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PRESS
RELEASE OF 29th SEPTEMBER 1996
Every
year, Indians pay Rs 34,000 crore
due to the effects of massive
environmental degradation, which
will eventually threaten our
future generations and is already
affecting the health of the
present generation. Water and air
pollution immediately impose a
heavy health cost, which is Rs
24,500 crore every year. Of this,
health costs due to water
pollution alone is Rs 19,950
crore each year. However, even
this is definitely a very
conservative figure
Cities are choking
with industrial and vehicular
pollution. Some 40,000 people die
in six Indian cities every year
as a result of air pollution;
Delhi accounts for 7,500 of
these. Clean drinking water is in
most cases still a dream;
premature deaths and debilitating
diseases are common; land
degradation is widespread,
impacting on agricultural output;
forest cover is getting depleted;
international tourists are
staying away, causing revenue
loss....The price we pay for
premature deaths and mass illness
-- based on a study by two World
Bank staffers, Carter Brandon and
Kirsten Hommann -- is estimated
to be around Rs 4,585 crore
annually. We pay this price for
hurtling down the path of
unsustainable development based
on lopsided developmental
priorities. And this cost is
being borne as much by the poor
as by the middle class, says a
report published in Down To
Earth.
Whereas the former
Union finance minister, Dr
Manmohan Singh, had earned
plaudits claiming that India had
achieved an economic growth rate
of four per cent in 1995, the
figure for annual economic losses
(Rs 34,000 crore) is about 4.5
per cent of the gross domestic
product. This means that the
entire economic growth for the
year was wiped out, and
development had taken place
solely at the expense of the
environment.
The Down To Earth
analysis of the Brandon and
Hommann study, written by Anil
Agarwal, Director, Centre for
Science and Environment, however,
shows that economic losses due to
environmental degradation have
been grossly underestimated,
sometimes due to lack of adequate
data, or due to ignoring some
issues completely. Despite that,
the picture of losses is
extremely distressing. Had the
total picture been available, it
would be unthinkable.
Killing figures
For instance, in
computing economic loss due to
water pollution, the study does
not take into consideration the
increase in the cost of supplying
water due to growing pollution.
The price of supplying one cubic
metre of clean drinking water in
Bangalore in the current water
supply scheme is Rs 3.50.,
whereas in the next scheme
it will double to over Rs 7.00.
Similarly, in Hyderabad the cost
will zoom from Rs 7.00 in the
current scheme to over Rs 18.00
in the next scheme.
Figures related to
water supply and sanitation are
based on government data, which
claims that 73 per cent of
Indians have access to safe
drinking water, and 14 per cent
to sanitation. But this could be
a gross distortion of the real
picture. Water purification in
India deals mainly with organic
pollution, but not with the toxic
industrial effluents. The real
costs could be far higher than
what Brandon and Hommann have
shown, because the study did not
even take into account the cost
imposed by cancer because of the
lack of data.
Six Indian cities,
Ahmedabad, Bombay, Calcutta,
Delhi, Kanpur and Nagpur, have an
annual average of total suspended
particulates (tsp) at least three
times as high as the World Health
Organization (who) standards,
which means they suffer from
severe air pollution. tsp and pm
10 (particles less than 10
microns in diametre, which can
penetrate more easily and are,
therefore, more relevant than
total particulate matter for
human health) have been
associated with both premature
deaths (resulting from
respiratory illness and
cardiovascular diseases) and
increased morbidity (high
incidence of chronic obstructive
lung diseases).
However, even in
the case of accounting for health
costs due to air pollution, there
are lacunae in data. There is a
clear lack of regular monitoring
of ambient air quality in Indian
cities, and the estimates of the
extent of pollutants in the air
may be far more. For instance
ozone, a dangerous air pollutant,
is not even measured in Indian
cities. (Even from what data we
have, carbon monoxide emissions
in many cities are often 50 times
higher than who standards.)
Besides, the authors of the study
admit that their figures could be
conservative, because they have
used Western standards on the
impact of a certain level
of pollution
on individuals, but health and
nutritional standards of Indians
being far poorer, this
dose-response analysis could be
on the low side.
The study also
reveals that per capita air
pollution costs are often higher
for smaller cities like Agra.
Besides, in every Indian city the
conditions are worsening due to
the fast burgeoning vehicular
population. Clearly, here too,
the b&h study reveals only
the tip of the iceberg.
Hidden costs
Four to 6.3 per
cent of the total annual
agricultural output of India is
lost due to land degradation,
which in money terms works out to
between Rs 5,250 crore and Rs
8,480 crore each year. "This
stresses the need for immediate
investment in soil conservation
and land regeneration,"
Agarwal emphasises in his
analysis.
Deforestation has
also cost us dearly. There are
many methodological problems in
calculating the cost of
deforestation, but Agarwal says
the cost of annual regeneration
of forests arrived at by the
b&h study is low, at Rs 641
crore to Rs 854 crore.
The study also
argues that since the inflow of
international tourists is heavily
dependent on the latter's trust
in the air and water quality of a
tourist destination, India's
devastated environment is
demotivating many of them from
visiting this country.
Considering an estimated 10 to 20
per cent annual reduction in
foreign tourist inflow, the
revenue loss from this sector is
estimated at the rate of Rs 491
crore and Rs 997 every year.
There are many
other important areas which have
not been touched upon at all in
the Brandon and Hommann report.
For instance, deforestation
affects hydrological cycles and
fodder availability, resulting in
greater fluctuations in rainfall,
leading to more intense floods
and droughts. Destruction of
wetlands in the Gangetic basin is
a principle cause for increased
floods. But this subject has not
been tackled at all.
The most fearsome
problem is water pollution, and,
as the Down To Earth analysis
puts it, "this means (that)
massive health problems like
cancer and reproductive and
endocrinal disorders in the
future will creep upon this
country slowly and exercise a
growing impact on future
generations". Today, the
poor may be suffering these costs
more disproportionately, but it
is being borne equally by the
middle class, "which is the
crassest in the world, which
equates life with only worldly
goods.... It is this class which
must now wake up, confront the
reality it is responsible for and
do all it can to change it",
Agarwal concludes. 
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