As the Israeli military surrounded densely populated Gaza City on Tuesday, it claimed to have killed 130 Hamas fighters since beginning a ground offensive at the weekend.
Israel also confirmed that it had launched more than 40 air strikes since midnight as its campaign intensified.
The United Nations said Tuesday one Israeli missile struck an elementary school in Gaza City where hundreds of Palestinians had taken shelter, killing three men.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said Asma Elementary school was clearly marked as a U.N. installation. It said over 400 people had been given shelter at the school when it was hit Monday night.
UNRWA identified the those killed as three men between the ages of 19 and 25, and said it "is strongly protesting these killings to the Israeli authorities."
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to encircle the city of about half a million people as European diplomats swarmed into the region trying to pull together the elements for a cease-fire. But neither side has showed any real interest in international calls for a truce.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told French President Nicholas Sarkozy Monday that Israel wanted a "full solution" to the conflict, not just a cease-fire that allowed Hamas to fortify itself, Mark Regev, Olmert's spokesman said.
"Before the last cease-fire with Hamas began, Hamas had missiles with a range of 20 kilometers," Regev said Tuesday. "By the end of the cease-fire, the range of the missiles grew to 40 kilometers. Israel does not want the next cease-fire to allow them to get missiles with a range of 60 kilometers."
A Hamas rocket penetrated farther than ever before into Israel on Tuesday, landing in the town of Gadera, about 36 kilometers (23 miles) north of the Gaza border, the Israeli military said. On Monday, a rocket hit a kindergarten in Ashdod, about 26 kilometers (16 miles) north of Gaza.
Hamas had fired 10 rockets at Israel by midday Tuesday, the Israeli military said. Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida warned Israel that the militants would continue rocket attacks "for many months" and vowed to strike deeper into Israeli territory.
"The Zionists legitimized the killing of their children when they killed our children," Mahmoud al-Zahar, a top Hamas leader, said in a address on Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television.
In a separate incident, an Israeli officer was killed last night in northern Gaza, the Israeli military said. No other details were given.
The humanitarian situation in the region has worsened as the wounded swarmed Gaza's largest hospital and scores of Gazans headed for the morgues, where two bodies are crammed into each drawer.
Twenty-three people were killed in Gaza on Tuesday, bringing the Palestinian death toll to 555 -- including at least 100 women and children -- since Israel launched its operation on December 27, according to Palestinian medical sources. Another, 2,750 Palestinians have been injured, most of them civilians, the sources said.
Doctors at Gaza's Shifa Hospital feared that the casualties would mount quickly as Israeli troops closed in on Gaza City. The Israeli military reported heavy fighting there Monday night, and eyewitnesses reported seeing Israeli tanks in two areas Tuesday -- east of Jabalya and northeast of Gaza City.
One of the Israeli air strikes carried out overnight targeted a house in Jabalya belonging to Imad Siam, a senior figure in Hamas' military wing.
Other eyewitness reports from Gaza had Israeli troops advancing on the southern town of Khan Yunis.
The Israeli ground assault was launched Saturday night. Israel says it is the second phase of an operation to stop militants from firing rockets and mortars into southern Israel.
The incursion followed eight days of air strikes on the territory to stop the rocket attacks, which have killed four Israelis since the military operation began. iReport.com: Share reactions to "all-out war" in Gaza
In addition to the French president, a delegation of European Union foreign ministers is in the region to push for a truce, while Egypt is putting pressure on Hamas leaders in Gaza.
The concern is centered on the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, which was already in dire straits before the current conflict.
The Israeli military said another 80 trucks with humanitarian aid would be allowed to pass into Gaza on Tuesday at the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
IDF surrounds Gaza City
As the onslaught progresses, officials are more confident of “changing the equation” in Gaza and are predicting the collapse of the Hamas administration…
The head of the Shin Bet internal security service, Yuval Diskin, told the Israeli cabinet that Hamas was finding it increasingly difficult to govern with its leadership in hiding from Israeli rockets and much of its infrastructure blown to pieces.
He was backed by the chief of the general staff, Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, who said “not much” remained of the Hamas government, and by the head of military intelligence, Major General Amos Yadlin. “Hamas has absorbed a very hard blow…
Diana Buttu, a Palestinian negotiator involved in talks with Israel over its 2005 withdrawal of settlers from Gaza, said the Israeli assault had strengthened short-term solidarity with Hamas, but was likely to have weakened the group politically.
“People in Gaza are under assault right now so they’re going to support Hamas. But when the dust settles I think we’ll get a very different perspective, a lot of questioning about whether Hamas has the right strategy. Not so much blaming Hamas for the onslaught but more questioning of whether Hamas is taking us in the right direction,” she said
The head of the Shin Bet internal security service, Yuval Diskin, told the Israeli cabinet that Hamas was finding it increasingly difficult to govern with its leadership in hiding from Israeli rockets and much of its infrastructure blown to pieces.
He was backed by the chief of the general staff, Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, who said “not much” remained of the Hamas government, and by the head of military intelligence, Major General Amos Yadlin. “Hamas has absorbed a very hard blow…
Diana Buttu, a Palestinian negotiator involved in talks with Israel over its 2005 withdrawal of settlers from Gaza, said the Israeli assault had strengthened short-term solidarity with Hamas, but was likely to have weakened the group politically.
“People in Gaza are under assault right now so they’re going to support Hamas. But when the dust settles I think we’ll get a very different perspective, a lot of questioning about whether Hamas has the right strategy. Not so much blaming Hamas for the onslaught but more questioning of whether Hamas is taking us in the right direction,” she said
Sunday, January 4, 2009
A natural gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine escalated Tuesday when Ukraine accused the Russian supplier of blocking pipelines to Europe, and three European countries said their supply from Russia had been cut or reduced.
Ukraine's state-run gas company said Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, had reduced the amount of natural gas flowing through Ukraine to nine mostly Eastern European countries.
Gazprom said Ukraine was to blame. At a news conference Tuesday in London, Gazprom said Ukraine shut off three pipelines early Tuesday, thus reducing the flow of gas sevenfold.
"Ukraine is in obvious breach of obligations as a transit country," Gazprom's deputy chief executive, Alexander Medvedev, said.
It is the latest twist in an ongoing dispute between Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz Ukrainy, which normally receives natural gas from Russia. Gazprom shut Ukraine's gas supply last week after saying Naftogaz had failed to pay for past deliveries
Ukraine denies owing the money and is currently meeting its domestic needs with supplies from storage facilities.
Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey told CNN on Tuesday that their supplies of Russian natural gas had been affected.
A spokesman from Bulgaria's Ministry of Economy and Energy told CNN the supply was halted because of the Russia-Ukraine dispute. And a spokesman for Romania's Economic Ministry told CNN it had suffered a 75-percent reduction "as a direct result of the dispute."
A Turkish Energy Ministry spokesman told CNN that Russian gas supplied to Turkey through Ukraine had been completely cut. The country was raising supplies of gas from another pipeline in order to compensate, he said.
While Gazprom has reassured its European customers that their supplies will not be affected by the dispute, it does accuse Ukraine of siphoning off European gas as it flows through Ukraine.
Gazprom's deputy chief executive, Alexander Medvedev, told journalists in Paris that Ukraine is stealing 50 million cubic meters of gas and withholding supplies to Hungary, Poland, and Romania.
Medvedev said Gazprom plans to file suit in the coming days to stop the alleged practice.
Ukraine's Naftogaz said Tuesday that Gazprom was reducing the gas supply to Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Germany.
Gazprom shut off Ukraine's gas supply on Thursday after saying it had missed $2 billion in payments. It acknowledged that Ukraine may have paid part of that amount, but said that still leaves Kiev $614 million in debt. Ukraine denied owing the money and is currently meeting its domestic needs with supplies from storage facilities.
Gazprom had reassured Europe that its natural gas supply, which runs through Ukraine, would not be affected by the dispute with Kiev. However, analysts are concerned that if the two sides fail to strike a deal more supplies will be cut in the next two weeks.
Russia is the world's biggest producer of natural gas and supplies Europe with more than 40 percent of its imports -- mainly via the pipelines through Ukraine
Ukraine's state-run gas company said Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, had reduced the amount of natural gas flowing through Ukraine to nine mostly Eastern European countries.
Gazprom said Ukraine was to blame. At a news conference Tuesday in London, Gazprom said Ukraine shut off three pipelines early Tuesday, thus reducing the flow of gas sevenfold.
"Ukraine is in obvious breach of obligations as a transit country," Gazprom's deputy chief executive, Alexander Medvedev, said.
It is the latest twist in an ongoing dispute between Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz Ukrainy, which normally receives natural gas from Russia. Gazprom shut Ukraine's gas supply last week after saying Naftogaz had failed to pay for past deliveries
Ukraine denies owing the money and is currently meeting its domestic needs with supplies from storage facilities.
Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey told CNN on Tuesday that their supplies of Russian natural gas had been affected.
A spokesman from Bulgaria's Ministry of Economy and Energy told CNN the supply was halted because of the Russia-Ukraine dispute. And a spokesman for Romania's Economic Ministry told CNN it had suffered a 75-percent reduction "as a direct result of the dispute."
A Turkish Energy Ministry spokesman told CNN that Russian gas supplied to Turkey through Ukraine had been completely cut. The country was raising supplies of gas from another pipeline in order to compensate, he said.
While Gazprom has reassured its European customers that their supplies will not be affected by the dispute, it does accuse Ukraine of siphoning off European gas as it flows through Ukraine.
Gazprom's deputy chief executive, Alexander Medvedev, told journalists in Paris that Ukraine is stealing 50 million cubic meters of gas and withholding supplies to Hungary, Poland, and Romania.
Medvedev said Gazprom plans to file suit in the coming days to stop the alleged practice.
Ukraine's Naftogaz said Tuesday that Gazprom was reducing the gas supply to Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Germany.
Gazprom shut off Ukraine's gas supply on Thursday after saying it had missed $2 billion in payments. It acknowledged that Ukraine may have paid part of that amount, but said that still leaves Kiev $614 million in debt. Ukraine denied owing the money and is currently meeting its domestic needs with supplies from storage facilities.
Gazprom had reassured Europe that its natural gas supply, which runs through Ukraine, would not be affected by the dispute with Kiev. However, analysts are concerned that if the two sides fail to strike a deal more supplies will be cut in the next two weeks.
Russia is the world's biggest producer of natural gas and supplies Europe with more than 40 percent of its imports -- mainly via the pipelines through Ukraine
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Security lessons amid disaster ruins
Disasters like the tsunami are so destructive that in their wake, everything has to be rebuilt. This destruction actually leaves a blank slate upon which societies can inscribe more equitable norms, more sustainable structures and more rational processes, says Swarna Rajagopalan on the fourth anniversary of the Asian tsunami
Four years ago, early on the morning on December 26, my bed shook violently but I turned and went back to sleep, not thinking that disaster was about to strike Chennai in a little while. It had already struck the coasts of Indonesia and Thailand and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but in Chennai, lulled to a pleasant winter night's rest by the music season, our wake-up call was still about an hour away. For everyone in a tsunami-affected area, this is a 'where were you when…' moment that we will never forget--either in grief or in gratitude.
In that moment when a disaster strikes, life changes irrevocably. Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, volcanoes and other disasters, natural and manmade, are milestones in the human story, serving both as endpoints and starting lines. The deluge that bookends mythical epochs across cultures as well as the words we use (disaster, catastrophe, calamity) reflect our awareness that disasters are significant beyond their physical consequences. The frequent clubbing together of disasters and conflicts in relief and reconstruction contexts as well as impact comparisons suggests that these are comparable in the way they reflect pre-existing insecurities and inequities on the one hand, and in their disruptive ways. The fourth anniversary of the Boxing Day Indian Ocean tsunami that hit communities all the way from Indonesia to Somalia is an appropriate time to reflect on what disasters teach us about security.
By causing death, destruction of property and displacement, disasters rend the social fabric of a community. Spouses are lost or killed, children orphaned and families separated so that the most immediate source of security and support is lost to individuals in affected communities. The home is the site where women work and spend the most time, and the loss of the home is more to them than the loss of a physical shelter. From this emotional trauma follow many practical challenges. Who will take in the children, especially adolescents? How bereaved parents will rebuild their families and who will make decisions about this, is another issue.
Disproportionately more women and girls die during disasters.1 Right after the tsunami, an Oxfam report provided several instances, such as Cuddalore where there were 391 female deaths to 14 male and Aceh where only 189 out of 676 survivors were female.2 The fact that girls don't learn to swim, it was found, contributed to their inability to save themselves. As death, trafficking and displacement alter the sex ratio of a community, other insecurities arise, especially for women. Early marriage, forced marriage, forced polyandry and a loss of reproductive rights are some of these; after the tsunami, there were many cases where women felt they had to opt for recanalisation surgery in order to rebuild their families.
When women survive the disaster, the relief environment is often hostile to them at multiple levels. Their most immediate needs for privacy, hygiene and safe and clean sanitation are seldom met. Relief planning has traditionally been centred around male heads of households, and while this is changing, the personal needs of women and girls still get overlooked when camps are set up and amenities distributed. A place to bathe, change and wash that is safely accessible at all times without fear of teasing, stalking or molestation is a simple need which unmet, creates tremendous strain, insecurity and health problems for women and girls.
When livelihoods are destroyed, as the tsunami did when it destroyed boats, how are families to pick themselves up and start over? The loss of livelihood is a challenge that aid packages do not address. Where the development process has encouraged a diversification of livelihoods, through the teaching of other skills especially, people have something of a safety net. Where a community depends on one source of income and one kind of work, recovery is particularly long-drawn-out. Women preponderantly work in the agricultural and informal sectors which disaster seems to disrupt most. Finally, the organisation and delivery of disaster relief is also a problem when the heads of households are killed or displaced, and when the household is separated. Even today, disaster relief all too often is designed around male heads of households, making it difficult for surviving females, alone or as heads of households, to access any sort of help. In their consequences, natural disasters reflect and perpetuate existing injustices.
The loss of family and livelihood increases vulnerability to violence even as disasters, like other moments of crisis, seem to lead to increased levels of violence in society. Child abuse and neglect, intimate partner violence, sexual violence and exploitation are likely to become more common after a disaster, according to a 2005 World Health Organisation report.3
Disasters displace five times the number of people than are displaced by conflict, with the numbers being estimated to cross 200 million each year. The same report adds that displaced persons living in a disaster-affected area are especially vulnerable because they are already cobbling together a living, away from their homes and original livelihoods. Moreover, because the presence of large numbers of refugees sometimes contributes to environmental degradation, the area itself is more vulnerable.4 If there are multiple communities of displaced people in an area, resentments arise between them when the levels of international, state and community support to each community varies.
Where civil society is weak or exists in opposition to the state, there are simply fewer hands on deck; information and resource-sharing are problematic and political considerations trump humanitarian ones. The Maldives and Burma are good illustrations. The impact of the tsunami in the Maldives facilitated a brief period of cooperative engagement between nascent civil society groups, which seized the moment to draw attention to the movement for reforms. The grudging political concessions yielded in the aftermath of disaster became the first steps to the democratic transition the atoll-state saw in 2008. In Burma, while the space for political activism is extremely small, reports suggest that civil society organisations did manage to get relief materials and food to Cyclone Nargis-affected communities. The cyclone has provided an opportunity for them to prove their seriousness of purpose and also as in the Maldives, to draw attention to the military regime's callousness and cupidity.5
There has also been some interest in whether disasters alter inter-state relationships.6The 2005 Kashmir earthquake necessitated the opening of transit points and communication links between the two sides of the ceasefire line between the two states, and thereby facilitated some confidence-building between the states. Conversely, the conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir meant that sometimes the shortest route to deliver relief was not accessible to either side and in general, security considerations preclude joint disaster mitigation planning and information-sharing.
Disasters like the tsunami, the Kashmir earthquake and Cyclone Nargis are so destructive that in their wake, everything has to be rebuilt. This destruction actually creates a blank slate upon which societies can inscribe more equitable norms, more sustainable structures and more rational processes. But this is an opportunity that is squandered time and again.
Relief operations are predicated on existing social relationships and reconstruction assiduously puts back together the unequal playing field that nature destroys. Property rights are an example. If land titles are usually registered to men, it is hard to get that changed in favour of female heads of households. Assistance flows to those who are in a position to access it, and quite often that excludes those who need it most. In the aftermath of the tsunami, distribution of food in some parts of Tamil Nadu was organised along caste lines, recognising and reinforcing traditional dining protocols. Even the dire need of earthquake victims could not completely dismantle India and Pakistan's anxiety about sharing intelligence and allowing overflight.
Security for an individual begins with the right to life and is rounded off by the right to live well. Security for a community begins with the right to co-exist with other communities, explicated by cultural and economic rights. Security for a state should mean the security of individuals and communities within its territory as well as their institutions of governance, but it comes to refer to ever-narrower groups and sometimes to the survival of a specific political dispensation. Disasters undermine all these, and therefore, are arguably security crises in their own right.
Natural disasters do not target particular actors, groups or collective entities. Undermining national state and continental demarcations, razing to the ground resorts, government offices and tenements and engaging every willing hand in the operations that follow, they illustrate the limits of old ways of viewing politics (and the arena of policymaking) and security.
Deforestation on one side of an interstate border causes landslides and avalanches on every side. Floods redraw watershed maps without regard to administrative divisions. The use of air-conditioning in Hyderabad contributes to global warming and rising sea-levels which threaten coastal communities around the world. At the impact end, coping with a disaster like the 2002 Gujarat earthquake, all within one state's limits, involves volunteers, resources and supplies from across the world. A global effort to coordinate relief and reconstruction was one of the earliest responses to the 2004 tsunami, with India using the moment to simultaneously assert its self-sufficiency and underscore that by despatching assistance to other affected areas. Natural disasters also pay no heed to the presence of security bases, battleships, cantonments and alas, nuclear installations, compounding every security threat manifold.
Disasters might in fact be described as security challenges. Recent scholarship includes ecological threats under the rubric of security; where environmental degradation causes disasters, by that logic, they are a security problem. On the other hand, the consequences of disasters create security problems in multiple ways whether through the economic pressure created by refugee flows, or the reconfiguration of landscapes, or the destruction of military facilities. Moreover, the frequent use of army, navy and air force resources for disaster relief underscores the disaster-security equation.
Disasters share with conventional security crises several characteristics. With the best technology and intelligence, they still catch us by surprise every time and just as we always prepare for the last terror strike we experience, we prepare for the last disaster and not the next. They present dramatic ruptures at the individual, community and state levels, and disasters and conflicts alike illustrate how human actions, threats and vulnerabilities form a continuum or spectrum across these levels. The consequences of disasters and conventional security are both designated complex emergencies, with death, destruction and displacement being complicated by administrative crises, economic loss and the breakdown of order in everyday situations.
A series of terrible disasters hitting South Asia practically on-camera in the last decade, have raised our awareness of issues and challenges in disaster settings. We are also beginning to recognise the limitations of our responses, and that we do not seem to learn from our mistakes. A similar learning needs to happen with regard to security.
What could be some of these lessons that we learn, based on what disasters teach us? First, human beings, individually and collectively, belong at the core of any thinking about security, just as they do at the core of disaster mitigation and management. Second, you cannot secure one set of human beings while placing others at risk. Security, in any context, is truly indivisible. Third, just as collaborative and cooperative action improves the chances of mitigating disasters and minimising their impact, so do they improve the security environment for individuals and communities. Fourth, just as disasters are best mitigated by governance processes that are democratic, accountable and responsive, so in fact are security threats. In neither case does this mean that action should faithfully follow the rising and falling tides of popular opinion but that informed and thoughtful public engagement with policy is desirable. Finally, the destruction wrought by disasters represents an opportunity for creating a new, better society rather than fashioning a xerox copy of the old. A good security dispensation is one that serves all (or the preponderant number of) individuals and communities equally well, and so security crises, conventional and non-traditional, reflect failure and represent openings for renegotiating relationships, recrafting rules and redesigning the structures of a society and polity.
Four years ago, early on the morning on December 26, my bed shook violently but I turned and went back to sleep, not thinking that disaster was about to strike Chennai in a little while. It had already struck the coasts of Indonesia and Thailand and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but in Chennai, lulled to a pleasant winter night's rest by the music season, our wake-up call was still about an hour away. For everyone in a tsunami-affected area, this is a 'where were you when…' moment that we will never forget--either in grief or in gratitude.
In that moment when a disaster strikes, life changes irrevocably. Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, volcanoes and other disasters, natural and manmade, are milestones in the human story, serving both as endpoints and starting lines. The deluge that bookends mythical epochs across cultures as well as the words we use (disaster, catastrophe, calamity) reflect our awareness that disasters are significant beyond their physical consequences. The frequent clubbing together of disasters and conflicts in relief and reconstruction contexts as well as impact comparisons suggests that these are comparable in the way they reflect pre-existing insecurities and inequities on the one hand, and in their disruptive ways. The fourth anniversary of the Boxing Day Indian Ocean tsunami that hit communities all the way from Indonesia to Somalia is an appropriate time to reflect on what disasters teach us about security.
By causing death, destruction of property and displacement, disasters rend the social fabric of a community. Spouses are lost or killed, children orphaned and families separated so that the most immediate source of security and support is lost to individuals in affected communities. The home is the site where women work and spend the most time, and the loss of the home is more to them than the loss of a physical shelter. From this emotional trauma follow many practical challenges. Who will take in the children, especially adolescents? How bereaved parents will rebuild their families and who will make decisions about this, is another issue.
Disproportionately more women and girls die during disasters.1 Right after the tsunami, an Oxfam report provided several instances, such as Cuddalore where there were 391 female deaths to 14 male and Aceh where only 189 out of 676 survivors were female.2 The fact that girls don't learn to swim, it was found, contributed to their inability to save themselves. As death, trafficking and displacement alter the sex ratio of a community, other insecurities arise, especially for women. Early marriage, forced marriage, forced polyandry and a loss of reproductive rights are some of these; after the tsunami, there were many cases where women felt they had to opt for recanalisation surgery in order to rebuild their families.
When women survive the disaster, the relief environment is often hostile to them at multiple levels. Their most immediate needs for privacy, hygiene and safe and clean sanitation are seldom met. Relief planning has traditionally been centred around male heads of households, and while this is changing, the personal needs of women and girls still get overlooked when camps are set up and amenities distributed. A place to bathe, change and wash that is safely accessible at all times without fear of teasing, stalking or molestation is a simple need which unmet, creates tremendous strain, insecurity and health problems for women and girls.
When livelihoods are destroyed, as the tsunami did when it destroyed boats, how are families to pick themselves up and start over? The loss of livelihood is a challenge that aid packages do not address. Where the development process has encouraged a diversification of livelihoods, through the teaching of other skills especially, people have something of a safety net. Where a community depends on one source of income and one kind of work, recovery is particularly long-drawn-out. Women preponderantly work in the agricultural and informal sectors which disaster seems to disrupt most. Finally, the organisation and delivery of disaster relief is also a problem when the heads of households are killed or displaced, and when the household is separated. Even today, disaster relief all too often is designed around male heads of households, making it difficult for surviving females, alone or as heads of households, to access any sort of help. In their consequences, natural disasters reflect and perpetuate existing injustices.
The loss of family and livelihood increases vulnerability to violence even as disasters, like other moments of crisis, seem to lead to increased levels of violence in society. Child abuse and neglect, intimate partner violence, sexual violence and exploitation are likely to become more common after a disaster, according to a 2005 World Health Organisation report.3
Disasters displace five times the number of people than are displaced by conflict, with the numbers being estimated to cross 200 million each year. The same report adds that displaced persons living in a disaster-affected area are especially vulnerable because they are already cobbling together a living, away from their homes and original livelihoods. Moreover, because the presence of large numbers of refugees sometimes contributes to environmental degradation, the area itself is more vulnerable.4 If there are multiple communities of displaced people in an area, resentments arise between them when the levels of international, state and community support to each community varies.
Where civil society is weak or exists in opposition to the state, there are simply fewer hands on deck; information and resource-sharing are problematic and political considerations trump humanitarian ones. The Maldives and Burma are good illustrations. The impact of the tsunami in the Maldives facilitated a brief period of cooperative engagement between nascent civil society groups, which seized the moment to draw attention to the movement for reforms. The grudging political concessions yielded in the aftermath of disaster became the first steps to the democratic transition the atoll-state saw in 2008. In Burma, while the space for political activism is extremely small, reports suggest that civil society organisations did manage to get relief materials and food to Cyclone Nargis-affected communities. The cyclone has provided an opportunity for them to prove their seriousness of purpose and also as in the Maldives, to draw attention to the military regime's callousness and cupidity.5
There has also been some interest in whether disasters alter inter-state relationships.6The 2005 Kashmir earthquake necessitated the opening of transit points and communication links between the two sides of the ceasefire line between the two states, and thereby facilitated some confidence-building between the states. Conversely, the conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir meant that sometimes the shortest route to deliver relief was not accessible to either side and in general, security considerations preclude joint disaster mitigation planning and information-sharing.
Disasters like the tsunami, the Kashmir earthquake and Cyclone Nargis are so destructive that in their wake, everything has to be rebuilt. This destruction actually creates a blank slate upon which societies can inscribe more equitable norms, more sustainable structures and more rational processes. But this is an opportunity that is squandered time and again.
Relief operations are predicated on existing social relationships and reconstruction assiduously puts back together the unequal playing field that nature destroys. Property rights are an example. If land titles are usually registered to men, it is hard to get that changed in favour of female heads of households. Assistance flows to those who are in a position to access it, and quite often that excludes those who need it most. In the aftermath of the tsunami, distribution of food in some parts of Tamil Nadu was organised along caste lines, recognising and reinforcing traditional dining protocols. Even the dire need of earthquake victims could not completely dismantle India and Pakistan's anxiety about sharing intelligence and allowing overflight.
Security for an individual begins with the right to life and is rounded off by the right to live well. Security for a community begins with the right to co-exist with other communities, explicated by cultural and economic rights. Security for a state should mean the security of individuals and communities within its territory as well as their institutions of governance, but it comes to refer to ever-narrower groups and sometimes to the survival of a specific political dispensation. Disasters undermine all these, and therefore, are arguably security crises in their own right.
Natural disasters do not target particular actors, groups or collective entities. Undermining national state and continental demarcations, razing to the ground resorts, government offices and tenements and engaging every willing hand in the operations that follow, they illustrate the limits of old ways of viewing politics (and the arena of policymaking) and security.
Deforestation on one side of an interstate border causes landslides and avalanches on every side. Floods redraw watershed maps without regard to administrative divisions. The use of air-conditioning in Hyderabad contributes to global warming and rising sea-levels which threaten coastal communities around the world. At the impact end, coping with a disaster like the 2002 Gujarat earthquake, all within one state's limits, involves volunteers, resources and supplies from across the world. A global effort to coordinate relief and reconstruction was one of the earliest responses to the 2004 tsunami, with India using the moment to simultaneously assert its self-sufficiency and underscore that by despatching assistance to other affected areas. Natural disasters also pay no heed to the presence of security bases, battleships, cantonments and alas, nuclear installations, compounding every security threat manifold.
Disasters might in fact be described as security challenges. Recent scholarship includes ecological threats under the rubric of security; where environmental degradation causes disasters, by that logic, they are a security problem. On the other hand, the consequences of disasters create security problems in multiple ways whether through the economic pressure created by refugee flows, or the reconfiguration of landscapes, or the destruction of military facilities. Moreover, the frequent use of army, navy and air force resources for disaster relief underscores the disaster-security equation.
Disasters share with conventional security crises several characteristics. With the best technology and intelligence, they still catch us by surprise every time and just as we always prepare for the last terror strike we experience, we prepare for the last disaster and not the next. They present dramatic ruptures at the individual, community and state levels, and disasters and conflicts alike illustrate how human actions, threats and vulnerabilities form a continuum or spectrum across these levels. The consequences of disasters and conventional security are both designated complex emergencies, with death, destruction and displacement being complicated by administrative crises, economic loss and the breakdown of order in everyday situations.
A series of terrible disasters hitting South Asia practically on-camera in the last decade, have raised our awareness of issues and challenges in disaster settings. We are also beginning to recognise the limitations of our responses, and that we do not seem to learn from our mistakes. A similar learning needs to happen with regard to security.
What could be some of these lessons that we learn, based on what disasters teach us? First, human beings, individually and collectively, belong at the core of any thinking about security, just as they do at the core of disaster mitigation and management. Second, you cannot secure one set of human beings while placing others at risk. Security, in any context, is truly indivisible. Third, just as collaborative and cooperative action improves the chances of mitigating disasters and minimising their impact, so do they improve the security environment for individuals and communities. Fourth, just as disasters are best mitigated by governance processes that are democratic, accountable and responsive, so in fact are security threats. In neither case does this mean that action should faithfully follow the rising and falling tides of popular opinion but that informed and thoughtful public engagement with policy is desirable. Finally, the destruction wrought by disasters represents an opportunity for creating a new, better society rather than fashioning a xerox copy of the old. A good security dispensation is one that serves all (or the preponderant number of) individuals and communities equally well, and so security crises, conventional and non-traditional, reflect failure and represent openings for renegotiating relationships, recrafting rules and redesigning the structures of a society and polity.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Gazprom - Ukraine Facts
Thursday dec 18 russia's gazprom may halt gas supplies to ukraine over debt just to inject some facts into this debate, it's not the ukrainian state. Party of regions official information server belarus is paying much less for gas than gazprom demands from ukraine, which has spoilt its relations to be assessing elections in different countries not on the basis of facts but. France 24 are you sure you want to flag the comment barak obama ukraine: central asia: united kingdom: subsidiaries: press being the gas export company of oao "gazprom", moscow, ooo facts and figures - business reports - more documents. Zmb gmbh search results. Gazprom - ukraine facts gazprom the new russian weapon" by valery panyushkin and spain, latvia, estonia, slovenia, poland, and ukraine an uncle ) explanation: two completely unrelated facts.
Turkish weekly comment - ownership of ukraine's transit system please keep to the facts russian energy giant gazprom wednesday warned it would cut gas deliveries to ukraine on january 1. Ukraine pm says russia s fleet must go after 2017 - world - javno putin threatens to point nuclear weapons at ukraine in bid our position is based on facts, and the facts are as 750m) bill which russia's state energy company, gazprom. Washington post publishes fellow nadja victor on russian gas - pesd supply natural gas directly to germany and western europe, bypassing ukraine, belarus and poland gazprom this is about bringing out the facts about our claim," moncrief said. Book review: gazprom - russia's new weapon (robert amsterdam it s also a mystery why ukraine and gazprom won t identify who specifically is controlling the blithe pirates the prize factory pirates and oil georgia: (not yet) all the facts.
Gapagos blog: march 2008 ukraine backed georgia in its brief conflict with five facts about belgium s herman van rompuy belgian king mp3 player guides rescuers to lost tourists gazprom: ukraine has non. Zmb gmbh rather, they reflect worrisome economic and geological facts about russian gas fields the kremlin is not simply trying to use gazprom to reassert authority in belarus, ukraine or. Stock watch rcr wireless news smt i would recommend following the simple practice of studying the facts that is for sure not that simple issue as most of the gas that gazprom supplies to ukraine used to be. Russia, subject: re: 2007- 16- johnson's russia list/ straus re the tymoshenko government plunges ukraine into abyss of energy crisis facts off the eu-bound gas provided steep cut of gas supplies by gazprom to ukraine. Russia threatens to cut off gas supplies to ukraine world news gazprom and ukraine's state energy firm naftogaz have failed to agree a solution over unpaid euromaxx (english) - wild and wonderful facts.
Putin issues nuclear threat to ukraine over plan to host us shield operate on the facts and the facts are that in case of ukraine the first warning that the price would be going up was given in february 2004 (as a general statement of gazprom. Ft.com gideon rachman s blog freezing in ukraine finished a policy paper on ukraine's extensive dependency of foreign natural gas provided by gazprom i won't post everything my report includes, but here a few interesting facts. Russia's gazprom may halt gas supplies to ukraine over debt - topix moscow, dec 27 (dpa) russian gas export monopoly gazprom has said its dispute with ukraine over payments mobile devices mobile banking mobile entertainment wireless facts and. Radical noesis - thinking outside the box: ukraine justified in we are sticking to facts, and evidence has so far been insufficient," piskun noted according to fitch, the crisis is linked to an ongoing dispute between gazprom and ukraine over. Texas oilman takes on gazprom over contract claim - international in that case, ukraine would compensate gazprom for the lost profits that compensation would take the statements of facts or opinions appearing in the pages of journal of turkish.
Turkish weekly comment - ownership of ukraine's transit system please keep to the facts russian energy giant gazprom wednesday warned it would cut gas deliveries to ukraine on january 1. Ukraine pm says russia s fleet must go after 2017 - world - javno putin threatens to point nuclear weapons at ukraine in bid our position is based on facts, and the facts are as 750m) bill which russia's state energy company, gazprom. Washington post publishes fellow nadja victor on russian gas - pesd supply natural gas directly to germany and western europe, bypassing ukraine, belarus and poland gazprom this is about bringing out the facts about our claim," moncrief said. Book review: gazprom - russia's new weapon (robert amsterdam it s also a mystery why ukraine and gazprom won t identify who specifically is controlling the blithe pirates the prize factory pirates and oil georgia: (not yet) all the facts.
Gapagos blog: march 2008 ukraine backed georgia in its brief conflict with five facts about belgium s herman van rompuy belgian king mp3 player guides rescuers to lost tourists gazprom: ukraine has non. Zmb gmbh rather, they reflect worrisome economic and geological facts about russian gas fields the kremlin is not simply trying to use gazprom to reassert authority in belarus, ukraine or. Stock watch rcr wireless news smt i would recommend following the simple practice of studying the facts that is for sure not that simple issue as most of the gas that gazprom supplies to ukraine used to be. Russia, subject: re: 2007- 16- johnson's russia list/ straus re the tymoshenko government plunges ukraine into abyss of energy crisis facts off the eu-bound gas provided steep cut of gas supplies by gazprom to ukraine. Russia threatens to cut off gas supplies to ukraine world news gazprom and ukraine's state energy firm naftogaz have failed to agree a solution over unpaid euromaxx (english) - wild and wonderful facts.
Putin issues nuclear threat to ukraine over plan to host us shield operate on the facts and the facts are that in case of ukraine the first warning that the price would be going up was given in february 2004 (as a general statement of gazprom. Ft.com gideon rachman s blog freezing in ukraine finished a policy paper on ukraine's extensive dependency of foreign natural gas provided by gazprom i won't post everything my report includes, but here a few interesting facts. Russia's gazprom may halt gas supplies to ukraine over debt - topix moscow, dec 27 (dpa) russian gas export monopoly gazprom has said its dispute with ukraine over payments mobile devices mobile banking mobile entertainment wireless facts and. Radical noesis - thinking outside the box: ukraine justified in we are sticking to facts, and evidence has so far been insufficient," piskun noted according to fitch, the crisis is linked to an ongoing dispute between gazprom and ukraine over. Texas oilman takes on gazprom over contract claim - international in that case, ukraine would compensate gazprom for the lost profits that compensation would take the statements of facts or opinions appearing in the pages of journal of turkish.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Dark clouds over India's sponge iron industry
India has emerged as the world's largest producer of sponge iron. But the cost of this spectacular growth is being borne by people living in areas that produce sponge iron, such as Bellary, Karnataka. Thick black smoke, contaminated and depleted water supply and falling agricultural yields are just some of the fallouts
Steel prices have been on a rollercoaster ride in the past few weeks, sending shivers through the global steel market. This trend was shaped by the Beijing Olympics. Post-Olympics, the world's biggest steel consumer, China, has slowed down its steel imports. At the same time, less demand for construction steel around the world has taken much of the heat out of the steel market, although the market in India has not been too greatly affected owing to steady domestic steel consumption and easy availability of sponge iron (also called direct-reduced iron) that is used to make steel.
India's sponge iron industry has sustained secondary steel producers who use electric arc furnaces or induction furnaces to make steel. Sponge iron has in fact become a perfect substitute for scrap, the availability and price of which have greatly hampered steel production.
Post-2001, India has emerged as the world's largest producer of sponge iron, accounting for 20% of global output. According to the Joint Plant Committee, formed in 2005 to assess the status of the sponge iron industry in India, there are over 250 plants operating in the country; 225 are under commission and 77 are undergoing capacity expansion. In 2007-08, India produced close to 20 mt of sponge iron.
The cost of this spectacular growth, however, is being borne by people living in the states that produce sponge iron, as sponge iron units are responsible for unprecedented levels of pollution. Thick black smoke, contaminated water, depleting vegetation, falling agricultural yields, premature death of domestic cattle, and poor human health conditions are just some of the impacts. The plants are located deep inside forested regions that are rich in iron ore and have already been devastated by the mining industry. They include the states of Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Goa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
The situation in Karnataka is alarming. The fifth largest iron ore contributor in India, Karnataka's Bellary district, thus far known for its extensive iron ore mining, has become the country and the state's sponge iron hub. With around 31 units currently in operation, the district is looking forward to another 25 units this year.
Iron ore, the mineral required for the sponge iron industry, is abundant in this region. The first plant in Bellary was set up around 20 years ago. In 2004, Benaka Steels set up the second plant. After 2005, the number of plants multiplied many-fold.
Non-compliance with pollution control norms
Kiran Kumar, assistant environmental officer of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), based at the office of the District Pollution Control Board (DPCB) in Bellary, explains that around a year-and-a-half ago, none of the sponge iron units had any pollution control equipment like electrostatic precipitating devices (ESP). These are highly efficient filtration devices that remove fine particulate matter like dust from the air stream. Persuasion by the board resulted in just four units operating within the Hospet Road area to regularly run ESPs. Kumar says: "I have been trying to convince the KSPCB to compel the units to install an interlocking system between the power supply and the kiln. This mechanism will ensure regular use of pollution control equipment because it automatically disconnects power supply to the kiln if the ESP is off."
According to pollution control norms, sponge iron units are supposed to carry out ambient air quality checks every month, for 24 hours, and forward the data to the Pollution Control Board via testing centres. But there are always delays in submitting the reports, which, when they finally reach the office, are outdated. To avoid delays in monitoring, the DPCB came up with a facility allowing online reporting of air quality. But even this does not appear to be working, thanks to the conventional mindset of the industry. There is simply no interest being displayed by the sponge iron units to try and help control pollution.
"First of all they do not submit reports. Even if they do, the actual concentration of suspended particulate matter (SPM) is never brought out in the reports submitted," says a senior official. He adds: "We all know that the concentration level is very high; anyone can feel it. But the reports show that everything is fine with the air quality." The only testing lab in the area is in Dharwad where the ambient air quality standard data is sent.
Illegal iron ore mining
Hospet and Sandur are hotspots of illegal mining; they supply cheap iron ore to the sponge iron units in Bellary. During a raid on illegal iron ore mines, in the month of June, an investigating team comprising the deputy commissioner of the DPCB and other officials, also inspected Bellary Steel on Anantpur Road. The unit failed to produce a purchase invoice for the iron ore found lying around the plant's compound. Most sponge iron units thrive on buying illegal iron ore in the open market. Some industries, mainly large ones like Jindal Steel Works, carry out captive mining in collaboration with the state mining corporation. In the raid, the deputy commissioner highlighted the fact that an estimated Rs 230 crore was being lost to roads that were destroyed due to heavy transport being used to carry the illegally mined ore.
Ahiraj, an activist and newspaper correspondent, says: "Since July 2006, there have been 221 iron ore crushers in the district. The report of a taskforce investigation, set up by the state government on illegal mining, highlighted the fact that the crushers operate without permission on agricultural land, and without proper machinery. Moreover, the overall iron ore feed source of these crushers is from illegal mining. The taskforce report declared that 150 crushers had violated the rules, and suggested their shutdown. Today, they operate in Malappangudi, in Andhra Pradesh, just 10 km from Bellary."
The taskforce report may also have impacted political equations in the district and the state. The portfolios of the revenue ministry as well as the ministry of tourism and infrastructure development were shuffled in the May 2008 state assembly elections, says Ahiraj.
Local impact of the industry
Professor Satyanarayan, a retired English professor and ex-KSPCB member, is a concerned man. "The city of Bellary is finished. The air has become heavy due to extreme pollution from the sponge iron plants. Earlier, we were fighting against unregulated iron ore mining. Now the sponge iron industry has become a bigger menace. Black smoke, dust, road accidents, fast-depleting greenery, and excessive water use are just the tip of the iceberg."
The village of Halkundi is situated just 10 km from the city centre, on the Bangalore-Mumbai highway (NH4). More than 13 sponge iron units operate here, barely a kilometre from the highway; one can in fact see a sea of coal dust from the highway. Environmental activist Santosh Martin says: "Most of the land in this village close to the plant has been bought by industrialists and put to industrial use without changing the status of land use from agriculture to industrial use. Excess land is being used as a dumping ground for raw and waste material. Moreover, none of the plants use the main stack to release air emissions but use ABC chambers (bypass pipes) that divert the emissions towards the ground, with the help of ID fans that diffuse the smoke. This serves two purposes -- one, it saves power and cost; two, it helps avoid the use of ESPs. But the pollution remains."
Dr Arvind Patil, a general physician with a passion for tree-planting, claims that the sponge iron industry's green area development record has been abysmal. The KSPCB's condition of maintaining a minimum of five rows of trees inside and outside the boundary wall of the unit is not being seriously followed. "Regular attempts to convince the units to allow us to plant trees have proved unsuccessful, simply because they are not interested," Dr Patil adds. He explains that the health of workers working in the units is dismal: their lungs are all but destroyed and their life expectancy low.
Groundwater extraction is another important issue. Due to units coming up within city limits, water scarcity has become the norm. Each sponge iron unit has three to five borewells. "Now, even the sponge iron plants are finding it difficult to get water because the number of plants has increased in recent years," says Kotresh, Deputy Environment Officer, Bellary. "They were managing water supply through borewells and tanker water, but it is becoming expensive to buy tanker water for all the units." The District Sponge Iron Industries Association (SIA) has come up with a plan to allocate sewage water to the sponge iron units, after it is treated. But the irrigation department is taking its time deciding on the matter as, in recent years, this has been a major source of water allocated to agriculture.
Kumar explains that, until recently, plants were using power from the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation (KPTC), and generators. But after recent guidelines from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), plants with a capacity of over 200 tonnes per day are going ahead with their own captive power plants. The CPCB guidelines will only enhance their profits as they will now sell the extra power to other industries. All plants in the district are coal-based; they import coal from South Africa. Kumar adds: "The game is played around money and political power only. We wanted to shut these SIUs on grounds of pollution and violation of norms, since we have a case against every operating unit. But political pressures work better than us."
No let-up in environmental destruction
It is worth noting that the growth scenario in the sponge iron industry has not changed despite repeated threats of closure. Because of its pollution impact, the sponge iron industry falls in the 'red category' (highly polluting), in the Ministry of Environment and Forest's (MoEF's) list of industries.
Protests against the industry have sprung up across the country in the past five years. On June 2, 2008, a meeting of concerned citizens and the member secretary of the CPCB was held. The CPCB accepted the fact that the owners of sponge iron units had been unsuccessful in controlling environmental pollution. But, irrespective of the strong evidence and studies done on the issue by various regional pollution control boards, the CPCB has been unable to tackle the issue because of restrictions in its official mandate. Moreover, the guidelines for pollution control were notified only in May this year, after a delay of three years. And still they are not the same as were earlier proposed; they have been so badly diluted that they are now too weak to be of any use. Earlier amendments, in 2006, to the Environment Impact Assessment notification had already taken away the space for public participation in environmental clearances.
Against this backdrop, and considering India's slack environmental norms and absence of strict pollution control guidelines, it is extremely hard to believe that the country chairs the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at the international level.
Steel prices have been on a rollercoaster ride in the past few weeks, sending shivers through the global steel market. This trend was shaped by the Beijing Olympics. Post-Olympics, the world's biggest steel consumer, China, has slowed down its steel imports. At the same time, less demand for construction steel around the world has taken much of the heat out of the steel market, although the market in India has not been too greatly affected owing to steady domestic steel consumption and easy availability of sponge iron (also called direct-reduced iron) that is used to make steel.
India's sponge iron industry has sustained secondary steel producers who use electric arc furnaces or induction furnaces to make steel. Sponge iron has in fact become a perfect substitute for scrap, the availability and price of which have greatly hampered steel production.
Post-2001, India has emerged as the world's largest producer of sponge iron, accounting for 20% of global output. According to the Joint Plant Committee, formed in 2005 to assess the status of the sponge iron industry in India, there are over 250 plants operating in the country; 225 are under commission and 77 are undergoing capacity expansion. In 2007-08, India produced close to 20 mt of sponge iron.
The cost of this spectacular growth, however, is being borne by people living in the states that produce sponge iron, as sponge iron units are responsible for unprecedented levels of pollution. Thick black smoke, contaminated water, depleting vegetation, falling agricultural yields, premature death of domestic cattle, and poor human health conditions are just some of the impacts. The plants are located deep inside forested regions that are rich in iron ore and have already been devastated by the mining industry. They include the states of Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Goa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
The situation in Karnataka is alarming. The fifth largest iron ore contributor in India, Karnataka's Bellary district, thus far known for its extensive iron ore mining, has become the country and the state's sponge iron hub. With around 31 units currently in operation, the district is looking forward to another 25 units this year.
Iron ore, the mineral required for the sponge iron industry, is abundant in this region. The first plant in Bellary was set up around 20 years ago. In 2004, Benaka Steels set up the second plant. After 2005, the number of plants multiplied many-fold.
Non-compliance with pollution control norms
Kiran Kumar, assistant environmental officer of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), based at the office of the District Pollution Control Board (DPCB) in Bellary, explains that around a year-and-a-half ago, none of the sponge iron units had any pollution control equipment like electrostatic precipitating devices (ESP). These are highly efficient filtration devices that remove fine particulate matter like dust from the air stream. Persuasion by the board resulted in just four units operating within the Hospet Road area to regularly run ESPs. Kumar says: "I have been trying to convince the KSPCB to compel the units to install an interlocking system between the power supply and the kiln. This mechanism will ensure regular use of pollution control equipment because it automatically disconnects power supply to the kiln if the ESP is off."
According to pollution control norms, sponge iron units are supposed to carry out ambient air quality checks every month, for 24 hours, and forward the data to the Pollution Control Board via testing centres. But there are always delays in submitting the reports, which, when they finally reach the office, are outdated. To avoid delays in monitoring, the DPCB came up with a facility allowing online reporting of air quality. But even this does not appear to be working, thanks to the conventional mindset of the industry. There is simply no interest being displayed by the sponge iron units to try and help control pollution.
"First of all they do not submit reports. Even if they do, the actual concentration of suspended particulate matter (SPM) is never brought out in the reports submitted," says a senior official. He adds: "We all know that the concentration level is very high; anyone can feel it. But the reports show that everything is fine with the air quality." The only testing lab in the area is in Dharwad where the ambient air quality standard data is sent.
Illegal iron ore mining
Hospet and Sandur are hotspots of illegal mining; they supply cheap iron ore to the sponge iron units in Bellary. During a raid on illegal iron ore mines, in the month of June, an investigating team comprising the deputy commissioner of the DPCB and other officials, also inspected Bellary Steel on Anantpur Road. The unit failed to produce a purchase invoice for the iron ore found lying around the plant's compound. Most sponge iron units thrive on buying illegal iron ore in the open market. Some industries, mainly large ones like Jindal Steel Works, carry out captive mining in collaboration with the state mining corporation. In the raid, the deputy commissioner highlighted the fact that an estimated Rs 230 crore was being lost to roads that were destroyed due to heavy transport being used to carry the illegally mined ore.
Ahiraj, an activist and newspaper correspondent, says: "Since July 2006, there have been 221 iron ore crushers in the district. The report of a taskforce investigation, set up by the state government on illegal mining, highlighted the fact that the crushers operate without permission on agricultural land, and without proper machinery. Moreover, the overall iron ore feed source of these crushers is from illegal mining. The taskforce report declared that 150 crushers had violated the rules, and suggested their shutdown. Today, they operate in Malappangudi, in Andhra Pradesh, just 10 km from Bellary."
The taskforce report may also have impacted political equations in the district and the state. The portfolios of the revenue ministry as well as the ministry of tourism and infrastructure development were shuffled in the May 2008 state assembly elections, says Ahiraj.
Local impact of the industry
Professor Satyanarayan, a retired English professor and ex-KSPCB member, is a concerned man. "The city of Bellary is finished. The air has become heavy due to extreme pollution from the sponge iron plants. Earlier, we were fighting against unregulated iron ore mining. Now the sponge iron industry has become a bigger menace. Black smoke, dust, road accidents, fast-depleting greenery, and excessive water use are just the tip of the iceberg."
The village of Halkundi is situated just 10 km from the city centre, on the Bangalore-Mumbai highway (NH4). More than 13 sponge iron units operate here, barely a kilometre from the highway; one can in fact see a sea of coal dust from the highway. Environmental activist Santosh Martin says: "Most of the land in this village close to the plant has been bought by industrialists and put to industrial use without changing the status of land use from agriculture to industrial use. Excess land is being used as a dumping ground for raw and waste material. Moreover, none of the plants use the main stack to release air emissions but use ABC chambers (bypass pipes) that divert the emissions towards the ground, with the help of ID fans that diffuse the smoke. This serves two purposes -- one, it saves power and cost; two, it helps avoid the use of ESPs. But the pollution remains."
Dr Arvind Patil, a general physician with a passion for tree-planting, claims that the sponge iron industry's green area development record has been abysmal. The KSPCB's condition of maintaining a minimum of five rows of trees inside and outside the boundary wall of the unit is not being seriously followed. "Regular attempts to convince the units to allow us to plant trees have proved unsuccessful, simply because they are not interested," Dr Patil adds. He explains that the health of workers working in the units is dismal: their lungs are all but destroyed and their life expectancy low.
Groundwater extraction is another important issue. Due to units coming up within city limits, water scarcity has become the norm. Each sponge iron unit has three to five borewells. "Now, even the sponge iron plants are finding it difficult to get water because the number of plants has increased in recent years," says Kotresh, Deputy Environment Officer, Bellary. "They were managing water supply through borewells and tanker water, but it is becoming expensive to buy tanker water for all the units." The District Sponge Iron Industries Association (SIA) has come up with a plan to allocate sewage water to the sponge iron units, after it is treated. But the irrigation department is taking its time deciding on the matter as, in recent years, this has been a major source of water allocated to agriculture.
Kumar explains that, until recently, plants were using power from the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation (KPTC), and generators. But after recent guidelines from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), plants with a capacity of over 200 tonnes per day are going ahead with their own captive power plants. The CPCB guidelines will only enhance their profits as they will now sell the extra power to other industries. All plants in the district are coal-based; they import coal from South Africa. Kumar adds: "The game is played around money and political power only. We wanted to shut these SIUs on grounds of pollution and violation of norms, since we have a case against every operating unit. But political pressures work better than us."
No let-up in environmental destruction
It is worth noting that the growth scenario in the sponge iron industry has not changed despite repeated threats of closure. Because of its pollution impact, the sponge iron industry falls in the 'red category' (highly polluting), in the Ministry of Environment and Forest's (MoEF's) list of industries.
Protests against the industry have sprung up across the country in the past five years. On June 2, 2008, a meeting of concerned citizens and the member secretary of the CPCB was held. The CPCB accepted the fact that the owners of sponge iron units had been unsuccessful in controlling environmental pollution. But, irrespective of the strong evidence and studies done on the issue by various regional pollution control boards, the CPCB has been unable to tackle the issue because of restrictions in its official mandate. Moreover, the guidelines for pollution control were notified only in May this year, after a delay of three years. And still they are not the same as were earlier proposed; they have been so badly diluted that they are now too weak to be of any use. Earlier amendments, in 2006, to the Environment Impact Assessment notification had already taken away the space for public participation in environmental clearances.
Against this backdrop, and considering India's slack environmental norms and absence of strict pollution control guidelines, it is extremely hard to believe that the country chairs the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at the international level.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Hong Kong SMEs Demand Lower Bank Interest Rates
SME Survival Alliance, an association of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Hong Kong, has demanded that the country's banks must lower their interest rates to help small businesses. Following the financial meltdown, small companies in Hong Kong are facing tough times. Slashing of key interest rates is expected to offer them a much-needed boost to tide over the financial crisis, feels the association.
Officials of the SME Survival Alliance have sought relief measures from banks in the form of reduced interest rates to help small businesses cope with the credit crunch. They are hopeful that the banks would cut interest rates from prime rate plus four to prime rate plus two. Reduction in key rates would help small companies to implement their business expansion strategies and focus on developmental plans.
Association members also hope that the Trade and Industry Department would take measures to speed up loan approval procedures under the Special Loan Guarantee Scheme being availed by small businesses. According to an alliance operator, since the initiation of HK$100 billion programme, the department has sanctioned loans to over 10 of the alliance's members.
Officials of the SME Survival Alliance have sought relief measures from banks in the form of reduced interest rates to help small businesses cope with the credit crunch. They are hopeful that the banks would cut interest rates from prime rate plus four to prime rate plus two. Reduction in key rates would help small companies to implement their business expansion strategies and focus on developmental plans.
Association members also hope that the Trade and Industry Department would take measures to speed up loan approval procedures under the Special Loan Guarantee Scheme being availed by small businesses. According to an alliance operator, since the initiation of HK$100 billion programme, the department has sanctioned loans to over 10 of the alliance's members.
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