SENGO Conference 2004
Public Participation and Environmental NGOs in China 's Transition
On April 22 nd and 23 rd , NGO Research Center of Tsinghua University along with the Environmental Policy Group of Wageningen University of the Netherlands organized SENGO Conference 2004 at Xinqiao Hotel in Beijing. This conference gathered a number of representatives of Chinese NGOs, foreign NGO researchers, specialists, university professors and Ph.D students. Specialists presented papers on their research and discussed with participants NGO capacity building and civil society construction issues. Delegates from Chinese NGOs also gave presentations on the experience Chinese NGOs have had during these years, as well as difficulties faced and future development. Sheri Liao also gave a presentation on NGO capacity building. On 24 th , some of the conference participants visited Global Village's environmental education center in Yan-Qing County 56 km away from Beijing .
NGO Activities and Case Studies on the Implementation of Water and Sanitation and Human Settlement Projects
NGO activities focused on sustainable development projects are many and varied. Some are direct actions to improve the living conditions in specific neighborhoods such as actions to improve access to local water supply and sanitation, others tackle the surrounding natural environment or work to secure and improve participation mechanisms, and some undertake policy research and advocacy to create appropriate socio-economic conditions. The case studies below furnish a body of knowledge rooted in the experience of practitioners rather than theorists, illustrating the practical challenges faced and overcome.
Case Studies on Water and Sanitation
*Case Study One: Rainwater Harvesting
In Africa , the International Rain Water Harvesting Association (IRHA) has been promoting a broadly designed platform to ensure that rainwater harvesting technologies are a fundamental part of sustainable development. Recognizing that the majority of people in Africa suffer from poverty linked to food insecurity and scarcity of drinking water, the IRHA works to mainstream rain water harvesting as a readily available local resource in development agendas for sustained livelihoods and Millennium Development Goal implementation strategies. The IRHA stresses the importance of synergies among various Ministries of Water, Rural Development. Environment, Housing and Economic Development as well as the need for national governments to establish institutional frameworks that encompass rural, urban, peri-urban environments to promote and design five year Plans of Action on Rain Water Harvesting. Strengthening rain water harvesting networks will facilitate the promotion of and cross fertilization of knowledge, build a data base of practices and strengthen regional cooperation in the African continent. The IRHA also endeavors to mainstream rain water harvesting expertise into educational policies and works with educational institutions to widely disseminate such understanding.
In Pakistan , the use of the rainwater harvesting concept in water management and local area development in the dry lands for combating desertification and poverty is provided by SCOPE, the Society for Conservation and Protection of the Environment. SCOPE is currently functional in 3 districts- Malir, Dadu and Tharparkar in the Sindh Province . SCOPE has launched a campaign to protect agricultural and pastoral communal lands and rain water harvesting has been promoted through building small check dams and water collection ponds in the villages with the help of local communities. Such activities have resulted in the enhancement of aquifers and the availability of water for drinking and livestock use. SCOPE is now incorporating water purification into community development by introducing biosand filtration technology.
*Case Study Two: Hornad River Basin Coalition, Slovak Republic
In the historical region of Upper Abov , located in Slovakia and Hungary , civic association SOSNA, started the Hornad River Coalition in 2002 between 14 villages in Slovakia and 19 villages in Hungary . The Slovakian part is host to a number of large pollution sources such as steel plants and waste incineration plants. But in other regions the river basin is characterized by well preserved oxbows and wetlands, hilly areas covered by forests and important cultural and historical sites. First a “River Coalition” which is a cross-sectoral agreement prepared with the cooperation of interested groups, along the selected watershed including local self governments, the River Management Company, the Environmental Protection Agency, local industry, farmers, schools, NGOs and small businesses was set up. Secondly a “River Contract” was written, signed by al participants expressing their willingness to realize concrete activities leading to the improvement of ecological, social and economic conditions in the watershed. Participants also accept responsibility such as decreasing pollution by certain limits, adopting clean technologies and carrying out practical watershed–friendly activities etc. The River Contract has now been signed by 25 organizations from all sectors.
Case Studies on Human Settlements
*Case Study One: Networking, ANPED, the Northern Alliance for Sustainability
ANPED brings together 100 NGOs from North America , Western and Central Europe , Eastern Europe , the Caucasus and Central Asia . 30 of ANPED's members are networks themselves, significantly increasing the number of NGOs and CBOs currently linked to ANPED's work. For the past 6 years, ANPED has undertaken many activities within its Local Action for Sustainability Programme. The primary activity has been to link locally active NGOs and CBOs within the network, to exchange skills, knowledge and experiences in order to excel at the local level in action for sustainable development, public participation and community involvement. Where possible, new subjects are introduced with the help of external experts. As such, a strong network has evolved of locally active groups which ensures that within the ANPED region the expertise is present to support local communities in becoming sustainable.
*Case Study Two: GAP International
Agenda 21 established that sustainable development can only be realized if a strong local movement is initiated. One such vehicle that emerged towards this end is the Eco-Team Programme, developed by Global Action Plan for the Earth (GAP). Developed by a team of international social scientists and consultants, it aims to offer citizens not only a guideline for the adoption of a sustainable lifestyle but also a support structure for its day-to-day implementation. In an Eco-Team, 6-8 participants, mostly neighbors, set out their options to use less energy, fuel, water and materials in their households, aided by a coach, a workbook and a feed back system. In all 18 (Northern including CEE countries) where varieties of this programme have run, teams have found that they could easily bring down their use of energy band materials by 5-30%, with as collateral benefits lower energy bills and good neighborly relations. An estimated 50,000 people participated, spread over 18 countries. Subsequently Eco-Team members have participated in other local sustainability initiatives, such as Local Agenda 21 working groups, car-sharing schemes, twin city exchanges, LETS systems and campaigns for sustainable regional retail products and outlets.
However, successful and innovative, the GAP organization worldwide has had a tough struggle for survival. Governments, utilities and other donors tend to be wary to support multi issue, people –oriented approaches of this type. Secondly, although volunteers could rather easily be recruited for this positive empowering work, in most countries the period in which the public was ready to commit to this rather structured, predominantly green type of programme was rather short (1992-1997) However, new varieties continue to be developed and used, including programmes for schools and communities.
*Case Study Three: The Sustainable Community Movement in Appalachia , USA
The grass roots movements in the poor rural areas of the Appalachian Mountains , USA are working against a history of domestic exploitation, colonialism and landlessness. Groups in the Movement are working against:
- Mountaintop removal and the massive automation in the Appalachian coalfields;
- Deforestation from chip mills and air pollution impacts related to coal fired power generation and vehicle emissions;
- Hyper development of the higher elevations for tourism;
- Surface and ground water over-consumption and contamination from mining, petrochemical, agriculture and weak development regulations;
- Corporate power using community rights;
- The continued de -industrialization and rising unemployment of southern Appalachia .
National policies are diverting vast resources away from communities in Appalachia . Environmental and social conditions continue to deteriorate. The Appalachian Coalition for Just and Sustainable communities was formed in 2002 to stimulate networking and use popular education and research to empower grass roots change. The Coalition envisions an “Appalachian Agenda 21” and members are integrating global perspectives to inform their efforts toward that end.
Message 1 Protecting Mother River Photograph Exhibition
The Yellow River is the Mother River of Chinese civilization. But its condition is seriously alarming. In order to raise public awareness to protect the Mother River , the Student Green Engineer Association, under the direction of Lanzhou Communication University League Union and Environment Department, held a “Tears of the Mother River ” Photograph Exhibition at Dong-Fang-Hong Square on March 7 th , 2004 . The exhibition attracted great attention from the public.
Some ten members of the Student Green Engineer Association rode bikes from their university along the Yellow River to Dong-Fang-Hong Square to raise awareness of the pollution situation in the Mother River . The exhibition included photos of oil spills, sewage discharge, and garbage dumps along the river. After listening to students' explanation, people showed significant interest in improving the river's condition, and commented on how to conduct the protection activities.
Yellow River —our only mother river, the pollution pressure has tarnished its past glamour. Yellow River is crying because of our reckless behavior. Lots of hard work is needed for our Mother River 's tomorrow.
Message 2 Silent Accusation
My colleagues were doing a charity donation campaign in Ke-Ke-Xi-Li Nature Reserve in Xinjiang and Tibet . Right at that time, a new case of killing Tibetan antelope was uncovered. This was the most serious one ever. My colleagues took some pictures and I would like to share them with all of you. I hope that there will be more and more people care about these plateau creatures, as well as the people who are dedicated to the protection of Tibetan antelope. In this case, most of the antelopes killed were pregnant females and therefore, the number of killed antelope is far more than the original 700. Please visit the link below to see pictures:
http://www.fon.org.cn/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5444&eksubject
Message 3 Message for the Earth Day
Written by Meing—the chief of Friends of the Earth HK, the Message for the Earth Day expressed her concern over people's present unsustainable lifestyle and consumption patterns, as well as the unevenly distributed resources and capital. At the same time, she called for caution on “eco-terrorism”, by which she meant exploitation of natural resources, irresponsible consumption patterns and an “monopolistic enterprises dominated lifestyle”. Also, she advocated that we should not only mourn for the victims in 911 but also for our eco-victims on the Earth Day!
Partnership Initiatives (Back To Top)
By Amanda CUI
Founded by the same people at the same time as the Earth Day, Earth Day Network has been promoting environmental citizenship and year round progressive action worldwide. They aim on building broad-based citizen support for sound, workable and effective environmental and sustainable development policies for all.
As most of us have already known, the creation of the Earth Day made by Gaylord Nelson in 1970 is a monument in modern environmental movements. On April 22 nd 35 years ago, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, and his youthful staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized that they shared common values. This huge demonstration achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United State Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts.
Today, the Earth Day Network is dedicated to spreading out their environmental ideology to the whole world, to people who care about this planet, and to environmental NGOs who are struggling their way in environmental protection.
During these 35 years, EDN has built up a network reaches over 12,000 organizations in 174 countries, while the domestic program keeps over 3,000 groups and over 100,000 educators coordinating millions of community development and environmental protection activities throughout the year. As a result, Earth Day is the only event celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, faiths and nationalities. More than a half billion people participate in EDN's campaigns every year.
What exactly has EDN been doing? Let's now review some of their programs and projects and I wish that they will be somewhat useful to our Chinese NGO's future promotion.
Water for Life Campaign
The two-year Water for Life campaign focuses upon water access, health and usage issues in communities worldwide. They educate others how to conserve and handle water issues across the globe, you can find links below to observe more about this campaign:
http://www.earthday.net/goals/water_for_life.asp
Trees Across America
EDN and its partners have established a goal of planting 285 million trees—one for every American—over the next 3 years. Trees Across America is focused on reforesting urban areas, damaged forestlands, wetlands and areas surrounding key watersheds.
http://www.earthday.net/goals/trees_across_america.asp
Community Assessment
What are the biggest challenges to your community's natural systems? How do environmental factors affect the health of community residents? Does your community have a vision for its future, guiding its policy initiatives? EDN has Earth Day Dialogues for people to come together in communities all over the world to hold a meeting where all residents are free to make comments on their community's health and well-being. (For further information, please see: http://www.earthday.net/goals/community.stm )
EDN's Educators' Network
Earth Day Network Education Program is one of the most successful environmental education efforts in the US , offering tools for integrating environmental issues into core curriculum subjects. Each year, EDN develop and distributes environmental education curricula to US teachers who are designated as Earth Day Coordinators for their schools. Teaching materials are geared toward environmental education, both inside and outside the classroom.
http://www.earthday.net/howto/teachers-corner.stm
Car Free Day
Using Earth Day as a way to raise public awareness about sustainable transportation solutions, EDN gathers millions of people every year to celebrate Car Free Day on Earth Day. Car free days are a pattern break. They do not aim to take all cars off the streets as a long-term solution; instead, they encourage people to think about the impact of their transport choices and how cleaner, more effective forms of transportation can enhance our quality of life. Isn't this something that we Chinese also need to carefully think about? The growing use of unsustainable methods of transportation has led to air pollution and congestion that have had negative effects on the health and quality of life of our communities. Pollutants from transport exhaust such as nitrogen oxides, sulfates, ozone, and acid aerosols have been found to be positively associated with mortality, cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, asthma hospitalizations and reduced lung function, while increasing congestion ahs led to increased travel times, stress, noise and loss of productive time.
http://www.earthday.net/goals/carfreeday.stm
At the end, I would like to reemphasize the Earth Day Network's set of values:
Building Alliances: EDN connects and partners with organizations and agencies to work towards common goals of public and diverse involvement in environmental policy.
Encouraging Citizen Action: EDN promotes action around specific environmental issues and provides resources, tools and direct assistance for implementing successful events and campaigns.
Improving Environmental Education: EDN offers tools for integrating a broad set of environment, health, and community development issues into core curriculum.
By continuously developing progressive campaigns and programs while remaining an inclusive organization, EDN has helped to create a healthier, safer world.
The reason why we are introducing the Earth Day Network is not only because it is part of our Earth Day Special but also because of a will we have to promote cooperation between foreign NGOs and Chinese NGOs, more over, to learn from the experience successful NGOs have had to further motivate our organizations to do a better job.
Location: Shanghai , China
Date: 2004/05/20—22
Contact: Jerrie Ueberle jerrie@globalinterations.org
Information Source: www.globalinteractions.org
Location: Shanghai , China
Date: 2004/05/25—28
Admission Fee: $300 regular, $125 student
Location: Bangkok , Thailand
Date: 2004/07/11—16
Contact: nicholas.gouede@undp.org
Information Source:
http://roo.undp.org/undpcalendar/app_display/indexf2.cfm?fuseaction=ViewEvent&event_id=%23(X%20.%0A
Location: New London , USA
Date: 2004/07/19—23
For more information, please refer to: www.unep.org
Location: University of Joensuu , Joensuu , Finland
Date: 2004/08/22—09/03
Contact: unepcourse@joensuu.fi / env.edu@unep.org
Information Source:
http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=303&ArticleID=4395&l=en
Location: Xiamen , Fujian , China
Date: 2004/10/12—15
Location: Institute of Hydrobiology , the Chinese academy of Sciences , Wuhan , Hubei , China
Date: 2004/11/01—11
Admission Fee: $300 regular; $150 student
Contact: Dr. Wang-Hongzhu isrle2004@ihb.ac.cn
Information Source: www.ihb.ac.cn/isrle2004.htm
Location: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center , Hong Kong , China
Date: 2004/11/07—10
Contact: Eva Poon gin2004@hkusua.hku.hk
Information Source: http://www.hku.hk/gin2004
•4 th International Symposium on Environmental Hydraulics
Location: Hong Kong , China
Date: 2004/12/15
Contact: iseh4@hkucc.nku.hk
Information Source: http://www.hku.hk/civil/conference/iseh&iahr-apd2004
Special Report on Recent Water Pollution Accident in Sichuan
Written by Amanda CUI, translated by Beijing University volunteers
Section 1 Introduction to the Accident
Tuojiang is one of the anabranches of Yangtse River , it emanates from Sichuan Basin and its drainage area is all in Sichuan province. Several months ago, if you searched Tuojiang in google, you would find lots of information and beautiful pictures supplied by travel agencies. However, since March this year, the beauty of Tuojiang has been forgotten and replaced by a horrible pollution accident. 13 days without water supply became a nightmare of Jianyang citizens, who are living beside the river.
On Feb 20 th in 2004, people didn't notice that fish in Tuojiang were dying one after the other. On Feb 27 th , more fish were found floating in the river—dead. Some sensitive citizens noticed that the taste of tap water had changed. At the same time, water in Tuojiang became feculent and smelly. March 1 st , tap water in Jianyang city turned to black-brown color with pungent smell. At 3:00 pm on March 2 nd , Jianyang city government announced the stop of using tap water. From then on, Jianyang city started their 13 days starvation of water.
More over, this pollution accident caused a direct loss of more than 300,000,000 RMB, including loss from fishermen, hydropower stations, citizens, shut down factories, restaurants and provincial weather bureau's expense on producing artificial precipitation. Plus, these haven't included the biggest and the most arduous project: recovering the ecosystem of Tuojiang! Concerned experts forecasted that it would need at least 5 years to for the ecosystem of Tuojiang to completely heal itself.
Section 2 Actions Adopted
Facing this severe pollution, what actions did the local government and other related sectors take?
Jianyang City Government (JCG): One bamboo telegraph said that JCG had received report on water quality comparatively early, but didn't announce it to the public until Sichuan provincial government knew about this accident. They explained that the announcement might cause unnecessary scare.
Jianyang Environmental Protection Bureau (JEPB): On 26 th Feb, JEPB sampled Tuojiang water, on 27 th JEPB and Jianyang sanitary department detected the samples. The result showed that the rate of ammonia nitrogen was 40 to 50 times of normal.
Sichuan Environmental Protection Bureau (SEPB): SEPB received a report at 11:00 pm on 1 st of March. The next day, they sent out three investigation groups and announced the stop of water supply at 3:00 pm . Following that, they ordered Sichuan Chemical Corporation to stop production right away. In the next several days, they ordered all the reservoirs on this water channel to release water to dilute the pollutant. Sichuan Weather Bureau also adopted artificial rainfall to help increase water on the ground.
Section 3 Cause of the Pollution
SEPB found the origin of pollution— Sichuan Chemical-industry Corporation (SCC) by monitoring all the way up the water channel—at the point where the testing equipment reached its extreme that showed the ratio of ammonia nitrogen was 150 times of normal. The polluted water was still flowing even when the SEPA arrived. Then, how did this pollution happen?
The investigation group of SEPB made conclusions on 6 th March: No.2 fertilizer plant of SCC stopped production to have a technical reform on 20 th of November in 2003. However, on 24 th Feb, the plant disobeyed the process of environmental protection and started production secretly. During the testing operation, the fertilizer hydrolyzed, and the two supply pumps for desorption had a malfunction, which made the index of ammonia nitrogen in the condensate for the carbamide technique too high to be put in the boiler to be reused, and therefore was directly discharged into Bihe River, which is a branch river of Tuojiang. According to the general analysis of carbamide technical process, the condensate of carbamide technique in an ammonia jar should be transported by the supply pump to the desorption equipment. Only after these, carbamide, ammonia nitrogen, carbon dioxide and other substances that are contained in the condensate can be decompounded and recycled, and the purified water can be changed into smoke in the boiler. If there was something wrong with the supplying pump, it would lead to a direct discharge of the carbamide in ammonia jar into the river. Then what are the effects that condensate of ammonia nitrogen would bring to the ecosystem?
Ammonia nitrogen is a kind of common pollutant in water contamination. It can cause water eutrophication and result in a mass reproduction of alga, sequentially the water will lack oxygen and other kinds of water animals and plants in the water would die of asphyxiation. It is our luck that the ammonia nitrogen does not make much effect on human beings.
Section 4 Responsible Parties and Supervisory System
In no doubt, the responsible party is SCC for this severe pollution accident of Tuojiang. At first they reformed their techniques without respecting certain rules; then, they ran the machines under the situation of a malfunction of the equipments without permission from SEPB. These actions led to a direct discharge of over 2000 tons of pure ammonia nitrogen into the river. After the accident, the principal of SCC not only rejected to admit the mistake, but also insisted that if the equipments imported from Japan were not running, it would cause a great loss. Before the accident happened, SCC even hadn't installed the online- environmental protection monitor system obliged by SEPB. However, it completed the installation within three days after the accident. What is worse is that SCC has made bogus data to blind SEPB all along.
Putting aside SCC, during the seventeen days since SCC started its illegal production on Feb 14 th till it was forced to stop on Mar 2 nd , how could JEPB have completely ignored such a mass of discharge of sewage? During the whole accident, how many chances on earth were there to avoid the occurrence of the calamity? What other parties are there that should take responsibility for this?
In gross statistic, since the malfunction took place on February fourteenth, there had been six opportunities that could have helped prevent the pollution from occurring inside SCC. However, every single person passed the his/her own work to others. We can say that the irresponsible attitude of both the enterprise and the individual involved as well as lack of definitely divided responsibility are the headstream of this accident.
Behind SCC, there is another responsible party ignored by most medias----- Qingbai River sewage-processing factory. It is found out that the sewage of SCC goes through Qingbai River sewage-processing factory before it is discharged into the Bihe River . Then what does Qingbai River sewage-processing factory say?
Our factory mainly deals with sewage from 5 enterprises, including SCC. Before dawn on 23 rd February, we found that sewage had a pungent smell along with a strong smell of ammonia. It was checked out that the ammonia rate was much higher than the standard, and the highest reached more than 2000mg/l. We took emergency measures immediately, firstly we drained the sewage out to a ditch to let it volatilize naturally, but the result was not obvious. More and more sewage came consistently and we had to drain it out continuously. We informed the Environment Protection Bureau of QingBaihe District of this case on that day, and they came to observe the situation. However, we didn't know what they did next.
Nobody would keep tracking what exactly the Bureau did after their observation. If they had reported to JEPB, then it would be JEPB that needed to be looked into. If they had examined the five corporations instantly without informing, they would have found out the effluent source and prevented the accident from happening. However, nobody knew what role the District Bureau had played in this accident.
As for JEPB, now that the online- environmental monitor system is obliged, how could such a big corporation like SCC even wasn't checked at all? If there's always no effective enforcement and monitoring system, how could our environmental protection work be done? So far in China , there is no such mechanism such as severity judgment system and over-rank reporting system when accidents happen. If we report rank by rank, each rank would put off and hesitate and each rank would probably delay because of irresponsibility, which in turn would give enough time to the pollution accident to get more serious.
We can see Tuojiang pollution accident as a good lesson to every level of our environment protection bureau, enterprises and individuals. However, isn't the tuition we paid too expensive?
Section 5 Discussion: Enterprises' Responsibility to the Society
It is known that there are in fact very few enterprises that follow our environmental law to dispose their sewage. The so-called “Discharge according to the standard” is just words on paper. Most enterprises only dispose their sewage “reasonably” because they are driven by profit. For example, the upper limit of pollution penalty is one million RMB while the profit is about one thousand millions a year for big enterprises such as SCC. Compared with paying hundreds of million RMB on sewage-processing system, paying a penalty of only one million is certainly the choice. Besides this, the other reason is the enterprise defaulting payment to the sewage-processing factory. As a result, the factory has to discharge sewage. In fact, here is an obvious leak in our law enforcement.
But in this final section, I don't want to discuss how to executing the law, what I would like to discuss is the responsibility that every enterprise, as part of the society, should take to fulfill their social position and function.
From this issue on, we will present a theme for discussion each time. We truly hope that you will come to leave messages to let us know about your opinion on the issue on our BBS. Please look at www.gvbchina.org.cn . for more information.
