Abstract

Fishermen and farmers from Calcutta, India have developed a sewage treatment system, using indigenous knowledge, which is low cost, environmentally friendly, and provides a decent standard of living. This system faces pressures related to increasing population growth: encroaching development in the wetlands, increasing pollution in and volume of the wastewater. Utilizing about one third of the city’s wastewater through a series of ponds, these agrarian scientists are able to realize a harvest of 150 tons of vegetables and 15,000 tons of fish (regular and brackish water aquaculture) annually. Their success has been constrained by point source pollution from both the city and along the Ganges River, as well as population-growth related needs for land development and a sewage system that can handle the total volume of wastewater. Within Calcutta’s indigenous sewage system lies the answers to sustainable environmental, economic and social alternatives. The challenge will be for Calcutta (and indeed India itself) to curb pollution, encourage indigenous economic gains, and to develop a meaningful coastal and riverine management system that will address the real needs of her people.
Introduction

The Republic of India lies primarily on the Indian peninsula with some portions in the north located on the Asian mainland. Water resources are important in India, both for commercial and religious uses. Marine fisheries located in either the Arabian Sea or the Bay of Bengal, export approximately 307,337 tons of fish are annually. About two thirds of this export is made up of shrimp. Water is also drawn from the mighty Ganges River which runs 1550 miles from the Himalayas in the northern portion of the state of West Bengal, to the Sundarbans Delta and the Bay of Bengal on the east coast of India. In the Hindu religion, rivers provided water for physical and spiritual purification and the most holy river of all is the mighty Ganges from which life flowed on the fertile plain. As the Ganges dips east through Bangaladesh, the Hooghly (a tributary) runs south through Calcutta.

Calcutta

 
Calcutta (Bengali Kalikata) is the captital of West Bengal state in eastern India. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was at one time the capital of British-held India. It has mild winters and hot, humid summers which coincide with the monsoon season. During this time much of the lowlands flood, cutting off residential areas except by boat. Since it is located at sea level, there are concerns that a rise in ocean water levels due to global warming or other causes, would flood the city. Despite its large population, Calcutta has no formal sewage system in operation. The city’s raw residential sewage as well as industrial waste flows through channels off of which at least one third passes through the East Calcutta Wetlands. (D. Ghosh, 1993) Though its successful alternative waste treatment system has recently been given creditability both locally and globally, the East Calcutta Wetlands has come under attack from development and pollution pressures. (D. Ghosh, 1993) This paper will discuss this system that was created through indigenous technology and the pressures it faces while trying to maintain a balance of benefits and services.

Social Aspects

Population Growth

With a population at approximately 14 million people, Calcutta is stretched to creatively and efficiently provide services, encourage economic growth, and maintain her environment. Since 1717, when the British East India Company was allowed free trade in the city, Calcutta experienced tremendous growth. Jute production as well as other industries flourished on the banks of the Hooghly. Independence from Britain, separation from East Bengal and its primary jute production, and socialization of industries has created an influx of people into the city that runs higher than its normal birthrate. This has created severe problems for maintaining economic, social and environmental sustainability.

Pollution

Using Goodland and Daly’s Input-Output Rules for environmental sustainability; a society should not remove that which can’t be renewed or replaced with a viable alternative (input), nor should waste (output) be greater than that which the environment can absorb without limiting its future waste assimilative ability. (Goodland and Daly, 1996) Today the mighty Ganga Ma is dying from severe pollution emanating from point sources such as tanning factories, incomplete cremations, livestock carcasses, agricultural runoff, and an estimated "1 billion liters/day of mostly untreated raw sewage. . ." (A. Mukerjee, 1996) Toxic chemicals combined with faecal pollution have put India’s people at risk for many cancers as well as a multitude of diseases such as cholera, typhoid and giardiasis. "Sustainable health, especially for children, is not possible without good environmental sanitation." (WHO/18, 1998)

Dams

The two major dams on the Ganges consists of one built by the British in 1854 to divert much of the Himalaya snow melt into the Upper Ganges Canal to supply their agricultural concerns, and the other at the mouth of the Hooghly which diverts water from the Ganges heading toward Bangladesh into the Hooghly. (A. Mukerjee, 1996)

The dams create flow problems leading to contesting of flow amount in neighboring countries like Bangladesh and Nepal, as well as a decreased ability to cleanse itself.

Wetlands System

Interestingly, a good environmental waste treatment system was developed through the use of indigenous technology by farmers and fishermen in the East Calcutta Wetlands. The development came about in incremental fashion over the years and the knowledge gained through some trial and error was passed down in oral tradition to today. Before 1830, the wetlands were being used for extensive-type brackish-water aquaculture with indigenous fish and were also home to several bird species. (P. Ghosh, Best Practices Initiative, 1997) Wastewater flowed through channels, which fed into the wetlands and were eventually filtered out to the ocean. In the 1930’s, canals were dug to draw off the domestic sewage from the city. (P. Ghosh, Best Practices Initiative, 1997) Some farmers and fishermen started to draw off from this source when their other water sources dwindled. Today the wetlands encompass about 20,000 acres containing vegetable farms, rice paddies and fishponds. Some of the wastewater goes directly to the fish ponds where it is broken down by algae, which is in turn eaten by fish, who are in turn harvested. Other canals take wastewater to the vegetable plots where they add more nutrients to soil already fertilized with material from the refuse dumps. Finally, other canals take wastewater to irrigate rice paddies. The wetlands consist primarily of farming and fishing co-ops, with a few small and large owners making the harvests. As Dr. Dhrubajyoti Ghosh states "it’s perfectly suited to countries in the developing world. The two basic requirements seem to be poverty and sunshine and we have plenty of both." (C. Pye-Smith, 1995) The state has recognized the importance of this system and currently has a moratorium against development in the area. Dr. Ghosh’s Department of Irrigation and Waterways is starting to develop similar systems outside Calcutta to increase the availability of low cost solutions to other Indian cities.

The challenge for Calcutta is to maintain this natural metropolitan sewage treatment mechanism with the ongoing evaluation and maintenance of its current capacity, and to have it treated as a desirable, environmentally sound partner in development.

Technical Aspects

The Calcutta wastewater treatment system is an indigenous technology developed by local farmer-fishermen and fine-tuned over a successful 50-year period. Indigenous technology refers to any cultural strategy developed by a society to survive within the constraints of their environment. These constraints include the physical environment as well as the social make-up of its citizens and their ability to create a meaningful hierarchy that provides for the labor and administration needs of that society. (Moran, 1982) The Calcutta wastewater aquaculture and related agriculture and vegetable farms have accomplished this goal without outside interference until recently.

This type of technology reflects the idea of environmental sustainability envisioned by Goodland and Daly in their Output/Input Rules (Goodland and Daly, 1996) which state, ". . .keep wastes within assimilative capacities; harvest regenerative capacities of renewable resources". Some of the answers to the modern problems of human health and food production are being provided through indigenous technology and knowledge of native species and ecosystems. Industrialized researchers and planners have moved away from transplanting "turnkey" western technology in less industrialized nations that didn’t take into consideration local needs and ecosystems, to studying and quantifying indigenous knowledge and technology that exists within these regions so that they can be duplicated in similar situations around the world. "Modern" technology is only being added in the context that it can be used to enhance a system that already works in that region, with much more careful evaluation of environmental, economic and social sustainability. The success of the East Calcutta Wetlands for waste treatment, fisheries, vegetable and rice production hinged on its utilization of oral tradition/community practice, the low cost for implementation and development of infrastructure (which was built incrementally), and the empowerment of the local people brought about by managing their own destiny.

Oral Tradition/Community Practice

The community practice of waste and wastewater reclamation can be traced to one individual who leased one square mile of land in order to raise vegetables on a garbage (D.Ghosh, 1990). In between vegetable plots were water ponds for irrigation purposes. Although fish may have been cultured in these ponds, the primary aquaculture in the marsh area was brackishwater culture from ponds that were fed by the tidal Bidyadhari River. When this river "died" because of silting and main (Ganga) river channel changes, these areas turned into a swamp. Looking for another continuous supply of running water, one fish farmer turned to the sewage outfall from Calcutta in 1929-30. In addition to straight sewage being used, sewage was added to freshwater probably at the same ratio used today of l:4 sewage:fresh water.

Currently, only about one third of the city’s sewage water actually flows through the marshes. The Calcutta Municipal Corporation constructed two channels approximately 33 km long, one for storm runoff during the monsoon season and the other for sewage outfall after primary treatment at Bantala in two sedimentation tanks. These tanks, however, haven’t worked in a decade so there is untreated sewage from the city being released directly into the Dry Flow Channel. As sewage increased from the city, the Storm Flow Channel has also been put to use for sewage outfall year round. (Patnik, 1990) These channels take all but approximately one third (which is utilized by the sewage farms and fisheries) of the sewage outfall to the Kulti Gong River. The water from the channel is released into the Kulti Gong through a lock-type system, which attempts to keep the backflow from the river out during that part of the day when the river water level is higher than the canal’s water level. The sewage for the fisheries and agriculture has been removed through a provision in the outfall drainage scheme "to raise an adequate water-head and to supply sewage to most of the fishponds by gravity." (D.Ghosh, 1990)

From this beginning, the East Calcutta Marshes have gradually been worked into approximately 12,000 ha containing three parts:

Production Unit Use of Sewage End Product
 

Vegetable Farm  - alternating bands of land  with channels of sewage  water  - vegetables grown on  substrata of garbage and  irrigated with sewage	For irrigation  - drawn off sewage  channels twice a year	150 tons of vegetables/  per annum
Wastewater-Fed Ponds (Bheris)  - wastewater pretreated  before adding test fish - 5-7,000 fingerlings/ha  released (7 major  species and several  minor ones)	For initial filling of ponds  - secondary periodic filling of ponds as needed to stimulate plankton growth and maintain DO concentrations  - for ponds > 40 ha, may be continuous inflow/outflow for 15-21 days	8,000 tons per annum
Rice Paddy Cultivation  - used to grow more than  one crop	Post sewage fish pond effluent  Benefits: High in nutrients  Purified through settling, biodegradation and heavy metal removal (through use of water hyacinth)	N/A

Table 1. Types of Resource Recovery in East Calcutta Wetland System (P. Ghosh, 1997) (Patnik, 1990)

In addition to these resources, there is also sewage-fed brackishwater aquaculture, which produces approximately 7,000 tons per annum. (Patnik, 1990)

Calendar of Activities

Low cost

This technology was developed incrementally as the system was perfected which means there was low capital outlays to start up, and is now maintained in oral tradition within the villages. That doesn’t mean that the system should be romanticized—inexact traditional DO(dissolved oxygen) measurement skills have resulted in fish die-offs. But its importance has not been lost on the West Bengal Fisheries Department now seen as "A keen supporter. . . The department has appointed a technical advisor. . . to help a number of fishermen’s co-operatives." (Pye-Smith, 1995) Nor has it avoided the scrutiny of researchers ". . . the knowledge of the farmers needs to be viewed to understand this technology to recycle municipal waste which has such potential for poorer cities." (D. Ghosh, 1990) This is especially crucial when you consider the highly polluted river systems due to untreated wastes and the barely functioning or non-existent municipal waste treatment facilities.

Empowerment

"The use of traditional knowledge also has the potential to facilitate participation of local people in a planning process, and therefore, contribute to local empowerment." (Christie and White,1997) It also contributes to successful overall management, especially when the previous method of what is called "top down" management of resources has proven unsuccessful in India. Until the West Bengal Town and Country (Planning & Development Act) 1979, which would restrict development of the wetlands on certain grounds, the local farmers and fishermen were at the mercy of powerful developers and Mafia-style law and order. In 1985, India unveiled the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) which was to be the largest clean up effort for a river in the country providing sewage treatment plants, electric crematoria, toilets and riverfront development. According to an article in India Today (Jan. 7,1997), the solutions have been ineffective, underutilized, weakened by fraud and uncited point source pollution. This points to a traditional weakness in Indian governmental policy, a decent plan bureaucratized ad nauseum to eventual ineffectiveness. Even the honorable and enlightened eco-manager Dr.Dhrubajyoti Ghosh, executive engineer of the Calcutta Metropolitan Water and Sanitation Authority gave in to the bureaucracy machine when he tried to streamline it:

"A serious challenge is to co-ordinate the various activities that are now being taken up by different agencies like (here he lists at least 7 agencies involved in the Calcutta Wetlands). . .It may be appropriate to create a separate co-ordinating agency to synchronize the required study." (D. Ghosh, 1990)

Benefits have been realized in the area of overall management of the Calcutta Wetlands resources simply because the government of West Bengal has been apprised of its value, and in recognizing this value created the following objectives that would protect it:

• to preserve the natural biological processes of wastewater purification and resource recovery
• to get back the optimum amount of energy materials and nutrients through rational and appropriate use of technology based on traditional reuse practices
• to safeguard the conditions of living, place of work and entrepreneurial interest of the local villagers and producers engaged in various resource recovery practices.

". . . the dominant manifestation of culture has been technology in the service of resource-intensive growth. A sustainable future would have to see technology used more . . . in the service of the environment" with reliance on other means of economic growth ". . . which can continue to meet human needs in non-resource-intensive, or at least not devastating ways." (Dovers & Handmere, 1992) The problems associated with maintaining the wastewater aquaculture, vegetable and rice farming in Calcutta are multidimensional. Sustainability in Calcutta involves political, socioeconomic, religious, environmental, geographical and educational aspects. Of these, the most critical problems are associated with lack of pollution control, stable leadership, significant poverty reduction, basic health care and education for the majority of the people of the country.

Political

The government administration of policies in India is one of the main constraints as well as one of the boons to economic proliferation and preservation of Calcutta’s wetlands system. This dichotomy is present in its pollution policies. India is aware of its tremendous pollution problems and has been willing (on paper) to legislate policies to improve and control it. The Ganga Action Plan represents a major effort by the government in 1985 to clean up the holy River Ganga-Ma. However, charges of mismanagement of clean-up funds and education, faulty waste treatment facilities and low compliance in controlling industrial effluents continue to haunt the government. Resulting continued pollution has brought a class action suit as well as a credibility gap. (India Today, l/7/97) The socialization of government services was inaugurated in order to bring basic services and empowerment to all of India’s classes. The primary legacy seems to have been a multilayered bureaucracy, which provided the most jobs in its cumbersome civil service. In spite of this, there are individuals such as Dr. Dhrubajyoti Ghosh, who are able during the course of their civil duties, to change the course of government. Dr. Ghosh scientifically quantified the economic and environmental value of the Calcutta wetlands then lobbied government to further study and protect it, with an eye to duplicating it elsewhere when possible. (C. Pye-Smith, 1995)

Recent political changes in the leadership of the nation speak volumes about the desires of the people of India to become an international economic player with a more homogenized national portrait. On July 14, 1997, Kocheril Narayanan, a member of India’s lowest caste, was elected president. Though its governing powers are limited, it was a symbolic victory for the nearly 25% of India’s people who "remain overwhelmingly poor, uneducated, and faced with continued discrimination by India’s upper classes" (Microsoft Encarta 98) This type of disenfranchisement can also lead, as Dr. Ghosh points out, upper class groups who sometimes ignore the discoveries and successes by the lower classes especially in developing technologies that are cost- effective tailored for India. The new ruling party (elected two months ago) in India today is comprised of a 13-party coalition whose economic thrust is centered on an ‘India built by Indians’ even while it is developing nuclear energy power plants with Houston-based giant Enron to the tune of about $10 billion US along with several other high price tag western business alliances. (Embassy of India, 1998) The Asia Development Bank "has forecast a recovery in India’s economic growth, but urged the government to speed up reforms and clear infrastructure hurdles." (Embassy of India, 1998) ADB along with eight other western and Asian government entities just bought a 40% stake in India’s Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation. In its National Agenda for Governance (3/98) the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its partners dedicated themselves to many needed changes some along the lines of UN and World Bank guidelines for eradicating poverty and inequality. They also advocate the empowerment of women "will legislate for reservation of 33% of the seats in Parliament and State Assemblies for women." and ". . . unveil a National Environment Policy to balance between development and ecology." (BJP Org, 1998).

On the local political scene, Calcutta’s civic leaders made up of the old guard communists took bulldozers to the proletariat’s hovels and garbage on the streets of Calcutta in an effort to entice foreign investment to the city. One agreement with a U.S. company to burn 2200 tons of daily refuse to generate electricity may impinge on the symbiotic relationship between the rag pickers and the garbage farms. (www.ess.co.at, 1998)

Socioeconomic

Calcutta’s economic problems hark back to when the British changed a primarily agricultural area into a bustling trade center. With the increase in trade and industry came a growing population looking to make a better living. The growing middle and upper class merchants, bankers and administrators came from different levels of the Hindu hierarchy. That they were Hindu was primarily due to the disenfranchisement of the Muslims associated with the Mughal Empire. During the British Empire the city was racially segregated, today it is segregated along religious, economic, linguistic and educational lines. (www.ess.co.at) It is these segregations, usually caste related, that have created "a serious obstacle to civil progress in India." (Microsoft Encarta 98) The communal riots that arose from the partition of India in 1946 and the separation of East Bengal (Bangladesh) caused massive population influxes. Calcutta’s population now stands at approximately 14 million. In 1981, 35% of the population were slum dwellers living in bustees (a group of shacks) with little sanitary facilities. During the monsoon season they are frequently flooded. The current government is planning on increasing education and retraining, wooing foreign investment capital, and building the infrastructure of the waste fisheries to increase production and economic gain in the region while trying to break the cycle of poverty.

Religious

Caste refers to a religious and regional hierarchy made up of the Brahman (priestly class), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaisyas (farmers and merchants), Sudras (laborers), and Harijans/Dalits (classless, Untouchables) which included the aboriginal peoples, outcasts, and criminals. These original caste sections have been subdivided many times. Membership in a caste was hereditary, and it enforced marriage within the caste and limitations on jobs and personal contact with other castes. This was controlled by the religious belief in karma, which states that if you behave ably within the social confines of your caste, you will be reincarnated into a higher caste in your next life. (Microsoft Encarta 98) The caste system was weakened during British rule, and further petitioned against by Gandhi. The Untouchable class was outlawed by the new constitution in 1948, but old traditions die hard. Nevertheless, education of a wider cross section of people along with increasing emancipation of women has led to the further weakening of this system.

Environmental

The health of the wetlands in Calcutta is directly related to the health of the Ganga River. The figures on pollution in that river are astounding: tests of the coliform bacteria count showed from 13-300 times more than the safe limit. it absorbs over 1,340 million liters of sewage a day, crematoria deposit half burnt corpses, tanneries dump chromium, other heavy metals like lead and cadmium are also dumped, agriculture run off includes pesticides such DDT which are banned in the U. S.. All of this travels down through the Hooghly to Calcutta, who in turn dumps 2/3 of its untreated sewage along with other industrial wastes back into the Ganga which then flows through the Sundarban region and on out to the Bay of Bengal. (India Today, 1997) Many wild fisheries, birds and animals (including the Royal Bengal Tiger) live in this region and are suffering for it. The toxic waste is also having an effect on the Sundari trees and they are slowing dying. It will be imperative that the new radical nationalist government not only legislate effective environmental policy, but also follow it up with systematic policing and citations. In the words of Garrett Hardin who wrote "The Tragedy of the Commons", "The more the population exceeds the carrying capacity of the environment, the more freedoms must be given up." (Hardin, 1998). As for heavy metals and pathogens in the waste aquaculture ponds of Calcutta, cholera, salmonella and streptococcus have been noted in the ponds. More seriously, is the possible transmission of parasitic worms through a fish host. If the wastewater is pretreated in a holding pond, these parasitic eggs tend to fall off and perish in the sediment layer. Culturally, Calcutta fishermen tend to thoroughly cook their fish. This seems to restrict the level of bacteria ingested and no reports of epidemic outbreaks are known. The local fishermen also grow water hyacinth around the ponds to stabilize the sides. These have the added value of being able to hold and break down heavy metals. Water that passes from the fishponds to the rice paddies are high in nutrients but free from harmful toxins. The primary problem for the Calcutta ponds, is the increasing level of pollution, which is leading them to the limit of their recycling ability.

Geographic

The city of Calcutta is located on the north eastern portion of India, next to the Ganga River and the Bay of Bengal. The British built ‘their’ Calcutta on high banks of the Hooghly River which tends to keep it out of water during the dry season. But the new Calcutta is almost located at sea level, and falls away towards part of the Sundarbans marsh delta which emanates from the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers. During the monsoon season much of it is flooded. One of the main problems with this type of geography for Calcutta’s waste removal, is that during the monsoon season, it isn’t unusual for portions of the city to be flooded with untreated sewage water leading to many health concerns such as cholera, dysentery, etc.

Opportunities

There are many positive things going on in Calcutta, many of them "by Indians for Indians’ such as the many colleges, art galleries, utilizing western capital to bring Indian ideas to fruition, and waste farms and fisheries that act to treat sewage during the process.

Some suggestions for preserving this unique heritage:

• Use an integrated coastal and riverine management system that includes input from local sources.
• Don’t hesitate to cite industrial point source pollution. Make recycling and reuse a part of doing business in India—she’s worth it.
• Provide adequate health care and education for the poor—especially the women.
• Respect technologies and discoveries by rural ecologists—the farmers and fishermen—when deciding on R & D projects
• Beware the gift horse—utilize financing and technologies that fit India’s priorities

Recommendations
 

1. Provide complete in-depth coastal and riverine management system
2. Review environmental laws
3. Cite and penalize point source polluters
4. Provide adequate treatment for wastewater
5. Provide education: a) regular primary and secondary, b) hygienic, c) environmental

1. Coastal and Riverine Management System

The Ganges River all the way to the Ganges Delta and the Bay of Bengal need to be managed and monitored as a unit. Pollution that occurs on the river will eventually end up in the bay affecting wildlife fisheries and other organisms.

Allow affected parties the ability to participate in management. This will be more likely to ensure compliance with future restrictions.

2. Environmental Laws

Should follow WHO " " " " " " " "

3. Point Source Pollution

4. Provide Adequate Sanitation

Utilize resources such as Appropriate Sanitation Alternatives: A Planning and Design Manual (Kalbermatten, et al, 1982) published for the World Bank. Listed are several different low-cost sewage treatment options, their construction and maintenance.

5. Education

Hygienic education needs to be emphasized at every level; this should include reasons why certain culturally acceptable ways must now be changed for the better health of all.

Have the women in each community organize classes and provide them with materials.

Environmental education needs to be ongoing for all of India, if the message is to get out about the consequences of pollution and the solutions that work.

The current BJP coalition has stated its commitment to improving the lot of the Indian people, to create a new nationalism and to develop as a player in the world economy. (India Embassy, 1998)

With these recommendations, Calcutta can maintain the wetlands as a natural sewage treatment system with evaluation and maintenance of its current capacity, and realistic, environmentally sound development planning for the future.

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