IWC Fwd: Inviting Ideas to Make our Cities More Liveable
Sanskriti Menon
Ideas may be submitted online at www.takecaretakecharge.in till 13 May. Some of the most powerful and innovative ideas will be published in the Times of India. Also, the Times of India will buy 10 kg of used paper for recycling for each idea submitted, with the campaign culminating in a wholly recycled paper edition on 5 June, which will be Guest Edited by Miniser of Environment and Forests Shri Jairam Ramesh.
The ideas may pertain to an innovative technology or design solution, a social arrangement, a market or finance type solution, practice, or a way of impacting behaviour for positive change. The themes for the campaign are:
- Transportation and Vehicular Pollution
- Water Conservation and Pollution
- Energy Generation and Conservation
- Recycling and Waste Management
- Heritage and Conservation of Culture
- Biodiversity and Greening
Last date to submit ideas: 13 May 2010
Ideas are to be submitted ideas online at www.taketakecharge.in
Thanks!
Sanskriti
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Take Care Take Charge
A Garnier Times of India Campaign
Have an innovative idea which you think will change the way things are around you?
Something you can do yourself,
Can be done in your community
Or would want expert institutions/ government to pick up and implement to Make Your City More Liveable and Eco-friendly.
We invite ideas on eco-friendly and sustainable solutions in the following broad themes. The solutions can include an innovative technology solution, a social arrangement, a market or finance type solution, practice, or a way of impacting behaviour for positive change.
Themes:
- Water Conservation and Pollution
- Energy Generation and Conservation
- Recycling and Waste Management
- Transportation and Vehicular Pollution
- Heritage and Conservation of Culture
- Biodiversity and Greening
Last date to submit ideas: 13 May 2010
Submit your ideas online at www.taketakecharge.in
MANY CHALLENGES TO ADDRESS
Beyond Reduce-Recycle!
Our cities produce several thousand metric tones of garbage every day, typically dumped outside city limits. There are severaI problems with improper waste management:
- It adds to climate change, for example through release of methane from dumpsites and CO2 from burning
- Not reusing and recycling results in wastage of resources and a loss to the economy
- Dumping leads to degradation of land, water and biodiversity
- Collection and transport of waste to large city-level dumpsites typically uses up more fuel than if waste is managed in a decentralized manner
Solutions include segregation at source, converting wet waste to compost or biogas, retrieving recyclable materials to send to recycling industry, and sending only non-recyclable or hazardous waste is sent to secure landfill.
Innovations are needed to make this happen because while this is understood in theory, many challenges exist … information on quantity and type of waste is not available to municipal managers, people don’t know how to compost or have misconceptions like compost pits produce mosquitoes; they ask who will invest the money for biogas plants; space is not allocated in city land-use plans for decentralized waste management facilities, etc.
Innovations may relate to technology, finance, communication, citizen mobilization, management etc. Your ideas can help!
Improving Mobility
‘Walking and cycling are green… I will do everyday’. But, but, but … its not so safe! It can be particularly hazardous to turn right on busy roads or cycle at night on dimly lit streets. Its worse for vulnerable groups such as children and senior citizens.
The National Urban Transport Policy 2006 recognizes the important role that walking and cycling can play in improving both the mobility and liveability of a city. It makes the following points:
· First of all, the safety concerns of cyclists and pedestrians have to be addressed by encouraging the construction of segregated rights of way for bicycles and pedestrians. Apart from improving safety, the segregation of vehicles moving at different speeds would help improve traffic flow, increase the average speed of traffic and reduce emissions resulting from sub-optimal speeds
· The Central Government would give priority to the construction of cycle tracks and pedestrian paths in all cities, under the National Urban Renewal Mission (NURM), to enhance safety and thereby enhance use of non-motorized modes
· The Central government would support the construction of safe pedestrian crossings at busy intersections and high traffic corridors
So, what can be done to implement such policies and improve facilities for walking and cycling in our cities? Do you have new designs for streets, ideas for mobilizing citizens to demand better walking and cycling facilities, for engaging elected representatives and city governments, or for implementing change in educational and office campuses?
The Water Supply - Energy Link
Energy Efficiency and Conservation are among the most important sources of energy supply that India possesses. A unit of energy saved by a user is greater than a unit produced, as it saves on production, transport, transmission and distribution losses. Thus a ‘Negawatt’ (a negative Megawatt) produced by reducing energy needs saves more than a Megawatt generated. An attractive feature of enhanced energy efficiency is that the cost of it is a fraction of the cost of new generation.
One big use of electricity in cities is houses, offices and commercial complexes, is for water supply, including pumping. In our cities, typically the water supplied by the municipality is stored in a tank at the ground level. It is pumped by the residential complex/ bungalow to an overhead tank as per need or fixed timings. Several houses also pump ground water.
Experts say that improved consumer education, and studying and resolving implementation issues would help in reducing or better managing the demand for electricity for water supply.
For example:
- Water conservation measures could help reduce the demand for water and therefore for energy
- Changing old habits such as throwing away stored water may need a creative educational effort
- Installing a timer to pump water from the sump or ground to night or when the general grid level electricity demand is low would help reduce peak time loads
- Using pumps of the correct rating, pipes of the correct diameter can make pumping more efficient
- Metering and pricing water, especially taxing high consumption might reduce wastage
- Changing the entire municipal supply system to 24*7 may help in reducing the need for citizens to store water in their houses
- Recharge of aquifers and evolving a community-managed ground water supply system may help to reduce the load on the centralized municipal supply, thereby reducing the overall city-level water pumping need
Contribute your ideas on engaging consumer groups, citizens’ groups, etc and to make energy conservation a reality in cooperative housing societies, campuses, government buildings, etc.
Experts say that improved consumer education, and studying and resolving implementation issues would help in the spread of energy efficiency technologies and programmes. A preliminary list of difficulties and potential tasks identified by CEE includes:
Light up and Lighten the Footprint
I wanted to change my regular incandescent bulbs to CFLs, knowing that a major use of electricity in houses, offices and commercial complexes is for lighting. But as a consumer I have many issues:
1. When I shifted to CFLs, I realized that the quality of light and brightness from CFLs is different from incandescent bulbs. Perhaps other consumers are also dissatisfied, how do I know which CFL to use for which application?
2. My friend has un-necessarily replaced perfectly working tube lights by CFLs in the mistaken belief that this would lead to substantial reduction in electricity consumption
3. I read about sub-standard CFLs in the market and am worried about what to buy. I think bad products are probably ‘ruining’ consumer perception about CFLs including related to the life of CFLs, the quality of lighting etc
4. CFLs are expensive, and if installment schemes for those who can’t afford them were easily available, lots more people could shift to CFLs
5. Architects and builders continue to provide light fixtures/ holders that are suitable for incandescent bulbs rather than CFLs
6. Many places, especially offices, shops, malls are over-lit
7. An immense amount of electricity may be consumed for lighting for advertising, neon signs etc
Do you have innovations to solve these issues? New product designs? New building practices? Consumer education? Even re-orienting syllabi of professional courses? Outreach to builders’ associations, micro-finance groups, electricity utility companies, consumer groups etc.
Heritage Conservation
Re-furbishing and re-using old buildings instead of constructing new ones could surely save resources. But many ‘old cities’ in our modern cities are stuck in issues of rent control, congestion and poverty. Ideas are needed for how to revive and revitalize core cities and to retrofit old buildings.
But an even more important type of heritage is traditional knowledge. For example, take the construction trade itself. The know-how of using local materials and architecture that has evolved over time to suit particular weather conditions seems to be vanishing in the craze for glass and chrome designs that require air conditioning. This is the subject of debate on ‘green building’ technologies. Similarly, a lot of the know-how of which varieties of crops to plant (and their seeds as well), methods of organic farming seem to have been lost in the decades of the green revolution. So, conserving our heritage of knowledge has a big role to play in better management of our environment. But … how to conserve our heritage of knowledge and cultural practices?
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Programme Director
CEE Urban Programmes and Central Regional Cell
Centre for Environment Education
A 10 Garden Estate, 167/1 New DP Road, Aundh, Pune 411007
Ph: 020 25898447, 25887009, 9822455250
Email: sanskri...@ceeindia.org
www.ceeindia.org www.greenteacher.org
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