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Lullabies of a City

Lullabies of a City

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Close your eyes and take in the sounds around you. Perhaps you notice the whirling of the fans or air conditioning around you, or the minute ticking of your desk clock. Most likely though, you will hear the ever faint sounds of vehicles zipping down the streets, or the very distant sounds of construction. Although most of us would have been conditioned to subconsciously tune these noises out, they indadvertedly still stimulate the nervous systems in our bodies, and in a city where such noises are

Noise pollution impact millions on the daily basis, resulting in common illnesses such as noise induced hearing loss, increased blood pressure as well as psychological impacts such as increased stress and irritation (Stansfeld & Matheson, 2003). It has been found that children who grew up near airports developed poor memory as well as low levels of attention (Hart, 2018). Noise pollution also affect adults through poor quality of sleep, which affects productivity and overall health and mentality of a person. Several serious cases might even result in tinnitus or paracusis.

According to local guidelines on permissible noise, Singapore’s Environmental Protection and Management Act (EPMA) states that residential noise should not exceed 65 decibels in the day, and 55 decibels during the night. The video below demonstrates what each decibel would sound like, and if you would like to know whether your current environment is within stipulated guidelines, online noise meter apps such as this can help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XUovxiTpVA

Now that we know about the sources and consequences of noise pollution, perhaps it is wise to turn down the volume of your headphones, and be more aware of the items around your house that causes tiny ticking sounds. In the next blog post, we will cover some of the ways cities take action in combatting noise pollution.

References

Hart, J. (2018). Noise Pollution is Hurting Our Health. Alternative and Complementary Therapies, 24 (5), 229–231. https://doi.org/10.1089/act.2018.29185.jha

Stansfeld, S. A., & Matheson, M. P. (2003). Noise Pollution: Non-Auditory Effects on Health. British Medical Bulletin, 68 (1), 243–257. https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldg033

Urban Revitalisation of Seoul City

Urban Revitalisation of Seoul City

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In the aftermath of the World War II, many Asian countries placed growing their economy as a priority, which resulted in rapid urbanisation and the negligence of quality of life and proper urban planning (Y.-K. Lee et al., 2014). For this blog post, we place focus on the case study of the Cheonggyecheon restoration project, an attempt by Seoul City to veto the horrible air pollution and poor quality of life brought about by poor urban design in the past.

The Cheonggyecheon is an eleven-kilometre stretch of stream that flows through the central part of Seoul, the capital of Korea. The water in the previously ephemeral stream Cheonggyecheon originates from the highlands north of the stream, such as the Bukhan mountain (Jeon & Kang, 2019). Cheonggyecheon then flows and connects to the Han River, which drains out into the Yellow Sea.

Prior to the restoration in 1958, Cheonggyecheon stream was buried under an expressway that was 50m wide and span 6km in length. Later in 1976, an elevated highway was built upon the pre-existing highway to mitigate congestion issues (Kim & Jung, 2019). As majority of the land-use around Cheonggyecheon was roads and traffic, it led to a decline in air quality around the Central Business District (CBD) area of Seoul. A study found that citizens who worked or lived near the area were twice as likely to suffer from respiratory illnesses as compared to other Seoul citizens (Hwang, 2004). This was due to the high nitrous oxide and benzene levels from idling vehicles.

Fig 1: The before and after comparison of downtown Seoul (Source: Seoul City)

Talks of restoring the Cheonggyecheon began with the election of Seoul’s first conservative mayor Lee Myungbak in 2002. Lee’s political campaign focused on improving environmental and cultural spaces in the city to increase the quality of life and revitalise the dull urban environment that resulted from the rapid urbanisation in Seoul. The Cheonggyecheon Project promises to do just that; the removal of the expressways encouraged citizens to switch over to active mob ility methods like walking and cycling (Kim, 2007), greatly improving the air quality due to the large decrease in vehicles passing through the CBD area. In fact, the city saw major decline in records of air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and ozone prior to and after the restoration project (Hoe, 2006).

The Cheonggyecheon project has become a global example that advocated the importance of green and sustainable spaces in a city. It also presents ideas and encouragement of utilising active mobility and public transport as effective ways to curb vehicle air pollution in cities.

References

Hoe, Y. (2006). The Research Regarding the City Air Environment Improvement Effect Follows in the Cheonggye Stream Restoration (Master’s Thesis). University of Seoul, Seoul, South Korea.

Hwang, K. Y. (2004). Restoring Cheonggyecheon Stream in the Downtown Seoul. http://lloydgoff.com/airparkvillage/beyondoilusa/news/b7-hwang.pdf

Jeon, C., & Kang, Y. (2019). Restoring and Re-Restoring the Cheonggyecheon: Nature, Technology, and History in Seoul, South Korea. Environmental History, emz032. https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emz032

Kim, B. (2007). Urban typological analysis of the cheonggye stream restoration project in seoul. The Korea Spatial Planning Review, 53, 110–130. https://doi.org/10.15793/kspr.2007.53..007

Kim, H., & Jung, Y. (2019). Is Cheonggyecheon sustainable? A systematic literature review of a stream restoration in Seoul, South Korea. Sustainable Cities and Society, 45, 59–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.11.018

Lee, Y.-K., Lee, C.-K., Choi, J., Yoon, S.-M., & Hart, R. J. (2014). Tourism’s role in urban regeneration: Examining the impact of environmental cues on emotion, satisfaction, loyalty, and support for Seoul’s revitalized Cheonggyecheon stream district. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 22(5), 726–749. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2013.871018

The Asian Yellow Dust – Part 2

The Asian Yellow Dust – Part 2

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In the previous blog post, I introduced the phenomenon of the Yellow Dust that brings in air pollutants from the arid regions of continental Asia, into the cities of China, Korea and Japan. I also mentioned that the composition of the particles are mainly fine or ultra-fine sand which was the result of aeolian processes and years and years of erosions of the landscape of the deserts. From this, we would think that the causes of the Yellow Dust is inherently natural. However, as with most environmental issues, anthropogenic activities have intensified the impacts of the Yellow Dust.

 

Desertification

Fig 1: Desertification in China, where land exhausted of its water and nutrients from intensive agriculture (source: Science Photo Library)

 

The dust storms that distributes the sediments of the deserts to the entire East Asia are the result of ongoing desertification. Following global warming and climate change, which exacerbates dry spells, desertification has intensified throughout the years. Placing focus on China’s arid regions, we see that the country is expected to lose almost 1 million square kilometres of humid areas to arid and semi-arid regions by 2030 (FAO, ?). Aside from climate change, local anthropogenic activities also contributes significantly to desertification. With rapid increase of the Chinese population comes over-utilisation of China’s land resources; more land cleared to build cities to house more people, intensified agriculture and livestock rearing. Such activities places immense stress on land as well as water resources, resulting in the drying up of groundwater resources, leading to desertification (FAO, ?)

 

Industrial pollutants laced with sand sediments

During recent studies on the Yellow Dust, it was discovered that sand particles from the desert was not the only form of pollutant within the Yellow Dust. Secondary particles such as mercury and cadmium has been detected amongst the pollutants, and its origins can be traced back to the industries of China (Kang & Kim, 2014).

 

Political conflicts

Needless to say, the mitigation and slowing down of desertification, as well as the Chinese industry’s issue of transboundary pollution has brought about political discussions with the affected countries in East Asia, for example setting up a Republic of Korea-China Joint Committee on Environmental Cooperation to discuss cooperative efforts to tackle air pollution (Kang & Kim, 2014).

 

References

Kang, D., & Kim, J.-E. (2014). Fine, ultrafine, and yellow dust: Emerging health problems in korea. Journal of Korean Medical Science, 29(5), 621. https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2014.29.5.621

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Ed.). (1997). Drylands development and combating desertification: Bibliographic study of experiences in China. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The Asian Yellow Dust – Part 1

The Asian Yellow Dust – Part 1

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Fig 1: Donning a mask is a common sight in South Korea, who battles the Misemongi yearly (source: Joel’s Travel Tips)

 

Following the most recent COVID-19 pandemic, people out and about on the streets with a face mask on is no longer an unusual sight. However in East Asian countries, specifically China and Korea, masks has been a necessity way before the COVID times. The reason for this is because cities in both countries suffer from poor air quality with a surprisingly natural origin.

 

Origins of the dust

Fig 2: The pathway of the Yellow Dust, originating from the deserts in China and Mongolia (source: National Institute of Meteorological Research)

 

The Yellow Dust that blows over East Asia originates from the arid and semi-arid regions of China, where the Gobi Desert and the Loess Plateau are located (Kar & Takeuchi, 2004). The composition of the particles in the Yellow Dust are mainly sand and soil dust, eroded through aeolian processes (Chung, 1992). During the months of spring (March to May) is when the Yellow Dust occurs. This is because as the weather warms up in the Northern hemisphere, it triggers a change in atmospheric pressure and triggers strong gusty winds as well as extratropical cyclones. These strong weather systems then transports the fine dust particles from the Chinese deserts eastwards towards major Chinese cities as well as Korea and Japan (Chung, 1992).

 

Health implications

The most obvious implications of the Yellow Dust on humans will be the health implications. Similar to the haze we face here in Southeast Asia, the Yellow Dust has particulate of sizes ranging from PM10 to PM2.5, both classified as fine and ultra-fine. PM10 particles are small enough to enter the alveoli in the lungs, while PM2.5 can permeate into the blood and lymphatic system, potentially even reaching the brains and fetal organs (Kang & Kim, 2014). The particles are also irritants, and can worsen existing conditions such as asthma and eczema.

 

Economical impacts

As the dust chokes up the city, it brings about economic downfalls as well, affecting an array of services. Firstly, as the dust is opaque and causes a decrease in visibility. Through a detailed economic analysis by Kang et al. (2004), it was estimated that South Korea’s aviation industry suffered half a million dollars lost in year 2002 from flight cancellations alone. As the dust causes health implications, it can affect productivity of the workforce, and discourage people from going outdoors, affecting various retail industries. the total cost of the Yellow Dust on South Korea in 2002 is estimated to be USD 5,600 million, or USD 117 per South Korean citizen (Jeong, 2008)

 

Any Solutions?

As the origins and causes of the Yellow Dust is inherently natural, it is difficult for governments to mitigate the onslaught of this particular type of air pollution in the city. As such, cities can only adapt through means like implementing cohesive guidelines for the public and monitoring the meteorological events closely to provide quicker alerts to its citizens.

 

References

Chung, Y.-S. (1992). On the observations of yellow sand (Dust storms) in Korea. Atmospheric Environment. Part A. General Topics, 26(15), 2743–2749. https://doi.org/10.1016/0960-1686(92)90010-I

Jeong, D.-Y. (2008). Socio-economic costs from yellow dust damages in south korea. Korean Social Science Journal, 35(2), 1–29. http://journal.kci.go.kr/kssj/archive/articleView?artiId=ART001293655

Kang, D., & Kim, J.-E. (2014). Fine, ultrafine, and yellow dust: Emerging health problems in korea. Journal of Korean Medical Science, 29(5), 621. https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2014.29.5.621

Kang, G. G., Chu, J. M., Jeong, H. S. Han, H. J., and Yoo, N. M.(2004). An Analysis of the Damage From YYellow Dust in Northeastern Asia and Regional Cooperation Strategy for Reducing Damage. Seoul: Korea Environment Institute.

Kar, A., & Takeuchi, K. (2004). Yellow dust: An overview of research and felt needs. Journal of Arid Environments, 59(1), 167–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2004.01.010

Are we slowly poisoning ourselves by staying indoors too often?

Are we slowly poisoning ourselves by staying indoors too often?

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People spend majority of their lives indoors today, be it at home resting, in an office at work, or when we go to malls for leisure during break-time. Hence, it is not surprising that there is an increased focus on the quality of air indoors, particularly in its Volatile organic compound (VOC) concentration. VOCs are compounds that evaporate easily. They are found in almost every household item. Some examples of VOCs include acetone (commonly found in nail polish removers), benzene (found in glue or carpeting) and terpenes (used in scented products such as soap or fabric softener). VOCs are seemingly unavoidable in everyday life and VOC levels are often disregarded and forgotten because of the lack of interest and knowledge about it. However, this should not be the case, as the impacts of exposure to VOCs are truly insidious.

 

Fig 1: Infographic on types and sources of indoor air pollutants (source: Andatech)

 

Death attributed to VOC exposure has accounted for an estimated 4.3 million deaths annually (WHO, 2014), and majority originates from less-developed nations where houses lack proper ventilation, and where citizens still rely heavily on gas stoves or wood-fired heating. Several kinds of VOCs such as benzenes are even discovered to be carcinogenic. Common acute symptoms for exposure to high levels of VOCs are eye, nose and throat irritation, as well as headaches and nausea. Breathing in VOCs also exacerbate asthmatic conditions, affecting children and elderly more so than adults.

 

Now, you might wonder then, if VOCs have many known side effects, why have we as a society, not done anything to mitigate this source of indoor pollution? Agencies have attempted to establish regulations, such as the Clean Air Act enacted by the US congress, which promises high standards in the nation’s air quality (UL, 2018). However, most regulations imposed on VOC emissions focus more on outdoor emissions rather than indoor emissions. Even if regulations are present, they are often filled with loopholes. For instance, the Japanese Government established a guideline for Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) which sets a standard for maximum indoor VOC levels in public buildings such as offices. However, such regulations cannot be fully implemented in households because government interventions within homes are considered a violation of personal freedom (Azuma, Uchiyama and Ikeda, 2008).

 

To help out the situation at home, regulations will have to be placed on the source of the pollution and not the homeowners. This means holding household product companies accountable for the chemicals they use. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website assures that there are national and international organisations that check and classify household products according to impact levels of indoor air quality on health such as irritation or chronic toxicity. However, this labelling and certification process is neither compulsory nor standardised, hence consumers might still run the risk of overexposure to harmful VOCs.

Through this post, I hoped I managed to raise awareness of the harms of VOCs, and encouraged consumers to be mindful of the products we use at home so as to protect ourselves from any onslaught of health implications.

 

References

World Health Organisations (2014) “Household (Indoor) Air Pollution.” 2014, November. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/indoorair/en/

UL PSi. (2018, April 20). Volatile organic compounds (VOCs): A brief regulatory overview. Retrieved from https://msc.ul.com/en/resources/article/volatile-organic-compounds-vocs-a-brief-regulatory-overview/

Kenichi Azuma, Iwao Uchiyama & Koichi Ikeda (2008, May) The regulations for indoor air pollution in Japan: a public health perspective, Journal of Risk Research, 11:3, 301-314, DOI: 10.1080/13669870801967119

Effects of light pollution on Urban Black Swans

Effects of light pollution on Urban Black Swans

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As a continuation from the previous introductory post on light pollution, we look deeper into the impacts it has on bio-diversity, specifically wildlife that shares the urban space with us. As aforementioned, exposure to artificial lighting, specifically blue light, at night-time prevents the body from producing the sleep hormone melatonin. This is why it is worth once in a while to listen to mom and put your phone away before sleeping. Other lightings such as LED streetlights are also sources of blue light pollution.

Blue light pollution is known to cause sleeplessness in humans, but what about the urban wildlife? It was predicted that warmer, amber lightings with less short, blue wavelength helps in mitigating biodiversity impacts of light pollution, and cities have transitioned into adopting them. To test the validity of this prediction, animal behaviour researchers from Australia tested whether unfiltered white light (blue-rich) and filtered amber (blue-reduced) light from LED streetlights had any implications on the rest and melatonin production in black swans.

Fig 1: The cygnus astratus, or black swan, native to Australia (photo credit: google photos)

 

The swans are ideal test subjects as they are large and can be re-captured with ease. They are also diurnal, with relatively flexible sleep patterns. This meant that the black swans are relatively resilient to sleep disruption, hence the researchers predicted that if the swans are affected by the lights, then other more sensitive urban wildlife will have a greater impact. Quality of sleep of the swans were quantified using electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements and melatonin in blood levels. It is also good to note that the swans are exposed to urban lighting in a naturalistic manner, meaning the test site was constructed to be like a typical pond in the park.

The results of the study were unexpected; where the colour of the streetlights had no differing effect on the quality of sleep of the swans. The study also confirmed that the swans rested less under white night controls over dark controls, as seen from shorter rest durations (~30 mins less) and shorter REM sleep.

Fig 2: Results of light treatment affecting the sleep cycle of the swans (photo credit: Alusebrook et al. (2020))

 

There is much to take away from this. Several interesting explanations for these results were given. Firstly, it was suggested that perhaps the swans were more disrupted by amber lighting at night was the fact that unlike humans, the swans have greater visual sensitivity for light from the red and yellow spectrum, hence amber lighting for these diurnal animals might have further stimulated them at night. Melatonin levels in the swans were also non-conclusive due to the low levels detected overall, hence the study was unable to develop a conclusion linking melatonin production to colour of lighting for the swans.

Nonetheless, the results hinted that current mitigative measures of altering the colours of streetlights is not as effective as it was once predicted to be. It is therefore more advisable to turn off streetlights entirely, especially in parks, reserves, or where plenty of urban wildlife reside, to keep disruption from artificial light pollution to bio-diversity down to a minimal.

 

References

Aulsebrook, A. E., Lesku, J. A., Mulder, R. A., Goymann, W., Vyssotski, A. L., & Jones, T. M. (2020). Streetlights Disrupt Night-Time Sleep in Urban Black Swans. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 8, 131. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00131

City of stars, there’s so much that I can’t see (literally)

City of stars, there’s so much that I can’t see (literally)

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Cities and bright lights are synonymous, and stunning nightscape are often an important feature of a vibrant and flourishing city. Indeed, cities are meant to be sparkling, but bright lights have robbed us of other wonders of the world. For example, we know for sure that stars exist above our heads in the sky, but why is it that we see nothing but pitch black when we tilt our head up to the skies at night in the city? In this blog post, we will be looking into the frequently overlooked phenomenon of light pollution.

 

What exactly is light pollution?

Fig 1: A faint glow can be seen in the night sky over the city. This is known as sky glow, when artificial light from the city is reflected on atmospheric particles (photo credit: skyglow project)

 

Throwing back to the definition of pollution I gave in the very first post; pollution is introduction of harmful materials into the environment, in this case, light is our pollutive substance. It is important to note that pollutive light mainly refers to artificial lighting, so no, we will not have to fight the sun when combatting light pollution. Light pollution is a major side effect of urbanisation, and is often an underlying contributor to various health implications and ecosystem disruptions.

 

Sleepless nights in a city that never sleeps

In a city, one is rarely shrouded in darkness. Take Singapore for an example, to ensure safety and visibility at night, almost every corner of neighbourhoods is illuminated by a street lamp. Although light acts as a safety mechanism in the urban setting, as it discourages criminal activity (NCPC, 2003), constant exposure to artificial light can be detrimental to the natural rhythms in living things. Humans have an internal circadian clock that regulate our sleep cycle through roughly 24 hours. Exposure to artificial light at night when the body is supposed to be sleeping causes the clock to delay the production of melatonin, the hormone that triggers drowsiness. Longterm disruption of circadian cycle will eventually result in insomnia and related illnesses such as stress and anxiety from the lack of rest (NIH, 2021). There was even a study that linked circadian disruption to being a carcinogen to humans (IARC, 2007).

 

Dancing in the streetlights?

Fig 2 & 3: Good samaritans helped to pick up the straying turtle hatchlings and bring them back to the coast. Some also parked their bicycles to cordon off the path to prevent more collision with the hatchlings (photo credit: Brendan Goh)

 

City light pollution also affects the wildlife that live close to or within urban environments. Many animals have the natural instinct to follow the sun or the moon for directional guidance, such as turtle hatchlings. Just recently in Singapore at Changi Beach, there was a sea turtle hatching event that caught the attention of the general public. Turns out, instead of moving towards the sea, the hatchlings mistook the park’s street-lamps as the moon, and made its way onto the bike paths, where many were crushed by unsuspecting cyclists. Thankfully, citizens noticed the tiny hatchlings and helped to divert and guide them back to the waters (Lee, 2021).

 

Do we turn off our lights at night then?

Of course it is not plausible to power off an entire metropolis at night time, however, there are still room for improvement in the current lighting structure of a city. For example, making the switch to energy-efficient and lower blue light LED street-lamps can decrease blue light exposure (which prevents melatonin release). Legislations can be established to control outdoor lighting, and sensors can be used for areas with less foot-fall. We can also do our part by installing blinds to prevent light trespassing.

 

 

References

International Agency for Research on Cancer. (2011, July 21). IARC Monographs Programme finds cancer hazards associated with shiftwork, painting and firefighting. https://web.archive.org/web/20110721001355/http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/2007/pr180.html

Lee, J. (2021, December 18). Sea turtles hatch near changi coast cycling path, passers-by rescue most of them. Must Share News – Independent News For Singaporeans. https://mustsharenews.com/sea-turtles-hatch-changi/

National Crime Prevention Council. (2003). CPTED Guidebook. https://www.ncpc.org.sg/cpted.html

National Institute of General Medical Science. (2021). Circadian rhythms. https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/fact-sheets/Pages/circadian-rhythms.aspx#:~:text=Circadian%20rhythms%20are%20physical%2C%20mental,the%20study%20of%20circadian%20rhythms

Asia’s Dirtiest Holy River – Part 2

Asia’s Dirtiest Holy River – Part 2

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In the previous blog post, we looked at how love and devotion, coupled with improper sewage systems and lax regulations, have led to the demise of the river that courses through the world’s largest ancient city. It was clear that the river Ganges was vital to the people who reside near it, but what exactly have the people done to revive the river?

 

Governmental Action

The Holy City of Varanasi, a popular pilgrimage destination

 

 

The Ganges River provides the state with an array of ecosystem services; it is the source of irrigation water for one of the main exports of India: rice. It also possesses great hydroelectric power, and garners economy through tourism, where the holy city of Varanasi alone saw over 300,000 foreign visitors and 5 million domestic tourists annually.

Evidently, the Ganges is an essential nature resource to the state’s economy, which is why there was an attempt to safeguard this resource with the implementation of the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP). This plan was separated into 3 phases. Phase 1, which took place from 1993-2003, aims to eliminate informal sources of waste disposal into the channel through expanding sewage networks and public infrastructures such as toilets. Phase 1 also planned to educate the public on pollutive behaviours. Unfortunately, due to lack of foresight on a population boom, the new infrastructures built were unable to cater to the new 6.7 million, as it was initially planned to support only 3.5 million people. The second phase involves further capacity building, and the start of water testing to check the progress of the action plan. It was found that after a whole 20 years since the plan ensued, dissolved oxygen concentrations remained low and heavy metal percentages are almost the same pre-YAP, indicating meagre success (Singh and Parmar, 2015).

 

Leaving the river alone

It seems that hard engineering methods implemented by the states saw extremely limited improvements, and that perhaps, should not be the direction to look into for a sustainable restorative strategy. To contain the recent outbreak of COVID-19, the Indian government called for a 60-days lockdown, and industries came to a halt. This was when a miracle happened.

Side by side comparison of the Ganges River before and during the COVID-19 lockdown

 

As seen from the above photos, the Ganges River finally ran clear, no longer plagued with phosphate foams that indicated polluted waters. It seemed unbelievable that with just a short 3-month break from constant consumption of industrial waste, the river was able to restore itself to such a healthy state. For this self-restorative function of the river, we will have to thank the various microorganisms that regulated oxidation and reductions of the fecal materials and several metals in the channel. Waters of the Yamuna River saw revivals of dissolved oxygen levels during the lockdown, indicating life in the river (Mohammad et al., 2020).

 

Moving forward

Alas, when the economy is again allowed to run, and industries begin functioning again, the frothy waters return. However, the sight of pure waters of Mother Ganges runs fresh in people’s mind; perhaps seeing the effects of proper pollution control can motivate a stronger urge in mitigating pollution of the river, and return the Ganges back to its initial purifying state that it is revered for.

 

References

Mohammad, A., Kumar, R., & Parveen, S. (2020). Reduction in Water Pollution in Yamuna River due to lockdown under COVID-19 Pandemic.

Singh, V., & Parmar, S. (2015). Water Quality Parameters of River Yamuna in Delhi After 20 Years of the Yamuna Action Plan. International Journal of Science and Nature, 6.

Asia’s Dirtiest Holy River – Part 1

Asia’s Dirtiest Holy River – Part 1

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Humans love water. Aside from the obvious reasons of needing water to survive, humans have an uncanny attraction to water, evident in the high demand for waterfront apartments, and expensive beach vacations. Our desire to be near a water source dates back to the birth of civilisation, where every cradle formed next to a river.

Pollution of the waters that run through ancient cities

We place focus on the Ganges River for our post today. The Ganges River was where the development of the most extensive Neolithic site, the Indus Valley Civilisation, occurred. Today, it flows through most of India, cutting into Bangladesh and emptying out into the Bay of Bengal. River Ganges provides an array of ecosystem services to the 650 million people within its basin, and is worshipped by the Hindus as the goddess Ganga.

Despite being worshipped for its purifying qualities, the River Ganges is ironically the dirtiest river in Asia, specifically at the stretch called Yamuna River. River health indicators such as low dissolved oxygen content and high heavy metal percentage showed the detrimental conditions of Yamuna. At this stage, the Yamuna is a dead river, incapable of sustaining an ecosystem (Rai, 2011).

Sources of pollutants – household and industrial waste

A woman praying amidst the frothy waters in the Ganges. Frothy waters are the result of high levels of phosphates from pollutants

 

The causes of pollution of River Ganges is overbearingly anthropogenic, and links greatly to the lack of providence of formalised drainage system in the many informal settlements flanking the channel. Faecal matter and household wastewater containing chemicals such as detergents, are often flushed into the channel untreated. Industries such as leather tanneries also illegally release large volume of chemicals and acidic compounds choke full of heavy metals into the sewerage system, which flows into the channel untreated (Parthasarathy, 2016).

 

Sources of pollutants – Religious believes

The process of submerging idols of the goddess Durga into the waters of Ma Ganga

 

Due to its holy status, River Ganges plays a vital role in many aspects of the Hindu religion. During the day of Durga Puja, devotees worships the goddess Durga, and conduct rituals that include submerging idols of the goddess into the holy river. These idols are usually made out of cheap paints laden with heavy metals, and are disposed in the river after the celebrations conclude. It was also believed that after death, if one’s remains are to be cremated at the banks of the Ganges, and ashes scattered into its waters, they will obtain a spiritual level deemed as “Moksha”, liberating them from the endless cycle of rebirth. At the holy city of Varanasi, an estimated 32,000 corpses are cremated and offered into the river annually. The sheer amount of human remains adds on to the pollutants entering the channel.

 

Human attempts to re-purify the waters

The water pollution of Ganges drew attention from many. Environmentalists have called for immediate restrictions on sewage entering the channels, and religious leaders preached about how India is slowly “killing its own mother” (Rowlatt, 2016). In the following post, we will look into the attempts by the state and its people in fighting against the poisoning of Ma Ganga.

 

References

Parthasarathy, S. (2016). In Pictures: The toxic cost of Kanpur’s leather industry. India Today. https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/the-toxic-cost-of-kanpurs-leather-industry-329990-2016-07-19

Rai, R. K. (Ed.). (2011). The Yamuna River Basin: Water Resources and Environment. Springer.

Rowlatt, J. (2016). India’s Dying Mother. BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-aad46fca-734a-45f9-8721-61404cc12a39

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of

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Cities are anthropogenic habitats, a place where humans congregate, to live, work and play in. Enticed by the prospect of jobs, education, facilities and in general, a better standard of living, cities draw humans in like fire to moth. In fact, more that half of the world’s population currently reside in a city, with this number projecting to rise to a 60% by 2030 (UN, n.d.).  In order to house this massive amount of people, rapid urbanisation ensued, and cities evolved into mega-cities, while previously rural communities begin adopting features of a city. Although cities are catalysts for economic growth, they also bring an onslaught of social and environmental issues.

 

Amidst the bright lights and hustle of activity, are insidious forms of pollution. Pollution is defined as an introduction of harmful substances into the environment. They can be clustered into the space they occupy, such as air, land and water. Other intangible forms of pollution are light and noise, both extremely commonplace in a city. Through this blog, we will look at how urbanisation and cities contribute to the pollution scene.

 

References

Cities—United Nations Sustainable Development Action 2015. (n.d.). United Nations Sustainable Development. Retrieved January 17, 2022, from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/cities/

 

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