The proposed hazardous waste management project again" brings to light the Indian government's tendency to prevent free flow of crucial data regarding any industrial project, especially those funded by external agencies
WITH the proposal of a us $360 million
loan from the World Bank (WB) to India
to 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 early
February 1996 (Down To Earth, Vol 4,
No 19), might just get the neccessary fillip it so desperately needs.
The project proposal (Hazardous
Waste Management Project), which is
slated to be appraised in September
1996 and presented to the WB Board for
approval in April 1997, also includes
community-based awareness programmes comprising of three distinct
heads - the institutional, the technical
and the investment components.
Details of the precise break-up for
each head, and how exactly the loan
money would be utilised for the community, are not yet known. The
Government of India would stand as the
guarantor of the loan. "The institutional
component would be for support to the
Central and the state pollution control
boards (PCBS) in their capacity to monitor and enforce the hazardous waste
handling rules, and monitor the transportation of hazardous wastes (HW),"
Walter Vergara, WB task manager of the
loan, told Down To Earth.
He states that the technical assistance component would be utilised by
the PCBS to assess sites used for containing Hw and site remediation; community-based awareness programmes on
risks to health, environment and the
hazards of improper handling and disposal of HW; updating inventories of
hazardous and toxic wastes, and expansion Of GIs (geographic information systems)-based tracking and monitoring
systems; effort to improve the information management of the PCBS; support
for efforts to implement the community's right to know, including development of the toxic release inventory.
"For pollution abatement, waste
minimisation, cleaner methods of production, developing centralised HW
treatment and disposal facilities and
also a pilot programme for cleaning and
containment of waste in a few high priority sites posing large safety, health and
environmental hazards, the investment
component would be used," added
Vergara.
However, as far as the technical
assistance component is concerned, it
would perhaps be neccessary to include
the voluntary sector and NGOs here.
Government agencies have a long history
of preventing free flow of crucial data to
the community. Denying of information and not human lapses, lay at the
root of the Bhopal tragedy of 1984.
Reacting sharply to the news report
"In the line of fire" (Down To Earth, Vol
4, No 23), WB officials stated that the
fears of the anti -incinerator lobby, as far
as this loan was concerned, were
unfounded, as the loan was for neither
municipal nor hospital wastes.
"How can the WB Offer loans for
schemes that would result in the release
of dioxins and furans?" they ask. In the
same breath, however, the officials add
that the loan would consider all options
when it came to hazardous waste disposal. The officials state that although
incineration was one of the disposal systems, it was "highly unlikely" that this
woW be considered under the loan.
"As ihe loan proposal is still at the
preparatory stage, we do not have all the
details. That would come about only at
the @appraisal stage, when all options
would be examined," they added.
rt is at this stage that the environmental impact assessments (EIA) are carried out. The implementaing agencies
i@A4 the Indian government are the MEF,
the ministry of surface transport, the
ministry of labour and the Central and
state PCBS. Enquiries about the details of
the project elicited a deafening silence
from the MEF, leaving one wondering
how such mute agencies could translate
the spirit of the loan (read, the community's right to know) into reality, once
the project is implemented.
India generates upto five million
tonnes Of Hw annually. Most of this is
generated in the highly industrialised
states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil
Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. States like
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and
Karnataka, which form the second tier
of the polluting states, are also included
within the loan's purview.
The WB'S involvement in pollution
abatement commenced in 1991. The
first operation under this programme
was the Industrial Pollution Control
Project approved in May 1991; the second was the Industrial Pollution
Prevention Project approved in July 1994, currently being implemented.
"Although these common pollution
problems 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.
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