Kochi disappearing under the Garbage?

Nick-H

Disasters of distorted urban development

Read the Full Article, by V.R. KRishna Iyer, in The Hindu

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Nick-H

Worrying for those of us who love to visit this city, but, even more, a damning indictment of the direction of "development" in this and other Indian cities.

What is the point of India Shining if the shine cannot be seen through the garbage?

Nattusbs

Nick-H

Mr Iyer may not be aware of this effort:

http://www.wormdigest.org/content/view/417/2/

I have always believed in recycling and Mr. Das appears to have developed some very interesting technologies. WHen I R2I, I am going to meet him and see how we can commercialize this as a business venture.

Cheers

Nattusbs

federica

It is sooooo depressing that every country seems to make the same mistakes on the way to a "developped nation"

There is environmental consciousness in Kerala, and I hope it will become more powerful soon... but it needs the people to create a change, not only a few activists (don't talk about politicians...)

I met Mr. Das when I lived in Trivandrum, and their work is great, they use organic waste in an efficient way. Unfortunately the organic waste is not the biggest problem, as even composting would work (without the benefits of biogas).

But for all the plastic and worse: the mixed material garbage t solutions have to be found. And for me the best solution seems still avoiding garbage as far as possible, maybe it is a little bit uncomfortable sometimes, but the cheapest and easiest way.

Changing useful traditions (p. ex.like takeaway food in banana leafs/newspapers or tiffin boxes) into "easier" solutions (p. ex. like plastic packing) and then dealing with the upcoming waste problems is the worst way....

Sama

"potential for a plague outbreak"?

great! just when I'm going to spend 5 days in Kochi in January!

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Nick-H

...Just when I was telling another member it would be a great place to live!

The worm site looks wonderful, and I've bookmarked it for contemplation onw day when I find myself in a wormy sort of mood

Trouble is... there are always solutions: but they don't get used!

capt_mahajan

I can only contribute to this thread by asserting my favourite rant: Indian big cities are slowly becoming unlivable.

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arunchs

It is no different in any other city either. Bangalore feels as good as dead. Go anywhere outside the old city and you notice just two things -
1. High Rise Apartments
2. Garbage

The things that people are supposed to take for granted - water supply, drainage, garbage clearance and other civic amenities are non-existent.

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CliveG

V.R. Krishna Iyer is a man I greatly admire for his sense of social justice and I saw of lot of what he wrote about while living there for three months last year. However I also saw new biogas systems coming on stream to deal with the market waste which will eventually provide power and fertiliser. There were problems with the disposal of waste earlier this year due to a delay in signing agreements for the use of landfill sites which I assume has now been resolved. There has been a huge amount of building development especially along shoreline for both commercial and residential use presumably to attract inward investment. Whether this has been at the expense of spending money on the basic infrastructure such as sanitation, water and waste disposal I cannot tell but what is clearly obvious is that in the short term you cannot see that these new developments with their fancy shopping malls will benefit the average person who has to pass the rubbish, who are plagued with mossies as grey water channels become stagnant and have no access to clean water. The new residential tower blocks are not for the local people with rents at Rs20000 a month.
Against all that I still find it a place I like to return to. I shall be there again in December and January and cannot wait - don't ask me why - somethings are beyond explanation.

Nick-H

Looking forward to your reports in the new year.

CliveG

No problem Nick. In fact I sent humourous newsletters about our stay to our friends and a friend, Prahlad Kakar, who runs a dive company and an advertising company in India wants to publish them in an Indian paper or mag - fame after all these years!