KOCHI: One question posed by activist groups to the US people in the US in connection with presidential election is whether they are ready to face the reality that America is a weapons factory and White House is a war room. If a similar question can be raised in connection with the polls in Kerala it would be definitely the ecological crisis facing the state. The two-month long grueling campaign during an unprecedented heat wave condition however, has not made our political class wiser in terms of their sensitivity to the ecological challenges facing the state.
The heat wave witnessed in the state, widely considered as one of the clear manifestations of the impact of climate change, has to be viewed in tandem with the acute drinking water crisis facing the state. Although the scarcity of water was one of the major issues in almost every assembly constituency in the state the issue has failed to emerge as a major issue at the state-level during the election campaign.
Issues such as the need for an efficient solid waste management and public transport system also failed to gain enough traction amongst the political parties. The political parties seem to be blissfully unaware that more than 10 people are killed in the state every day in road accidents. The waste dumps in the nook and corner of the state also given a short shrift by the political class despite the heated debate about the quality of life in Kerala in the wake of the infamous Somalia comments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The election manifesto of all major political parties have included such issues like solid waste management, part of the basic problems faced by the people in the state in their manifestos, said well known architect G Shankar. But these issues receded into the background in the sound and fury of the political rhetoric as the campaign progressed, he said.
“These issues were raised during the first round of the campaigning but slowly lost prominence when other issues which were sensational issues like corruption, caste loyalties and communalism became prominent campaigning points. It is really unfortunate that basic issues had not been received the attention it needed”, Mr. Shankar said. According to Mr. Shankar said that people like him have been campaigning actively in social media urging political parties to give environment issues more prominence in campaigns.
“Development is a very deceptive term and the way it has been used in Kerala has brought the state into a brink of disaster both ecologically and economically”, say R. Sreedhar a green activist. The three political formations in the state comprising UDF, LDF and the NDA are shares mainstream development paradigm. “The manifesto of the LDF has tried to address some of the ecological concerns in a serious manner. But, they have not shown any inclination to reject the tenets of the mainstream development paradigm”, he pointed out.
The conservation of the paddy and wetlands in the state is the only sustainable way for ensuring the availability of drinking water in the state, says Dr V.S. Vijayan, former chairman of Kerala Biodiversity Board. The biggest failure of the UDF government has been the wanton destruction of the paddy and wetlands in the state.
E.A. Jabbar, a prominent rationalist based in Malappuram blames the lack of foresight of the political leadership for the failure in flagging the basic issues of the people. According to him all political parties have failed to address one of the pressing issues facing the state. “Road accidents are a major issue in Kerala. An accident takes place in every two hours and nearly 4,000 people are killed as a result of accidents in each year. Nobody has considered this as a serious that deserved to be taken up in the campaign”, he pointed out.
Mr. Jabbar also pointed out that the political class is also not having any scientific solutions to address solid waste and water management. “We have only short term solutions to address these issues”, he pointed out. The problem is not confined to the political leaders alone. The people will have to realize that they cannot leave everything to the politician by taking part in the elections in a passive manner in every five years.
The people will have to understand they are the stakeholders for the conservation of the ecology of the state. The devastating impact of climate change is no more confined to the realm of scientific hypothesis. The unprecedented heat wave, the changing pattern of rainfall and several other indicators show that Kerala is witnessing the terrible fall out of the climate change.
Collective action of the people is the only way to check the deleterious impact of an ecological disaster. Primarily, it calls for an understanding that things cannot be left to the business as usual model. That included the elections too. We needed to make sure that our politicians answer questions that concern the source of clean and safe drinking water and a road network that could be considered as safe to travel. We also needed to make sure that our habitat is not filled with solid waste. Mr. Sreedhar has stressed on the importance of the people rejecting the so called mainstream development model that has only brought a public debt of Rs 1.5 lakh and an ecological crisis for the state.
(With inputs from Sabloo Thomas and N.M. Salih)
