Vembanad lake in Kerala is the lifeline for over a million people. Credit: Samson Alapuzha/IPS.

By Keya Acharya
ALAPPUZHA, (India), Mar 6 2014 (IPS)

Farming, tourism, poor fishing practices along with misdirected policies are muddying the famous backwaters of Kerala, one of India’s best known holiday destinations. Nowhere is this misuse more visible than in and around the 95-km-long Vembanad Lake.

Bearing the brunt are small fishing communities which are caught between dwindling fish catch, worsening water quality and the usurpation of banks – traditionally used as fish-landing points – by tourism operators.The lack of a mix of saline and freshwater, vital to fish breeding, has affected fish species.

“Until about eight to 10 years ago, I would collect this amount in just two-three hours,” says fisherman Ashokan, pointing to a mound of black clams in his canoe-like boat. “Now I work the whole day to procure it,” he tells IPS.

Kerala’s backwaters, a tourist hotspot, are made up of a 1,500-km waterway network of canals, lagoons, lakes and rivers that run parallel to the Arabian Sea and are fed by both saline and fresh water, contributing to a unique ecosystem. Many areas in these wetlands are below sea level, allowing sea water to flow inwards.

Major towns and cities dot the backwaters, such as the historic port city of Alleppey, now called Alappuzha, where the Maharaja of Travancore oversaw the building of canal waterways in the 18th century.

At the heart of this entire ecosystem is the Vembanad wetland area, spread over 36,500 hectares and fed by six large rivers and seawater. It is a lifeline for over 1.6 million people living on the lake’s banks.

More than 150 species of fish are found in Vembanad Lake. The Horadandia atukorali fish is found only around Pathrimanal island in the lake. The ecological significance of Vembanad’s rich biodiversity has made it the country’s largest Ramsar site, meant to accord protection for conservation.

But being a Ramsar site has not brought any protection for Vembanad Lake so far.

The waters of the lake are now divided by the Thanneermukkom barrage, built in 1975 to shut out saltwater ingress into fields in a bid to promote double cropping of paddy in areas surrounding the lake.

The lake’s sea water ingress traditionally helped flush out waste while containing flood waters. The lack of a mix of saline and freshwater, vital to fish breeding, has affected fish species.

“Prawns spawn at the mouth of the estuary and baby shrimps are carried inwards into the lake with tidal sea waters, but they are now trapped, unable to flow inwards because of the barrage,” T.D. Jojo from the Ashoka Trust for Ecology and Environment (ATREE) tells IPS.

Chemicals from reclaimed farmlands, illegally discharged effluents from tourism houseboats and lakeside industries such as coconut husk retting have contributed to significant pollution in the lake.

The Thanneermukkom barrage, built on the narrowest part of the lake’s width, closes its gates each year from Dec. 15 to Mar. 31, and this has proved to be long enough to hamper fish breeding and also cause decomposition of nutrients in the lake.

As fishing stocks have decreased, fishermen have begun using methods that harm fishlings. Over-fishing is now a problem in Vembanad.

ATREE scientists have been working the last six years to conserve the ecology of the lake. “We now have 13 lake protection groups, trained to check water quality in the lake,” says Dr. Priyadarsanan Dharmarajan, team leader of the ATREE Vembanad conservation project.

Fishers, whose complaints on the lake’s deteriorating health were not taken seriously for years, now feel vindicated by data that shows low salinity and high acidity corresponding exactly to the shutting of the barrage gates.

“We want both saline and freshwater for farming and fishing, so we have asked for the barrage to be opened a little earlier,” says Murlidharan, member of a joint farmer-fishing forum and a fisherman for 30 years.

But the forum has small farmers whose voices are not heard by rich farming interests.

“Our primary concern is paddy. It is not possible to open the Thanneermukkom barrage a little earlier,” district collector N. Padmakumar, Alappuzha’s top administrative official, tells IPS. “The ratio of farmers to fishermen is 10 to one. Whose interest should I protect?”

He is also short of answers on the ecological degradation of Vembanad. “It (degradation) has happened historically. I don’t have a magic wand to make things right. There should be political will on the part of the government to do something.”

The resorts on the lake’s banks blame the houseboats for the pollution, but the houseboat owners deny this. “Houseboats don’t pose a problem for the lake,” says operator Dilip Kumar.

He also tries to sweep aside allegations of declining fish catch. “You can get prawns as big as this (pointing from his fingers down to his elbow) for 80 rupees (1.15 dollars) a kilogram,” he says.

Workers returning to Kerala from the Gulf. Credit: K.S. Harikrishnan/IPS.

By K. S. Harikrishnan
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India , Jan 8 2014 (IPS)

Ashik Rehman, 47, worked as a labourer in the southern Indian state of Kerala. He left for Saudi Arabia two years ago, hoping to earn enough to buy a house in his native place. Now he is back and staring at a bleak future.

Rehman was promised a shop salesman’s job by his travel agent. But after he landed in the Saudi capital Riyadh, he was sent to work at a construction site as a sweeper. His sponsor did not take legal measures to correct his work permit.

“I was treated like a slave there. I was not given proper food, leave or salary,” he told IPS.“Many sponsors are evasive when it comes to giving legal status to workers."

To make things worse, Saudi Arabia enforced a naturalisation rule called Nitaqat, forcing Rehman to return to his hometown Kozhikode in Kerala last October. He has not found a job yet.

The Nitaqat law, announced in 2011, makes it mandatory for all private firms to recruit at least 10 percent Saudi nationals in their labour force. For expatriates who do not have proper job or visa documents, the law entails punitive measures such as arrest or deportation.

With 2.8 million Indians making up the largest expatriate community in Saudi Arabia, the law has hit those who have been in the kingdom without proper work documents.

“Many sponsors are evasive when it comes to giving legal status to workers. Because of the disinterest of my sponsor, I had to return. Now I am living in a rented house and trying to figure out how to earn my living,” Rehman told IPS.

According to Indian government estimates, 134,000 workers have returned due to implementation of the new Nitaqat policy.

“Travel agents make things more difficult for hapless migrant workers,” Jamaludeen, who has also returned, told IPS. “They fabricate jobs and employers who don’t exist. Before the migrants can figure out they have been hoodwinked, they find themselves in farmhouses in remote areas and unknown agricultural fields in the deserts.”

The reverse migration of undocumented workers from Saudi Arabia has prompted the returnees to demand that the Indian government implement a comprehensive rehabilitation package for expatriates.

“Since the Gulf War of 1990-1991, we have been hearing false promises of rehabilitation packages,” said S. Ahmed, chairman of the NRI Coordination Council. He said the government had done little to help expatriates who had  to return because of the Nitaqat rule. The Council demanded that all non-resident families that return from Saudi Arabia be included in a comprehensive health insurance project.

The effects of Nitaqat are showing up in many ways in India particularly in sectors dependent on Gulf money. These include a slowdown in construction work, in the real estate business, in motor vehicle sales and dwindling wages of daily workers.

This is particularly true of Kerala because, of the 2.8 million Indians in Saudi Arabia, one million are from this state. After the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia is the most favoured destination for the state’s migrant population.

Dr. Sree Nair, a Kerala-based migration researcher, said the government should make sure that the returnees are rehabilitated and resettled in their homeland.

“Return migrants do not attract much attention from the government. But Nitaqat has brought about a situation where the void in government planning on migration and a remittance-dependent economy has become evident,” she told IPS.

“The services for returnees are inadequate. Not just financial assistance but proper guidance on possible areas of utilising their skills in domestic or foreign labour markets should also be provided. Most returnees are not looking for freebies from the government but for an appropriate re-entry into job markets,” she told IPS.

Kerala is the only state in the country which has announced rehabilitation measures for returnees, including interest-free loans and services to help them find jobs in other Gulf countries.

Abu Ali, who gives legal aid to foreign workers in Jeddah, said there were many foreigners, including Indians, who were declared to be absconding by their sponsors as the latter wanted to avoid making final settlements.

“Many migrants may have been working there for more than 10 years, but there is no legal forum to challenge sponsors who cheat,” he told IPS.

K.U. Iqbal, a Riyadh–based reporter of Malayalam News, a sister publication of Arab News, told IPS over the phone that 1.3 million Indian workers, who initially did not have proper documents, had regularised their work permits and completed other legalities.

“The majority of Indians corrected their documents. It is said that a few migrants did not apply for legal status. They will face consequences if caught by the authorities,” he said.

A group of returnees told IPS that unskilled workers, part-time office workers and school teachers have been particularly badly hit by the Nitaqat rule.

Sharafudeen, who hails from Malappuram, said teachers without proper documents have been granted a reprieve by the Ministry of Education. “But many small shops and restaurants, which used to regularly hire workers without documents, have been closed throughout the Kingdom.”

Labour inspectors swooped down on thousands of illegal workers in a series of raids across the Kingdom after the amnesty period for expatriates to legalise their work status expired.

Shameem Ahmed, general manager of the Thiruvananthapuram-based Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Consultants, quoted Indian government officials in Riyadh to say that many workers were unwilling to go back to India as they were wary of being unemployed and increasing the financial burden on their families.

“Many workers have not been reporting for work for fear of arrest and deportation. Numerous construction companies that were largely dependent on the illegal workforce have suspended their projects altogether. Housing unit prices are set to increase dramatically due to the shortage of workers,” said Shameem Ahmed.

According to the World Bank, India is the top beneficiary of remittances from Saudi Arabia with 8.4 billion dollars received in 2012. But many of the people behind those remittances now find that life has changed – for the worse.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy inaugurates a meeting of non-resident Keralites in Thiruvananthapuram. Credit: K.S. Harikrishnan/IPS

By K. S. Harikrishnan
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India , Oct 8 2012 (IPS)

For the first time in over four decades, the number of people migrating out of the southern Indian state of Kerala, home to 33.3 million people, is on the decline.

A comprehensive study conducted by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) in Thiruvananthapuram on international migration from Kerala revealed that growth in migration levels will reach zero by 2015.

The report said that the number of Kerala migrants living abroad in 2008 was 2.19 million and 2.28 million in 2011.

Back in the 1970s, a loss of jobs in agriculture, lack of productive ventures and widespread education among the middle class led to an exodus of residents from Kerala, 90 percent of whom headed straight for the Gulf region in search of better jobs and higher wages.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) quickly became the most popular destination, absorbing 40 percent of Kerala’s job seekers, while Saudi Arabia plays host to 25 percent of the migrants.

But now, higher wages at home have begun to stem the outflow of human capital from Kerala. The average wage for unskilled workers increased from 150 rupees (three dollars) to 450 rupees (nine dollars) per day during the first decade of this century, making Kerala an attractive and competitive labour market.

B. Soman, an engineer in the petroleum sector in Oman, said that even unskilled workers already settled in the Gulf are now opting to go back home in search of better salaries.

John Mathew, a 35-year-old driver working in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district, who recently returned from Qatar where he had spent the last seven years driving taxis, told IPS that comparatively low wages in the Gulf made a strong case for coming back home.

“Now I earn at least ten dollars a day. It is a decent wage, and my family is happy,” said Mathew.

In addition, Kerala has achieved a level of human development comparable with many advanced countries, including the highest life expectancy rates in the country – 75 years for men and 78 years for women.

Ironically, it was remittances from the Gulf that first began to improve the quality of life in Kerala and created a consumer culture in the state.

The purchase of land and construction of houses received priority among expatriate Keralites, followed by the purchase of vehicles, jewellery and imported electronic items.

Banks say the state received remittances totalling 500 billion rupees in 2011 compared with 432 billion rupees in 2008.

Dr. Sreelekha Nair, junior fellow at the Centre for Women’s Development Studies in New Delhi, told IPS, “While migration to the Gulf was dominated by unskilled workers, recent years witnessed a relative increase in the migration of highly skilled personnel to the Gulf.

“Flexible changes in ownership and business rules, at least in some Gulf countries, resulted in a rise in the number of entrepreneurs.  This also boosted the flow of remittances to Kerala,” she added.

According to the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India, remittances from non-resident Indians in the current fiscal year are likely to exceed 75 billion dollars, up from 66 billion in the 2011-2012 period.

Dr. S. Irudaya Rajan, professor at CDS and an expert in international migration, told IPS that structural changes in the state’s population – namely a steadily ageing population coupled with low birthrates – also contributed to this decreasing emigration trend.

Due to a contraction in the supply of young labourers, and a higher standard of living enabled by remittances, wages for construction and manual jobs are relatively high in Kerala compared to other Indian states, making the former an attractive destination for internal migrants, Soman told IPS.

Internal migrants come largely from West Bengal, Orissa, and Assam and take jobs as domestic workers, farm labourers, masons, and shop helpers, among others.

They say economic hardships, caste-based exploitation, a crumbling agricultural sector and dwindling investment in rural infrastructure in their home states propel them towards Kerala in search of decent livelihoods.

Kalka Das, a mason from Murshidabad in West Bengal, told IPS that unskilled workers like him barely earned enough to survive.

“The prices of commodities are increasing day by day and people are constantly in search of decent wages. Today, Kerala is the Gulf (of India) for internal migrants,” he added.

Ram Gopal, a domestic worker hailing from Assam, told IPS that even though migrant workers in Kerala do experience some exploitation, “we at least get better work and a little bit more money”.

(END)

For half a century cardiovascular disease has been the largest killer in Western countries, but recently it has started to dominate the health statistics in the South as well. In India coronary heart disease is already the biggest killer, and strokes are about to rise to second place. Globally, cardiovascular disease now kills about 17 million people a year, and a growing number of people are having heart attacks or strokes as early as their 40s or 50s.

Risto Isomaki

This global pandemic has a number of complementary causes. People live longer, eat less healthy food, smoke more, and do less manual labour. More and more people are commuting to their jobs by metro, train, bus, or car instead of walking or cycling. The majority of the world’s population is breathing seriously polluted air from which small inhaled particles can move from lungs to other parts of the body, including the walls of our arteries where they become a part of the plaque built by bacteria. Reduced exposure to sunlight could also be a factor, because it reduces the amount of cholesterol that our skin will convert into to vitamin D.

However, the most important single reason for the global cardiovascular epidemic could be the growing use of unhealthy dietary oils and fats. The world currently consumes about 150 million tonnes of edible oils and fats per year. Of this, one-third is produced by a single species: the African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), a prolific source of vegetable oil.

Unfortunately, almost 50 percent of palm oil is palmitic acid, which is one of the unhealthiest fatty acids for the heart and veins. Coconut oil, which provides another five percent of our edible oil, is even less healthy. According to official predictions, world consumption of edible fats and oils will rise to 300 million tons by 2030.

Most of the new demand comes from Asia, where the current per capita consumption of edible oils is only 50 percent of the present average in North America and Europe. At the moment it looks as if the vast majority of this increase will come from palm oil. Huge areas of clear-cut rainforest areas have been converted to oil palm plantations in Malaysia, Indonesia, and a number of other countries. Indonesia already has nine million hectares planted with oil palms, and companies have applied for permission to expand this to 35 million hectares.

Environmentalists have been horrified by these developments. Without the oil palms many of the logged areas could regenerate and grow back into rainforest. More than two million hectares of oil palm plantations have been established on deep peat soils, which causes significant carbon dioxide emissions from the oxidizing peat.

Yet the most significant public health aspect of the situation has received much less attention. If humanity triples or quadruples its consumption of palm oil, our present cardiovascular pandemic will explode. This could overload public healthcare systems and leave them far less time and fewer resources for dealing with poor people’s diseases.

The world needs vast quantities of healthier food oils to prevent what could otherwise become the worst public health disaster in human history. The healthiest food oils contain very little saturated and a high percentage of monounsaturated fatty acids. Polyunsaturated fats are, of course, healthier than saturated fats, but they are less stable than monounsaturated fats.

Many plants produce oil which has a lot of monounsaturated and only a little saturated fat, but two of them are especially important: the olive and the avocado. Up to 80 percent of olive oil consists of monounsaturated fat, which helps to keep the levels of good cholesterol up and the levels of bad cholesterol down.

According to some studies olive oil might even reduce women’s risk of getting breast cancer by 45 percent. Unfortunately, the world currently produces only three million tonnes of olive oil. The average yield is only 200 or 300 kilograms per hectare per year, but this hides huge production differences between countries and even farms.

Olive cultivation requires relatively cold winter temperatures. Because of this, the avocado tree could, or should, become the leading food oil plant in the tropical and subtropical regions. It originally comes from Mexico and the Amazon region, but has a very wide range. For example, in India avocados have been grown successfully both in the north, in the Himalayan foothills, and in the south, in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

We already know that avocados grow well in many parts of Africa. According to Chinese agricultural scientists, the tropical and subtropical parts of China and Vietnam also contain tens of millions of hectares of hilly land that would be eminently suitable for avocados. Avocado oil is exceptionally stable and resists high temperatures even better than olive oil. In countries where people often fry food in oil, avocado oil might be the healthiest option. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

(*) Risto Isomaki is an environmental activist and awarded Finnish writer whose novels have been translated into several languages.

Fishermen dock their boats on a thin strip of sand at Kollam, in Kerala state of south India. Credit: Max Martin/IPS

By Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI, Aug 3 2012 (IPS)

Far-flung South Asian communities, from the high Himalayan slopes to the Indian Ocean coasts, united in the face of extreme and uncertain weather, continue to hold on to the hope that the Rio+20 focus on disaster risk reduction (DRR) will positively influence national policies.

“There is hope in India, the biggest country in the region, that the final statement at the Rio+20 summit titled ‘The Future We Want’ gets translated into national policy before it is too late,” Vinod Chandra Menon, former member of India’s National Disaster Management Authority, told IPS.

Menon, now disaster management consultant to several international bodies, said the current severe drought in South Asia, caused by the failure of this year’s monsoon, should compel policy makers in the region to “walk the Rio+20 talk” and recognise that man-made activities are contributing to climate change.

“For decades there have been warnings that reckless extraction of groundwater was not only lowering the water table drastically but also disturbing the sensitive rain cycle of precipitation, condensation and recharge with serious consequences for rain-fed agriculture,” Menon said.

“It is not far-fetched to say that agricultural distress, marked by the spectacle of farmers committing suicide by the tens of thousands, is the result of an inability to translate climate change knowledge into policy,” Menon said.

According to G. Padmanabhan, emergency analyst and officer-in-charge of the disaster management unit at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New Delhi, the Rio+20 statement’s value lies in the call for “a renewed sense of urgency” and “adequate, timely and predictable resources” to build resilient communities.

“South Asia is exposed to a variety of hydro-meteorological hazards, and is high on the priority list for risk reduction measures, especially in the context of climate change,” Padmanabhan  said, adding that the DDR call has special relevance for South Asia.

The statement favoured integration of DRR with sustainable development policies and planning, strengthening of institutions and better preparedness, warning, response and recovery. It also stressed the importance of integrating DRR with climate change adaptation.

“Rather than merely focusing on mitigation and its physical aspects, Rio+ 20 invited countries to build resilience through a more holistic approach,” Padmanabhan told IPS.

Such an approach is backed by scientific perceptions.

A 2011 report of the UN climate panel — The IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX) — noted that climate extremes and even a series of non-extreme events threaten people’s lives and livelihoods, making communities vulnerable and exposed to greater risks.

“A changing climate leads to changes in the frequency, intensity, spatial extent and duration of weather and climate extremes, and can result in unprecedented extremes,” noted a 2012 Climate & Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) report summarising SREX with an Asian perspective.

“Even without taking climate change into account, disaster risk will continue to increase in many countries as more vulnerable people and assets are exposed to weather extremes. In absolute terms, for example, Asia already has more than 90 percent of the global population exposed to tropical cyclones.”

The Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2012 compiled by the charity Germanwatch termed Bangladesh and Myanmar — along with Honduras — as “most affected” by extreme weather during 1991-2010.

In Bangladesh, 251 events over these 20 years caused an annual average of 7,814 deaths (5.51 per 100,000 inhabitants) and losses of 2,091 million dollars (on purchase level parity, or PPP, a relative value).

More than 80 percent of the deaths occurred in 1991 when 140,000 people died in a cyclone.

In Myanmar (also Burma), 33 events killed, on average, 7,130 people (14.06 per 100,000 inhabitants) a year, causing an annual loss of 659 million dollars (on PPP).

For 2010, Pakistan topped the list due to a severe flood.

The SREX showed a trend of more frequent and intense precipitation days over parts of South Asia. Earlier studies by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have also indicated such a trend.

Climate change and human development

According to SREX, extensive (low-impact/high-frequency) disasters affect human development. For instance, affected areas in Nepal recorded lower primary school enrollment rates and more malnourished children.  

A 2010 study covering 15 districts of Bhutan, India, and Nepal suggested that communities perceive a decrease in annual precipitation and resultant increase in the intensity of dry spells.

The study, undertaken by the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), was part of an International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) programme.

The communities also reported an increase in erratic rainfall patterns and heavy showers when it does rain, Dhrupad Choudhury, the programme coordinator, told IPS. They also found winters warmer with reduced snowfall.

The Rio+20 ‘Future’ document talked about such changes in different geographies. As deforestation, forest degradation, glacier retreat and natural disasters hit the mountains, it called for collaborative efforts to achieve conservation, food security and poverty alleviation.

“The text provides rationale for action,” David Molden, director general of ICIMOD, told IPS. “Mountains are home to only 12 percent of the word’s population; but 40 percent indirectly depend on them for water, hydroelectricity, timber, biodiversity and niche products, mineral resources, recreation, and flood control.”

Professor Saleemul Huq at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Dhaka, added, “The Rio+20 outcome on green economy holds promise for Bangladesh as it will enable the country to develop its own green development pathway.”

The green economy concept values nature and environmental services and promotes technologies that address the root cause of climate change – global warming due to too much fossil fuel burning.

Mizanur Rahman, programme officer of Islamic Relief Worldwide in Dhaka, said Rio+20 favours a top-down, government-oriented approach and it works. “For countries like Bangladesh, strengthening people’s capacity is also very important, but unfortunately it has not been highlighted.”

Speaking over telephone from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala state, T.  Peter, the secretary of the National Fishworkers Forum, which represents the interests of artisanal fishers, told IPS, “Getting money, under green economy or climate adaptation initiatives, is not important – but how it is spent for the safety and wellbeing of marginal people like us is.”

Peter and his colleagues are actively resisting displacement of fishers for conservation, development and DRR initiatives.

In the south Indian technology hub of Bangalore, Prof. J Srinivasan, chairperson of the Divecha Centre for Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science, echoed the scepticism of the global green lobby. He said when the industrialised West is excused from responsibility, all other efforts naturally become weak.

“The biggest bottleneck,” Huq said, “is the reluctance of global leaders to realise that the current economic growth paradigm is unsustainable and needs to be pointed down a more sustainable pathway.”

*Max Martin contributed to this report.

(END)