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A Hawkbill Turtle in its natural habitat

A mama turtle’s flipper prints leave distinctive tracks Are the Great Sea Turtles on the path to recovery?

“It’s amazing how well you can see with the full moon,”

whispers Heidi Minga, a Marine Biology Graduate and volunteer with the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Hawksbill Turtle Project on Hawaii. “It looks kind of creepy though, as if anything could come jumping out of the water.”

The full moon casts an eerie light on the water and the black sand beach. All four volunteers watch the frothing waves, hopeful that the ever-evasive hawksbill turtle will emerge on the shore. The conversation died down a few hours ago and everyone is starting to doze off. Running on four hours of sleep for the past three nights have taken their toll. The volunteers are equipped with dimmed flashlights but they are only used on hourly beach checks. Any other lights might confuse or scare the female hawksbill turtles that are known to nest here.

Watching the soothing waves in the dark does not make the task of staying awake any easier. “Oh my GOD,” yells volunteer Megan Barker, “Something is crawling up my leg, what is it? Get it off me!!” Heidi turns towards her and shines a flashlight on her leg. “Ugh, hold still,” she says, “it’s another one of those centipedes.” The giant nine inch long centipede is making its way up to her thigh. Heidi flicks it off with the flashlight and stomps on its head. Stepping on the giant arthropod only pushes its hard body into the sand. It swiftly scuttles away into some nearby bushes unharmed. The excitement provides the team with some newfound energy that lasts till 2 a.m. Then the volunteers decide it is time to return to the cots laid out at the other end of the beach.

As if on cue, a hawksbill slowly pushes her 200 hundred pound body up the slope past the high tide line as soon as the last volunteer has left the beach. She makes a depression with her hind flippers under the morning glories that line the upper side of the beach and begins to lay her eggs. Her hind flippers curl up slightly with the effort of pushing the soft spheres out of her body and she is oblivious to her surroundings. As soon as she is finished laying her eggs, she gently pushes sand into the depression with her surprisingly dexterous flippers. After flattening the mound she crawls down the beach and disappears when a huge wave sucks her back into the water. Only a few hours later, Heidi wakes up at 6 a.m. to check the beach. She lets out a groan after sleepily stumbling upon the tracks left by the reptile that has eluded them for almost a week. “We should have stayed up longer,” Heidi says to herself.

Even with some assistance making their first trek from nest to ocean, very few of these tiny hatchlings will live to adulthood

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Hawksbill Turtle Recovery Project was created to ensure the turtles’ survival. Wildlife Research Supervisor, Will Seitz explains that “the project was started in the late 80′s because fishermen were reporting eggs dug up and eaten by mongooses at Kamehame and dead hatchlings were found on the rocks at Apua Point [Both beaches popular with turtles].”

Volunteers arrive in Hawaii from all over the world. Kevin Craine, an Elementary School Science Teacher, arrived in Hawaii hopeful to make a difference. “I wanted to use my summer vacation to help sustain the biodiversity of a fragile ecosystem. It was a great cause and I wanted to do something different.”

With all the threats Hawksbills and many other marine turtles have to face, their future seems bleak. Kevin explains: “One of the more appalling reasons that many turtles are facing extinction is due to poaching. Turtles are still killed for their shell, their meat, and their eggs around the world. Many are also inadvertently killed while crossing a road to nest. Hotel development has destroyed many nesting habitats as well.”

All seven species of marine turtles are listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and six of the seven species of marine turtles are listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on their NOAA Fisheries website provide a list of the endangered species of sea turtles:

Green turtle, Chelonia mydas, Endangered/Threatened

Hawksbill turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata, Endangered

Kemp’s ridley turtle, Lepidochelys kempii, Endangered

Leatherback turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, Endangered

Loggerhead turtle, Caretta caretta, Threatened

Olive ridley turtle, Lepidochelys olivacea, Endangered/Threatened

The flatback turtle, found only in the tropical waters of Northern Australia, is listed as vulnerable.

The Australian Government’s Department of the Environment and Heritage gives an excellent description of Marine Turtles:

A Green Turtle swimming in the tidewaters of Kamehame beach, Hawaii

“Marine turtles have lived in the oceans for over 100 million years. They are an integral part of the traditional culture of many coastal indigenous peoples throughout the world. Marine turtles migrate long distances between their feeding grounds and nesting sites. They have a large shell called a carapace, four strong, paddle-like flippers and like all reptiles, lungs for breathing air. The characteristic beak-like mouth is used to shear or crush food. All marine turtle species are experiencing serious threats to their survival. The main threats are pollution and changes to important turtle habitats, especially coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangrove forests and nesting beaches. Other threats include accidental drowning in fishing gear [when turtles are dragged in the nets for hours], over-harvesting of turtles and eggs, and predation of eggs and hatchlings by foxes, feral pigs, dogs and goannas. [Other predators such as cats and mongoose prey on nests and hatchlings in other regions of the world.]”

Fortunately, new fishing techniques that allow turtles to escape nets unharmed are currently implemented by many shrimp trawlers. These Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) are a grid of bars that allow shrimp to filter through and divert larger animals like turtles and sharks to a hole out of the net. This drastically reduces the number of turtles killed as bycatch.

Many local families that once enjoyed having turtle on the menu are aware of the declining numbers and will no longer harm the animal. However, this does not mean that turtles are safe from humans. In many parts of the world, turtles are still poached illegally by those wanting to make a profit. Enforcement is lax and turtle eggs, meat, and jewelry can be found for sale in local markets. Poaching will continue as long as turtle items are bought.

Little is known about the life cycle of the marine turtle while at sea, especially when the turtles first enter the water as hatchlings. These years are also known as “the lost years” coined by Archie Carr. Adults feed in the ocean until reaching sexual maturity at thirty to fifty years; then they may migrate up to 3000 kilometers, back to their nesting sites.

Increasing use of the “turtle exclusion device” has drastically reduced the number of turtles inadvertantly trapped and killed by shrimp trawlers (Source: Australian Fisheries Management Authority)

Australia’s Department of the Environment and Heritage explains the biology of Marine Turtles: “After reaching sexual maturity, marine turtles breed for several decades, although there may be intervals between breeding of two to seven years. When breeding, nesting females return to the same area, thought to be in the region of their birth. As hatchlings, they become imprinted to the earth’s magnetic field and, possibly, the smell of the waters adjacent to the nesting beach which allow them to successfully complete their migration.”

Courtship and mating take place in shallow waters near the nesting beach. Females often mate with more than one male. After mating, the males return to the feeding grounds.

Between nesting efforts, female turtles gather adjacent to the nesting beaches. They return to the same beach to lay consecutive clutches. A female green turtle usually lays six clutches of eggs at two weekly intervals. When ready to lay eggs, the female turtle crawls out of the sea to above the high water mark, usually about one hour before to about two hours after the night high tide. In preparation for nesting, the female turtle scrapes away loose sand with all four flippers to form a body pit. She then excavates a vertical pear-shaped egg chamber with the hind flippers. Often, the sand is unsuitable for nesting, especially if it is too dry, and the turtle moves on to another site. Incubation time and sex of the hatchlings depend on the temperature of the sand. Warm, dark sand produces mostly females and the eggs hatch in seven to eight weeks. Eggs laid in cool, white sand mostly result in males and the eggs take longer to hatch.

The survival rate of sea turtles is naturally small: A tiny fraction of sea turtles survive into adulthood once they enter the ocean. “I saw seven nests hatch while on the Big Island in Hawaii,” says Kevin with a smile, “with an average of about 120 hatchlings per nest, I saw about 840 tiny hawksbill hatchlings scurry into the water as fast as they could. As volunteers we were also responsible for ensuring that the turtles reached the ocean. We would have to help them in the water if there were coastal rocks hindering them from reaching the water or if predators such as crabs and mongoose where nearby. [It is important however, that the hatchlings remember the nesting beach. Babies are only helped as a last resort and are forced to crawl towards the water from the nest as they would do naturally].”

Not only does it take decades for a turtle to reach maturity and lay her eggs, but barely a fraction of the hatchlings will survive to contribute to the next generation. Hatchlings face a number of threats: Crabs, birds, rats, and other predators pick of the hatchlings as they frantically make their way to the water. The turtles that make it to that far have to find refuge from eels and the thousands of aggressive fish that would love to snack on a baby turtle. Adults must reproduce over the course of many years to ensure the population’s survival. Unfortunately, mortality rates are high, even in adults, with current trends in pollution, fishing nets and disease.

Barely visible, a hatchling emerges from the sand to find the sea. A small fraction of these babies will return, three decades later, to the same beach to lay eggs of their own.

Heidi Minga has a feeling that at least one of the hatchlings she helped to the water survived: “I saw hundreds of baby turtles that wouldn’t have made it without our help. Maybe one of them will survive and that’s all that matters. But I have a good feeling about one specific hatchling. After a nest’s main emergence [when most of the hatchlings dig their way out of the sand in one large group], we are supposed to monitor the nest for any stragglers for the following two nights. Well, nothing happened the first night after a main emergence at Apua beach. The second night, we were exhausted and I had fallen asleep at 2 a.m. At 4 a.m. I felt the sudden urge to get up and check the nest. When I got there, I saw a little head poking out of the sand. The sun was coming up and he would have fried up from the heat if I hadn’t helped him. Turns out he was tangled in some roots. I helped him out and then ran him to the ocean. He’s a fighter and I have a good feeling about that little guy.”

Females return to the shoreline where they first crawled into the water as hatchlings. Unfortunately, in the thirty years it takes for a turtle to mature, the sandy beach they experienced as hatchlings might have undergone dramatic changes. Hotels, lounging beach goers, off-road vehicles, and other changes to the coast make it unsuitable for nesting. Rather than find another beach, females are known to release their eggs in the ocean where they are immediately rendered unviable.

During the nesting season, volunteers patiently wait on a variety of pristine and secluded beaches hopeful that a hawksbill turtle will painstakingly crawl up the sand and lay her eggs. Ideally, the volunteers will be there to take notes, check the turtles’ tags, or tag a new turtle. Some volunteers leave the program after 3 months without seeing a single Hawksbill.

Kevin was one of the lucky few who saw his fair share of nesting females. “I saw six females nest while in the program for four months,” he explains, “we would sit out on the beach from dusk till two in the morning. We would sit there, either on the sand or on chairs provided to us by the program, and watch the surf for signs of a hawksbill mama emerging. At one of the beaches we work at, Kamehame, most of the turtles that climb up are green sea turtles and they are just there to rest. It is one of the most popular beaches and at dusk dozens of green turtles are visible when they come up for air. We were there for the hawksbills, though. We had to be patient and alert. If it happened to be dark without the benefits of the full moon, we would have to rely upon our hearing and sense of smell. The smell of a turtle that has spent her entire life in the ocean is very distinctive.” The hawksbill turtle only comes on shore to nest. This occurs during the summer months. The males generally stay in the ocean and never leave the safety of the water.

Saving turtle hatchlings includes the unpleasant task of capturing and destroying non-native predators such as this Mongoose.

Volunteering for the Hawksbill Project entails some other duties that are in no way glamorous. Non-native mongoose, rats and feral cats are numerous in Hawaii and make an easy meal of baby turtles and turtle eggs. Volunteers trap these animals and euthanize them humanely. “I had to euthanize one kitten and two mongoose on my first day out in the field,” Heidi complains, “it was really hard for me but I knew it helped the ecosystem. These introduced species not only predate on turtles but other native species in Hawaii. We would see paw prints and dug up nests along the beach. I noticed that trapping made a big difference, though. We strategically set up traps at nesting sites. At first there was a mongoose or rat in every trap. Within a few weeks the traps would always wind up empty and tracks would not show up around the nests at all.”

Conservation work is a collaborative effort. Through the help of such organizations as the Hawksbill Turtle Recovery Program, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, WWF (Word Wildlife Fund), the Marine Conservation Society, their volunteers and countless other international groups, marine turtles may eventually make it off the endangered species list. Will Seitz urges those who are interested to apply to the program: “Funding is a challenge,” he says, “We are on soft money year to year. Our program is successful thanks to the dedication of volunteers. If anyone is interested in volunteering with the Hawksbill Project, email HAVO_Turtle_Project@nps.gov or call (808)985-6090 for more information and an application.”

Many organizations rely on volunteers for success. The lucky few who bear witness to the first part of the turtle’s lifecycle leave the program knowing that they have just seen one of nature’s many miracles: seeing a vulnerable egg develop into a hatchling that will start the process all over again in no less than three decades.

“Based on the odds,” Kevin says, “all hatchlings I saved might perish in the ocean before getting a chance to reproduce. On average, only one out of five-thousand babies will survive the 20-30 years to become a reproductive adult. In the end, you don’t really know if your work makes a difference&that’s the hardest part of doing conservation work. You might increase the babies’ chances of making it to the water, but in the end you don’t really know if you’ll actually make an impact. There’s no way of knowing unless you try.”

Since 1991, The Hawksbill Turtle Recovery Project has tagged 67 adult female hawksbills, documented and protected over 580 nests, and assisted over 63,000 hatchlings to the ocean on the island of Hawaii.

TURTLE RECOVERY PROGRAMS (PARTIAL LIST)

Hawksbill Sea Turtle Recovery Project

Hawaii

Caribbean Conservation Corporation and Sea Turtle Survival League

Panama

Anegada Sea Turtle Recovery Project

British Virgin Islands

Hawaii Wildlife Fund

Hawaii

Dept. of Aquatic & Wildlife Resources – Turtle Program

Guam

Barbados Sea Turtle Project

Barbados

National Fish & Wildlife Foundation – Sea Turtle Conservation Projects

Dozens of projects throughout the Americas

It may not be soon enough for everyone, but the greening of America’s automobile population is happening. Hybrid cars are here to stay, and more and more of them include innovations such as expanded battery packs that can be recharged from an at-home wall socket. As battery technology improves at a faster pace than ever, look for 100% electric cars in the not-too-distant future.

Another less noticed but equally significant development is the introduction to the USA of flex-fuel vehicles, which can run on ethanol or gasoline, or mixtures of the two. These cars have been driving around for years in Brazil, where you can get 8,000 barrels of ethanol per year per one square mile of refined sugar cane.

Also quietly making its way into the USA is low sulphur diesel fuel, which at 15 PPM sulphur is pretty much as clean as gasoline. Diesel engines are simple to maintain, diesel fuel is simple to refine, and diesel cars get mileage that often is comparable to hybrids, if not better in some cases.

The cars of tomorrow may take on many innovative designs. It may be that as fuel choices and design choices diversify, no single type of fuel or vehicle will dominate. There isn’t enough of any one fuel to go around, be it gasoline, diesel, biodiesel, or ethanol, and we aren’t sure how we’ll manufacture enough hydrogen, or produce enough electricity, for those choices to become our sole fuel. Given these realities, the emerging diversity of green solutions to how we design and fuel our cars is most encouraging.

Our latest feature story on our website EcoWorld, “India’s Water Future,” describes a proposal currently being debated in India to link their major rivers in order to move vast quantities of water from the water-rich north and east to the arid west and south of that country.

Well it isn’t as if it hasn’t been done before. In Europe rivers are so interlinked you can sail nonstop on a river from the North Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, or the Black Sea, or even to the Caspian Sea. In California pipelines and aquaducts move nearly 50 cubic kilometers of river water per year from the northern and and eastern mountains to cities to the south and west.

Even lifting water isn’t as big a problem as some might think. Heck, if some nations use energy to actually distill fresh water from salt water – either by having to boil it or vaporizing it in an artificial vacuum – then pumping water uphill can’t be that hard. For example, as a rule of thumb, for about 100 megawatt-years you can lift a cubic kilometer of water 250 meters. That’s a lot of water and a pretty good sized hill.

India probably won’t build every canal proposed in their interlinking plan, but one of them, the canal linking the Ken River to the Betwa River, is nearing construction.

It may not be practical to build more than a few of the canals being proposed in India, and any mega-solutions of this type should come alongside revitalization of of traditional water conservation means; constructing contour berms to percolate water to refill aquifers, rebuilding cisterns and tanks and otherwise harvesting runoff, and reforesting hillsides and restoring topsoil to increase absorption of rainfall.

Everywhere where irrigation has been brought, per capita income dramatically improves. Water, wealth, contentment, health. Read” Arctic to Aral – Siberian Rivers Save the Aral Sea.”

Fuel cell vehicles are not ready for prime time, and this isn’t because of a conspiracy on the part of the auto-makers. If any car threatens the status-quo, it’s a battery powered commuter vehicle, or a serial-hybrid using an onboard high-efficiency constant RPM clean diesel to power a generator to charge a battery that powers an electric motor. That sort of car is cheap to build and extremely fuel efficient; far more fuel efficient than hybrid cars, for example. Read “The 100% Electric Car”

Fuel cell cars require fuel cells, which still cost $4,000 per kilowatt output. Given a kilowatt is only 1.3 horsepower, a fuel cell powered engine costs a bit. And fuel cells use very expensive materials, such as platinum catalysts, which mean their cost can never drop as low as it needs to get. An electric motor costs maybe $100 per kilowatt! Good nickel metal hydride battery packs packing 200 watt-hours per kilogram can outfit a car to go 200 miles without recharging for under $10,000. And what about durability and longevity? Fuel cells, especially the proton exchange membrane fuel cells viable for automobiles, are finicky fillies. The plates crack, the membranes rupture, the catalyst degrades. The reason fuel cell cars aren’t on the road is because fuel cells are still problematic prototypes and overcoming the technical challenges to build cheap reliable fuel cells is a long way off. Making auto manufacturers divert R&D expenses to fuel cells makes the cynics gloat – it’s exactly the recipe for us to be driving gas guzzlers for another generation.

Don’t forget hydrogen isn’t a fuel per se. It requires electricity, or fossil fuel, or biomass, for its production. Hydrogen won’t solve our energy shortages one bit, it will only, depending on how it is made, possibly result in cleaner energy usage. And storing hydrogen is very, very difficult. It’s the lightest element known, existing as a gas when in its natural state. A kilogram of hydrogen in gaseous form takes up several cubic meters of area. For example, in order to compress four kilograms of hydrogen into a practical volume, containing as much energy as about four gallons of gasoline, you would need an 800 pound tank, 24″ in diameter and 28″ long, storing the hydrogen at a pressure of 5,000 pounds per square inch (PSI). This is compared to 300 PSI to store natural gas. The energy required to compress hydrogen, and the precision fittings and expensive containment tanks, make hydrogen storage a challenge as daunting as achieving cheap, durable fuel cells.

So don’t hold your breath for hydrogen fuel cell powered cars. Instead demand clean burning ultra fuel efficient diesel cars, and battery powered cars, and serial-hybrid cars, and “strong” hybrids, and plug-in hybrids, and strong/plug-in hybrids. and flex-fuel vehicles. Where are the American automakers?

India’s magificant Himalayan mountains Water flows in abundance from the rooftop of the world Photo: Michel Dalle

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam President of India

The transfer of large volumes of freshwater from surplus areas to deficit areas is currently endorsed by the scientist-President of India as well as local leaders in the less water endowed areas – as the panacea for addressing the twin problems of drought and floods in India.

This most ambitious, much talked about Interlinking of Rivers (ILR) project, estimated to cost approximately $112 billion USD (in 2002 price level), has attracted more debate than consensus in India. The ILR proposal which is backed by the three branches of the Indian political system – legislature, executive and judiciary, has been dismissed by civil society organizations as well as the traditional water managers. The recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a river link between most populous neighboring provinces – Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh – is evidence that the mammoth ILR project is being pursued but in a decentralised manner. Since its inception, the rationale of the ILR project has been under severe scrutiny not only in India but also in South Asia due to its magnitude. Does India need a project of such magnitude to address its water management challenges? Is there any alternative to this grandiose intention in India?

Grand water schemes are not new in the world. There are number of instances on this planet where human interventions using modern technology have redrawn otherwise natural river courses to address a water crisis. The gigantic South-to-North water diversion project underway in China, large scale water diversions away from the Aral Sea in former Soviet Union, the Irtysh-Karaganda canal project in Kazakhstan, Israel’s National Water Carrier, the South-Eastern Anatolia Project in Turkey (also known as GAP), Spain’s National Hydrological Plan (now suspended) are the few examples of bold forays of water resources engineering.

In similar fashion the Indian government has developed a proposal to tackle its peculiar climatic contradiction of drought and flood situations by proposing large scale interbasin water transfers and linking of rivers. The proposal has been presented as a major initiative, and as the definitive answer to India’s future problems and needs.

The Rationale of Interlinking Rivers

RIVER BASINS OF INDIA

In general, India has water abundance in the north and east, and water scarcity in the west and south.

The availability of water resources in various river basins of the country is highly uneven. While 32% of the total water resources are still available in the Brahmaputra basin, and 28% of the total water resources in the Ganga basin, this availability is merely 0.2% in the Sabarmati basin. The water scarcity in river basins is growing fast with increase in population. Based on this criteria and availability of water in different river basins, some basins have already have scarce water resources and many more basins are likely to have water scarcity with the growing population by year 2025.

Out of 12 major and 48 medium river basins in India, the government predicts that by 2025 the deficit river basins will be Ganga, Subernarekha, Krishna, Mahi, Tapi, Cauvery, Pennar and Sabarmati. The surplus basins would be Brhamaputra, Barak, Narmada, Brahmani-Baitarani, Mahanadi, Godavari and Indus. Considering the precautionary approach to face the challenge of water scarcity in several river basins in 2025, the government has taken the interlinking of rivers as its definitive answer.

India receives an annual precipitation of 4,000 billion cubic meter (BCM, equivalent to 4,000 cubic kilometers) of which 75% occurs just in the four months of the monsoon period. From the annual precipitation, 1,869 BCM of water appears as runoff in various river basins. The utilizable water resource has been assessed as 1,132 BCM. Rainfall in India is erratic and uneven that ranges from 11,000 millimeter annually in some parts of North Eastern India to 100 millimeter in Western India. To address this climatic disparity and find ways for augmentation of utilizable water, interlinking of rivers has been put forward by Indian government. The ILR proposal also promises to enhance the production of food grains up to 380 million tonnes to help meet ever increasing population demand by 2025. The ILR is projected to provide 35 million hectares of additional potential arable land and 34,000 megawatt of electricity.

The idea of linking rivers for various purposes in the sub-continent is not new. Sir Arthur Cotton conceived a plan to link rivers in Southern India for inland navigation in the nineteenth century. While the project was partially implemented, the river-linking canals could not survive in the face of rapid development of railways. The idea of a Ganga-Cauvery Link was proposed by Dr. K.L. Rao, former Union Minister for Irrigation, in 1972. The link involved a lift of water 450 meters from the flood flows of the Ganga, withdrawing 60,000 cusecs (60,000 cubic feet per second) of water for 150 days in a year including a 2,640 kilometer long link canal. The plan was discarded as it involved an high cost ($2.7 billion) and required a large energy consumption to operate its pumps. Subsequently, Capt. Dinshaw J. Dastur, an aviator, advanced a proposal for the “Garland Canal” system that consisted of two canals: (1) the Himalayan Canal and (2) the Central and Southern Garland Canal. The government agency indicated that the project was impracticable, technically unsound, and economically prohibitive.

Two Components: Himalayan Rivers and Penninsular Rivers

In view of the K L Rao’s proposal, the Indian Ministry of Water Resources in 1980 framed a National Perspective Plan (NPP) for Water Development and the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) was established in 1982, to carry out studies in the context of the National Perspective. The NPP has two components: a) Himalayan Rivers and b) Peninsular Rivers. NPP has proposed 30 river links involving 37 rivers. As the proposal includes the Himalayan Rivers, which are transboundary in nature, the other South Asian riparian countries have conveyed apprehensions to India.

PROPOSED HIMALAYAN INTERLINKING RIVERS

Proposed canals interlinking Himalayan Rivers include a lengthy canal (6) bringing water to the arid northwest and all the way to the west coast, as well as many canals moving water from east to west and then to canals connecting all the way to the southern peninsula. (Scale: 1 pixel = 6 kilometers)

The Himalayan Rivers development component ensures construction of storage reservoirs on the principal tributaries of Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers in India, Nepal and Bhutan along with interlinking of river systems to transfer surplus flows of the eastern tributaries of the river Ganga to the west, apart from linking of the main Brahmaputra and its tributaries with Ganga and Ganga with the river Mahanadi.

The Himalayan Rivers component carries 14 links, of which 12 interdependent links and 2 independent links. The links in Himalayan segment consists of some within the Ganga system (Kosi-Ghagra (Karnali), Gandak-Ganga, Ghagra-Yamuna, Sarda-Yamuna, some links between neighbouring rivers in the Brahmaputra system (Manas-Sankosh-Teesta); a couple of links between those two systems (Teesta-Ganga or an alternative Brahmaputra-Ganga link); one long link from Sarda to Sabarmati through the Yamuna and Rajasthan; one from the Ganga to Subernarekha via Damodar and then on to the Mahanadi.

The average flood discharge of Ganga is 50,000 cubic meter per second and for the Brahmaputra the average flood discharge is 60,000 cubic meter per second. Through these links the amount of water to be diverted are 1,500 cusec in Brahamaputra and 1,000 cusecs in Ganga. However, the National Commission for Integrated Water Resource Development Plan in its September 1999 report did not discuss the proposed Himalayan links in detail because the data are classified as confidential, but did observe that the costs involved and the environmental problems would be enormous. The Himalayan links are not to be touched now as there are international dimensions including Nepal and Bangladesh concerns.

PROPOSED PENINSULAR INTERLINKING RIVERS

Canals in southern India are being discussed as possibilities in the more immediate future. A canal (10) from the Ken river to the Betwa is actually nearing construction, and may be a test for the viability of interlinking. (Scale: 1 pixel = 6 kilometers)

The Peninsular rivers development component is divided into four major parts: a) interlinking of Mahanadi-Godavari-Krishna-Cauvery Rivers basins; b) interlinking of west flowing rivers, north of Bombay and south of Tapi; c) interlinking of Ken-Chambal and d) diversion of other west flowing rivers. There are 16 links are proposed by the National Water Development Agency (NWDA), out of which 9 interdependent and 7 independent links are being proposed. Among the 16 links Ken-Betwa links has moved a step ahead.

In the proposal of NPP, the transfer of water has been proposed mostly by gravity; building of dams and storage, construction of canals and pumping of water where necessary (confined to around 120 meter). Pumping water over the Vindhya Mountains can transfer the Ganga-Brahmaputra water and its tributaries to regions in the south. The Ganga-Brahmaputra floodplains are about ten meters above mean sea level (MSL). The Vindhya Mountains are about 300 meters above MSL, separating the floodplains of the north from the Deccan Plateau, which is 250 meters above MSL.

The expected links where pumping would be necessary is Ganga-Subarnrekha (60 meters), Subarnarekha-Mahanadi (48 meters) and Godavari-Krishna (112 meters). The expected lift would be 1,200 cusecs water over 116 meter from Mahanadi to the Krishna basin. Some believe that the electric power required to pump water to such heights will be close to the current power generation of the entire nation, but as the table below indicates, this may not be at all the case. The Interlinking Rivers proposal carries the structure and design of the canals with 1:3,000 to 1:5,000 slope or 0.33 to 0.20 meter per kilometer. Expected maximum flow velocity of water transfer is 2 meters per second.

HOW MUCH ELECTRICITY WOULD BE REQUIRED TO PUMP WATER FROM THE GANGES TO THE KRISHNA BASIN?

As the table indicates, it would take 3.8 gigawatts of electricity (representing about 2.7% of India’s estimated 2005 electrical generating capacity of about 140 gigawatts), running constantly, to pump water 250 meters uphill at a volume of 38 cubic kilometers per year. Put another way, a 250 meter lift will require about 100 megawatt-years for each cubic kilometer pumped.

The Initiative’s Recent Momentum

The ILR proposal has backed by the three organs of the Indian political system – executive, legislature and judiciary in a strange manner. For the last two decades, the National Water Development Agency (NWDA)” had been working on the subject but its proposals were non-starters for various reasons. Some believe that the “non-project” has suddenly become the most important undertaking of the Indian government. However, can argue that during 2001 and early 2002, the ground situation of severe drought and floods in several states had compelled the government to re-open the ILR project proposal. The events occurred in a cascading manner to put forward the ambitious project, hitherto a dormant idea. The President’s national address on August 14, 2002, the file of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to clean up Yamuna River in Delhi in late August, and a hearing on the Cauvery dispute by India’s Supreme Court on October 31, 2002 led the union government to issue a statement in Parliament in December for interlinking of rivers. The Prime Minister subsequently announced the setting up of a Task Force on ILR to consider the modalities of implementing the project.

Constraints and Concerns

An opinion poll conducted by the news weekly India Today prior to the 14th General Elections 2004, showed that 78 per cent of voters spread over 185 Parliamentary constituencies supported the project. Does that mean there is a consensus on ILR? The very idea of inter-linking of rivers as a flood control measure is being discarded by hydrologists. Moreover, The ILR is no answer at all to the needs of areas unserved by rivers. For drought mitigation there are enough alternatives available such as traditional rainwater harvesting, moisture conservation, tank-rehabilitation etc. The water experts believe that the primary answer to drought has to be local; it is only thereafter, and in some very unpromising places where no other options are feasible, that the bringing in of some external water may need to be considered.

Some argued that the interlinking project has the potential for generating conflicts within the state, among the state and among countries in the cooperative management of the project in international river basins. Major river basins in India are ridden with conflicts over sharing of water resources. Provinces are hesitant to divert surplus water even they show it as deficit. In NWDA’s own admission that the major constraints for implementation of the ILR will be international dimension in several links including construction of dams in upstream Nepal and Bhutan. At the other end, Bangladesh, the lower riparian country has officially conveyed its apprehension about the Indian ILR project.

The unilateral nature of the Himalayan component of the proposed ILR project is the most worrisome aspect for the downstream riparian Bangladesh and upper-stream riparian Nepal, who are afraid of the environmental damages resulting from large-scale inter-basin transfer of water in the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna region. Other problems are submergence of large tracts of forests and large numbers of displacements. One conservative estimate says that the ILR will submerge 1,675,000 hectares of forests and agriculture land including 1,050,000 ha for reservoirs. The ILR includes 60 new reservoirs. While one government calculation predicts of 0.45 million people would be displaced, others estimate the figure would be 3.47 million.

India’s most ambitious project is being carried out with utmost caution. The public mood is not evenly divided as the information on ILR is very limited and is not under the layman’s purview. The polarization between the pro-ILR and anti-ILR has been widening to further make it difficult for the government to complete it within a stipulated time frame given by the apex court of India. Given the peculiar and intricate federal structure of India with water coming under provincial government’s power, it is difficult to garner consensus on the viability of the project. Similarly, to get Union environmental clearance may pose a hurdle to the ILR. To redesign a natural river course is undoubtedly within the control of a scientific human. But its cascading impact is far reaching, in some aspects possibly uncontrollable.

The Ken-Betwa Link: The First Test Step of the ILR

A small step towards gigantic ILR project is the signing of Ken-Betwa link. Viewed from a political perspective, the Ken-Betwa link project offers a low-risk experiment for the controversial ILR proposal. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 231.45 kilometer long Ken-Betwa link canal was signed between the two adjacent provinces-Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh on August 25, 2005 in the presence of the Prime Minister of India. This project will divert 1,020 million cubic meters of surplus waters from the Ken river basin to the water deficit Betwa basin through construction of the Dandhan dam on the Ken River including five reservoirs under this proposal. However, the tripartite MoU will further address the concerns of UP in its detail project report (DPR). There is as yet no agreement on the actual sharing of water or costs, nor on the more serious issues of relocation and resettlement. But other issue needs attention is the fact that 8,650 hectares, including 6,400 hectares of forest area, will be submerged, and about 8,550 people in 10 villages will be displaced by the project. Uttar Pradesh has expressed its fears about the possible loss of water and power and sought compensation from Madhya Pradesh. This link wiil be a litmus test for the whole ILR project to go ahead.

About the Author: Avilash Roul has been writing, advocating, researching, creating knowledge on Environment and Development in various English Daily media since 2000. He worked with Down To Earth (fortnightly magazine published in New Delhi, India) for the last three years. He also contributed regularly in Sundays for a column in New India Express on environment and development. Right now Mr. Roul is working as an Assistant Coordinator for the Bank Information Center (www.bicusa.org), an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization that advocates for the protection of rights, participation, transparency, and public accountability in the governance and operations of the World Bank, regional development banks, and IMF.

HOW EFFICIENTLY DO NATIONS CONVERT ENERGY & WATER INTO WEALTH?

Key Variables about the Most Populous & the Wealthiest Nations

For many years we’ve been inspired by the message from the Mahant at the Sankat Mochan Temple in Varanasi, the holy Hindu city on the banks of the Ganges river. As we reported in the article Clean the Ganges, the Mahant at this temple, Veer Bhadra Mishra, has been working for nearly 25 years to clean the river of pollution.

His foundation, the Sankat Mochan Foundation, has promoted innovative ways to rid the Ganges of pollution, including decantation ponds where algae is used to remove impurities. For years, religion and science have joined forces to work towards cleaning the Ganges, and to environmentalist observers, that has been an inspiring message from Varanasi. Until now.

Last week terrorists detonated two bombs in Varanasi, a first for this peaceful place. Now the news from Varanasi is about security, instead of cleaning the sacred river. Hopefully this will be the first and last time such violence strikes at the heart of Hinduism and in a place where such a positive message is being spread.

India is the world’s largest democracy. It is also a nation with many challenges as it industrializes with breathtaking speed. Hopefully the heritage of India; the magnificant Taj Mahal that was built not as a monument to conquest but as a testament to love, and the legacy of Mahatma Ghandi who stopped the British Empire with nonviolent protest; hopefully these shared heritages will overwhelm the urges towards conflict and disunity. And hopefully the Sankat Mochan Temple, and the message of their visionary Mahant, who is harnessing the values of religion to convince people they must purify the sacred Ganges River of pollution, will be added to the rich heritage of Indian culture.

Did you know that biofuel has two distinct types? There’s ethanol from crops such as corn or sugar cane, and there’s biodiesel from crops such as rapeseed and jatropha and oil palms. Some plants, like corn, can be processed for ethanol and biodiesel at the same time.

There is an excellent source of information about biofuel called Journey to Forever, and one of the publishers, Keith Addison, provided the following information:

“Ethanol is not derived from corn oil or any oil, it’s derived from carbohydrates – starch or sugar – or from cellulose, but not from oil. Nor can biodiesel be produced from sugar or starch, only from
triglycerides – vegetable or animal fats and oils.

Ethanol and biodiesel are indeed both biofuels but they are totally different products produced from different feedstocks by different processes and by different interests for different applications, biodiesel for diesel motors only, and ethanol for spark-ignition (gasoline) motors. Few if any refineries produce both biodiesel and fuel ethanol. There is little or no relationship between the two industries in the US.”

Isn’t that amazing? In the EcoWorld story “Biodiesel, Alternative Fuel That’s Already Here,” there is a chart that shows biodiesel yields per square mile in barrel of oil equivalents. We’ll have to develop a similar chart for Ethanol crops…

Wherever, whenever, the price comes down a little more, photovoltaics will solve every energy shortage there ever was forever. Photovoltaics already can produce twenty times the energy in their lifetimes than the energy it takes to make them, and photovoltaic manufacturers have been selling out their product as fast as they can make them for decades. The worldwide output of installed photovoltaics are perhaps 10 gigawatts in 2006, if that. But if the price comes down a little more, manufacturing growth could be exponential. Photovoltaics are the wild card. One breakthrough or a few more incremental steps could make photovoltaics humanity’s energy panacea.

In South Africa, claims of a solar breakthrough. Will this be the one? Or the next? Is photovoltaic technology going to replace oil?

The biggest fiscal challenge in America’s public sector today, most requiring of a centrist solution, confronted first in California, is that the main cause of budget deficits are the ever-rising costs for government employee benefits. There are tens of millions of government employees in the USA, millions just in California.

Don’t think how California may or may not handle this challenge doesn’t matter. More than anywhere else in the world, California creates technology which creates productivity creating wealth. Our leaps in technology are only beginning to be translated into more per capita wealth. We are ready to spend poverty into the ground and we just don’t know it, and California leads the way.

Most Democrats and Republicans alike in California and elsewhere in the USA are guilty of fiscal and moral neglect because they won’t confront the financial insustainability and fundamental inequity of raising taxes to maintain government employee benefits while simultaneously curtailing government benefits for the rest of us, such as social security. Trillions of dollars and the structure of our society are at stake.

Big ideas from the center can solve this fiscal challenge of the future. For example, we can provide more security for all American workers through merging all public employee pension funds with the social security fund as well as with all government disability funds and unemployment compensation funds. If you’re a citizen and you’re not working you get it, whether you’re retired, disabled, or unemployed. Citizens either work or don’t work. If they don’t work, they get social security, which would complement and compete with supplemental 401K and IRA-type funds and the like in the private sector.

Big idea Democrats (or fiscally conservative Republicans) might also merge health benefits for government employees with merged medicare, medicaid, and workmans compensation funds, extending this universal health-care fund to all age groups and allowing holders to keep individual accounts which would also complement and compete with supplemental funds available from the private sector.

When it comes to taxpayer-funded disability, unemployment, healthcare and retirement benefits, all American workers should get the same deal, and doing this would improve America’s economic health. That is a big idea. And we can afford it.

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Cygnus atratus

Countries who have done this, countries whose governments have adopted policies that reflect mixed-capitalism and who perhaps are in the political center, such as Germany, France and many others, have had stronger currencies, healthier trade balances, and less government debt. What’s so bad about that? Their products often demolish ours in global sales, because their manufacturers don’t have to worry about providing health care, pensions, workman’s comp., or any of that. These programs are all offered at a federal level to all citizens equally. Why not let every citizen have health and retirement security if it makes it easier for us to create jobs and eliminate the trade deficit?

This is the centrist, healing and revitalizing vision that Democrats and unions, Republicans and corporations alike should see; the huge economic benefit we all get along with the price of reform. If you are a member of a public union it is hard to imagine you will immediately feel good when you will see that while a merged system would be solvent and available for everyone, your own pension benefits might be reduced somewhat.

With California Governor Schwarzenegger’s failed but highly-visible attempts at reform, and subsequent fiscal exposes written both by legislative analysts and investigative reporters, California has become the first state in the USA to confront the challenge of how to reconcile increasing taxes in order to increase pay and benefits for public workers while at the same time benefits such as social security for private workers are being reduced. And the inevitable leap to reform across America that ensues will be California’s latest contribution to the culture of this land.