Cement, Energy and Environment

in 2008/2009 compared with 39.3 million tin 2003/2004. The railway transport share of cement shipments reached 37.7 per cent in 2008/2009, up from 33.5 per cent some five years previously. Over the same period, the road transport share of cement transport fell as a result to about 57 per cent compared with the situation in 2003/2004, when about 65 per cent of cement with the situation in 2003/2004, when about 65% of cement supplied in India was delivered by road . Rail shipments are not the only factor causing the road transport share of cement transport to decline. The volume of cement carried by coastal ships has also increased in recent years, as more ports have been opened and port handling facilities are being improved along India's lengthy coastline. Courtesy: World Cement, October 2010, Pp20 -24. DYING RIVERS Recently, I heard an interesting story about Mahatma Gandhi. He was once travelling across Uttar Pradesh, and reached its capital, Allahabad . Obviously, the most important and high-ranking officials and leaders in the city were ready with a red-carpet welcome . But Gandhi ji steered clear of the government headquarters, and went to visit the city's schools and colleges; a home for leprosy-affected children; and the Allahabad University. He then went to the municipal offices, where senior members of the municipal and district boards had assembled to pay their respects to him. But Gandhi ji was furious. It was "criminal", he said, "to pollute with the city sewage the sacred rivers at their very confluence". Was it not the duty of the boards to adopt a "wise and scientific system of sewage disposal?" he asked. Now, cities, much more "urbanized" than Allahabad, have been built and the old ones have grown beyond limits. But the situation has not changed much. If Gandhi ji sees these cities and what the people have done to them and the environment, he will see the with anger! India's 14 major, 55 minor, and several hundred small rivers receive millions of litres of sewage, and industrial and agricu ltural wastes. The main causes are broadly divided into two categories - point source, which is when pollutants are directly discharged into a river, an non-point source, which releases pollutants indirectly into a river through transport or environmental change . Non-point sources include pesticides and fertilizers (nutrient pollutants) used in agricultural fields , which run off into nearby streams and rivers or seep down into groundwater. It is estimated that only about 60% of chemical fertilizers are utilized in the soils, and the balance seeps down, polluting the groundwater. It is estimated that only about 60 per cent of chemical fertilizers are utilized in the soils, and the balance seeps down, polluting the groundwater. Petroleum waste from oil spills and discharges during shipping and from vehicles are also carried into rivers by rainwater runoff. Then there are causes like sedimentation, which is aggravated by deforestation, and mining, although it can be both a point and a non-point source of river pollution. Mining processes expose heavy metals and sulphur compounds, which reach rivers aided by rain. But, the worst aspect is that the mm1ng companies often dump wastes directly into rivers. Dumping of waste into rivers is not limited to mining companies . Many other factories often discharge effluent directly into rivers. It is just an easy way to get rid of the waste. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the major industries causing water pollution include distilleries, sugar, textile, electroplating, pesticides, pharmaceuticals pulp and paper mills, tanneries, dyes and dye intermediates, petro-chemicals, steel plants, and the list goes on and on and on. However, domestic sewage is the biggest threat to the rivers of India. Nearly 80% of the river pollution in our country is due to excreta! Untreated and poorly treated sewage, and overflow from under-capacity sewage treatment plants send contaminated water into rivers. And incidentally, we get our drinking water from the same rivers. We must take steps to protect our rivers and save the environment. Only then will we realize the dream of the Mahatma. Courtesy: TERRAGREEN, October 2010, P43. MINERS MAY HAVE TO PAY FOR THE PROJECT- HIT FROM DAY 1 Mining companies will have to start paying compensation to project -affected people right from the day a mining block is allocated to them and not when they start generating profits, a proposal that will further sweeten the deal for those who lose their land to industrialization, but stoke more protest from miners. Once the project starts making profits, the displaced 91