Down To Earth (01-15 September, 2024)

Understanding Water Availability

• Global Water Distribution: 97.5% of Earth’s water is saltwater; Most freshwater is in ice caps or underground;
• Only 0.26% is in rivers, lakes, and ponds.

Current Water Crisis

• According to the United Nations, nearly 2.2 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water services.
• It is not just about the availability of water but also about its quality and distribution.
• In many regions, water sources are contaminated, leading to health issues and reduced quality of life.

Causes of Water Scarcity

• Climate Change: Increasing temperatures and changing precipitation patterns are reducing the availability of fresh water in many regions.
• Population Growth: As the global population grows, the demand for water increases, putting additional pressure on already stressed water resources.
• Agricultural Practices: Agriculture accounts for about 70% of global freshwater use. Inefficient irrigation practices lead to significant water wastage.
• Industrial Use: Industries consume large amounts of water, often leading to pollution and depletion of local water sources.
• Urbanisation: Rapid urbanisation increases water demand and leads to the over-extraction of groundwater.

Recent Findings

• Groundwater Depletion in India; Lack of prioritisation and guidelines; Issues with Water Management; Policy and Infrastructure Gaps; No segregation of water; No policy for industrial usage; Wastage in various fields; and Smart cities lack basic water infrastructure.

Importance of Water Conservation

• Sustainability: Conserving water ensures that future generations have access to this vital resource.
• Economic Benefits: Efficient water use can reduce costs for households, businesses, and governments.
• Environmental Protection: Reducing water consumption helps protect ecosystems and biodiversity.
• Health and Sanitation: Access to clean water is essential for maintaining public health and hygiene.

About the Single Use Plastics

• Plastic's invention in 1907 led to its widespread use due to affordability, durability, and aesthetic appeal.
• Major single-use plastic applications include food and beverages (31%), bottle and container caps (16%), plastic bags (11%), and straws, stirrers, beverage bottles, and containers (7%).
• These are those that are discarded after one-time use. However, the non-degradable nature of these materials has led to significant environmental challenges.
• India, a country with a population of over 1.4 billion, has chosen to regulate, rather than outright ban, single-use plastic.
• In recent months, some states have placed new restrictions on these items.
• Nagaland banned all single-use plastic bags and small plastic bottles from August 2024. Later on, Meghalaya's High Court prohibited the use of plastic bags in temples and shops in the state.
• Earlier in April 2024, the Odisha banned single-use plastics in parks, sanctuaries and reserves in the state.

Challenges Associated with Single-Use Plastics

• Enforcement and Compliance: While many governments have implemented regulations to restrict the use of single-use plastics, ensuring compliance can be challenging.
• Waste Management: India lacks an organised system for the management of plastic waste, leading to widespread littering across its towns and cities.
• Many plastic items end up in landfills or as litter in the streets, rivers, and other public spaces, posing severe threats to the environment and wildlife.
• Health Risks: Single-use plastics pose environmental, social, economic, and health risks to people by contributing to the climate crisis, ecosystem degradation, and resource use.
• Microplastics, non-biodegradability, and their carbon footprint compound these issues.

India’s Efforts Related to Single-Use Plastics

• Regulatory Measures: In 2022, India implemented the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules (2021) that banned 19 categories of ‘single-use plastics’.
• These include items such as plastic cups, spoons, earbuds, decorative thermocol, wrapping or packaging film used to cover sweet boxes and cigarette packets, and plastic cutlery.
• However, it does not include plastic bottles – even those less than 200ml— and multilayered packaging boxes (like in milk cartons).
• Despite the ban, enforcement has been inconsistent, with several outlets continuing to retail these goods.
• The current ban only addresses about 11% of single-use plastic in India.
• International Commitments: India is a party to the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA).
• In all, 124 nations are part of the UNEA, and India has signed a resolution to draw up an agreement in the future that will make it legally binding for signatories to address the full life cycle of plastics, from production to disposal.
• Public Awareness and Participation: The Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) to manage 100% of solid waste scientifically.
• It is being implemented with resolve, and progress is monitored, measured and results placed in the public domain.
• SBM 2.0 also emphasises the need for plastic management – working towards minimising single-use plastic and operationalising recycling and reuse through processing.
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): EPR policies, which hold producers responsible for the disposal of their products, are often part of regulatory approaches.
• These policies can incentivize producers to design products that are easier to recycle or dispose of.

Road Ahead

• The upcoming U.N. meet will involve discussions on ‘problematic and avoidable plastic products including single-use plastics’, which refer to sections of plastics that are likely to harm the environment as well as human health.
• The aim is to implement global and national measures such as removing these products from the market, reducing production through alternate practices or non-plastic substitutes, and redesigning problematic items to meet criteria for sustainable and safe product design.
• India has called a ‘zero draft’, that vouches for ‘regulating’ instead of ‘not allowing’, the production, sale, import, and export of problematic and avoidable plastic goods.
• It has, however, agreed to a ‘sciencebased criteria’ for identifying such plastics.

About Cancer

• In our body, cell growth and differentiation is highly controlled and regulated. In cancer cells, there is breakdown of these regulatory mechanisms.
• Normal cells show a property called contact inhibition by virtue of which contact with other cells inhibits their uncontrolled growth.
• Cancer cells appear to have lost this property. As a result of this, cancerous cells just continue to divide giving rise to masses of cells called tumours.

Tumours

• These are of two types: benign and malignant.
• Benign tumours normally remain confined to their original location and do not spread to other parts of the body and cause little damage.
• The malignant tumours are a mass of proliferating cells called neoplastic or tumour cells, which grow very rapidly, invading and damaging the surrounding normal tissues. Metastasis is the most feared property of malignant tumours.

Causes

• Transformation of normal cells into cancerous neoplastic cells may be induced by physical, chemical or biological agents, called carcinogens.
• Ionising radiations like X-rays and Gamma rays and non-ionizing radiations like UV cause DNA damage leading to neoplastic transformation.
• The chemical carcinogens present in tobacco smoke have been identified as a major cause of lung cancer.

Risk Factors

• Environmental and socioeconomic factors, such as high levels of pollution and lifestyle choices, play a significant role.
• Tobacco use is a major cause, accounting for nearly 40% of cancer cases in the country.
• Poor diet, lack of physical activity, and increasing obesity rates also contribute to the rising cancer burden.

• As per the ‘Global Tuberculosis Report 2023’ of WHO, India accounts for 27% of the world’s TB cases .
• Pulmonary TB (or TB of the lungs) is the most common and contagious form of the disease. The other forms of TB result from the spread of the infection from lungs to other organs.

Prevalence and Statistics

• According to recent data, the country reported approximately 1.39 million new cancer cases in 2020, a number expected to rise to approx 1.57 million by 2025.
• The most common cancers among women are breast, cervix, and ovarian cancers, while lung, mouth, and prostate cancers are prevalent among men.

Detection and Diagnosis

• Early detection of cancers is essential, which is based on biopsy and histopathological studies of the tissue and blood and bone marrow tests for increased cell counts in the case of Leukemias.
• Techniques like radiography (use of X-rays), CT (computed tomography) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging).

Treatment

• The common approaches for treatment of cancer are surgery, radiation therapy and immunotherapy.
• Most cancers are treated by combination of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy

Government Initiatives and Efforts

• Programs like the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Stroke (NPCDCS) aim to reduce the burden of cancer through early detection and awareness campaigns.
• The government has a National Strategic Plan to End Tuberculosis in India by 2025—five years ahead of the deadline set by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
• Additionally, efforts are being made to improve healthcare infrastructure and make cancer treatment more accessible and affordable.

About the PM-KUSUM Yojana

• The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) aims to promote the use of solar energy in the agricultural sector, and to provide farmers with reliable and sustainable energy sources, reduce their dependence on diesel and grid electricity, and enhance their income through the sale of surplus solar power.
• It is being implemented in collaboration with state governments and various stakeholders. It provides financial assistance and subsidies to farmers for the installation of solar pumps and plants.

Objectives of PM-KUSUM

• Energy Security for Farmers: By installing solar pumps and grid-connected solar power plants, PM-KUSUM ensures that farmers have access to a consistent and affordable energy supply for irrigation.
• Environmental Benefits: The scheme promotes the use of clean energy, thereby reducing carbon emissions and contributing to India’s climate goals.
• Economic Upliftment: Farmers can generate additional income by selling surplus electricity generated from solar plants to the grid.

Components of PM-KUSUM

• Component-A: Installation of 10,000 MW of decentralised ground-mounted grid-connected renewable power plants.
• Component-B: Installation of 20 lakh standalone solar-powered agriculture pumps.
• Component-C: Solarisation of 15 lakh gridconnected agriculture pumps.

Reasons For Low Participation in PM-KUSUM

• High Initial Costs: One of the primary barriers to participation is the high upfront cost of installing solar pumps and plants.
• Although the scheme provides financial assistance, the remaining cost can still be prohibitive for many farmers.
• Awareness and Accessibility: Many farmers, especially in remote areas, are not fully aware of the benefits and procedures of the PMKUSUM scheme.
• This lack of awareness limits their ability to take advantage of the program.
• Technical and Maintenance Issues: The maintenance of solar equipment requires technical knowledge and resources that are not readily available to all farmers.
• It can lead to reluctance in adopting solar technology.
• Land Availability: The requirement for land to install solar plants can be a significant hurdle.
• Farmers with limited land may be unwilling or unable to allocate space for solar installations.
• Financial and Administrative Hurdles: The process of applying for subsidies and loans can be complex and time-consuming, discouraging farmers from participating.
• Additionally, delays in subsidy disbursements can further deter potential beneficiaries.

Measures to Enhance Participation

• Increased Financial Support: Enhancing the financial assistance provided under the scheme, including higher subsidies and low-interest loans, can make solar installations more affordable for farmers.
• Awareness Campaigns: Conducting extensive awareness campaigns through various media channels and local outreach programs can educate farmers about the benefits and procedures of the scheme.
• Simplified Procedures: Streamlining the application and approval processes can reduce administrative burdens and make it easier for farmers to access the scheme’s benefits.
• Technical Support and Training: Providing technical support and training to farmers on the maintenance and operation of solar equipment can address technical barriers and ensure the longevity of installations.
• Flexible Land Use Policies: Implementing policies that allow for flexible land use, such as installing solar panels on less productive land or integrating solar installations with existing agricultural practices, can help overcome land availability issues.

Climate Cost of Food & Nutrition

• Food production is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and biodiversity loss.
• According to the FAO, agriculture, forestry, and other land use activities account for approximately 24% of global greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions arise from various sources, including methane from livestock, nitrous oxide from fertilisers, and carbon dioxide from deforestation and soil degradation.

Food Waste and Its Carbon Footprint

• The UN reports that approximately one-third of all food produced globally is lost or wasted. It represents not only a loss of valuable resources but also a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.
• When food waste decomposes in landfills, it produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Nutritional Implications

• Climate change can affect crop yields and nutritional quality. For instance, higher CO2 levels can reduce the protein, zinc, and iron content of staple crops like wheat and rice.
• It can exacerbate malnutrition, particularly in vulnerable populations that rely heavily on these staples for their dietary needs.

Impact on Food Prices

• According to RBI’s recent Bulletin, food price increases are now predominantly driven by supply disruptions caused by extreme weather events.
• It means that traditional mechanisms for controlling prices, which rely on balancing production and consumption, are no longer effective.
• Between 2016 and 2020, the average food inflation rate was 2.9%. However, this figure more than doubled to 6.3% in the 2020s, primarily due to overlapping supply shocks from climate events.
• These disruptions affect the distribution and intensity of the monsoon, increase temperatures, and hinder crop growth, leading to persistent and widespread food inflation.

Global Perspective

• According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), food prices have surged due to climatic anomalies globally.
• The FAO’s Food Price Index showed a decade-high average rise of 28% in 2021, with climatic conditions being a primary driver.
• Historical data from the RBI indicates that seven out of nine double-digit inflation episodes between 1956 and 2010 were caused by drought conditions.

Conclusion

• Addressing the climate cost of food and nutrition requires a multifaceted approach. Policymakers must develop strategies to mitigate the impact of climate change on agriculture, improve food supply chain resilience, and ensure affordable access to nutritious food.
• As climate events become more frequent and severe, proactive measures are essential to safeguard food security and public health.