Assam's Jaldoot to be implemented in CBSE schools across India

Assam's Jaldoot initiative to be implemented in CBSE schools nationally

Assam's Jaladoot campaign, launched under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), will now be implemented across all CBSE schools in India. The programme encourages involvement of students as Jaldoots to assess local piped water schemes, promote safe drinking water and conserve water. The Union government has now recognised this initiative as a national policy, so that it can be replicated and help raise awareness and evaluate water supply systems throughout the country.

The initiative aims to create student champions who can assess the state of piped water in their locality and act as ambassadors for drinking water quality, safety and conservation. The programme has currently successfully engaged over 33,000 students from classes 8 to 12 across the state.

The aim is to expand the Jaldoot programme across India's diverse landscapes to support efforts made by the country towards sustainable water use, environmental conservation and build climate resilience through triggering a Jan Andolan by involving youth to take the movement forward through fresh ideas and enthusiasm (Times Of India) 

Kolkata Municipal Corporation launches a course on climate change and sustainable development for young professionals

The Municipal Corporation of Kolkata (KMC) has started a certificate course on climate change and sustainable development for young professionals with the aim of preparing green warriors to take care of the environment.

The course has been named 'Parivesh Yoddha' and will be conducted at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation head quarters. The training will include issues around climate change and related areas like ocean acidification, food security, zonation of marine environment, sea level rise, carbon sequestration, carbon credits, global warming, waste disposal etc for encouraging environmental sustainability. 

After the six week course, the warriors will be expected to keep a vigil on environmental pollution, water bodies, irresponsible construction work in the localities and bring them to the corporations' notice. Graduates from any discipline, diploma holding engineers, corporates and other professionals will be able to join the course and the intake capacity will be 25. KMC will be the first municipal body in India that has started a course on climate change to generate environmental awareness (Times Of India). 

A waste dump yard in Coonoor has now turned into a riot of colour 

Coonoor, a hill town in India with a large tourist footfall grapples with a significant solid waste management problem with the daily output of around 5.6 tonnes of solid waste and 8-10 tonnes of wet waste from 12,000 households out of 45,000, other than tourists. Till 2019, waste was collected door-to-door by the municipality and dumped in open landfills. About 13 metric tonnes of waste was being openly dumped in the yard every day and with no standard operating procedures in place, around 12,000 cubic feet of unprocessed waste had piled up.

However, in 2019, Clean Coonoor, a civil society group took over the task of cleaning up the landfill on top of a hill and managing the municipal waste. The door-to-door waste collection and transportation were ill done by the municipality in their trucks while the waste was processed by Clean Coonoor. 

The town had turned entirely bin-less and plastic less since 2018 and residents were encouraged to segregate their waste into dry and wet categories. However, mixing still happened, but at the resource recovery centre now, dry waste is segregated into five groups namely paper, plastic, metals, glass, and clothes (including sanitary waste). While paper, metals, and glass are recycled, plastic is further segregated into high-value and low-value categories. Plastic is sent to an organisation called Pyrogreen in Ranipet for pyrolysis. Waste cloths, mattresses, sanitary waste, etc., are burnt in a fuel-less burner at the facility.

Wet waste is manually segregated to remove any plastic or non-compostable materials and then pulverised. It is heaped and occasionally turned for windrow composting. Afterward, it is left to mature and dry before being packed and is ready for sale. Around 50 tonnes of compost is generated per month. A garden now flourishes where the dumpyard once stood, aiming to break the stigma around waste as something to be avoided (Mongabay, India).

Uttar Pradesh to fast track biofuel production

India has set a target of net-zero emissions by 2070, and reduction in emission by 45 percent by 2030 from the 2005 levels. The country is thus promoting fuel blending to reduce vehicular emissions. After setting a target of 20 percent ethanol blending with petrol by 2030 under the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme, the government is now promoting the blending of compressed biogas (CBG) with compressed natural gas and piped natural gas for transport and domestic sectors respectively.

Uttar Pradesh, one of the leading ethanol producers in the country, is now expanding its potential for green fuel production with biogas in response to this. The state has a large amount of organic biomass to produce biomethane and is gearing up to set 100 CBG plants, the highest in the country with a potential to set up over 1,000 biogas plants as per a 2022 report by the Centre for Science and Environment.

The CBG plant in UP’s Badaun has a processing capacity of 100 metric tonnes (MT) of rice straw per day and can generate 14 MT of CBG along with 65 MT of solid manure per day and will help in reducing stubble burning on 17,500-20,000 acres of fields and reducing around 55,000 tons of CO2 emissions (Mongabay, India).

Chandipura virus raises its head again in India

At least 38 people, most of them children and teenagers, have died in early June 2024 in India because of the worst outbreak of Chandipura virus in India in over 20 years, which causes encephalitis – inflammation and swelling of the brain and is spread mainly by sandflies as well as mosquitoes and ticks.

The symptoms are initially similar to the flu, but they can rapidly advance (over 24 to 48 hours) to encephalitis, coma and death. Children under the age of 15 are the most vulnerable. The emergence of Chandipura virus in India has been said to be related to climate change induced warming temperatures.

The infection occurs when an infected insect bites a person to get their blood meal, and pass the virus through their saliva. The virus then spreads into the person’s bloodstream and infects immune cells and  multiplies undetected by the immune system. The virus then gets transported to the central nervous system and enters the brain by disrupting the protective blood-brain barrier. Six hours after the person has become infected, the Chandipura virus secretes a protein called phosphoprotein inside brain cells, which lead to raid death among patients. No antiviral drugs or vaccines have been manufactured yet to treat people infected with the Chandipura virus (The Conversation).

This is a roundup of important policy updates from 16th July to 31st July, 2024. Read our news updates here.