Indian state hopes solar panels covering canals will ease energy, water woes

With a population of 1.2 billion, India is among the fastest-growing countries and is poised during our lifetime to eclipse China as the world's largest.

That well-documented growth has led to a near-unrivalled thirst both for electricity and water. The World Resources Institute has estimated India is planning on building 455 new coal power plants -- four times as many that exists now.

India also recently proposed the building of 292 new dams through the Himalayas, which would double the country's hydropower capacity and perhaps help deal with the power outages that have become daily occurrences in large cities like New Delhi and Mumbai.

Amid worries about how the environment might be impacted by the many changes comes news out of western India of a novel method for dealing with two environmental problems.

In the state of Gujarat, India is building experimental solar panels overtop of irrigation canals.

The panels will produce electricity and also reduce evaporation of the canal water by as much as 237,750 gallons each year, Gujarat's state government says.

India faces a looming water crisis.

I wrote about this in 2009, noting that thanks to global warming and other environmental woes, India's agricultural output may be carved by 40 per cent over the next 70 years, according to the Center for Global Development, a U.S.-based think-tank.

Gujarat guarantees premium prices for the solar electricity, and those subsidies have helped the state become one of the largest renewable energy producing states in the country, according to a report on technology website GigaOM.

The Indian project, which produces 1 megawatt of electricity, covers a small section of the 458 kilometre canal.

Rick Westhead is a foreign affairs writer at the Star. He was based in India as the Star’s South Asia bureau chief from 2008 until 2011 and reports on international aid and development. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

Nigeria a newcomer in list of deadliest countries for journalists

Index of most dangerous countries for journalists. (Committee to Protect Journalists)

Nigeria is a new addition to the list of the most dangerous countries in which to be a journalist, joining mainstays such as Pakistan, Somalia and Mexico.

Five journalists in Nigeria have been murdered since 2009. None of the cases have been solved.

“Investigations into these killings are usually carried out with sloppiness, and no real culprits are caught," said Ayode Longe, a senior officer with the Media Rights Agenda, a press freedom group in Nigeria. “That has emboldened others to assault journalists, believing nothing would be done to them."

The global index is released each year by the Committee to Protect Journalists and calculates unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country's population.

The index also found soaring impunity rates in Somalia, Pakistan, and Brazil.

The CPJ said conditions for journalists are improving in Nepal and Russia, "although both nations remain dangerous for the press."

The analysis founds increasing anti-press violence in Somalia, Pakistan, and Brazil, where national leaders are unwilling or unable to address the issue. In Somalia, 23 journalist murders have gone unsolved over the past decade.

The CPJ report highlights the cased of Wali Khan Babar, a journalist with Geo TV in Pakistan who was murdered in 2011.

While several suspects connected to one of the country’s leading political parties, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, are facing trial, the prosecution has been hindered by the murders of five people connected to the investigation, including witnesses and police officers.

In November 2012, an eyewitness was gunned down two days before he was due to give testimony, the CPJ said.

Iraq is said to be the most dangerous country in which to be a journalist. Over the past 10 years, there have been 93 unsolved killings of journalists in the country of 33 million. Somalia was ranked No. 2, followed by the Philippines, where 55 journalists have been murdered without any convictions in the country of 94 million.

Rick Westhead is a foreign affairs writer at the Star. He was based in India as the Star’s South Asia bureau chief from 2008 until 2011 and reports on international aid and development. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

How a river's fury leads to trafficking in India

Heavy monsoon rains frequently flood the Indian city of Guwaharati.  (REUTERS/Utpal Baruah)

Is there a connection between climate change and trafficking women in India?

There is, says an online story by the pulitzercenter.org.

Guwahati, a city in northeast India, lies on the banks of the mighty Brahamputra river. In the summer, it is sluggish; in the monsoons, it flows with a fury and is known to wash farmland, houses, anything that it comes in contact with. It also kills people.

Deforestation and the effects of climate change make the flooding more severe and unpredictable, says the writer of the story.

"It is from within these desperate communities that the women go missing. Traffickers have identified their vulnerable situation and lure them with promises of a better life in Delhi. Some of the women are outright kidnapped and sold as brides or prostitutes in Delhi, Haryana or western Uttar Pradesh."

In the northwestern states like Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, there is a skewed female-male ratio, as low as 720:1000, because female fetuses are aborted so that parents don’t have to pay massive dowries when the women are of marriageable age.

There is “demand” for women, some as young as 12, and traffickers find them here in villages that have been struck by the waters of Brahamputra.

"The sex-ratios in the eastern states are much less skewed than in the northwest of India. So there is a gradient between poverty and environmental degradation on one side, and money and the lack of brides on the other. It is this gradient that traffickers have identified as their business opportunity."  

A new link between climate change and how it affects people? Yes.

Raveena Aulakh is the Star's environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact, now and long-term. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

PHOTO: World Water Day is on Friday

Indian children carry recyclable items from the polluted water of the Mahananda river in Siliguri on Thurday. International World Water Day is on Friday. The day calls for international attention on the impact of rapid urban growth and uncertainties caused by climate change, human conflicts and natural disasters on urban water systems.  (Diptendu Dutta/AP)

Pakistan's largest city loses a local hero

Pakistan’s deadliest metropolis is mourning yet another victim – a local hero.

Aid worker Parveen Rehman was shot and killed last Wednesday by four gunmen while driving near Karachi’s western Orangi slum.

Rehman, 56, was the head of the Orangi Pilot Project, a widely praised charity that helped locals rise out of poverty by helping communities establish and maintain their own sanitation, health, housing and micro-finance systems.

Rehman had been documenting land use, which the BBC reports, may have angered some of Karachi’s crime syndicates.

“I knew her for the last 40 years – she had no enemy,” Tahira Sadia, a teacher of the Karachi University, told The Express Tribune newspaper. “Parveen was so simple, straightforward and dedicated to her work. She was full of life.”

According to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, Rehman had documented how 1,500 local villages had been merged into Karachi over the past 15 years. Criminals had grabbed much of that land and earned billions of Pakistani rupees from land sales.

Pakistan is a dangerous country in which to speak out, both for journalists and for activists alike. In October, the Taliban shot Malala Yousafzai after she refused to accept the group’s restrictions on girls’ education.

Following her murder, each of Karachi’s main political parties called Rehman a hero. But a year ago, Rehman during an interview with local journalist Fahad Desmukh criticized all of the local political leaders, condemning them for protecting the land-grabbing criminals.

She recalled at the time, how a group of criminals had confronted her and her colleagues.

“We said, ‘all that you can do is kill us. What else can you do? We’re not afraid of you.”

Rick Westhead is a foreign affairs writer at the Star. He was based in India as the Star’s South Asia bureau chief from 2008 until 2011 and reports on international aid and development. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

 

Mam Sonando: Cambodia to free jailed journalist who covered land grabs

Local radio station owner Mam Sonando, centre, is escorted by court security personnel as he enters an appeals court in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

When the Cambodian government ordered 1,000 village families to leave their homes last spring after awarding their land to a company planning to build a rubber plantation, journalist Mam Sonando reported the news on Beehive Radio, his independent station.

The government’s reaction was swift. The 71-year-old was charged with secession and last October was convicted of leading a secession plot against the government
and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Five months later, lobbying by the U.S. state department and human rights activists such as Amnesty International seems to have worked. Cambodia’s court of appeals today said it had dropped the secession charges against Sonando.

Instead, he’s been charged with illegal logging and given a suspended sentence after serving eight months in prison.

“Today's decision will give hope to other land and forest defenders who are being held by the Cambodian authorities," Oliver Courtney of international campaigns group Global Witness told the Guardian newspaper. "But we should remember that the Cambodian government has been pressured from every side to release Sonando, and in less high-profile cases they're still doing whatever it takes to silence their critics. As the country's land grabbing crisis gets worse, more and more people are getting arrested for speaking out – that has to stop."

Land grabs may be among the most concerning trends of the 21^st century. Throughout Africa, private companies are taking control of arable land and straining already scarce water resources.

The same thing is happening in Cambodia, Global Witness says. The watchdog group says nearly 75 per cent of Cambodia’s arable land has been converted to economic zones and awarded to private companies, typically without consultation or compensation to local communities.

More than 400,000 Cambodians have been forced off their land since 2003, the agency says.

At the same time, life has become increasingly difficult for journalists in Cambodia, where the group Reporters Without Borders says authoritarianism and censorship are on the increase. In its 2013 press freedom index, Cambodia placed 143rd among 179 countries surveyed. In 2012, Cambodia was 117th.

In September, another journalist, 44-year-old newspaper reporter Hang Serei, was found dead in the trunk of his car at a cashew plantation. He had been reporting on illegal logging. Earlier in 2012, the conservationist Chut Wutty was shot and killed by a soldier at an illegal logging site.

It’s unclear how soon Sonando might resume his coverage of the dispute in Broma, a village in Cambodia’s northern Kratie province where the agricultural company Casotim has been given land. Last May, hundreds of police officers raided the village and a 14-year-old girl was shot and killed.

Rick Westhead is a foreign affairs writer at the Star. He was based in India as the Star’s South Asia bureau chief from 2008 until 2011 and reports on international aid and development. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

 

 

Innovation a hallmark of fast-growing India

Patients receive prosthetic limbs during a campaign to distribute free artificial limbs at a hospital in Mumbai on Oct. 28, 2009. (Reuters/Arko Datta)

In India, the word "jugaad" has become part of the lexicon.

It’s slang for "frugal innovation" in the face of scarcity, and throughout India, there are countless examples of such creativity. During my posting in South Asia, I loved to write about entrepreneurs who developed innovations such as a pomegranate de-seeder, a cheap, portable infant incubator and a bamboo-framed bike.

The innovations aren’t limited to the Indian countryside. In Bangalore, the doctor Devi Shetty is turning heads with several initiatives, including his construction of a new hospital for cancer patients where the operating rooms all line the outer edge of the building. That allows doctors to operate using mostly natural light, instead of fluorescents.

A new report by the British charity Nesta attempts to document some of India’s most impressive innovations, which are occurring, the report notes, even though India’s expenditure on research and development remains under 1 per cent of GDP. That suggests India’s remarkable entrepreneurs are developing the innovations largely in the private sector and in universities. Nesta notes there are opportunities for British universities to partner with Indian schools, opportunities that similarly exist for Canadian rivals.

One of the best-known examples of frugal innovation in India is the Jaipur foot, which was developed by a temple sculptor who identified there was a lack of affordable prosthetic limbs. While existing models cost as much as $12,000, the Japiur foot is made of rubber, wood and cords, costs less than $45, and is now fitted on 20,000 patients a year.

Another noted by the new Nesta report highlights the Swach water filter, developed by Tata Chemicals. The filter costs $20, 50 per cent less than the cost of the lowest competitor filter. It uses a rice husk and silver nano-particle filter and runs without electricity or running water.  Developed in conjunction with M.I.T. in the U.S., the filter cleans 3,000 litres of water before it automatically shuts off.

Nesta also highlights 10 especially noteworthy Indian innovations. My favourite is Mumbai’s new version of 911. Users can dial 1298 for an ambulance. Patients going to a private hospital are charged the full amount, while others who are taken to a government/municipal hospital are charged a subsidised rate and free services are provided to accident victims, unaccompanied unconscious individuals and victims of mass casualty incidents.

In 2007, the company had 10 ambulances in Mumbai. Now it has close to 100.

Rick Westhead is a foreign affairs writer at The Star. He was based in India as the Star’s South Asia bureau chief from 2008 until 2011 and reports on international aid and development. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

Why Vietnam and Mozambique are the 'worst offenders' when it comes to the traffic of rhino horns

Punish those who traffic in rhino horns, punish them hard.

That was the stern message Vietnam was told on Tuesday by representatives attending the 178-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Bangkok.

Vietnam and Mozambique were called the “worst offenders.”

Vietnam, the main destination for rhino horn, was also asked to implement a strategy to reduce demand in the country.

It’s yet another step in an effort to stop the poaching of rhinos which has increased at a terrifying rate in the past few years. Poachers in South Africa are killing two rhinos every day on average. A record 668 South African rhinos were killed by poachers last year, and close to 150 have died so far in 2013, according to the WWF.

But why are rhino horns so in demand in Vietnam?  

In addition to the myths surrounding the healing properties of rhino horns, Vietnam has also recently been rife with the rumour that the horn is a cure for cancer.

(Reports say the rumour is being perpetuated by rhino horn dealers and traders.)

Incredible as it sounds, this rumour has allegedly been compounded at some hospitals in that country where staff have supposedly offered rhino horn to terminally ill patients.

The horn is mixed with water after being ground into a powder and consumed as a liquid.

A kilogram of rhino horn sells for as much as $65,000.

Demand for rhino horn is so great in the Southeast Asian country that certain outlets are said to be selling imitation rhino horn made from cows or buffalo.

Raveena Aulakh is the Toronto Star's environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact, now and long-term. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

Christian neighbourhood razed by mob in Pakistan

A demonstrator burns a cross during a protest in the Badami Bagh area of Lahore March 9. An enraged mob torched dozens of houses located in a Christian-dominated neighbourhood of Lahore on Saturday, local media reported. (Adrees Hassain/Reuters)

A barbed exchange over a haircut turned into accusations of blasphemy and the torching of a neighbourhood.

Pakistan is once more reeling in the wake of sectarian violence after more than 125 homes in Lahore were burned by a mob of more than 3,000 people on Saturday.

The crowd was responding to rumours that a local Christian man named Sawan Masih had made derogatory comments about the Prophet Muhammad. Masih, a 26-year-old sanitation worker, told police after his arrest on blasphemy charges that a local barber had spread the false rumours after refusing to cut his hair.

A church and several shops were also burned over the weekend by the mob, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reports.

The area of Lahore targeted by the mob is made up largely of Christian families. Most of them had left the area because police warned them about the possible attack.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf have ordered an immediate inquiry into the attacks.

The Express Tribune newspaper reports 21 suspects have been jailed for their alleged involvement in the attack.

It’s understandable if locals don’t expect to receive justice for their burned homes. Pakistan’s policing has long been criticized for its inefficiency. In 2011, I investigated Pakistan’s broken justice system, where 98 per cent of those charged of a serious crime are acquitted, for a Star investigation.

The Lahore mob’s rampage also rekindles memories of the case of Asia Bibi.

Bibi, a Christian mother of five, is jailed in Pakistan, condemned to death on the charge of blasphemy. When moderate Punjab governor Salman Taseer sought to have her sentence quashed, he was murdered by his own security guard.

Rick Westhead is a foreign affairs writer at The Star. He was The Star's South Asia bureau chief from 2008 to 2011. He now covers humanitarian aid and international assistance. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

 

Indian rape suspect: suicide or murder?

 

Parents of Ram Singh Indian rape suspect. (Mansi Thapliyal/Reuters)

Ram Singh, one of the suspects in the gang rape and murder of a young Indian student was found dead in his Delhi prison cell today.

Did he commit suicide or was he murdered? Speculation continues.

Prison authorities told The Times of India that he hanged himself using his clothes.  

"Singh was not alone in the cell when he committed suicide. Other inmates were present and a guard was also posted. But nobody came to know about it. Around 5 a.m. he was found hanging," a source told the paper.

But Singh's family and lawyer said he was murdered because his right hand was deformed and so he could not have killed himself.

Singh’s lawyer VK Anand: "There were no circumstances which could have led to Ram Singh committing suicide. There was no mental stress. He was very happy."  

Either way the BBC's Soutik Biswas said the death is embarrassing for the Indian authorities.  

"The death in prison of a man accused in the gang rape and murder of a student in Delhi has raised questions about security in South Asia's largest prison,” he said. 

 Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde told a press conference in the capital: "It is a major lapse in security, certainly it is not a small incident. Action will be taken. I cannot come to the conclusion at this moment whether it is a suicide or not before an inquiry."  

Hamida Ghafour is a foreign affairs reporter at The Star. She has lived and worked in the Middle East and Asia for more than 10 years and is the author of a book on Afghanistan. Follow her on Twitter @HamidaGhafour