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WITH the proposal of a us $360 millionloan from the World Bank (WB) to Indiato provide commercially viable industrial waste treatment methods, the community's right to know, awaiting notification by the Union ministry of environment (MEF) and forests in earlyFebruary 1996 (Down To Earth, Vol 4,No 19), might just get the neccessary fillip it so desperately needs.
The project proposal (HazardousWaste Management Project), which isslated to be appraised in September1996 and presented to the WB Board forapproval in April 1997, also includescommunity-based awareness programmes comprising of three distinctheads - the institutional, the technicaland the investment components.
Details of the precise break-up foreach head, and how exactly the loanmoney would be utilised for the community, are not yet known. TheGovernment of India would stand as theguarantor of the loan. "The institutionalcomponent would be for support to theCentral and the state pollution controlboards (PCBS) in their capacity to monitor and enforce the hazardous wastehandling rules, and monitor the transportation of hazardous wastes (HW),"Walter Vergara, WB task manager of theloan, told Down To Earth.
He states that the technical assistance component would be utilised bythe PCBS to assess sites used for containing Hw and site remediation; community-based awareness programmes onrisks to health, environment and thehazards of improper handling and disposal of HW; updating inventories ofhazardous and toxic wastes, and expansion Of GIs (geographic information systems)-based tracking and monitoringsystems; effort to improve the information management of the PCBS; supportfor efforts to implement the community's right to know, including development of the toxic release inventory.
"For pollution abatement, wasteminimisation, cleaner methods of production, developing centralised HWtreatment and disposal facilities andalso a pilot programme for cleaning andcontainment of waste in a few high priority sites posing large safety, health andenvironmental hazards, the investmentcomponent would be used," addedVergara.
However, as far as the technicalassistance component is concerned, itwould perhaps be neccessary to includethe voluntary sector and NGOs here.Government agencies have a long historyof preventing free flow of crucial data tothe community. Denying of information and not human lapses, lay at theroot of the Bhopal tragedy of 1984.
Reacting sharply to the news report"In the line of fire" (Down To Earth, Vol4, No 23), WB officials stated that thefears of the anti -incinerator lobby, as faras this loan was concerned, wereunfounded, as the loan was for neithermunicipal nor hospital wastes.
"How can the WB Offer loans forschemes that would result in the releaseof dioxins and furans?" they ask. In thesame breath, however, the officials addthat the loan would consider all optionswhen it came to hazardous waste disposal. The officials state that althoughincineration was one of the disposal systems, it was "highly unlikely" that thiswoW be considered under the loan."As ihe loan proposal is still at thepreparatory stage, we do not have all thedetails. That would come about only atthe @appraisal stage, when all optionswould be examined," they added.
rt is at this stage that the environmental impact assessments (EIA) are carried out. The implementaing agenciesi@A4 the Indian government are the MEF,the ministry of surface transport, theministry of labour and the Central andstate PCBS. Enquiries about the details ofthe project elicited a deafening silencefrom the MEF, leaving one wonderinghow such mute agencies could translatethe spirit of the loan (read, the community's right to know) into reality, oncethe project is implemented.
India generates upto five milliontonnes Of Hw annually. Most of this isgenerated in the highly industrialisedstates of Gujarat, Maharashtra, TamilNadu and Andhra Pradesh. States likeRajasthan, Madhya Pradesh andKarnataka, which form the second tierof the polluting states, are also includedwithin the loan's purview.
The WB'S involvement in pollutionabatement commenced in 1991. Thefirst operation under this programmewas the Industrial Pollution ControlProject approved in May 1991; the second was the Industrial PollutionPrevention Project approved in July 1994, currently being implemented.
"Although these common pollutionproblems have become better con-trolled, toxic effects of hazardous materials being discharged into air, land and water have become increasingly evident," claimed a recent a WB project report. Under the proposed project, once the sites for hazardous waste management services are located and selected, the actual investment in the facilities will be undertaken by those states where a site is planned. This is primarily the task of the Government of India, point out wB officials.
According to a communique by the wB from Washington, private operators will be involved in the management and maintenance of the facilities under a lease agreement with the states. Facilities will be designed and operated under a build and operate agreement. The crucial question is: what technologies will these facilities use? And who will monitor the treatment process?
While the objectives of the loan are indeed what the beleaguered industrial areas of India, the people living in their vicinity, the choked rivers, streams, lakes, landfills and clumpsites need, any technology that sets a benefit against a disadvantage, would come as a bane, not a boon.