Sustainability in Kerala

As a member of Plymouth's Mission Board and Green Team, as well as a student of climate change, I have been struck by what seems like a lack of sustainable practices in India.  Climate change is a social justice issue, that does not simply impact those living in the United States.  I have been wondering how climate change will impact the over 2 million people living here along the coast in Kerala, and around the backwaters in particular.  Unfortunately, not everything is beautiful here-- it would not be wise for us to only talk about the immense beauty that is around us, but to also discuss the darker side.

On the road to where we would board our boat for our own special backwaters trip, we passed a group of men who were stripping old computers; breaking them down to recyclye their metals and other parts.  This is the only "recyling" I have witnessed, and as I understand it, this practice is not a healthy one because of the contact with toxic chemicals.

The backwaters of Kerala is an extremely fragile ecosystem which special exoctic plants, fish, birds, and reptiles that inhabit that brackish (mix of salt and fresh) coastal lagoons (along the Arabian Sea).

Once we boarded our boat, I noticed that the number one piece of floating trash in that waters, particularly near commercial centers, was plastic bottles.  Bottles, bottles everywhere.  Our group is guilty of consuming at least 2 liters of bottled water daily--it is what we have to do to remain healthy.  But there is no way to recycle them, which has been hard for us.   Seeing all the bottles floating in the otherwise beautiful water made me sad-- these are mostly likely from all the tourist boats going through the area.

What is more depressing is that, in a need to fuel the tourist market, more and more motorized boats are on the backwaters, which means more oil seeps into the water--there are virtually NO eco-friendly boats on the waters.  Futhermore, modern agricultural fertilizers are used on the rice patties adjacent to the backwaters, and machines are used to harvest the rice.  These practices have lead to a significant decline in fish species and a 50 percent reduction in bird species on the water. 50 percent!!!  This is a travesty, since the birds we did see were truly amazing--black cormorants, egrets, small eagles, kingfishers, waders, divers, and other small shore birds.  Finally, the backwaters are full of an invasive African moss from South America--they look kind of like lilly pads with purplish flowers--these plants have choked off sunlight and oxygen to the native fish species.  African moss moved in due to the agriculural practice of flushing out the salt water.

So yes, this is all very depressing, especially when we saw all the families living along the backwaters just trying to go about their everyday lives--bathing, doing dishes, and doing laundry in the water--a major, major dichotomy from the rich tourist resorts that dot the backwaters as well.

But I will end with a message of hope.  In the Mumbai newspaper, I saw an article by a woman on a call for better coastal practices and sustainability.  She fears that progress has been too slow since the Tsunami and hopes that better action to secure the fragile coast will increase in the future.  But, what was even more promising and moving is that when we visited the Baker girls school here in Kottayam, we saw that the girls had set up an eco-garden with a sign that read "Put an end to the use of plastic".

Laura Murphy