The Mahajans, a family of four who live in Vasant Kunj, South Delhi, daily waste 240 litres of water to get 30 litres from their reverse osmosis (RO) purifier six times a day. "I bought the purifier thinking it will end all our water woes. It gives us clean drinking water but I feel guilty about the waste," says Meenakshi Mahajan. 'Experts' have informed the family that the wastage is quite normal for such water-cleaning gadgets.
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Till now, treatment companies had never thought that they would have to deal with pesticides. Sharma says, "To be very frank, we had never tested if our products can deal with pesticide residues. It is only after CSE's report that we tested our Pristine filter." The tests in August 2003 found some reduction in levels of pesticides.
Indian Railways too claims that its bottling plant for Rail Neer -- bottled water served to passengers -- controls pesticides. "When we studied CSE's report, our first bottling plant for Rail Neer was ready, but we realised that pesticides were a big problem so we put another column of activated carbon at our plant," says S K Kaushik, director of finance, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) (see box: Pesticides: Rlys meets standards).
Companies claim membrane technology and activated carbon keep out pesticides and heavy metals, but experts would like to have concrete proof for that. "In the early 1990s, we tested candle filters and resin filters and realised that they disinfect water but don't remove pesticides. So, saying that these filters provide pure clean water is wrong," says Neeta P Thacker, deputy director of Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), a research laboratory of the Council for Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR).
"Theoretically, membranes can remove pesticides but no one can say for sure till a large-scale study is conducted. No one knows how pesticides react when they are in a mixed form in water. I do not know if one membrane can deal with all kinds of pesticides," says Thacker.
Sukumar Devotta, director of NEERI, and Thacker say research is needed on membrane-based filters and they are willing to do it. But companies claim they have their own studies and do not need a certificate from government institutes. But these studies aren't public, and the government hasn't set standards for these devices.
There is another concern: most membrane technologies remove the minerals required by the human body. Concerned over this issue, the Bureau of Indian Standards is debating whether to specify a minimum TDS along with maximum TDS.
Companies claim that the best membrane rejects 99.8 per cent pollutants and only a small fraction passes through. "So if the level of pesticide in water is very low, then the 0.2 per cent which beats the membrane does not matter. But if the water is highly contaminated, then even that 0.2 per cent could be very high," says Popat. Companies claim activated carbon traps the pollutants which escape the membrane, but experts demand studies to confirm this. And that cleaning costs a lot of water.
A five-litre RO filter rejects phenomenally high amount of water: 80 to 85 per cent. "This happens because the pump attached to the filter cannot generate the high pressure a membrane needs. And a good pump, costs a lot of money," says Popat. The RO system at the Rail Neer plant only wastes 20 per cent water because of its pump, which costs Rs 50,000. And most of these pumps are imported.
"These technologies are only delaying the problem by a few years. The pollutants remain in the environment. What we need to do is minimise use of toxic compounds and protect our water sources. Once water resources are polluted, it is very difficult to clean them," says V Ravichandran, director of Chennai-based Enviro Energy Systems.
In 1995, NEERI studied two RO-based desalination plants in Melasirupodhu and Sikkal villages of Tamil Nadu which had brought down the TDS in water from 5,300-8,500 ppm to less than 500 ppm. The study called Performance Evaluation of Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plants for Rural Water Supply in a Developing Country _ A Case Study came to the conclusion that "plants shut down due to inadequate and erratic power supply... and inherent delay in repairs due to lack of adequate infrastructure...." Consequently, the recurring cost of water production shot up to Rs 25 per cubic metre at Melasirupodhu and Rs 17.5 per cubic metre at Sikkal, as against the estimated cost of Rs 15 per cubic metre and Rs 11 per cubic metre respectively.
RO and activated carbon filters have other problems as well. They have to be regenerated and changed after some time. The smallest membrane could cost US $15 and largest about US $700. "Developing membranes needs stringent quality control and very good infrastructure. So, it's better to import because the government has recently lifted the duty on membranes," says Sharma.
Popat says that nearly 350 Indian firms supply activated carbon but the quality is so poor that his company prefers to make imports from Netherlands.
Treating drinking water is just a drop. Strict environmental rules means that the sewage of entire cities has to be cleaned. Companies are just waiting to plunge in and treat. Till about the end of 2000, Delhi's sewage treatment plants followed the effluent standard of 20 milligram per litre (mg/l) for biological oxygen demand (BOD) and 30 mg/l for total suspended solids (TSS). But Yamuna is getting dirtier because of the 4,088 million litre of wastewater it receives daily. Keeping this in mind, the CPCB on January 19, 2001 asked the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to follow new norms of 10 mg/l BOD, 15 mg/l TSS and 1,000 most probable number (MPN) per 10 millilitre of total coliform at its new plants. Soon after CPCB gave this order, a debate started over who can deliver these new standards.
The DJB claims only MNCs have the technology to achieve these stringent standards. About a year back, the DJB floated a tender for its 45 million gallons per day (mgd) Kondli sewage treatment plant. Few companies applied and of them many were rejected. The DJB is yet to decide whom to give the contract. According to a senior DJB officer, three MNCs -- Austria-based VA Tech Wabag GmbH, France-based Ondeo Degremont and US-based Utility Equipment Management (UEM) Group -- are in the race.
But VA Tech has financial problems and UEM has no experience in running a treatment plant in India. So Degremont is the only choice DJB has. According to government rules, this is a case of single tender and DJB has to put out a fresh tender again. But will another round help? "No, because we know it will again be a single tender. We did not realise that there is hardly any company in India which can give results of 10 mg/l BOD and 15 mg/l TSS for sewage treatment. Environmental rules have been made stringent but there aren't many technology providers," claims the officer.
MNCs claim sewage treatment requires the best technology, but most treatment plants in India follow the conventional activated sludge process. ASP is a technology which uses sedimentation tanks and microorganisms to reduce BOD and TSS in sewage to 40 mg/l and 60 mg/l (see box: Cleaning the muck)
Degremont, which operates three sewage treatment plants in Delhi, says it too uses ASP but then follows it up with biofiltration. At the 40-mgd capacity Rithala Phase II plant, sewage is first treated using ASP and then effluent from the tanks is taken to BIOFOR filters, a patent product of Degremont.
It is this biofiltration process which sets it apart from conventional sewage treatment processes. Biofiltration first traps fine floating materials in the sewage with the help of a screen. After this, the sewage passes through 20 biological filters. The complete process gives an end result of 15 mg/l BOD and 20 mg/l TSS. The left over sludge is used to produce biogas which generates electricity. "The Rithala plant daily generates 23,000 to 25,000 unit of power," says manager Sanjay Khadayate.
Indian companies aren't impressed. "Degremont is not offering anything extraordinary. They follow the conventional ASP and then do biofiltration. But we have an advanced technology in which there is no need to go in for biofiltration. We can treat sewage to 10 mg/l BOD at the secondary treatment stage alone," says Krishnan Rajagopalan, of Thermax Ltd.
Yogendra Chaudhury, counsellor, Confederation of Indian Industry, says, "There are some very good Indian companies like Thermax and Paramount which can give as low BOD as asked for. They have set up plants but face difficulty in working with municipalities." Chaudhary claims that sometimes rules in tenders keep out Indian companies and then municipalities cry hoarse over lack of competition.
Popat gives an example. "The Chennai corporation recently floated tenders for desalination plants of 100 million litres per day (mld), 200 mld and 300 mld capacity. Only companies, which have set up plants of 15 mld, 30 mld and 45 mld, can apply. The tender asks for a turnover of Rs 250 crore for a 100 mld plant, Rs 500 crore for a 200 mld plant, and Rs 1,500 for a 300 mld plant. To add to all this, companies have to deposit earnest money of Rs 50 lakh and Rs 100 lakh. No Indian company can meet these requirements. Only MNCs have that deep pockets to meet these demands."
"There are several technologies offered by Indian companies that can achieve 10 mg/l BOD in sewage. The only issue is initial cost and high power consumption," says Trivedi.
A senior DJB officer says Thermax had applied for the Kondli plant but was disqualified because the company did not have experience. Companies say this is a typical Catch-22 government policy.
Working with 'progressive' municipalities, Ion Exchange and Thermax are setting up model treatment plants. "Ion Exchange is setting up a 12 mld plant for Goa corporation for Rs 4 crore. The treatment plant is based on advanced cyclic-activated sludge technology, which gives a BOD up to 5 mg/l and removes nutrients from the sewage," says Popat. Ion Exchange is also talking with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and Jammu and Kashmir government to set up similar plants.
Ion Exchange says it has another technology called C-MEM (submerged membrane bio-reactor) which uses membranes to treat sewage. The membranes are submerged along with the sewage in a tank which is continuously aerated. The company uses this technology to treat sewage at its factory in Rabale near Mumbai. "Sewage, which has a BOD and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 250 mg/l and 550 mg/l, is treated to get a result of less than 5 mg/l BOD and about 30 mg/l COD. The treated sewage looks as good as the drinking water supplied by Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation," says Nitin Umbralkar, marketing manager of Ion Exchange. The Rabale plant uses eight membrane modules, with each module costing about Rs 2.5 lakh. Ion Exchange also manufactures INDION, a sewage treatment plant which can be packed in a container and transported.
Thermax Ltd, which is based in Pune, Maharashtra, says it too has the best technology which can function quite efficiently in Indian conditions. "Our company believes in decentralised treatment of sewage because pumping sewage from one part of the city to another doesn't make sense. It involves huge investment in the conveyance system. That is why we bid for smaller plants and have already set up a few," says Rajagopalan.
Thermax recently set up a sewage treatment plant in Sangvi town near Pune for the Pimpri-Chindwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) based on fluidised aerobic bio (FAB) reactor technology. Four years ago, when PCMC floated a tender for 12 mld STP it wanted the conventional ASP technology. But the land wasn't big enough and people complained that the proposed plant would stink.
Thermax won the contract by impressing the corporation with its FAB reactor. "The total cost of the treatment plant is Rs 5.6 crore but we have designed it in such a way that the running cost is minimum. For instance, we do not need to pump out the sewage. Sewage flows out because of gravity. If we were to use conventional technology, it would take us at least eight hours to treat sewage. But the FAB reactor enables us to do the job in just 1.45 hours," says Rajagopalan. The company says it has already set up 72 treatment plants based on FAB reactors.
But all these technologies -- membrane or FAB reactors -- which Indian companies flaunt are foreign concepts. The government and companies have little to show for technologies that have worked under Indian conditions. The government has spent Rs 320 billion in 50 years on rural drinking water supply. Under the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission, more than 77 research projects have been sponsored, out of which 15 have been conducted by CSIR laboratories. But a paper presented during last year's National Workshop on Priority Research and Technology Programme for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation, says: "It is an area of serious concern that most of the completed projects have not been able to demonstrate a proven technology which can have effective application for solving water and sanitation problem". Most technologies have failed in villages though they gave promising results in labs.
Worldwide the environmental services market is growing, and if India wants a share in the pie it needs quality technology. The environmental services market is now worth US $280 billion and is expected to grow to US $640 billion by 2010, with an annual growth rate of eight per cent. This will place the environmental services industry at roughly the same size as the pharmaceuticals or information technology industries. The market is presently in the industrialised world, but the demand in developing countries is expected to shoot up soon. 
Meghalaya's chief minister admits the state is in a mess. Among states in India, it ranks 24th in the country's Human Development Index and 21st on the index of social and economic infrastructure. "The state government and the adcs have floundered a bit," concurs a cabinet minister in the present state government.
The Planning commission estimates that 33.87 per cent of Meghalaya's population still remains below the poverty line (1999-2000). But as Robert Kharsiing points out, "Imagine, 45 minutes from Shillong, in Smit where the people conglomerated -- the capital of the biggest Khasi hima -- there are villages without electricity." (see pie chart: Darkness) While the voltage dips, unemployment peaks. Official figures show that out of the state's 9.56 lakh workers, 2.14 lakh are marginal (they work for less than 180 days in a year). This number is hotly contested.
What is not is that Meghalaya's educated youth has turned increasingly to militancy. Two major militant groups -- the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council and the Achik National Volunteer Council -- operate here. Their cadre strength, political observers say, is an index of employment levels. And as the guns boom, a vicious circle -- militancy keeping development at bay, underdevelopment, and so militancy in return -- repeats itself.
Meghalaya's forests used to be a crucial source of income. A Supreme Court order of 1998 to stop logging in the northeast brought to a halt the large-scale felling of trees. Yet, in a state where 90 per cent of the forests are owned by the people, very few people benefit substantially from the trade. "A study based on a survey of at least 20 villages of the West Khasi hills," writes Chakraborty in Impact of logging ban on livelihood, "Found how the entire logging activities were organised in remote villages and in what ways the timber trade influenced people's lives. Interviews and discussions with village elders, traditional heads, women, logging workers, mill owners, timber contractors, traders (malik diengs), government officials and others suggested there was no concept of organised tree farming in villages. None of the people could confirm they had specific harvesting and replanting schedules for their forest. They were just buying new forests and clearing them off." He mentions cases of malik diengs buying large tracts at Rs 60 per tree, then selling them to bigger contractors outside the state at Rs 165 per cubic feet. It was a pittance, but thousands of families did depend on the trade. Since the 1998 order, many joined the ranks of the unemployed.
The adcs, responsible for making new management plans (along with the forest department) to allow sustainable harvest, have not moved on the case. Admitted M R Lingwi, former executive member of the Khasi Hills adc, in a September 2003 interview, "The adc has not taken any action on this front. We know that many lives depend upon forest resources and this should be done on a war footing." But the fact that the central government funds for afforestation and forest management were routed through the state government and not the adcs created problems, notes B Datta Roy in The Seventy Third Amendment Act 1992 and the State of Meghalaya.
This is not the only issue on which adcs have come a cropper. They simply haven't used their legislative powers to benefit the region. Instead, they have enacted the United Khasi-Jainita Hills Autonomous District (Appointment and Succession of Chiefs and Headmen) Act 1959. The act provides for removal and suspension of chiefs. It also debars them from participating in any elections of the parliament, state legislature or district council unless certain strict conditions are met. "The act has been misused on several occasions and syiems and dolois removed at the whims and fancies of the district council," says Neindro Syiem of Maharam. A senior state bureaucrat agrees: "Very often the chiefs are appointed or removed on the basis of their political affiliations and the new incumbents then work in cahoots with the members of the adc." Many traditional chiefs have taken to party politics to keep their new masters happy, admits one syiem. Interestingly, the Supreme Court too has upheld in a case that the chiefs are only officers of the councils under the Constitution and upheld the validity of the 1959 act. The sixth schedule was amended in 1969 to empower state governments to entrust autonomous councils with functions relating to agriculture, animal husbandry, community development projects and cooperative societies. adcs have failed to deliver on these fronts, says Datta Roy.
Perhaps the most glaring example is that the adcs, till date, haven't carried out the cadastral mapping of the region -- the only way to ascertain land-holding rights and demarcate boundaries. "In the absence of such mapping, much of the data we have related to agriculture, land and productivity for the region sure seems unreliable," admits a senior officer of the North East Council, Shillong.
This lack, and the fact that traditional rules haven't been codified -- the adc can undertake this, too -- means neither government nor concerned institutions can quantify the changes in land holding in the last 40 years. Says Patricia Mukhim, a senior analyst and journalist based in Shillong, "A new elite has risen in Meghalaya. A class of land-lords that did not exist before in the egalitarian land holding system. When community lands are distributed individuals own them. Poverty forces people to sell off land. Land may initially be distributed in the name of a woman but the subsequent buyers are timber merchants or other male businessmen, who buy the land for when their children need to look at farming as an alternative, since they know that scope for employment in the city is virtually non-existent." No data exists on this. But as Kharsiing says, "Yes, there is a very rich class in Shillong today, a certain politically influential elite group which seems to prosper regardless of the condition of the rest of the state, but that is not true in rural Meghalaya; there is no land alienation." S S Syiem, a former syiem of Nongstion, says, "Our traditional system of land owning and the clan has always provided for the poor. But we now have to quickly adjust to the new regimes or the the situation will worsen."
Social scientists today question whether these institutionas are democratic, and whether they can tolerate the presence of large numbers of non-tribals in the state. Their method of working is suited to manage composite and homogenous groups, says Apurba Barua, professor of anthropology at nehu, Shillong.
Also, "Traditional institutions lack ability to handle the new economy," says John F Kharshiing, spokesperson for the Federation of Khasi States, a broad umbrella group of all traditional institutions in the Jaintia and Khasi hills. A section of them have been tainted with corruption, too. "But one cannot dismiss the entire tradition because of a few bad examples," defends P R Mawthaw, a minister at the hima level.
Irrespective of the party in power, Meghalaya's government has either turned adcs into mere advisory bodies, or conveniently withdrawn financial support. adcs have also been used as a political springboard for hopefuls to reach the state assembly. adcs, in turn, have meted out the exact treatment to customary institutions. A comparative look at the Panchayati Raj institutions under the 73rd amendment to the Constitution makes it evident that the entrenched structue aches for an overhaul (see table below: More complicated today). The National Commission reviewing the working of the constitution has presented a consultation paper saying as much (see box: Roadmap).
The initiative of the traditional chiefs to seek direct funds from the center alters the stratagem. Robert Kharshiing agrees, "If it works, this is the first step. We need to take it slowly, look at the results of the expenditure after one year, evaluate our strengths and weaknesses, go back to the people with our financial reports and let them also judge our efficacy." Tata Consultacy Services, that helped in this process, plans to set up a secretariat in Shillong to help manage, oversee and regulate the expenditure. But Kharshiing knows, in the long run, that "We will have to create livelihoods, if our economy has to self-sustain." Robert Lyngdoh, home minister of Meghalaya, says, "The tourism sector holds the key besides opening up the trade with neighboring countries." The shift towards the tertiary sector of services is visible in the recent past, too. But what no one has looked at is the consequences of shifting away from a natural resource-based economy.
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