Doomed! Carry on flushing
two years ago the Supreme Court fixed 31 March 2003 as the deadline for cleaning the Yamuna. It's April 2003 now and unbelievably, the river that …
A Public Effort
Where the government has failed miserably in providing quality service to the people, some ngos have set an example on how urban waste can be …
Bogged Down
Waste generation is not rare in urban areas, nor any other part of the world. The only difference is in the management of wastes. An effective, …
What it takes to clean a river
It is the tale of two European rivers. The Rhine and the Danube. No river system in the world has a density of industrial agglomerations …
The precarious geopolitics of phosphorous
Both nitrogen and phosphorous are essential to life. Lynchpins both to global food production, circulating through synthesis or export and then …
The lake colony
Call them the "lakers". Some 10,000 of them. Parts of the Dal (land and water) belong to them. And when they feel the need to make a …
What goes down must come up
It is a crime. Numerous factories deliberately inject untreated effluents directly into the ground, contaminating underground aquifers. Down …
There's nothing august about Mumbai
July 26, 2005: It began raining at 11 am. In the next 24 hours, India's most populous city received 944 mm of rainfall. The resultant flood …
The vanishing lakes
There is more water than land in north Bihar. The rivers that ramble down from the Himalaya feed numerous depressions scattered all over the …
The political economy of defecation
This is a story about Delhi and the Yamuna, about the relationship between one of India's richest cities and one of her most revered rivers. The …
It is a crime. Numerous factories deliberately inject untreated effluents directly into the ground, contaminating underground aquifers. Down To …
No land for best option: composting
Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, does not have a municipal waste-treatment facility. Its only plant to treat solid waste, located …
'India way ahead in tackling waste'
PAUL CONNET, professor at the Chemistry department, St Lawrence University, New York, has toured 29 countries in the last 11 years, educating …
Left to dry
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation hopes to arrest the city's dipping groundwater by reviving its dying lakes. But in the absence of strong wetland …
Thrashing out trash
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT: MODES, ASSESSMENTS, APPRAISALS AND LINKAGES IN BANGALORE Edited by Isa Baud and Hans Schenk Publishers: Manohar …
In the line of fire
A Supreme Court ruling to install waste incinerators in India is under a scathing attack from environmental activists
Waste not
Kitchen waste and aquatic weeds are the newest sources for biogas and manure. The days of cowdung are numbered
National waste for MNCs
The Mexican government is enforcing waste disposal norms despite the lack of infrastructure, ensuring a windfall to multinational waste disposal …
Scavenging off toxic metals
Using microorganisms to treat pollutants is a cheap eco-friendly way of disposing waste, which is fast catching on.
Cracking down on eco-crime
Polluters of the environment are now increasingly being regarded as criminals. In New Jersey, there's a new breed of police personnel …
Laying India to waste
Greenpeace sounds a red alert about toxic waste imports into India at workshops across the country
Burning rubber
Tyres that never tire are an automobile's glamourous footwear, but producing these sophisticates is an environmental nightmare
Tirade against toxins
There is no safe disposal of tonnes of hazardous wastes imported to India, observes the Supreme Court
"Ecosan is not a second-rate approach"
The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) related to sanitation rely on flushing systems. Uno Winblad, senior adviser, Stockholm Environment …
How a store in Malaysia built zero-waste community
Malaysia’s lifestyle store, NUDE, caters to customers who care for the environment and want to minimise their plastic and food waste