Tourism has led to a boom in the local economy. Shops, hotels and guest houses have mushroomed all over the town of Leh. The local government known as the Hill Council, however, hasn’t been able to keep pace in terms of providing facilities required by this growing population. Systems of water supply and waste management are inadequate for the increasing population. Similarly, the attitude of the local people hasn’t changed either. Traditional practices of carrying out household activities along the streams and dumping of garbage haven’t changed. But the rise in population and therefore the rise in the amount of waste generated, demands urgent remediation. The people have to become more conscious about their ill-practices and consciously participate in environment management.

This is how the Ladakh Ecological Development Group – LehDEG - got interested in starting the CLEAN programme. The programme involves school children in monitoring the local environment on a continuous basis and instigating the community members to initiate actions to protect their local environment. Seeing the gradually degrading situation in Leh, LehDEG decided to involve students of the local schools in an effort to evoke community participation in managing their local resources. LehDEG is an NGO working in the different villages of Ladakh and Kargil. Its aim is to promote ecological and sustainable development which harmonises with and builds on the traditional culture.

A team of CLEAN members from Delhi travelled to Leh in July 1999 to initiate the programme. The orientation workshop was attended by students and teachers of six schools located in Leh. The workshop was also attended by members of Public Health Engineering - PHE and Ladakh Environment Health Organisation. On hearing about the programme structure and functioning, the audience was optimistic that the programme, aimed at protecting the local environment, would certainly be able to augur support from the local people.

CLEAN was launched with a two-day programme on monitoring the local drinking water resources, with the help of Jal TARA - water testing kit. The activity was an eye-opener for the entire group. The city of Leh depends on the glacier run-off and the Indus river to meet its water demand. Water from the glacier run-off is impounded by small check dams and supplied through a network of channels to the Leh town. In the course of water monitoring, it was observed that the practice of washing clothes and utensils along the streams is gradually deteriorating the quality of water downstream. In many villages of Ladakh, LehDEG (along with PHE) has been installing handpumps. Since not much is known about the quality of water drawn from the handpump, students of the CLEAN programme have started assessing this water quality.

A second area of concern is the disposal of the solid waste generated in town. As of now, most of it is collected in trucks and tipped in a valley behind the town. A small percentage also finds its way into the streams. The growing problem of waste polybags has resulted in their ban in Leh. LehDEG is keen on starting programmes on Solid Waste Management with the help of children who will be involved in the awareness phase and pilot projects in the school.

A third problem on the rise is that of air pollution, due to the poor fuel quality of heavy vehicles on the Leh highway. This is another issue that the Leh CLEAN group is likely to address in the near future. The students will monitor the ambient air quality and pressurise the government to make the better quality fuel available and also have the facility of a Pollution Check Centre.