Coastal and estuarine ecosystems are heavily influenced by the human species through pollution and habitat loss. Coastal pollution and its impacts have resulted in a number of environmental issues including the enrichment of enclosed waters with organic matter, pollution by chemicals such as oil, and sedimentation due to land-based activities.
India is blessed with a long coastline of about 7500 kilometers with over 1200 islands in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of India, endowed with a number of estuaries, mangroves, coral lagoons, and mudflats.
However, increasing levels of organic and inorganic pollution in the coastal water over the years is posing a grave danger to the Dissolved Oxygen (DO) and microbial concentration levels which are the two most important indicators of the health of coastal waters.
Coastal Pollution can be attributed to untreated waste from domestic and industrial by bacteria leading to usage of enormous oxygen from the seawater ultimately reducing the dissolved oxygen levels in the sea and affecting the aquatic organism.
One should know that the recommended level of Dissolved Oxygen (DO) for ecologically sensitive coastal areas and beach tourism is 5 milligram per liter or above.
The ministry of Earth Sciences reported in December last year that DO levels observed to be very low at a few locations where raw sewage was being directly released into the sea adversely impacting mortality of larvae and juveniles who are quite sensitive to oxygen levels and also contributing to coastal pollution
Some of the major sources of coastal pollution in coastal areas identified by the ministry in include
- Municipal sewage
- Industrial effluent
- Aquaculture effluent
- Fertilizer used in agriculture
- Ports and Harbours
- Shipbuilding and ship breaking yard
- Fish processing industries/salt pans
- Tourists resorts/beaches
- Solid waste dumping
There are 13 states and union territories along the coastline of India which generates about 33215 MLD of sewage in total whereas sewage treatment capacity has been developed for only 12673 MLD!
Therefore, there is a huge gap of about 20542 MLD of sewage treatment capacity in the coastal areas. Thus, coastal pollution is on the rise with a huge gap in treatment.
A major portion of untreated sewage enters coastal waters through rivers, creeks, and rivulets that all are all interconnected.
In 2015, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) identified 302 polluted river stretches in the country. CPCB along with various state pollution boards have been monitoring river water quality since 1977-78.
Under National Water Quality Monitoring Programme (NWMP), 445 rivers are being monitored at 1275 locations and organic pollution has been identified as the predominant cause of water pollution that eventually increases the BOD levels.
Summary of Polluted river stretches in coastal areas (source: MoEF & CC)
| State | Cities/Towns along polluted river stretches | Number of polluted river stretches |
| Maharashtra | 161 | 49 |
| West Bengal | 47 | 17 |
| Gujarat | 38 | 20 |
| Karnataka | 24 | 15 |
| Tamil Nadu | 23 | 7 |
| Kerala | 22 | 13 |
| Odisha | 20 | 7 |
| Goa | 9 | 8 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 8 | 6 |
| Daman and Diu | 2 | 1 |
| Total | 354 | 148 |
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Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.