The Hindu : Global warming: `Kochi should gear up'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 11, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

Global warming: `Kochi should gear up'

By K. S. Sudhi

KOCHI NOV. 10. Kochi city should join the `Cities for Climate Protection' programme and remove the inadequacies in its waste disposal infrastructure system for countering the possible impact of global warming. It should also adopt cost-saving, energy efficiency improvements.

These are some of the recommendations made by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory of United States and the Cochin University of Science and Technology after assessing the ``possible vulnerabilities of Kochi to climate change impacts and response strategies to increase resilience''. The study is being done in partnership with the U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The draft report was submitted to the civic authorities, CUAST officials and a few social scientists and environmentalists the other day.

The ORNL representatives had visited the city during December last year and had held discussions with the civic authorities and a number of agencies working in the city.

The study recommended that the city, in collaboration with the USAID, should upgrade its plans for solid waste disposal. The USAID will be willing to supply technical assistance to the city to meet the Supreme Court requirements for solid waste disposal planning.

The city, suggested the report, should join the `Cities for Climate Protection' programme to implement programmes for cost-saving energy efficiency systems by laying emphasis on municipal facilities, vehicle fleets and street lighting. This programme is funded and supported by the USAID and administered by the International Council for Local Environment Initiates (ICLEI), a Toronto-based NGO.

According to the report, ICLEI, in collaboration with the USAID, would provide an intern to assemble necessary databases and link them with Internet-accessible software for analysing alternatives for action. Besides the valuable international networking with other climate change concerned cities, the efficiency improvement programmes would reduce the impact on Kochi of possible power tariff hike due to the less reliable hydropower supply, the report suggested.

The study recommended that the city should explore the funding potential for a major canal restoration effort that might begin with a formal proposal for donor assistance for a prototype project.

The city should also enhance its leadership position in urban management. It should also provide leadership in the formation of proposed Kerala State Council of Mayors and Kerala State City Managers' Association.

The USAID is willing to help in getting Kochi city to be invited to participate in national, regional and global conferences and forums related to urban management and also issues associated with climate change, the report said.

The study categorised the possible impact of global warming in Kochi as precipitation changes, sea level rise, temperature changes, local ecological change and implications of climate changes in other regions.

Kochi's most significant vulnerabilities to climate change impacts in the long run, as assessed by the agencies, are a combination of increased variability and intensity of rainfall and sea level rise on Kochi's water systems especially on drainage, waste disposal and water logging.

Unless action is taken to increase the effectiveness of Kochi's water and waste disposal systems, especially its canal network, climate changes will increase the environmental pollution, water logging and flooding. This also has the potential to undermine the area's attractiveness as a healthy place to live in, do business and as a desirable tourist destination.

The possible sea level rise may threaten the land use near the shoreline of Kochi and the climatic changes are likely to threaten possible coastal land use and patterns of livelihood. These challenges are specifically significant to some of the low-lying backwater islands coming under the Goshree project where a modest sea level rise would threaten the current ways of life, the study warned.

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