Date:18/09/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/09/18/stories/2005091813570300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

NGOs urged to take findings of researchers to field

Staff Reporter

Meet calls for educating affected communities of their rights

CHENNAI: : Speakers at a two-day workshop on strategies to protect the environment urged non-government organisations to take the findings of researchers to the common people and create awareness of their rights.

Though the speakers differed on how to address the issue, they called for a better understanding of the rights and duties of the affected communities whose natural resources were polluted.

Wildlife warden G. Ramamurthi said the strategies must be planned to prevent destruction of livelihood in the name of development. The Sethusamudram canal project would destroy the marine biosphere at the Gulf of Mannar. Dredging would destroy several thousand organisms native to the shallow ocean floor. He called for area, region and land-specific research on biodiversity.

R. Nagendran, professor, Centre for Environmental Studies, Anna University, focussed on water supply and sanitation. Women must be ensured dignity, privacy, convenience and comfort when it comes to sanitation. He called for focus on better hygiene , information, education and communication through self-help groups. Uncontrolled development had affected groundwater quality. While the coastal groundwater had turned saline, in interior Tamil Nadu excess fluoride content was the problem.

Of waste disposal and management systems, he said the State was the third largest hazardous waste pollutant in the country. Of the 1,100 units that generated hazardous waste in the State, 1,088 were authorised. "You [the NGOs and the public] are the thermometer. Ensure that the Pollution Control Board takes corrective measures," he said.

on waste to energy, the State had done "pretty good." Tannery shavings were used to generate energy; Koyambedu project in Chennai and starch manufacturing units also were showing the way.

For a few

Balaji Sampath of AID India said the environment was being exploited for the benefit of a few. He said the CO2 emission had increased drastically since the 19th century because of industrialisation in the West. There had been a marked rise in weather-related catastrophes in the past decade, and this was linked to global warming. The workshop was jointly organised by the Human Rights Advocacy and Research Foundation, the Social Need Education and Human Awareness, Nagapattinam, and the Legal Aid to Women Trust (Neythal).