Patricia Mukhim
For the last few weeks I have intentionally steered away from politics and governance because the environment has taken precedence over everything else. Someone told me the other day, “What will we do with politics when our environment is destroyed? And if the environment reaches its nemesis then all creatures (humans) will die too.” Yet we live on this earth like mindless robots. We pollute at will having become creatures of the use and throw culture. We have forgotten how to mend and re-use a lot of things. Yes the repair and re-use culture is what we have also discarded. And yet we keep talking about conserving our culture. The Khasi culture was one that was marked by a sense of thrift and saving. Every tear was mended, shoes were repaired, and clothes were worn until they wore out. We have come a long way since then. We have imbibed the “Use and Throw” culture of the West. So much so we generate more garbage today than we ever had in the past. And that garbage is not being processed the right way. The bulk of that garbage comprises one-time use plastic bags, plates, cups and spoons. They all land up in our rivers.
So what do we do about this? Should we carry on as if nothing matters? Should we do something about it? If so what do we do? If plastics are our biggest enemy then it’s important to eliminate it. Governments can’t promote a livelihood that is detrimental to the environment. You can’t be thinking of the big plastic manufacturers because that has a cost and that cost is being paid by the environment which is today choked with plastics. Look at our drains, our streams and rivers! But then how many people have actually visited a river and watch it struggle to survive? We are chasing a lifestyle that sanitises us from the realities of life. While travelling in our vehicles we hardly have time to look around and feel the anguish of seeing a city buried in garbage because our eyes are on the mobile phone. What a meaningless life is this!
It is therefore a welcome move on the part of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) to ban all kinds of plastics (irrespective of microns) because the plastic traders will use their semantics to circumvent the ban. But the KHADC must be given constant feedback to ensure that it gets the compliance from all commercial establishments, meat and vegetable vendors, hotels, sweetmeat shops etc. While butchers in several places are now using the sla met (packing leaves) those at Nongmynsong, after wrapping the meat in sla-met also put that in plastic bags which is ridiculous. There have to be many more environmental volunteers who will tell all the sellers of various goods in the market place that they should stop giving out plastic bags. Many shop-owners say that the customers berate them when they don’t give plastic bags and walk away to the next shop which continues to dispense the bags. So a ban has to be complete to ensure that the client has no option but to bring his/her own bag.
Many people argue that single use plastic bags are as bad as packaged chips, milk, oil and a host of other food items, so why ban only single-use plastics? Well, for one you have to tackle the easier problems first which is single use plastic bags, plastic water bottles and plastic cups, spoons and plates. The manufacturers of packaged milk, oil, biscuits etc., will soon have to find alternative biodegradable packing material, knowing that the 2020 deadline has been set by Government of India. There will also be people who question why plastics have to be banned at all. To all those who pose this question, I would request them to attend one of the river cleaning drives under Operation Clean-Up. They will then see for themselves the mess created by plastics which also include the huge blue ones used by people to cover their make-shift shops such as those along the Umiam View Point. Those plastics and more are embedded in the rivers. Should those plastics and other garbage be dumped in rivers? Better still should septic tanks and drains be emptied into the rivers? No they should not. Both are environmentally disastrous practices. So why is the Government of Meghalaya not enforcing the Environmental Protection Act which makes all these actions punishable? Yes, a fine is the only way to ensure compliance from an educated population that pretends to be ignorant.
Nations are today struggling to ensure that their people have enough fresh water. And just to remind ourselves how precarious the situation is, water covers 70% of our planet and we may be deluded into believing that water will always be plentiful. But fresh water which is the water we drink, bathe, and irrigate our fields with is a rare commodity. The larger percentage of water in oceans and seas is not drinkable. Only 3% of the world’s water is fresh water and two-thirds of that is not available because it is in the form of frozen glaciers.
In the present scenario, about 1.1 billion people worldwide do not have access to fresh water and about 2.7 billion suffer water scarcity for at least a couple of months in a year. We in Meghalaya begin to suffer water scarcity from December up to April. Poor sanitation has rendered our streams and rivers unfit for use. Our water sources are polluted by faecal matter. Because of inadequate sanitation about 2.4 billion people mainly in Asia and Africa are exposed to water borne diseases, such as cholera and typhoid fever. Roughly two million people, mostly children, die each year from diarrheal diseases alone.
The truth is that many of the water bodies that keep our eco-systems thriving and feed this humungous human population have become stressed. In our own state many of the fast flowing rivers of which Umtyngar is a good example are now sluggish because of sand banking and quarrying. In fact unregulated quarrying has destroyed many of our rivers and aquifers and caused our water sources to disappear forever. We are now experiencing climate change which makes for erratic rainfall which is suddenly very heavy and can cause flash floods but at other times it can remain dry for months. Scientists say that by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population will face water shortage. This will put pressure on the environment and lead to other consequences such as crop failure. So why are we not even concerned about saving our rivers? All efforts end up in talks and plans but the real work of preventing dumping in rivers or cleaning the already garbage-filled rivers has not begun in right earnest and in a sustainable manner.
The reason I am arguing in favour of saving our rivers and restoring their health is because we will need these rivers for our daily requirements of fresh water very soon. With population growing at the present rate getting fresh water will become critical. We need to keep our rivers clean and healthy. Plastics are enemies since they get stuck in the boulders and when the stuff inside the plastics rot they let out methane gases which are very toxic.
The Operation Clean-Up team has been cleaning the upper reaches of the Umkaliar for five phases with the aim of preventing garbage from flowing to the Umkhrah. The KHADC is the rightful owner of these rivers. Hence it is only fitting that the Council take its mandate seriously and finds the resources to (a) prevent further encroachment into rivers (some houses along the Umkdait (Nongmynsong) are built right on top of the river; so too the buildings along the Umkhrah) (b) reclaim the river from those who empty their septic tanks into it (c) pass strong building regulations to stop people from building on rivers and streams. The Councils had better leave politics aside and act out their mandate in letter and spirit. They can do it with the help of environmental groups who are their natural allies and the Dorbar Shnong which should also be mandated to prevent further polluting of our precious rivers. Indeed, we can no longer play politics with our rivers.
The KHADC must be commended for the plastic ban but a better compliance mechanism is required.