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Community Level Environment Action Network
(CLEAN) Programme -
Acting locally
Aditi Handar &
Manisha G
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Years have passed since our country attained freedom and yet the
state of India’s environment does not depict a healthy picture.
Leave apart deforestation and air-pollution, sixty percent of the
water available in India is polluted.
Metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, etc. are facing
major problems due to phenomenal growth of population, travel
demands, industrialisation, air pollution, water pollution, mounting
heaps of solid waste, etc. All this is leading to an environmental
crisis throughout the subcontinent.
Deeply
concerned by the deteriorating environmental conditions in the
country, Development Alternatives has initiated the Community
Level Environment Action Network (CLEAN)
Programme. The CLEAN programme aims at awakening and sensitizing
the community to the dangers facing their environment and hopes to
arouse a sense of responsibility and sensitivity among people to
face various local environmental issues and take appropriate
actions.
The Concept
CLEAN
has a strong element of empowering communities in decision making
through scientific monitoring of environmental quality. Besides
training school children, our future citizens, in identifying and
adopting certain practices and life styles that minimise the damage
to environment, the programme also initiates local level action
through community interaction. Some of the expected outcomes of
this programme are aimed at:
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creating
scientific awareness about environmental issues |
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popularising and
propagating scientific aspects of environmental quality and
management |
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providing
technical education on environmental quality monitoring for
school children |
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involving school
children as agents of change |
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improving the
local environmental conditions |
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maintaining the
improved environmental conditions and providing protection from
further deterioration. |
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using scientific
data to enhance community decision-making capacity |
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make effective
decisions at various levels, starting from individual citizens
to Government agencies. |
The
main thrust of the CLEAN programme is to initiate a series of
citizen led environment improvement action. This includes members
from schools, colleges, NGOs, industry associations, resident
welfare associations, municipal authorities, funding organisations
and other interested citizen groups. It is an ongoing programme
wherein environmental quality monitoring, assessment and
implementation of environmental improvement actions are undertaken
in a sequential manner.
The
CLEAN National Centre is set up at the headquarters of Development
Alternatives. There will be CLEAN Regional Centres at the metros of
the country along with the CLEAN Monitoring Centres with their field
stations at the district level. To initiate the above process and
test its success, this programme was launched in Delhi and
christened as Delhi Environment Action Network (DEAN) Programme.
Recently, it has been launched in Meghalaya where it is known as
Meghalaya Environment Action Network (MEAN) Programme.
The Progress
DEAN
is in operation quite successfully in about 20 schools for the past
one year. Children from class VIII to XII are the main role players
of the programme. Development Alternatives has provided initial
training through workshop to the DEAN ‘core group’ (comprising two
teachers and 4 students). The core team, in turn has trained 30-40
students at their own school. By now Development Alternatives has
an established network of about 20 schools to monitor all the DEAN
monitoring zones. The monitoring zones have been created by taking
the entire area of Delhi and dividing it into small zones based on
various environmental parameters.
As part of the environmental quality monitoring, students have been
trained on various aspects and they have acquired skills like:
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use of low cost
portable water testing kit |
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carrying out
survey of any sampling site and filling up the local area survey
sheet and environment monitoring sheet |
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scientific
principles of sampling |
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interacting with
the local people at the sampling site |
The
children are equipped with the Jal Tara Kit (developed at
Development Alternatives) and have monitored the water quality of
municipal water supply, ground water sources and surface water
bodies.
The
water quality monitoring procedure and data has also been validated
with Rajiv Gandhi mobile pollution monitoring laboratory equipped
with sophisticated instruments. The school children have travelled
in this van to different sites from where they collected water
samples for the test with Jal Tara kit and their data were cross
checked. The children have also been taught how to use some of the
sophisticated instruments for checking the water quality.
The
children have collected two seasonal water quality data for most of
the areas of Delhi. There are around 170 sampling points in Delhi
which are being monitored seasonally on a regular basis. They have
discovered some alarming data on the water quality which are as
follows:
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Some ground water
sources showed high nitrate, chloride, fluoride, ammonia content
in certain areas comprising agricultural land and industries
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Some municipal
supply water showed definite ammonia content which is an
indicator of sewage contamination. (It was later identified
that the water from the municipal water pipeline was getting
contaminated by sewage). |
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Most of the
stagnant water bodies have become dumping sites both for the
small scale industries and domestic waste. This is having an
indirect effect on the nearby ground water source due to the
leaching process. |
Besides assisting the school children in monitoring, documentation
and interpreting the water quality data, Development Alternatives
also helps them understand the various concepts of environment and
their interrelationships by interacting with the students through
lectures, screening of video films and field trips during sample
collection and data validation. The children are also encouraged to
exchange information with other network members and write articles
in local and international newspapers and other communication media.
Highlights |
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Around 1000
children from 20 schools in Delhi are participating in this
programme. The Principal, the teachers along with the children
are very enthusiastic about the programme and now this programme
has been introduced as a part of the school curriculum in most
of the schools. This has made the DEAN programme function
smoothly from this year’s new academic session.
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The DEAN team
children have also participated in an exhibition and displayed
their water quality data to sensitize students from other
schools, who did not get an opportunity to participate in this
programme. |
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All the children
of DEAN team have acquired high degree of skills for monitoring
water quality and also the clarity regarding the different
concepts of environment. |
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The DEAN team
children are also encouraged to participate in various
activities like poster competitions and quizzes related to
environment awareness, through Development Alternatives. |
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While the children
are carrying out their role very sincerely, Development
Alternatives is now trying to build a network with the municipal
authority, industry associations, resident welfare associations,
pollution control board and other NGOs to chalk out a detailed
action plan for implementation at individual, household,
community and government levels. |
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Development
Alternatives is going to organise a two day exhibition in
January’98. The idea behind this exhibition is to make the
general public aware of their deteriorating environmental
quality, particularly the water quality from various sources.
Students and public will join the programme and thereby share
ideas to take up environmental improvement action at different
levels. |
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Looking Ahead |
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Development
Alternatives has started the CLEAN programme by taking up the
water quality problem in Delhi and has also initiated the
programme in Shillong (Meghalaya). We look forward to more
schools joining hands with us and more CLEAN Regional Centres
opening up throughout the country. |
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Over the last one
year the students have acquired high degree skills of monitoring
water quality and also understanding the relevance of
monitoring. Now, the air quality monitoring is on the anvil and
the children will be using the Pawan Tara Kit (being developed
at Development Alternatives). |
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Organising an
exhibition in Jan’98 to bring in students and public to share
ideas and take up improvement actions. |
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Initiate local
action programmes at the community level in some parts of Delhi. |
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Our mission is to
carry this programme across geophysical national boundaries
thereby hoping to achieve a global network through interactions
with the local authorities, communities and governments with
children as prime agents for environment monitoring, assessment
and initiation of action plans. |
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Dean School
Network |
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DAV Model School, Pitampura |
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Delhi Public School, Noida |
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Salwan Public School, Old Rajinder Nagar |
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Bal Bhawan Public School, Mayur Vihar |
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Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan |
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Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1, Delhi Cantt. |
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Convent of Jesus and Mary, Bangla Sahib Marg |
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Sadhu Vaswani International School for Girls, Shanti Niketan |
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Carmel Convent, Chanakyapuri |
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Amity International School, Saket |
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Ramjas Sr. Sec. School, R.K. Puram IV |
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The Mother’s International School, Aurobindo Ashram |
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Naval Public School, Chanakyapuri |
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Delhi Public School, Vasant Kunj |
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Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram |
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DL DAV Model School, Shalimar Bagh |
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New Era Public School, Maya Puri |
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Bal Bhawan Public School, Laxmi Nagar |
We
hope to share more news about this programme on a regular basis in
the forthcoming issues. We welcome similar efforts around the world
especially about the tools, technologies, and resource materials
used in similar programmes.
q
Development
Alternatives
CLEAN Team
Dr.
K. Vijaya Lakshmi, Aditi Haldar,
Maneesha Gopalkrishna,
Pramod Kumar, S.N. Prasad
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