Water-Energy-Food Nexus

This is my first post on a technical topic on my personal blog. The post is in continuation with couple of discussions i had recently with some passionate practitioners of Sustainability.

The discussion started at National institute of Technology , Surathkal last month. I had been there to deliver a talk on “Sustainable Engineering, Opportunities and Challenges”. I spoke in general about social entrepreneurship models, engineering , water issues and solutions, Solar energy and some economics . Post my talk, a few students wanted to know more about why i think water and energy have to be discussed in parallel and how do these fit in the overall context of Climate Change and sustainability.

Though i could give convincing answers to the students, i thought, i must write something succinctly to be able to myself appreciate the idea better.  Hence this post.

Disclaimer: Most of the material of this post is taken from a journal published by “Centre for United Nations”

Energy – Water Nexus

As Population increase, demands on finite water resources and energy services threaten to push the limits of what our environment can sustain. Another compelling reason to pay heed to the water-energy nexus is climate change, which may result in significant alterations to precipitation patterns, with all that implies for altered water availability and the power derived from water.

“The Energy problem is actually a water problem”. Water and energy also affect food security and hence there is Water -Energy – Food Nexus.

United Nations Water asserts in the World Water Development report 2014, ” Water , Energy and food are inextricably linked….The global community is well aware of food, energy and water challenges , but has so far addressed them in isolation,” There are many synergies and trade-offs between water and energy use and food production. Here are some examples from the report ;

1. Using water to irrigate crops can promote food production but it also reduce river flows and hydropower potential.
2. Growing bioenergy crops under irrigated agriculture can increase overall water withdrawals and jeopardize food security.
3. Converting surface irrigation into high-efficiency pressurized irrigation may save water but may result in higher energy use.

Recognizing these synergies and balancing these trade-offs is central to jointly ensuring water,energy and food security.

The world Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) notes on its portal ,”There is an intrinsic link between the challenge we face to ensure water security and other global issues, most notably climate change and the need to sustainably manage the world’s rapidly growing demand for energy and food.

Humanity needs to feed more people with less water , in a context of Climate Change and growing energy demand, while maintaining healthy ecosystems. ”

The FAO outlines the global challenge posed by the nexus

1. The situation is expected to be exacerbated in the near future as 60% more food will need to be produced in order to feed the world population in 2050.
2. Global energy consumption is projected to grow by up to 50% by 2035
3. Total global water withdrawals for irrigation are projected to increase by 20 to 25% by 2050 (May be much more)(emphasis added).

Gods in Shackles

Its been quite some time since i wrote anything on my blog. I was engrossed in daily chores and daily bread that i hardly made any time for reading or writing or any other creative work. Thanks to today ,an enriching day spent with some amazing people, I thought I must write my thoughts and experience of the day .

The title of this post is borrowed from the next feature film by Sangeetha Iyer, a documentary film maker

Aratupuza Pooram

I have been to kerala a few times and have seen the Thrissur and Aratupuza poorams. In fact, i tell every other travel enthusiast to see the pooram at least once in a lifetime. Poorams are amazing for the drums, for the fireworks and most importantly for the Elephants. I was amazed by the sheer number of elephants I saw during the pooram festivals. I have always told people not to miss the elephant walks on the Kerala roads during poorams.

However, never i spared a thought for the plight of these gentle giants. Never did i thnk of the trauma they go through in participating in these festivals . 

CUPA or “Compassion unlimited plus action” works for rescuing and rehabilitating animals. I am associated with this organization in helping them conserve water in their campuses and also helping them a little with Solar power. 

Few days back, one of the founders of CUPA , Suparna Bakshi Ganguly called me to ask if I could help them set up a rainwater harvesting unit and draw a water management plan for one of their new campuses situated in the town of Malur about 50 kms from Bangalore. I was amazed when she said it is an Elephant shelter with one elephant now and one more to join soon. CUPA had in fact rescued an Elephant and were rehabilitating it .

So today, myself, Suparna and Sangeetha Iyer drove to Malur to see the place and the elephant. Cruising along the Kolar highway , we discussed forests, wildlife and politics. I was looking forward to see the elephant.

After a little drive in the slush, we arrived at the 2 acre solar fenced campus where “Anisha” was housed. She was equally excited to see us with jaggery , Bananas and papaya.

Anisha was born 46 years back probably somewhere in Assam. She was the victim of elephant trading and somehow landed in Thrissur 20 years back and was serving in the Tuticorin temple from the last 

18 years.

Three years back , when she could not obey her master’s commands of “Sit and Stand”, she was diagnosed with arthritis in the front legs. Her master tried to squeeze the best out of her in the temple but when he was unable to manage her. Her expenses were very high and her revenues were almost nil. So he decided to somehow trade her across the border to Kerala. Suparna was little hesitant to reveal the identity of the owner nor did she tell me the owner’s true intentions . From what i understood, the owner was looking for someone who could manage Anisha for the rest of her life.

Luckily for “Anisha”, when her owner was struggling with the forest officials to move her across the borders, he bumped into Supraja, a sea turtle enthusiast . Supraja was so moved by the plight of the elephant that she offered to take it along with her. Supraja contacted CUPA.

It was a tough decision for CUPA. Maintaining an elephant is no easy task. They had to raise enough funds, they had to find land for her. The bigger task was to convince the Indian Bureaucracy to let them take her across two borders.  True to their reputation, the Indian bureaucracy were very helpful and gave CUPA the permission in “JUST” one year.

In the meantime, CUPA had to find a land for “Anisha”. As the saying goes, the universe conspires for good intentions (but somehow universe has forgotten the Indian bureaucracy), a farmer in Malur who was introduced to Suparna through some contacts, readily agreed to spare his 2.5 acres of land for no return. It is a fertile land with one small lake close by. I also met the noble farmer krishnappa today.

CUPA is very happy to have Anisha with them. The local villagers are cooperating very well and Krishnappa is very happy that “Anisha” is in his land. CUPA , however, is having their task cut out. To start with, it is difficult for them to get an Elephant vet. They did not have a Mahout for quite some time. Somehow they have managed to get one from Kerala now. However, he is not having any help and the difference in climate is not keeping him well.

Nevertheless, Suparna and team are keeping a bold face. For CUPA and Suparna, it is not just about Anisha but it is the pain behind the shackles that is moving them. CUPA and Sangeetha have moved the Supreme court for the cause of these majestic elephants. Their relentless fight has forced the supreme court to issue interim orders for better treatment and living condition of the elephants in Madurai and Kancheepuram. They are putting up a bold fight despite life threats from the elephant trade mafia. In fact Kancheepuram has decided to hand over a few elephants to CUPA. CUPA is planning to resettle them somewhere near Chennai in a 13-acre land.

Coming back to Anisha, she is now relaxed from the shackles. However, because of arthritis, she is

Anisha and Saiju

finding very difficult to move about. She has abysses at many parts of the body. The caretaker and mahout Saiju is nursing her to the best of his ability. He is making her walk, giving her pedicure, bathing her and massaging the joints regularly. His story is a subject of another post altogether.

This is also the story of both the worlds. On the one hand, there was a guy who was trying to abandon the elephant since it was not of any help to him and on the other there is Krishnappa and Suparna who are making personal sacrifices for the same elephant whom they had not even seen till the last one year or so.

For Anisha, life come a full circle. Born probably in Assam and taking a detour of South India has finally landed up in the ever welcoming generous land of Karnataka.

May god give Suparna and team the strength to continue their fight for the cause of these beautiful creatures.

Professional…….

Subroto Bagchi, the current chairman of Mindtree consulting describes a professional as one who can work un-supervised, One who can certify his/her work completion and one who is competent in his/her work and executes it with integrity. I consider myself very fortunate to have Mr Bagchi as my customer and have been very lucky to have interacted with him many times.

I am not sure if i can call myself a professional. I have received myriad feedback on my work , many positive but few negatives as well. I have always tried to do my work to the best of my ability. But I still feel I am not doing complete justice to the word “professional” .

I have met many people from many different walks of life. Many professionals in the true sense of the term and many mediocre as well.

Early this week, we decided to drive to the beautiful Malnad hills to experience the Monsoon. Rain gods showered more blessings than we had asked for. Incessant heavy rains accompanied us throughout the drive from Mysore to Somwarpet to Madikeri and Kukke Subramanya. Life was thrown out of gear in entire Madikeri district. Hundreds of electric poles were damaged, Many trees uprooted . Schools and colleges were closed . Many roads were cut off for traffic.

Inside Mercera Fort

We were forced to stay in Madikeri on Wednesday (24 June ) en route Kukke Subramanya from Somwarpet. It was a very pleasant stay in one of the well known hotels in Madikeri. The next day morning, I went out for a walk to Mercera fort at 7:30 AM. As soon as I got out of my hotel, it started raining heavily. I managed to walk enjoying the rains.

The Mercera fort now belongs to the Archeology Department. Till very recently, the office of the Deputy commissioner of Madikeri district was inside the fort Mercera. Almost all offices have been shifted out.

I took shelter under the portico of the public library next to a tea stall. As i sipped two cups of hot ginger tree enjoying the early morning rains, I met two interesting professionals. One of them denied being photographed and quoted .

Raagini (Name Changed) : Raagini works as librarian at the Mahatma Gandhi public Library inside fort Mercera. The Library opens at 9:00 AM and Raagini was at her office by 8:20 AM. It was raining so heavily that even walking was difficult on the streets of Madikeri.  Raagini came with her husband in a motor cycle half an hour ahead of time. Enroute she had picked up a bundle of kannada newspaper from the paper boy since the latter had stuck up in the rain.

Raagini said, since the DC office had been shifted, not many people visit the Library for reading newspaper.  The Public would not come anyway because of torrential rain. Picking up News paper on the way, braving the torrential Malnad rains, turning up 30 minutes ahead of time to the government library where very few people show up calls for true dedication and commitment to work. Very glad that such committed individuals are still there in the Government.

Shanthamma

Shanthamma :  Shanthamma works for the Madikeri Municipality. Cleaning up about half of Madikeri’s main town falls under Shanthamma and team.

Shnathamma reports to work at her contractor’s office at 5:50 AM everyday irrespective of weather conditions. Her work goes on up to 1:30 PM non stop. Shanthamma and her team tour more than half of Madikeri’s central business area to collect the municipal waste.

Shanthamma and her team arrived when I was enjoying my tea around 8:30 AM. It was raining very heavily. Her team of three members got out of the truck. All were just having a plastic sheet wrapped around them and a plastic sheet to cover their head. Notwithstanding the rain, they went about their job of collecting waste from the main office building, the garden, the library and the canteen. Shanthamma stood next to me in the shelter outside the small tea shop. She answered my questions. She refused my offer of tea. I was thinking that she is waiting for the rain to stop. But that was not the case. She was waiting for me to finish my tea so that she could take the cup with her. I was amazed by her dedication to work. As son as I finished my tea, even before I could pay the tea vendor, she took my tea-cup and shanthamma and team were on their way to their next destination in the heavy rain.

Death is Faithful

जिंदगी तो बेव़फा हैं एक दिन ठुकरायेगी

मौत मेहबूबा हैं अपने साथ लेकर जायेगी

मर के जीने की अदा जो दुनियां को सिखलायेगा 

वो मुकद्दर् का सिकंदर, जान-ए-मन कहलायेगा

These are immortal words by the great Indian lyricist Anjaan.  The crude translation is

Life is unfaithful, one day it will leave you

Death is a lover, it will take you with it 

The one who will teach the world

How to live after dying

will be called the king of destiny, my dear"

This is not my first post on death. Unfortunately, i

have seen death from very close quarters in the last few years. I have earlier written about death and my contradictions with life and death. 

This post is about a bird , a female Asian koel which took its last breath in our house in full presence of my family and couple of friends. It was sad to see her die. But it was inevitable and her time was up. 

It was 10:30 AM on a sunday and as usual we were late for a function and were hurrying up. As i drove my car past the neighbourhood, my wife  spotted a strange hurt bird on the road. I did not bother much about it. 

We returned in the afternoon and couple of my friends were at home. As we were chatting on the road, we spotted the bird again. It was a female Asian Koel. She was in a very bad condition. We tried to give her some water . But she refused. 

We did not know what do about it. We did not want to see her die. We did not want to leave her on the road. So my friend picked it up and got it to our house. I called my cousin who is an ornithologist. We sent her the pictures . I asked my friends on facebook on what i could do about it. 

Unfortunately, we learnt that the bird was in her last stages and had given up food and water. 

However, my fried tried to give her some water but she violently refused. The fact is, Asian koel birds in their last stages give up water and food and wait for their inevitable call. They know when their life mission is over and will wait for their lover (death) without food and water. 

She took her last breath as we stood in our little garden silently observing her. We had made friends with her and let her go in 4 hours. It was a strange feeling. 

As the lyricist Anjaan said, Our Koel left food and water for her lover (Mehabooba) . It is so strange that the hurt bird was on the road all day and we ignored her. The guilt of ignoring her will always haunt me.

When we came back in the afternoon she was waiting for our nursing. She finally took her last breath in our house. Probably this is what is called destiny. 

Our friend thought us two priceless lessons. We must not have ignored her when we first saw her dying on the road. It is so sad that we were more interested in attending a ceremony leaving an old and hurt life on the road. 

The exit from the world should be graceful. By design or default, our little friend thought us the importance of leaving a graceful footprint before leaving the world. RIP my Friend. 

Generation Gap

What is generation gap ? Getting a 10 minutes lecture (sermon) for being 5 minutes late for an appointment from a senior citizen (a very senior engineer) is generation gap. 

This post is about a brilliant engineer and equally witty gentleman by name H.Jayakumar . The title may not be the best suited for this post , however this is the best i can think over. 

I was supposed to meet Mr Jayakumar (68 years) at 6:15 AM at his residence on Saturday 4 April,2015. The appointment was fixed on 2 April at his office. He had given me a map for his house and later in the day had sent me an e-mail with the co-ordinates. 

This was my third meeting with Mr Jayakumar. My First meeting was in a training program couple of weeks back. I was impressed by the energy in his talk and the passion he had for engineering. The 68 year old gentleman had arrived at the training hall at 9:20 AM for the 10:00 AM lecture by public transport from his house 22 kms away. He mentioned in the class that he had never been late to his work in his career as an engineer of four decades. Mr Jayakumar had retired as the joint director of Central power research institute (CPRI) in 2008. 

I was so impressed by his talk that i requested him to  perform a earth resistivity test in one of my sites. He readily agreed and my third meeting was fixed at his residence on 4 April at 6:15 AM. Mr Jayakumar an orthodox brahmin had finished his morning ablutions  and sandhyavandane (Prayers to the sun god) and was ready by 6:00 AM. He called me at 6:00 AM to find out my coordinates. When i reached at 6:20 AM, he very politely acknowledged my indiscipline. 

Nevertheless, we reached the site at 7:30 AM. True to his passion, he was immediately on the job. He took out his instruments , drove the pegs himself, took the measurements and his job was done by 7:45 AM. He explained the tests, interpreted the results and packed up by 8:00 AM. 

Mr Jayakumar raised in the ranks in CPRI out of his knowledge, skill, hard work and competency. As he mentioned many times during his lecture, being just a diploma in electrical engineering, he rose to the rank of joint director and was instructing Phd and masters degree holders. No doubt, Jayakumar is very sound in his engineering

Mr Jayakumar reminded me of my dad. I had earlier written in one of the posts that with many domestic reposibilities and daily chores to attend for, my dad was never late for any appointment domestic or professional. In fact he was well before time.  With no domestic chores to attend for, with all possible facilities , with most modern gadgets to track my time, i am seldom on time to any appointment. 

With all possible tools , i do not think i am any close to the engineering skill that my dad had. With no sophisticated tools, with no land line phone let alone a mobile phone, my father was manager par excellence. I do not think i can ever attain his level of managerial skills inspite of half a dozen computing devices at my disposal and almost a supercomputer in the pocket.  This is generation gap... 

Bridging the funding gap

I think it was sometime in May-June 2012 . I was on a city bus getting back home from whitefield (Bangalore). In front of me on the next row were two engineering students. A boy and a girl. They were from Bangalore and seemed to be pretty well grounded. They were returning back after attending an interview for some kind of scholarship. I overheard their conversation initially and quickly got involved in their discussion. 

The discussion was about their tuition fee and other expenses involved for their education. I learnt  that the fees for their college was something like Rs 45,000 per year. Not a small amount for Engineering education in Karnataka.  I learnt that it was not easy for them to afford this kind of money. 

I remember that when i finished my engineering , our fees was 9000 rupees a year. I understand now that , in the same college the fees for the same course is something like 40,000 rupees per year. 

I am sure that many students who come to colleges in Bangalore can very well afford their tuition fees. But there are many people like the ones whom i met in the bus who face difficulty. There are many many more who do not even try for professional courses because they cannot afford the tuition fee.  I know quite a few of them including my wife who turned down her medical seat in KIMS in 2002. I would have probably turned down my engineering seat if the fees in 2001 was 25,000. 

Since then i am musing with this idea of Alumni groups playing a part in bridging the funding gap. My idea is something like this.  Our batch passed out of college in 2005. Say in 2010 when everyone is reasonably well settled , we form an alumni group and collect small amounts from 30 people (Batch mates). Say we collect 1000 from each. That becomes 30,000 rupees for that year. With this We can fund one student for the year 2010. Next year, that is in 2011 we together pool 33,000 rupees. That will be take care of same student or another student for the year 2011. If the 2006 pass out students form an alumni association in 2011 and collect 33,000 rupees, that will help another student in 2011. So in 2011 we can fund two students. Like that in 2012 we can fund three students (From contributions of 2005, 06 and 07 batches). This can go on. At least half the class can be easily funded in a decade's time.  

This is just an example . The alumni groups can be formed immediately after passing out. Many alumni groups can be formed together drawing students from various batches. There can be process refinement , tuning etc etc. 

This would also help the old students to have a connection with the college and college folks. There can be potentially more academy-industry interaction and mutual learning. There could be more such cascading effects

I admit that all this is easier said than done. We were a very active, extraordinarily articulate and well knit group back in college. Few of our professors still admire us for our audacity and articulation. But getting people on board few years after college has been a challenge. But i genuinely feel this can be done. If every batch of students from every college in every branch commit to this idea, we can bridge the higher education funding gap to a large extent.