Environment, Health and Pollution

1. Environment, Health and Pollution Haripriya Gundimeda 2nd Roundtable on Environmental Justice, Hotel Taj Taashi, Thimpu, 30th – 31st August 2013.

2. Environmental quality • Deteriorating environmental quality • Rising levels of air and water pollution • Weak provision of sanitation services. • Huge impact on human health and morbidity • Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai rank among the top ten most polluted cities in the world,

3. Growth and Environment • None of the rivers in India is meeting the desired quality standards. • In fact in some of the polluted rivers like Sabarmati, Tapi, Ganga and Godavari, the violation of standards was observed close to over 90 per cent of the sites monitored. • Since rivers are sink for agriculture run-offs and municipal waste also, the violation of standards cannot be entirely attributed to industrial pollution.

4. Growth and Environment • The data indicates that in many rivers say Ganga in UP, Yamuna in Delhi, Damodar, Subarnerakha, Betwa, Noyyal, Bhavani etc. industries contribute most to the water pollution. • Though industrial pollution may account for less than 25% of the pollution load in most of the rivers, the kind of effluent waste generated by industries makes the rivers highly toxic e.g. in Ganges, Yamuna etc).

7. A case study of health impacts near tanneries • Objective – To look at the impact of water quality on mortality and morbidity of the children under age 5 • Study area - Nakal Keni area of Pallavaram and Chromepet township of Kanchipuram district in TN. • The area is highly polluted by tanneries and other industries and the Palar river water is contaminated. • Study focus – Carried out for two groups – one near the tanneries and bit further from the tanneries • Sample size – 450 households

9. Main observations • Contaminated water quality added with lack of precautionary measures and lack of nutrition affects the child health. • This is especially prominent in areas near to the tanneries. • Income is not a significant factor in determining child’s health. • It is mainly the quality of drinking water/precautionary measures that affect the incidence of water related diseases., • Some of the diseases like cold and cough can be reduced significantly by getting piped water in the residence. • In addition to the water quality lack of proper sanitation also adds to the incidence of water related diseases. • If estimated in economic terms, the burden can be very huge on the economy

10. Economics of Water Pollution Control – Externality Diagram Marginal Social Costs Costs, Benefits Marginal Private Costs Po Pa Demand QTa Qo Quantity of effluent

11. Instruments for correcting negative externalities

12. Colour Labels used in PROPER

13. Change in firms’ ratings because of PROPER

14. Selection of Policy Instrument Number of criteria - • Static Cost Efficiency • Dynamic Cost Efficiency • Goal Fulfillment • Administrative Costs • Barrier to Entry • Politics of Implementation

15. Traffic Management in an intersection

16. Thank You