By SNV Sudhir
Visakhapatnam , Oct. 13: The Information Technology revolution has brought many blessings and one major curse—burgeoning e-waste. Electronic devices such as computers, servers, mainframes, monitors, TVs and telecommunication devices are dumped by most users once they go out of fashion. The piling up of e-waste has become alarming in India too.
The country generates about 1.5 lakh tonnes of e-waste annually and almost all of it finds its way into the informal sector, as there is no organised system to dispose of it. Metropolitan cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, which have a large IT sector, are at higher risk of environmental pollution from e-waste.
According to the study conducted by the NGO, Toxic Link, Mumbai faces grave health and environmental risks because of the dumping of 19,000 tonnes of e-waste. Similarly, a study by the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute of Kolkata found that people in Delhi are about twice as likely to suffer from lung ailments because of the presence of high amount of e-waste. Bangalore generates 15,000 tonnes of e-waste every month.
But the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board has put it at 10,000 tonnes a month. Many components of obsolete electronic equipment are considered toxic and are not biodegradable. If treated properly, e-waste is a valuable source for secondary raw materials. However, if not treated properly, it becomes a major source of toxins and carcinogens.
Hazardous substances found in e-waste include lead, cadmium, chromium and flame-retardant plastics. Inhaling or handling such substances or being in contact with them on a regular basis can damage the brain, nervous system, lungs, kidneys and the reproductive system. "It is estimated that around two million obsolete computers are dumped by government offices, business houses, industries and households," says Prof Srinivas of Gitam University. "Manufacturers also produce around 1,200 tonnes of electronic scrap."
Personal computers get obsolete once in two years and consumers think it convenient to buy a new computer rather than upgrade the old one. Because of the lack of rules on treatment of e-waste, these PCs mostly end up in landfills or are partly recycled in unhygienic conditions or thrown into waste streams. A study conducted by Gitam University students found that huge quantities of PC scrap is exported by foreign countries in the form of reusable components. This is estimated to touch 50,000 tonnes a year.
"e-waste is a rapidly growing environmental problem in the world and India," said Prof Srinivas. "India has to handle not only waste generated domestically but also e-waste which is dumped by developed countries." Environmental organisations have warned that India would have to handle about eight lakh tonnes of e-waste by 2012, unless it wakes up and devises concrete ways to tackle the menace.
Students show the right way
A project to tackle e-waste conceived by students of Gitam University gained applause at the Students in Free Enterprise’s (SIEF) meet which was held recently at Mumbai. SIEF has a presence in more than 40 countries across the globe and its approval has inspired the students. “India’s lack of safe e-waste-disposal mechanism is growing to a crisis situation,” says Satyanarayana, a B-Tech student of Gitam University. “There is an urgent need to deal with e-waste, which is posing a major threat to environment and public heath.” The project planned by the students focuses on educating the general population. Meanwhile, a local steel unit, Vizag Profiles, has signed a MoU with the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development of Gitam University to start an e-waste-recycling unit.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Hearing unites opposition parties
By SNV Sudhir
Chintapalli (Vizag Agency), Oct 3: The public hearing on the environmental aspects of bauxite mining held here on Friday, proved too costly to the state government as it gave an opportunity to all the opposition parties and NGOs to come on to a single platform. Until now opposition parties were conducting their protest programmes individually. But immediately after coming out of the venue of the public hearing they all held a ‘Praja Court’ and vowed to stop the mining process collectively. They also passed two resolutions on the spot one demanding the state government to declare the just held public hearing null and void and to cancel the two MoUs signed by the state government with Jindals and Anrak. All the parties are eying the Vizag Agency areas as Araku will have one assembly and one parliamentary seat besides already existing Paderu assembly seat after the de limitation process. All the parties were trying to gain hold on the Agency areas and the bauxite mining issue came in handy for them.
CPM’s Bhadhrachalam MP Midiam Babu Rao, who is also the member of the parliament consultative committee on environment and forests, said that he would take up the issue of the way public hearing was held with the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). CPM district secretary Ch Narasinga Rao said that they would send their observations with the video clippings about the public hearing to the Supreme Court Enforcement Authority.
“Police created a sort of fear among the public about the hearing. Many of them did not attend it. And who all came to attend the public hearing unanimously opposed the mining and boycotted the meeting. Hereafter we all irrespective of the political party we belong work together to oppose mining,” said CPI district secretary, JV Satyanaryana Murthy. TD district unit president Bandaru Satyanrayana Murthy said that their party when they were in power dropped the idea of mining bauxite after the stiff opposition from the local tribals giving importance to their sentiments. He said that the present Congress government was not at all in a position to listen to the woes of the tribals and going ahead with the project. Srinivas, belonging to Samata, an NGO which was opposing the bauxite mining, said that the apart from the tribals throwed out of their homes mining would also have an adverse impact upon the surrounding environment and water resources. All party leaders later held a huge public meeting in the town.
Chintapalli (Vizag Agency), Oct 3: The public hearing on the environmental aspects of bauxite mining held here on Friday, proved too costly to the state government as it gave an opportunity to all the opposition parties and NGOs to come on to a single platform. Until now opposition parties were conducting their protest programmes individually. But immediately after coming out of the venue of the public hearing they all held a ‘Praja Court’ and vowed to stop the mining process collectively. They also passed two resolutions on the spot one demanding the state government to declare the just held public hearing null and void and to cancel the two MoUs signed by the state government with Jindals and Anrak. All the parties are eying the Vizag Agency areas as Araku will have one assembly and one parliamentary seat besides already existing Paderu assembly seat after the de limitation process. All the parties were trying to gain hold on the Agency areas and the bauxite mining issue came in handy for them.
CPM’s Bhadhrachalam MP Midiam Babu Rao, who is also the member of the parliament consultative committee on environment and forests, said that he would take up the issue of the way public hearing was held with the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). CPM district secretary Ch Narasinga Rao said that they would send their observations with the video clippings about the public hearing to the Supreme Court Enforcement Authority.
“Police created a sort of fear among the public about the hearing. Many of them did not attend it. And who all came to attend the public hearing unanimously opposed the mining and boycotted the meeting. Hereafter we all irrespective of the political party we belong work together to oppose mining,” said CPI district secretary, JV Satyanaryana Murthy. TD district unit president Bandaru Satyanrayana Murthy said that their party when they were in power dropped the idea of mining bauxite after the stiff opposition from the local tribals giving importance to their sentiments. He said that the present Congress government was not at all in a position to listen to the woes of the tribals and going ahead with the project. Srinivas, belonging to Samata, an NGO which was opposing the bauxite mining, said that the apart from the tribals throwed out of their homes mining would also have an adverse impact upon the surrounding environment and water resources. All party leaders later held a huge public meeting in the town.
Tribals boycott public hearing on Bauxite mining
By SNV Sudhir
Chintapalli (Vizag Agency), Oct 3: Tribals gave an unexpected jolt to the State by boycotting the public hearing held on Bauxite mining here on Friday. It was also shock to the police who laid a seize to the entire agency area and banned the vehicle movement days in advance, riding the Maoist threat.
The confused officials had to go ahead with their programme without a single person to hear them. The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) intended to hold the public hearing on the environmental aspects of the proposed bauxite mining by the State owned Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC) in four blocks of Jerella reserve forest area, coming under GK Veedhi Agency mandal. The bauxite mined by the APMDC would be supplied to Anrak aluminum, a UAE based firm which would setup its alumina refinery at Makavarapalem in Narsipatnam division. The state government earlier entered into a MoU with the Anrak in this regard.
In a highly guarded affair, the officials of APMDC and APPCB started the hearing process amidst slogans from the tribals drawn from the surrounding villages. However tribals from the actual mining effected villages, which are 40kms away from the hearing site, didn’t attend as the police suspended passenger bus services to those villages. It is learnt that the villagers who were feared of heavy deployment of armed police preferred to stay indoors. And some of them who came all the way on foot from those villages boycotted the hearing and aired slogans against the mining.
The hearing process started half an hour late due to the protests and slogans raised by the tribals asking the authorities to withdraw their decision to mine bauxite in Agency areas, which would render thousands of them shelter less and other environmental related problems. Officials were not given any chance to begin the hearing. Later after half an hour the APPCB environmental engineer Satyanrayana Murthy began the procedure. The APMDC MD, Rajagopal tried to explain the advantages of the mining. But there were no audience to listen to him except few scribes. All the tribals who entered the premises left without showing any interest in the MD’s speech. Interestingly the APMDC and APPCB officials went on explaining about mining addressing an empty ground. Tribals said that they were not interested in taking part in the public hearing, as none of them wanted it. Terming the mining as demon, tribals said that they were also ready to face death to stop the mining process. APPCB EE, Murthy said that they have received around 1,571 written representations of which 1,500 belonged to various tribal associations, MLAs, political parties, NGOs. He said they would send the representations, minutes of the public hearing, series of incidents occurred to the ministry of environment and forests for the permission to mine bauxite.
“We would send the minutes and actual incidents happened here to the MoEF,” said the district joint collector, M Veerabrahmaiah who chaired the meeting. Bhadhrachalam MP, Midiam Babu Rao, CPI and CPM district secretaries, JV Satyanrayana Murthy, Ch Narasinga Rao, TD rural unit president and its MLA, Bandaru Satyanrayan Murthy, Chengala Venkat Rao and G Srinivas of Samata led the tribals.
Chintapalli (Vizag Agency), Oct 3: Tribals gave an unexpected jolt to the State by boycotting the public hearing held on Bauxite mining here on Friday. It was also shock to the police who laid a seize to the entire agency area and banned the vehicle movement days in advance, riding the Maoist threat.
The confused officials had to go ahead with their programme without a single person to hear them. The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) intended to hold the public hearing on the environmental aspects of the proposed bauxite mining by the State owned Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC) in four blocks of Jerella reserve forest area, coming under GK Veedhi Agency mandal. The bauxite mined by the APMDC would be supplied to Anrak aluminum, a UAE based firm which would setup its alumina refinery at Makavarapalem in Narsipatnam division. The state government earlier entered into a MoU with the Anrak in this regard.
In a highly guarded affair, the officials of APMDC and APPCB started the hearing process amidst slogans from the tribals drawn from the surrounding villages. However tribals from the actual mining effected villages, which are 40kms away from the hearing site, didn’t attend as the police suspended passenger bus services to those villages. It is learnt that the villagers who were feared of heavy deployment of armed police preferred to stay indoors. And some of them who came all the way on foot from those villages boycotted the hearing and aired slogans against the mining.
The hearing process started half an hour late due to the protests and slogans raised by the tribals asking the authorities to withdraw their decision to mine bauxite in Agency areas, which would render thousands of them shelter less and other environmental related problems. Officials were not given any chance to begin the hearing. Later after half an hour the APPCB environmental engineer Satyanrayana Murthy began the procedure. The APMDC MD, Rajagopal tried to explain the advantages of the mining. But there were no audience to listen to him except few scribes. All the tribals who entered the premises left without showing any interest in the MD’s speech. Interestingly the APMDC and APPCB officials went on explaining about mining addressing an empty ground. Tribals said that they were not interested in taking part in the public hearing, as none of them wanted it. Terming the mining as demon, tribals said that they were also ready to face death to stop the mining process. APPCB EE, Murthy said that they have received around 1,571 written representations of which 1,500 belonged to various tribal associations, MLAs, political parties, NGOs. He said they would send the representations, minutes of the public hearing, series of incidents occurred to the ministry of environment and forests for the permission to mine bauxite.
“We would send the minutes and actual incidents happened here to the MoEF,” said the district joint collector, M Veerabrahmaiah who chaired the meeting. Bhadhrachalam MP, Midiam Babu Rao, CPI and CPM district secretaries, JV Satyanrayana Murthy, Ch Narasinga Rao, TD rural unit president and its MLA, Bandaru Satyanrayan Murthy, Chengala Venkat Rao and G Srinivas of Samata led the tribals.
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