisers and pesticides was 50 to 75 per cent more in Kuttanad than in other regions. Studies by the KPCB have revealed the presence of DDT and its derivatives, DDE and DDD in water and soil sediments. Organic tissue samples of fish, shrimp and clams, collected from Vembanad lake and examined in the Netherlands, show that levels of pesticides present were as much as 10 times the admissible toxic levels for the respective species. Some of these chemicals are well-known carcinogens.

Alarmingly the project pointed out that more than 40 per cent of the population of the area or nearly five lakh people depend on polluted canals, rivers and lakes for their drinking water. However while the study report was submitted way back in 1989 the state government is yet to sit up and take note of it. There is widespread resentment of this lackadaisical attitude demonstrated by the government. According to experts involved in the study the KWBSP has provided the much-needed database to work outlasting solutions to the complex problems of the region.

Outbreak: barrier trouble
This governmental apathy besides the ham-handed development policies intended for the region have been primarily responsible for the outbreak of Japanese encephalitis. The immediate cause - positively identified by researchers led by Jose Thomas, assistant director state health directorate - was the proliferation of mosquitoes mainly the Culex vishnui variety. These were found in large numbers in the affected areas. The basic reason for this pesky proliferation is the uncontrolled growth of water weeds which has a direct bearing on the drastic changes occurring in the region's aquatic environment since the commissioning of the Thannermukkorn saltwater barrier in 1976.

The barrier though it initially helped farmers by preventing seasonal intrusion of saltwater into the backwaters has had a disastrous long-term impact on the ecologyof the region. It has transformed the Vembanad lake into two distinct zones - the upstream area in Kuttanadnow a polluted freshwater body and the downstream section near Kochi which has brackish water. Before the barrier came into being there was no water stagnation in Kuttanad. Even during summer months when there was no flow into Kuttanad from the rivers emptying into the basin the region enjoyed the cleansing impact of the ebb and flow of the sea's tidal action. The salinity in the water also helped check the proliferation of water weeds. Today the stagnant cesspools of the region infested with thick weed growth provide the ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes.

The recent outbreak is reminiscent of various previous ones highlighting the immediate need for ameliorative measures. In 1991a devastating fish disease - ulcerative syndrome - had wiped out a large number of fish in Kuttanad. A series of researches conducted in its wake have pointed out that pesticide pollution was the predisposing factor for the disease. The next year saw an almost similar disease affecting water snakes and tortoises. Following that ducks too died in large numbers because of some mysterious disease. Most of the diseases were in one way or another related to environment and its degradation.

Date: Dec 1996

maknair is a freelance journalist

Source: Down to Earth Vol: 5 Issue: 19961231

Tags: Encephalitis, Floods, Kerala, India

Kerala:the terrible price of progress

Down to Earth, New Delhi December 1996

Backs to the wall

LUSH green backwaters dotting a verdant undulating landscape along a north-south 560 km-coastal strip sporting a chain of lagoons - that is nature's gift to Kerala. These backwaters (dammed or still water beside streams and fed by the back flow) many of which are connected to the sea have played a significant role through the ages in the socioeconomic and cultural history of the state. But today the extensive reclamation of land from the backwaters both authorised and unauthorised continuing unabated over several years threatens to tear apart the pristine ecology of the region.

Of the total 3,600 sq km of water bodies in the state, the sprawling and interconnected estuary system comprises some 67 per cent. Referring to the widespread devastation The Environmental Geomorphic Atlas of Kerala Coastal Zone published in March 1987points out that about 15 per cent of the state's backwaters has been depleted in a short span of 15years. According to the Shrinking Backwaters of Keralaa study conducted by the Goa-based National Institute of Oceanography (NIO)while Kerala's backwaters covered36500hectares (ha) in the mid-19th century only 12700ha(34.8 per cent) remain today.

Reclaiming disaster
The state's backwaters have a myriad variety of roles to play: controlling floods sheltering and breeding marine life filtering bio-matter and providing a haven to migratory species. A Mohandas director School of Environmental Studies Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUST) Says: "These little and large lagoons and estuaries have to be considered as items in the natural resources inventory and as the national heritage of the state as these have very important roles to contribute in the development of intra-coastal water transport inland fisheries and wetland ecology." But the state government is still far from paying any serious attention to the condition of the backwaters.

Increasing populations vie for more space with every passing year making demands on the peripheral stretches of the backwaters. But reclamation is more a business generating enormous profits, than need. For instance, unauthorised encroachments have gobbled up and depleted the backwaters surrounding picturesque islands like those of Vypeen andVallarpadam near Kochi. The biggest reclamation - of 365 ha- of backwater land however has been the one under taken in the early 1920s for setting up Kochi port. The Vembanad lake, Kerala's largest backwater, lost 51 sq kin in the process' shrinking from 230 sq kin in 1968 to 179 sq kin in 1983. The wonderful Siberian teals had found sanctuary in this magnificent lake till recently. Their visits have become rarer following the vast changes in the ecology of the lake.

Lately the announcement of a host of 'modernisation' schemes for Kochi which involve reclamation on a massive scale have forced fisherfolk and environmentalists to protest the degradation of the estuarine system. The Rs 325 crore-scheme to connect - by bridging - the islands on the backwaters off Kochi to the mainland envisages raising 362 ha from the bottom through a three-phase project expected to be completed in the year 2003. The sale of this reclaimed land is ostensibly to pay for the construction of the bridges.

A water sports complex in Kochi (expected to cost Rs 5crore) proposed by the Greater Kochi Development Authority also has a reclamation component: the two km-canal from Chilavannur to Kundannur is to be made narrower- from 360 metres (m) to 60 m - for the purpose. Yet as a senior NIO scientist says: "Any disturbance to the configuration of backwaters will positively destroy the quality and quantum of marine resources." Exploitation endangers
Environmental deterioration is taking place at a rapid rate in the backwaters of Kerala. The estuarine system is subjected to irrational economic exploitation and consequent ecological degradation. It is high time appropriate measures were evolved to conserve this vital ecosystem, says P Kumaran senior scientist at the National Environmental Research Institute Kochi. Lack of alternative fuelwood has forced the clearing away of the backwaters' mangrove shrubs almost to extinction. K Balakrishnan and C B Lalithambika Devi echo Kumaran's sentiments in their study, Development and Ecodisaster: A Lesson from the Cochin Backwater System: "The establishment of a modern port at Cochin has transformed the region into the industrial capital of the state. Simultaneous with economic progress the environmental conditions have become deranged due to large scale shipping operations."

Another study by scientists M K Mukundan and K Ravindran of the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology in Kochi has pointed out that the backwater adjacent to Kochi port has been contaminated with heavy doses of petroleum hydrocarbons. Apart from the large volume of petroleum products the port also handles substances such as phosphoric acid, rock phosphates, ammonia and sulphur. Careless handling and spillage of these substances that lead to environmental damages are common phenomena.

Myriad problems
Research by the CUST School of Marine Sciences has found a direct link between depletion of backwaters and the decline in estuarine fishery resources arising from alterations to the ecology. Where estuarine-dependent panaeid shrimps made up the bulk of Kerala's shrimp catches earlier, marine species have almost totally replaced these in the last two decades.

The commissioning of the Thanneermukkom saltwater barrier has brought to an end the migration of all species which depend on both fresh and saline water for the completion of their lifecycles. The giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii earlier found in the middle and lower halves of Vembanad lake used to be one of the most sought after products. The characteristic annual breeding migration of this species from freshwater to the highly saline lower reaches of the estuary was disrupted by the barrage.

Recently the proliferation of a 'tiny ant-like creature' in the Kochi backwaters caused alarm because of its ability to rapidly cat away at fish catches. The creature identified as an isopod Cerlolana fluvitatlis now poses a serious threat to the region's aquatic resources. A study by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute Kochi found that the proliferation of this isopod is linked with changes in the ecosystem.

' According to the NIO study the decreasing' volume of exchange with the sea has reduced the diluting capacity of the backwaters. Moreover the inflow of industrial effluents in to the backwaters has increased substantially as has the discharge of domestic effluents. Further silt deposits have reduced the mean depth of the estuary system thus compounding the problem of shrinking acreage and decreasing the water-carrying capacity. The backwaters are also threatened by the prolific growth of the weed Salvinia auriculata, or the :frican payal'. A biological pollutant the plant has caused reduced primary productivity and dissolved oxygen concentration.

The Ashtamudi estuary in Kollam district fed by the Kallada river has its own share of the problem. Acid-rich wastes discharged by local industries are razing it report scientists from the Centre for Earth Science Studies Thiruvananthapuram. Consequently fisherfolk who dive for clams become easy prey to respiratory and skin disorders.

The exsiccation of the backwaters is also resulting in the encroachment of saline water into the rivers. During high tide the saline water of the backwaters enters through the bar mouth into the rivers. In 1982 the Periyar river was invaded by saltwater to a stretch of 28 km; this resulted in the closure of several industrial units on the river's banks. The over-exploitation and dwindling of resources have naturally caused considerable concern among environmentalists especially in the context of progressive contraction of the estuarine system.

maknair is a freelance journalist based in Kochi

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Trade Unions Resolve to fight Neoliberal Exploitation

Indian Today in a recent article titled “Irate Trade Unions declare war”(Dec 4, 2010) highlighted the steady increase in the number of labour disputes and flash strikes, triggered by persisting low incomes, an unabated rise in the prices of essential commodities, lack of social security and flagrant violations of labour laws, in the past three years in various parts of the country.

According to the Employment Survey conducted by the Labour Bureau, unemployment has reached an alarming proportion of 9.4%. Lakhs of workers, particularly in the export oriented sectors have lost their jobs due to the global economic crisis during the last three years. Many sectors like the handloom and textile sectors, which provide employment to lakhs of workers are still facing a serious situation resulting in loss of employment to large numbers of workers.

In a joint memorandum of Central Trade Unions, submitted to the Finance Minister, recently, as part of the pre-budget consultation, union leaders have highlighted the inhuman exploitation of contract labourers "who died in industrial accidents, be it the BALCO chimney collapse, fires in Agra shoe companies, in Bhushan Steel or construction workers, including those employed in the prestigious Delhi Metro project and in the construction related activities of the Commonwealth games."(http://www.citucentre.org/monthly_journals).

Trade unions observed that contractualisation and outsourcing have become so rampant in the private and public sector undertakings and government departments. Millions of workers are at present employed as contract workers in regular jobs, to perform work of a permanent nature. These workers are paid miserably low wages and have no social security benefits, thus creating a situation "where two types of workers work side by side in an enterprise, doing the same job but getting highly un equal wages and benefits, thereby creating rifts among the workers."

Trade union leaders alleged that instead of ensuring implementation of labour laws, the governments in several states, except those in the Left ruled states, are resorting to the most brutal police repression on the workers and their union leaders. It is not the employers who are punished for not implementing the laws but the trade union leaders who are punished for demanding their implementation. The most recent example is the handcuffing and imprisonment of A. Soundararajan, Secretary of CITU and the General Secretary of its Tamil Nadu state committee for leading the fight of the Foxconn workers.

Severe restrictions are imposed on the workers and the common people, even on exercising their basic right to protest. In many cities today, wall writing, display of banners, buntings and flags at public places are not allowed; and restrictions are being imposed by the courts on demonstrations, rallies, trade union leaders said.

According to the joint memorandum, the government and its law enforcement machinery has become totally subservient to the corporates, domestic and foreign, protecting them even in cases of gross violations of labour laws. The 8 hour work day, minimum wages, social security benefits, the right to organisation and collective bargaining, the Contract Labour Abolition Act etc were all won by the working class, through decades of hard struggles. But today all these laws are violated with impunity by the employers.

A.K.Padmanabhan, CITU President said that the UPAI government enacted the Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act in 2008, on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections. Much hype was generated on providing social security to the un-organized sector workers who constitute 94% of the workers in the country. More than two years down the line, what have the un-organized sector workers gained form this Act, no specific social welfare scheme has been formulated under the Act till now. Only ten existing social welfare schemes have been annexed to the Act and were supposed to cover the unorganized sector workers, he said.

The left political leaders said recent march to Parliament by the trade unions is part of the task of confronting the exploitative process in the name of liberalization. Media reports said the Indian National Trade Union Congress(INTUC) the trade union wing of the ruling Congress party, was part of the group. Its president G.Sanjeeva Reddy was quoted as saying:"it is fighting for respecting labour laws and their implementation."

The CITU delegation to the 43rd Indian Labour Conference strongly criticized the agenda note of the government on contract labor for dealing more with the concerns and problems of the employers and trying to justify and finally seeking to legalize the violations of the existing Act on contract labour. The note was conspicuously silent about the unlawful deployment of the contract labour even in regular production jobs or the so called 'core jobs' and denying them minimum wages.

A study by the United States Labour Department(published in Monthly Labour Review May 2010) on India’s organized sector production workers found the size of contract workers(with slimmer pay packages and few privileges) almost doubling, from 15 per cent to 28 per cent, between 1998 and 2005.

P.K.Gurudasan, Labour Minister of Kerala, who was part of the CITU delegation to the Conference noted that the neoliberal economic policies are resulting in price-rise and unemployment. He underscored the need to protect public sector institutions. He said that the wages under MGNREGA should be at par with the minimum wages fixed by the state government, considering that the wages of agricultural labour in Kerala is double the wages fixed under MGNREGA. Such a policy would substantially benefit the working poor, he said.

He said there is an urgent need to make the wages and other benefit paid to the contract workers at par with others who are engaged in identical nature of work. He also requested the central government to formulate the details regarding financial assistance from the Centre to the States for the operation of the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008 so that the states could implement the various rules and schemes framed by it under the Act. He also wanted the medical benefit admissible under the RSBY scheme to be enhanced to Rs.50,000 from Rs.30,000.

Demands like lifting the ban on recruitment in Government departments, PSUs and autonomous institutions and the scope of MGNREGA be extended to urban areas as well and employment for minimum period of 200 days as recommended by 43rd session of Indian Labour Conference, are also part of the memorandum.

Though the National Social Security Board(NSSB), constituted as per the Act, has unanimously recommended that all the unorganised sector workers in the country should be provided floor level social security that includes old age pension, health and maternity benefits, and accident insurance, and that adequate fund should be created to ensure social security benefits to all the un-organised sector workers, the government has not yet taken any concrete decision on this.

Union Minister for Labour and Employment Mallikarjun Kharge while speaking at the second World Social Security Summit, organized by the International Social Security Association in Cape Town, recently, stated that around 430 million workers are employed in the unorganized sector out of a total work force of around 450 million.

The Arjun Dasgupta committee on employment showed that the informal economy accounted for more than 80 per cent of total employment and calculated that by 2017 more than 95 per cent of the work force would find jobs in the unorganized sector, a trend almost endorsed by the findings of the Economic Census for 2005.

The employees in the unorganized sector, despite comprising a majority of the working class in the country, mostly remain in low-paid insecure jobs, have little access to institutionalized social security and are the most vulnerable to the negative impact of economic slowdowns in terms of job loss and wage cuts.

Harsh Mander former civil servant and activist has documented the death of homeless casual labourers-baloon sellers, rickshaw pullers and street vendors, in Delhi, recently. He found out that every day about 10 people die on the streets of Delhi. He wrote that “it can be prevented if the Government made simple public investments in providing shelter and food. The truth is that these public investments are not made and daily avoidable deaths continue because they are people who are too poor to matter.”(The Hindu Oct 3, 2010)

The Union government is reneging on its legal obligation to pay minimum wages, even to the most deprived sections of the population in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. By delinking the wages payable, through a notification, the government of India has made it clear that it disregarded any responsibility to pay minimum wages. Experts have described the practice as “forced labour.”(The Hindu Oct. 23, 2010)

Eight major trade unions came together in a show of strength on September 7, 2010, in response to a strike call by CITU to protest against violation of labour laws, price rise and disinvestment.

This is the thirteenth general strike since 1991 against “disastrous fall out of the neoliberal and pro-corporate policy regime that imperiled the life and livelihood of ordinary people.”

International Labour Organisation’s(ILO) World of Work Report records that from 1990 onwards, wage inequality has risen across the globe including in India. It was also a period when contract employment became the norm. Legislation for abolishment of contract employment stands diluted. Projections by the ILO point to a worsening global unemployment in coming years.

This is the situation when trade unions are regrouping and confronting the political establishment for better regulation of labour rights and greater control over industry and capital.

South Zone Conference - LIC Agents Organisation LICAOI, Alappuzha

The Life Insurance Corporation Agents Organisation of India(LICAOI) has resolved to oppose the proposed legislation( amending the Insurance Act) of the United Progressive Alliance government during its two-day, 3rd South Zone Conference which was held at Municipal Town Hall, Alappuzha, recently. LICAOI which is affiliated to the Cente for Indian Trade Union(CITU) in its resolution passed at the conference has strongly opposed the policies of the Union Government which posed a grave threat to the LIC.

Com.A.V.Bellarmin, former member of Parliament and president of LICAOI, South Zone in his presidential address demanded scrapping the D.Swarup Committee recommendations, which would finish off the 54-year-old Rs.9 lakh-crore public sector behemoth. He said the central government and LIC management were trying to deny and destroy the interest of the LIC agents by amending the Insurance Act and changing the FDI norms.

Com.M.Kunjikrishnan, Vice President All India Insurance Employees Association(AIIEA) in his inaugural address said the government policy to enhance FDI and increase the working capital of LIC from Rs.5 crore to Rs.100 crore would facilitate backdoor privatization. He said the findings and recommendations of the Committee on Investor Protection and Financial Literacy headed by D.Swaroop are baseless, imaginary, arbitrary and against public interest and would hamper the livelihood of 30 lakh LIC agents in the country.

Com.S.S.Potty, All India Working President, who inaugurated the delegates session pointed out that the strength of LIC of India really rested in the hard works of agents, but they were not properly rewarded and given step motherly treatment. Raising concerns over the alleged "capitulation" of the central Government to multi-national insurance lobbies, he said there was a "conspiracy to destroy LIC" so as to prepare a ground for the foreign players to have total dominance in the insurance sector.

Com.P.G.Dileep, All India General Secretary, in his address observed that the LIC management has already started the preparatory works for Direct Selling by way of advertisement, which would adversely affect the carrier of LIC agents. The conference called upon the Central Committee to take necessary steps to check the direct selling concept at the initial stage itself.

LIC Agents Organization has decided to hold a Dharna in from of the Parliament during the budget session and participate in the Parliament march, organized by various trade unions to protest against amendments in the Insurance Act.

In the delegate session Com.P.G.Dileep All India General Secretary presented the organizational report. While working report was presented by South Zone General Secretary Com.M.Selvaraj and accounts statement was given by treasurer Com.G.Karuppayya. Com.P.P.Chitharanjan welcomed the gathering and Com.V.Sajimon proposed vote of thank. Two hundred and fifty delegates from Tamil Nadu and Kerala attended the conference.

Conference elected Com.A.V.Bellarmin as president ,Com.M.Selvaraj as general secretary and Com.E.Balakrishnan as treasurer of LICAOI, South Zone.