Interdisciplinary Seminar:
Overcoming Hunger and Poverty as a Source of Insecurity and Conflict
Convener: Alice Kagoda, Uganda
Use of Urban Waste Water for Overcoming Hunger & Poverty-Livelihoods & Environmental impacts in India: A case study of the East Calcutta wetlands
Baisakhi Bandyopadhyay, Indian Federation of University Women’s Associations
The East Calcutta Wetlands (West Bengal, India), receive the urban sewage of Calcutta. Part of the wetlands is also used as a landfill. A sizeable peri-urban population (some resident, some commuting) is engaged in the area in fishing, agriculture, vegetable farming and garbage recycling activities. Wetlands are lands transitional between terrestrial and aquatic systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface or the land covered by shallow water. Their importance is that they maintain the food chain and ecological balance, absorb pollution, treat sewage, and sustain fishes. This study of the Wetlands aimed to:
- Identify the local livelihoods based on use of urban wastewater.
- Estimate the value of direct benefits derived by these stakeholders from its use
- Estimate the environmental impact of East Calcutta Wetlands on stakeholders.
Three main livelihood options using wastewater were identified: fisheries, paddy cultivation and garbage farming. Use of urban wastewater provides significant income for the poor residing in the wetlands. However adverse environmental and health impacts are occurring as urban expansion is allowed without an understanding of how to preserve the ecological, environmental and economic benefits of the sewage-fed aquaculture system.
Focused and directed developmental programmes must be devised to protect the East Calcutta Wetlands while improving the living standards of the people residing in most interior parts thereof. Poverty alleviation programmes can help farmers have an income during the non-crop season. Women can be given handicrafts training and taught to set up cooperatives, with guidance for marketing their products.
Dr Baisakhi Bandyopadhyay of the Department of Environmental Science, University of Kalyani, West Bengal, holds a PhD in Ecology & Environmental Science and has been a Visiting Fellow in the National Centre for Biosystematics, Natural History Museum & Botanical Garden, Department of Botany, University of Oslo, Norway and the Department of Human Geography, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where her project was A Study of the Environmental Impact of Rural to Urban Migration of Workers.