Today, on March 22nd which is the occasion of World Water Day, we would like to welcome Ms. Sunita Narain, Director of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in India to our Live Dialogue. CSE was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize in 2005 for its promotion of effective water-management strategies along with improved human rights.
The session has just started. Please feel free to join us with your questions.
After the session has ended, you can view the whole dialogue by clicking Recent Sessions, or later on Archive. You may also join our related discussion forum called "Water and You" to have your say on water-issues.
For feedback and suggestions, please e-mail us at sciencetech@iolteam.com.
Yours,
Islamonline LiveDialogue Editing Desk
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Editor
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Profession
Question
Congratulations to the CSE on its achievements and on being recognized with the Stockholm Water Prize in 2005.
This year another Indian-born Canadian citizen Professor Asit K. Biswas, has won the Stockholm Water Prize 2006. What are your sentiments? And how do you envision the role of India, and its people, with regards to water-issues?
Answer
It is wonderful that Dr Asit Biswas has won the prize. He is an outstanding water researcher and advocate for change. We will feel privileged to be in the same honour list as him.
Indians have had an incredible traditions in managing water; we had learnt to live with scarcity and excesses. Most importantly it was a culture, which was built on prudent use of water.
I believe that Indians have to re-learn their water wisdom so that they can change their future and perhaps even help others in the rest of the world to learn that traditional wisdom and ways of living with our natural resources will provide answers for the future.
I hope this answers your question to some extent.
Name
imtiaz
- India
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Question
I have two questions
1. Regarding the scarcity of water during summer especially in chennai, why is the government not building building desalination plants? It could invite private participation and fix these for a nominal charge.
2. In what phase is the nationalisation of indian rivers? Is it shelved?
Answer
1. The government is building desalination plants but they are expensive. Water will cost between Rs. 30-50 (US$ 0.70-1.10) per 1000 ltrs. But clearly if we do not have any other option, then we will have to build plants. Another option will also be to recycle sewage in our cities. Chennai, for instance, sells its sewage to the fertiliser plant because it is economical for them to turn it into water. These are options we will have to use.
2. Government is pursuing the inter-linking of rivers but it is expensive and technically difficult. Some links are going through but water is scarce everywhere. We have to learn that these solutions are not sustainable in the long run.
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Wanzala Justus
- Kenya
Profession
Question
The urban poor and rural communities in a country like Kenya lack access to clean drinking water and yet where this service exists, privatization has taken root. In such a scenario what should governments and communities do to ensure the poor access this vital commodity?
Answer
This is a very important issue. It is clear that privatisation of water will not provide answers for the poor in our countries. I will even argue that the rich in our countries cannot pay the "true" price of water, if we add waste collection and sewage treatment costs. As a result, these services remain subsidised. But in this case, the rich, not the poor are subsidised.
Clearly, the answer will be in managing water for all. The state -- the public utility -- has to be a key player in providing water and in charging the rich for water and subsidising it for the poor. The South African experience of giving every person a basic entitlement of water is interesting. This will give poor legal rights over the resource.
We also need ways in which the poor will get water. We can do this by reducing costs of water, supply and treatment of waste for all. It is possible.
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Sachin
- India
Profession
Question
At what rate is India's water table depleting? Is the government not aware of situation? Or are India's water tables at a comfortable level?
Answer
Groundwater tables are depleting in many parts of the country. In Delhi, for instance, water levels have declined drastically.
Government is aware of the situation but we must also understand the scale of the problem. According to government estimates there are 19 million well-owners in the country. It is not possible to regulate these users in the conventional way. We have to think differently.
Groundwater is a renewable resource and the key will be for us to recharge the wells. We can do this with rainwater harvesting so that each well is recharged or we build ponds and tanks so that they can hold the water, recharge the well.
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Unlucky Kimi
- Iceland
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Formula1 fan
Question
Dear Ma'm
CSE had created a storm in India a couple of years back claiming the presence of pesticides in Cola drinks. Do you still stand by it? If so what steps has the Indian government taken?
Answer
We do stand by our report. In fact, even the parliamentary committee, which was set up by government to investigate our findings has confirmed that we were correct.
The government has still not taken strong enough action in response to our report. We have demanded that there should be standards for pesticide content in the soft drinks. But as you can imagine, companies -- both coke and pepsi -- are strongly against this as they do not want to be regulated in our country. They are fighting this very hard.
But we have not given up. We believe that these are issues of public health and that ultimately consumer pressure and public opinion will prevail.
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Hwaa
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Writer
Question
Generally, we do not drink enough water when as humans it is water that regulates all functions of the body. If you don’t take enough water, some functions of the body will suffer. How much is ill health connected with poor consumption of water and will drinking any type of water to increase our consumption help to improve our health?
Answer
Water is critical for our health. we have to drink water to stay alive and more water if we want to stay healthy.
But if we drink dirty water we will not be healthy. This makes the challenge of clean water even more critical.
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Unlucky Kimi
- Iceland
Profession
Formula1 fan
Question
The Vajpayee government had undertaken an ambitious project of river-linking. How feasible and necessary are such projects? Why is the current Indian govt showing a complete disinterest in this project?
Answer
This government is also keen on the project, but it is finding it unfeasible and expensive. Even when the Vajpayee government had proposed it, it was more because of politics than because of actual plans. Remember in years of drought politicians need to have answers quickly. But these answers, which seem quick are often not easy.
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Editor
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Question
The issue of privatisation of water has received a lot of controversy. Some people say that it will provide better water services, others say that it will only provide better water services to the well-to-do. My understanding is that currently, without privatisation of water, the poor pay more than the rich for water to begin with as they need to pay water vendors, for example, for their water. What is your stance on the issue of privatisation of the water sector?
Answer
Yes, poor do pay more for water, but there is no experience where the private supply of water has lead to lower costs. I am not against privatisation per se. But I do not believe that this approach has answers for a country like India with large numbers of poor people. Remember even the rich cannot pay for water or waste services. We have to rework our approach urgently.
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Editor
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In one of our discussion forums, a poster asked a very logical question. We had asked people to be more conscious of their water use; to fix leaking water taps, not to keep the water running while brushing their teeth, etc. The message we were trying to get out was that people in other parts of the world have to walk for miles to get their water, as it is unavailable to them.
This poster in the US asked: "What does my taking a 5 minute shower instead of 15 minute shower have to do with some woman in Africa walking 40 miles for water??
Last time I checked, there weren't no water mains from
Orlando connected to Ethiopia.
This is a REGIONAL issue."
What would your response be to that? And basically, what can someone do living in a developed country who feels he has an unlimited water supply do to help out those in the developing world that don't?
Answer
Let us be clear that no region in the world, no people in the world and no society in the world can afford to be wasteful -- with water or any other natural resource. There is never enough water for wasting.
But that said, yes, while for the user of water in the US, the lack of water in Ethiopia is a regional issue, it is also a moral issue. Water saved in the US will not give water to the woman in Ethiopia. But if we save water, we save money and we can invest into resources for others.
Name
S Kalbag
- India
Profession
Question
With the controversy over colas raging across the world (and schools banning their sale in their premises), how do you think should governments tackle cola lobbies from staging a comeback using backdoor entries? Or is it an impossible situation in a corruption-ridden country like India?
Answer
In this case corruption is not the only problem. It is about mindsets and attitudes.
For instance, I dont think that Aamir Khan or Sharukh Khan or Amitabh Bachhan are corrupt when they continue to endorse these products, even though there is enough evidence that these products contained pesticides and that these products are not healthy for children. We can only stop them by putting pressure as consumers. We need to say clearly that our icons and heros must be heros that care for society and are not salepersons only. Only then will be bring change. Governments will do what they have to do because of their compulsions. But we don't have these compulsions. We must do what is right. And demand that from our heros.
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Hwaa
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Profession
Writer
Question
First of all I would like to say that I find the work of the people of your genre, extremely valuable to humanity in relation to sustainability.
I would like to ask a very short question. What is the difference between the health and environmental benefits of recycled water, and water that has gone through a natural process of purification as opposed to treated water?
Answer
It is a very good question and a difficult one.
Clean water has certain parameters, which met, should make the water potable. In other words it is drinkable. It can be recycled water or water had has been purified naturally.
But we must look at costs. The aim should not be to pollute and then clean up.
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Editor
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IOL Health and Science Dept. would like to thank Ms. Sunita Narain for taking the time to answer the questions of IslamOnline viewers today. Thank you also to all readers that participated in this dialogue. We apologize for not being able to accommodate all the questions within the time allocated to this session. We request our readers to join us in upcoming sessions and also for our related discussion on "Water and You".
