KERALA IN 2020 - ONE HUGE GARBAGE DUMP?

Utter breakdown of the ecosystem, acute shortage of drinking water, piled up garbage, epidemics; these are just some of the threats looming in front of Kerala in the immediate future. If precise measures are not adopted and with clear insight, the survival of Kerala will be a tough proposition, according to leading environmentalists. Their views below paint a terrifying picture, which can be avoided only through a collective effort from the Government and the people. Make no mistake, it is now or never!


Dr. R.V.G.Menon
"Our rivers are drying up, scientific and permanent measures are yet to be found for waste disposal; these are the two biggest challenges faced by the environment in Kerala today. Sand mining, encroachment of the shores and water pollution are the causes for the drying up of our rivers and backwaters. Man’s encroachment upon nature is threatening the very existence of our water sources. Effective disposal of electronic waste (including computer and mobile phone parts) and plastic waste, including PVC, is a very big problem. Even the used up tube lights and medicine bottles from our homes are not effectively disposed. Effective remedies need to be urgently found to these huge problems. I expect scientific waste disposal measures to be found and adopted within the next few years. Simply because, there is no survival for Kerala otherwise. We won’t even have to wait upto 2020 …."

Dr. C.R. Neelakandan
"Acute drinking water shortage is going to be the biggest problem confronting Kerala. Within the next five years, the percentage of people with access to potable water will come down to 20 – 25%! The percentage with access to potable water all the year round will be still lower. Waste from our cities and our homes loom as an insurmountable problem. We are almost at the point of surrendering before the epidemics brought about by these wastes filling up in our waterways and ponds. Tragically, we are only thinking about how to dispose off the waste, and not how to reduce the quantity of waste generated. Electronic waste will be a huge factor in ten years, as also tourism waste. Even the disposal of the remnants of demolished buildings, as in the small town of Munnar, will not be easy. If we go at the same rate, Kerala will be one huge pile of garbage by 2020, with survival out of question!"

Dr.S.Shanker
"Indiscriminate filling up of water bodies is the main challenge faced by the environment in Kerala. In Kerala, with its sloping topography, these water bodies are responsible for holding and retaining rain water. Their destruction will adversely affect rain water harvesting. In Kerala’s context, the destruction of water bodies is a bigger threat than global warming, and is the very reason for the summers getting hotter by the year. By 2020, there is no doubt that Kerala will be one giant garbage dump, with deadly epidemics thriving in it. The cities will be clean;through the ‘clean Kerala mission’, city garbage will be collected by the women in the Kudumba Sree units and dumped in the villages! Our waste disposal has always been such-just temporary measures, with the larger picture conveniently ignored."

Prof. T. Sobheendran
"We have begun the journey to hell; if we move on in the same vein, a terrifying future awaits Kerala! When a hillock is leveled, an agricultural field or a water body is simultaneously filled up. In a few years, Kerala will not possess even a single hillock. And along with these hills will be destroyed the streams originating from them. People who are banking on the Japan Drinking Water Scheme to solve our drinking water problems better lend a thought to preserving the very sources meant for these schemes. Mother earth, robbed of its water sources and agricultural land, will turn into deserts bereft of all life and energy. The only solution is an awareness drive on a large scale . In a very short while, every single person will need to come forward for nature preservation, if only because there is no other go."

Prof. S. Seetharaman
"Kerala will have to pay a heavy price if environmental pollution develops on this scale. If concrete buildings proliferate at this rate, the temperature will increase two fold. With the reclamation of paddy fields, food production has significantly come down in Kerala. We can depend on the neighbouring states for our food grains only for another five years or so. By then, even these states will be producing food just enough to meet their internal needs. The percentage of Sulphur in Kerala’s atmosphere has become very high, with emissions from the ever increasing number of vehicles. It needs to be brought down from the present level of 0.25 % to a permissible 0.05%. More than fifty percent of our water is already contaminated by domestic and industrial waste."

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