Just hot air

Just hot air

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (nepad) has become something of couture show for political and economic elite across the globe. At an intergovernmental and business level, nepad has guaranteed diplomatic license to those who circumnavigate the world attending summits and conferences in the disguise of addressing Africa's developmental challenges. At the civil society level, nepad has become the point from where Africa's second-generation leaders and their counterparts in the industrialised countries can be hauled up for failing to understand Africa's development crisis.

But what is it about nepad that invokes the romanticism that this is Africa's last real shot at addressing its developmental crisis? Is nepad the answer to Africa's development challenges? In one word, the answer is "no".

A realistic reading of the nepad document reveals that it could mean anything to everybody. This is reinforced by the meandering rhetoric of the document, which tries to say too much without saying anything.

For instance, there is a mention that aids (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome) has caused immense damage to the continent. But there is little more. In a similar vein, the mobilisation of capital flow is steeped in an ideological thinking that is devoid of any serious understanding of the structural distribution of power at a global level, nor how this influences the distribution of resources in the world economy. To assume that foreign direct investment (fdi) is suddenly going to avail itself to Africa because this is what is needed to sustain the objectives of nepad is nave, to say the least.

According to figures released by the International Monetary Fund (imf) in 2000, the continent accounted for only 2.3 per cent of the world stock of fdi; during the same period, only 0.7 per cent was new fdi inflows into Africa. What this demonstrates is that not only does Africa attract low levels of fdi, but that it continues to be a dark spot on the radar screens of most investors.

The lesson is simple; fdi is not the answer that nepad is looking for, nor is it the holy grail that will resolve Africa's development crises. What is to be extracted from fdi trends and patterns is that capital does not go where it does not want to go, and cannot be compelled to do so. This was amply demonstrated by the g8 in the meagre assistance of us $6 billion they offered.

The shortcomings of nepad's deliverables are many. Suffice to say that the partnership is couched in expectations that far exceed the realities. Moreover, the core of the document exudes a partnership that is more attractive to political and economic elites than to Africa's leaders and their citizenry. Some have argued that this partnership resembles a dependency relationship that undoubtedly commits Africa to more demands, while being polite and respectful to the industrialised countries in return for their spoils.

nepad, therefore, illustrates that Africa's second-generation of political leaders are falling into the same trap as the first, in that they continue to see Africa's economic rejuvenation within the narrow confines of a neo-liberal framework. This marginalizes the majority of Africa's people.

But if nepad is not an appropriate strategy for Africa's development, what is the way forward? To this end, two programmes -- Lagos Plan of Action and Africa's Alternative Framework to Structural Adjustment -- provide the answer, although Africa's elite seem blind to their existence.

Sanusha Naidu is a research specialist with the Human Sciences Research Council in Durban, South Africa. These are her personal views 12jav.net12jav.net

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The small big polluter

FOR many years now, small-scale industries have been making ugly rounds of courts. From Delhi to Kolkata, Agra to Vellore, the story repeats itself. Rather with more ferocity. Acting on public interest litigations and frustrated at the government's lackadaisical attitude, the courts are cracking the whip on the industries. So much so that in 1996, the Supreme Court (SC) gave as many as 12 verdicts in pollution-related cases. In Delhi, exasperated over the delay in implementation of its 1996 decision, the SC cracked down on officials in November 2000. The court had said that no polluting industry must be allowed to operate from Delhi's residential areas. Forced to act, the Delhi government shut down over 2,000 small-scale industries. In the ensuing protests by workers, three people lost their lives and the capital virtually came to a standstill for several days. In a similar verdict, again in 1996, the apex court ordered the state government to relocate the highly polluting tanneries outside Kolkata. And this is not the end. In 2002, the Madras High Court ordered the 325-odd tanneries in Vellore district to pay a compensation of Rs 26.82 crore to restore the ecology of Vellore district and to the affected people. The tanneries were discharging effluents to the tune of more than 10 million litres per day (mld) for over 20 years. Whether it is Delhi, Kolkata or Chennai, the country is paying for its environmentally mindless policy (see table: Pollution flashpoints). "SSIs lack the technical expertise or finance to invest in the pollution control technologies," says Utpal Bajpai, head, Technology Bureau of Small Enterprises (TBSE), Mumbai. According to a status report on SSIs by the Central Pollution Control Board: "The level of pollution caused by the SSI sector in India per unit of output is higher than their counterparts in developed countries." The reasons are many:

• Continued usage of outdated and inefficient technologies that generate large amounts of wastes;

• Large and unplanned industrial conglomeration;

• Lack of resources for enforcement and implementation of pollution control programmes;

• Lack of public/market pressure for improving environmental performance; and,

• Lack of proper siting thereby posing greater environmental risks.

ineffective regulations
The task of cleaning the SSIs seems next to impossible. In Delhi, the closed SSIs have now started operating with the momentum of relocation getting lost in a bureaucratic maze. Similarly in Kolkata, after six years of the apex court order, officials confirm that tanneries still operate clandestinely in the absence of any infrastructure to relocate. In both these cases, as in any other part of the country, the problem of tackling the SSI comes from lack of the required strong political will and the ineffectiveness of our regulatory bodies like the state pollution control boards.

Sounding pessimistic, a senior official in the Union ministry of environment and forests, admits: "The number of SSIs is too large to be regulated." S Janakarajan, associate professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai says, "Pollution control board officials cannot do much as these industries lie scattered."

Today, there is no appropriate regulatory structure for SSI units. "It is a massive task to regulate this sector. We are looking at a total of more than five million units spread across the country," says P K Gupta, director, National Cleaner Production Centre, New Delhi. A Planning Commission's study has found that the existing system is grossly inadequate to monitor the polluting industries.

"In Andhra Pradesh, one technical person has to monitor hundred units," the report states. "It's almost impossible for state pollution control officials to monitor and regulate the registered SSIs. The unregistered ones escape regulation," says A K Mhaskar, a former Maharashtra pollution control board official. In order to prosecute an unregistered unit for pollution, the official machinery would first have to first recognise its existence and then take steps to regularise it. "Authorities may have some success in regulating the registered SSIs which are located in the designated industrial areas, but the problem comes from more than two million unregistered units operating from residential localities in urban areas," says A S Sood, deputy director, development commissioner for SSIs.

Sood knows it better. He had conducted an all-India survey of small-scale asbestos units and found that more than 90 per cent units did not have any sort of pollution abatement equipment.

The lack of regulation clearly stands out in the findings of a Study of the State Pollution Control Boards undertaken by the Programme Evaluation Organisation at the instance of the Planning Commission. "The number of highly polluting units inventorised by the SPCBs as a per cent of the number estimated from the annual survey of industries is very low in a majority of states. Again, it is found that the levels of inventorisation of hazardous waste generating units is less than complete in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and West Bengal and that when the inventorised units are taken, the percentage of units operating with licenses is not satisfactory in a few states."

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Mere plans

Interestingly, this unregulated and technically incompetent industry sector has been exclusively entrusted to manufacture items, which pollute the most in processes like the garments, leather tanning, dyeing and electroplating. "The economic logic behind this kind of reservation is a fraud," says Shreekant Gupta, reader, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. "The basic logic of this protectionist policy for SSIs was employment generation. But the environmental and social costs of this employment creation is also very high," he adds.

Moreover, the prevailing ceiling on investment in machinery and fixed assets discourages SSI owners from investing in pollution control equipment. In India, the SSIs continue to get the benefits related to this sector as long as they continue to remain small. The government policy discourages them to move towards medium or large sector, where they can invest on the pollution control technologies and better resource utilisation. "It is common to find an entrepreneur owning 8-10 SSIs instead of one large industry," says Mahesh Vyas, executive director of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy in Mumbai. "There is an inbuilt policy bias towards deliberately staying small," says Bibek Debroy, director-research, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, New Delhi.

Taking advantage of the favourable policies and almost absent environmental policing even large industries dump their more polluting processes to the SSI sector to save investment in pollution control equipment. For example, the Centre for Science and Environment's Green Rating Project on the automobile sector found that more than 80 per cent (more than 15,000 components) of a single automobile was outsourced from the SSI sector.

The Union government's attempts, though few and feeble, to clean the sector has failed. In the late 1990s, the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) in collaboration with the World Bank launched a project for waste minimisation among SSIs. Forty-five waste minimisation circles were set up in various sectors in different parts of the country. But mostly these projects largely remain restricted to demonstrations and pilot projects and have achieved partial success. Out of the 300 waste minimisation options identified, only 120 have been implemented. A recent project in the town of Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, failed to take off, as the industrialists showed little interest. The government's focus then shifted to common effluent treatment plants (CETPs).

In the early 1990s, CETPs were touted as the magical solution to pollution from SSIs. The idea was novel: SSIs could come together and collect their wastes and treat at a common treatment facility. This would reduce the treatment costs for individual units and also minimise the problem of technical know-how and management. Between 1990-2000, more than 90 CETPs projects were approved with financial assistance coming from various sources including the World Bank. Today, the euphoria has ebbed and CETPs are fast becoming the proverbial white elephants.

CETPs cost anywhere between Rs 2-20 crore. But this is just the easy part. Because the Union government through projects like the World Bank-assisted Industrial Pollution Control Project subsidises such ventures. The problem is its maintenance. Industries have to share the burden of the running cost, but owners are unwilling to cough up. In Maharashtra, the CETP at the Additional Ambernath Industrial Area has been abandoned precisely due to this reason. "We operate on a small profit margin. There is no way we can undertake the running cost of the plant," says Dhiru Shah, a factory owner.

"CETPs have also failed to effectively treat effluents," says Tishya Chaterjee, member secretary, Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board. For example, in Tirupur, Tamil Nadu - which is the hosiery capital of India - CETPs are adding to the pollution problem as they have failed to bring down the high levels of total dissolved solids (TDS) in the effluents from the dyeing and bleaching units. In Pali, Jodhpur, the problem has been the changing nature of effluents (see box: Down the drain).

the quagmire of relocation
Probably frustrated by such failures in cleaning the sector and in face of growing judicial pronouncements and public anger, relocation of industries from urban areas is now touted as a solution for the mess created by the SSIs. But experiences show that relocation simply means relocation of pollution.

"If authorities think that merely by relocating they'll be able to solve the problems, they are horribly wrong," says Paul P Appasamy, director, Madras School of Economics, Chennai. Part of the problem lies in the bureaucratic incompetence in managing relocation efficiently. For instance in Delhi, the ham handed manner has meant that the necessary infrastructure is not ready for the relocation of the industries. "The relocation site at Bawana, where only a few of Delhi's industries can shift, is being developed at a very slow pace. How will we survive till then?" asks Y P Suri, vice-president, Delhi Manufacturers Federation. Factory owners allege that those who tried to adhere to the regulations and apply for relocation are the ones facing the brunt. They claim thousands of other industrial units are flourishing illegally under a corrupt regime.

Besides, myopic city planning has added to the problem. In 1960s, the Delhi government had shifted industrial units to a newly set up industrial area of Mayapuri, which at that time was on located Delhi's outskirts. Now Mayapuri is a prime residential locality. Residents of Bawana, one of the relocation sites, fear a similar fate. Residents protest such relocation now. "The government is dumping all the dirt of the city here. How are they going to make sure that this place does not get polluted as the filthy industrial areas of Delhi?" asks O P Verma, a resident of Bawana village. The fate of tanneries in Kolkata is similar. In December 1996, the apex court ordered 550 tanneries located in Tangra, Tiljala, Topsia and Pagladanga in east Kolkata to close shop and relocate to the Central Leather Complex (CLC) in Bantala by February 28, 2002. The relocation site is still not ready. 12jav.net12jav.net

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Have technology, will survive

It is clear that small-scale industries (SSIs) can no longer afford to remain dirty and defiant. The same is true for the government. Not only is it a question of the livelihood of 20 million people but also about cleaning up India's environment, which again affects people. What is required is a shift in paradigm from pollution control and treatment to pollution prevention. "End of the pipe pollution control strategies have proved inadequate and piecemeal measures for SSIs," observes P K Gupta, director, National Cleaner Production Centre, New Delhi.

Some sporadic initiatives offer hope. Take the case of the agro-based pulp and paper industry. The effluents generated in the pulping process, known as black liquor, are very polluting in nature. Today, the technology to treat this black liquor is available. Through anaerobic biodigester black liquor can be treated and its high organic content used to generate biogas. This can further be used as an alternate clean energy source by the industry. This process generates comparatively less effluents, which can be treated and discharged. Only a few large and medium-scale plants are using this technology and more research is needed to make this a technological option for the SSI sector.

Next comes the issue of developing resource efficient and less polluting technologies. This becomes important because almost all such technologies that are available today have been developed in the western countries and cater only to the larger industry. "Interaction between the research and development organisations and the industry is not very good in our country. We have to work in such a way that scientists are encouraged," says K P Nyati, head, environment resource division, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). "If a scientist comes up with an innovative and cost-effective pollution control technology, the industry will only be too willing to accept it. In such a case, 50 per cent of the money made could go to the scientist and 50 per cent to the institution represented. This would also keep the motivation level of the scientists and researchers high and would also mean that better and cheaper technologies are available to the industry as well, says Nyati.

Those who have applied their minds have been successful in coming out with feasible solutions (see box: A clean success). The Central Leather Research Institute in Chennai - a Union government institution - mandated to do research for the leather sector, has come up with one such project. Bio-methanation plants have already been set up and running at a few tanneries around the country. These plants are attached to a tannery with an abattoir close by. All the wastes from the abattoir are used to produce energy in these plants and fresh non-salted hides go straight to the tannery.

The private sector too can chip in by conducting research for SSIs. "But interest in R&D to find environmental solutions for SSI would arise only if units are forced to comply with pollution control norms and adopt new technologies. With such lax enforcement, few want to waste time developing technologies which ultimately would find few buyers," says Mahesh Vyas, executive director, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt Ltd, Mumbai. "Nobody will conduct research to make them more efficient at this level of compliance because basic economics will work against anyone conducting R&D for SSIs," adds Vyas. This means that a number of agencies will have to come together to create an atmosphere conducive for undertaking R&D activities for the SSI sector.

One such effort for the leather sector has already been launched by CLRI in collaboration with various government research organisations. "This project, under the Tenth Five Year Plan, aims to manufacture a complete eco-friendly product by eliminating all the chemical inputs in leather production and replacing them with biological materials," informs T Ramasami, director, CLRI.

These technological innovations make it clear that cleaning up the small-scale sector is not impossible, though difficult. And for that, the government needs to undertake large-scale overhauling of our small-scale sector. Both in its content and context. 12jav.net12jav.net