The global cost of disasters is growing: The economic burden of disasters is intensifying. While the direct costs of disasters averaged $70–80 billion a year between 1970 and 2000, between 2001 and 2020 these annual costs grew significantly to $180–200 billion. But the real cost is far higher. Disaster costs …
THE Worldwatch Institute of Washington, DC,has come out with some findings on the spread of exotic species from one place to another. Calling it "bioinvasion", the institute says this spread threatens biological diversity and has the potential for global disaster. The environmental watchdog group says that the increasingly global economy …
WITHIN 10 years, the world will begin to run out of its principal fuel - oil. We are rapidly approaching the point where global output of oil will begin to contract while the demand for petro-energy products will rise sharply. Oil industry executives and energy planners have reached the consensus …
MAKE WATER EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS JUST suppose for a moment, howsoever impossible it may sound: the state just disappears one day. There is nobody to supply you with piped water. What will you do? Even the idea sounds preposterous at the end of the 20th century. But less than 150 years …
Rainwater harvesting started in the country in 1989 as a part of an income-generating programme assisted by the International Development Research Centre, Canada. Under the programme, some 500 storage tanks with capacities between two cubic metre (m3) and 10 m3 were built in the Capiz Province. The project involved building …
Rooftop catchments and cisterns have met the water needs of many small Caribbean islands for over three centuries. More than 500,000 people depend on such systems of water storage. In Saint Lucia, storage systems include 200-litre steel drums, large polyethylene plastic tanks with a capacity of 1,300*2,300 litres, and underground …
Thailand is one of the world's leading rainwater harvesting nations. The National Jar Programme was launched to supply clean drinking water to rural areas under the United Nations Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (1981-1990). It was aimed at catching rainwater in jars. Since the programme was started, there has been …
Captured rainwater has regenerated degraded lands in Kenya. Eroded grazing areas have been rejuvenated by building mini-catchments using a 'pitting and ridging technique' known as katumani. This is accompanied by re-seeding of native grasses and legumes. Pits are dug at the top of an eroded slope below a cut-off drain, …
Builder R Jeyakumar's technique is simple and cost-effective. The areas surrounding building complexes in Chennai are cemented. The rain water is allowed to flow on to the road. The first step, says Jeyakumar, is to prevent this run-off by two to three-inch-high kerbs near the gates. To collect the run-off, …
At Besant Nagar, Chennai, each Sunday morning sees a middle-aged man on a door-to-door campaign distributing pamphlets and talking spiritedly. Meet Sekhar Raghavan, a lone warrior fighting for a cause. Even at 50 and a PhD in physics, he painstakingly explains the merits of rainwater harvesting (RWH) to anyone witling …
Exnora international, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), is involved mainly in solid-waste management and sorting out rural problems. Recently, however, they have entered the field of rainwater harvesting (RWH), propagating water harvesting methods and offering technical support. The NGO has atso succeeded in motivating the villagers of Kovalam, near Chennai, to …
The summer of 1998 was a wet one. Danes fled to the warmer latitudes to get some sun in their holidays. While they were away, the rain, though unsuitable for sunbathing, was collected in pots, pans, barrels and large storage tanks. Collected to help conserve dwindling drinking water resources. In …
JAPAN After battling both water scarcity and floods, the Sumida City in Tokyo has become a trailblazer in catching and using rainwater Rain falling in the reservoir area is a must whereas rain falling in the communities is a nuisance, thinks the average person in Tokyo. Makoto Murase, director of …
A TENTH of the world's known tree species face extinction, according to a recently published global survey called the "World List of Threatened Trees". The three-year survey found that more than 8,750 of the 80,000-100,000 identified tree species are on the brink of extinction. This is mainly due to the …
IN NOVEMBER, the Earth will run into the worst meteor storm in 32 years. It will be the first space hurricane of the modern satellite era. While it poses no danger to people because the meteoroids will burn up as they enter the Earth's atmosphere, it poses some threat to …
HERE'S some news for developing nations to ponder over till the next climate change conference in Argentina in November. South Korea has "volunteered" to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the year 2018 and has voiced its desire to do so to its strong neighbour Japan. With this South Korea …
environmental and human disasters may be discussed at the United Nations Security Council. A special task force has been set up to formulate a un response to disasters and emergencies. The task force, formed at the behest of un secretary-general, Kofi Annan, is headed by Klaus Topfer, the former German …
the environment is an important top-of-the-mind concern, particularly in urban India and China, says an international survey. A majority of the people in the world's most populous countries feel that existing laws are inadequate to protect the environment. The 1998 International Environmental Monitor Survey conducted in 30 countries has shown …
high levels of plutonium has been found in sediments at the end of Sellafield nuclear discharge pipeline. It even exceeds plutonium contamination levels found in the sea at Russia's Novaya Zemlya nuclear weapons test site, according to Greenpeace. Sellafield which is operated by the state-owned British Nuclear Fuels ( bnfl …
in late 1996, the us government imposed trade restrictions on import of shrimp and shrimp products on India, Pakistan, Thailand and Malaysia. This was done as a part of measures undertaken by the country to protect and conserve sea turtles, an endangered natural resource. This was based on the contention …
