COASTAL ZONE PROBLEMSThe coastal zone faces the following

problems due to environmental degradation:

•Population pressure  The sum of the factors (as increase in numbers or excessive food consumption) within a population that reduce the ability of an environment to support the population.

• Wastewater disposal90% of wastewater in developing countries is discharged into rivers or streams without any treatment.

•Destruction of MangrovesMumbai has probably lost 40 per cent of all its mangroves in the past decade or so, largely because of reclamation for housing, slums, sewage treatment and garbage dumps.

• Coastal construction In 2008, India stopped allowing the building of new ship-breaking yards and restricted infrastructure development along its coast following pressure from the Supreme Court and environmental groups for ecologically sound practices, a move which was later drafted into a CMZ notification ………………………………………………………………

• Increasing urbanization• Natural Disasters• Impacts of ports• Coastal erosion• Coastal mining

• Ingress of seawater• Impact of power plants• Sea level rise

Instances of violation of CRZ act in Mumbai

• The MCGM submitted an affidavit in Bombay HC 2005/06, informing that the site is free of CRZ(tidal) influence and free of habitation in the vicinity. This is a lie.

• Even today in 2014, the site sees heavy influx of tidal waters during high tide.

• Supposed to be a sanitary landfill. Since 2013, the leachate is being released outside the boundary wall into the estuary.

Solid waste: The biggest threat to coastal ecology in Mumbai

• The sole focus of MCGM in the past decade has been to pick and dump, inspite of legislations all supporting ‘segregation at source’.

• Almost zero support to entrepreneurs interested in decentralised waste management.

No instance in last decade of all stakeholders spending time together to understand each other’s viewpoints and evolving a well thought-out plan.

Elected representatives, a mainstay of democracy, looked upon with great suspicion by the civil society. Substantial interaction only with officials.

THIS RESULTS IN US ASKING THE QUESTION:

CRZ, more a tool for extortion than conservation?

A positive side: SolutionsCoastal Zone Management – The People’s

InitiativeNFF- National Fisherworker’s ForumA CRZ notification for objective Coastal Zone

Management (CZM) plans was scrapped in the parliament -bureaucratic secrecy and ambiguity being reasons- after that NFF felt need to create wider awareness of the issue, in the coastal community.

Training Programs The training programs for the entire Indian coast were

conducted in three centres: 1. Veraval in Gujarat,2. Nagarcoil in Tamil nadu 3. Diamond Harbour in West Bengal.The training was of 3 days duration. A handbook was prepared

in English and was sent to each state a month in advance to be translated into the local languages for the volunteers and was distributed during the training program. It explained the CRZ, its amendments, CZMP maps, how to read a map, mapping technique, and so on...

Since it would be hard for the villagers to understand the tough language, even the terminology was explained.