Putting Kochi on the Eco Industrial Map

With the focus on Kochi – Muziris Biennale, taking place in this thriving port city in Kerala, south-west India from the 12/12/12, and slated to bring change and deliver lasting legacy, we wanted to look at some of the benefits that could come from this sort of global attention.

The emergence of Kerala as a distinct political and social project is seen to offer lessons for many developing societies. Its cosmopolitanism and modernity are rooted in the experience of this old trading port, which, for more than six centuries, has been a crucible of numerous communal identities and is the commercial and now rapidly growing industrial capital.

With its delicate eco infrastructure Kochi can stop some of the downsides that come with growth.

We recently attended the CityStories a Siemens project with film maker Davis Guggenheim to select ten Next Generation Filmmakers from ten cities around the globe to tell the story of urban sustainability in their city. Read the FULL STORY here.

Mohit Chhabra from India won one of the prizes with this tale from Mumbai called ‘Rubber Band Ball‘

Not only is green space being consumed. Plastic is killing some communities.

Plastic pollution in marine ecosystems is causing health hazards and economic loss.

According to the Hindu Times ‘Marine litter affecting the livelihood of fishermen’ in Kerala, a state in south-west India that has a very fragile ecosystem.

By way of introduction here Sir David Attenborough talks about the world’s Plastic Period.

In this clip world-renowned naturalist and film maker Sir David Attenborough says: ‘The fact that plastic is indestructible means that it can’t be thrown away,  there is no ‘away’ with plastic. It  is so permanent that when you cast it into the ocean it does not go away.‘ He makes the plea ‘with a call to consumers to demand that plastic manufacturers (a) make it easy to recycle (b) don’t use it gratuitously.’  There is also this Method  bottle made from ocean plastic.

In Kochi, the presence of plastic pollutants in seas and backwaters is upsetting the ecosystem and breeding grounds of a large number of economically important fish varieties, said V. Kripa, head of the Fishery Environment and Management Division of the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute in Kochi.

At a recently held symposium organised by the Kochi Corporation in association with Global Ocean, an NGO,  Dr. Kripa said that the breeding habitats of fish varieties such as pearl spot, mullets and shrimps were hit by pollution. Pollutants also upset primary food production in water bodies by preventing the entry of sunlight into water, thus affecting the productivity of the region. Littering in beaches is also impacting tourism, she said.

Melanie Salmon of Global Ocean, K.C. Mohana Chandran, deputy manager, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, and Rajan Chedambath, secretary, Centre for Heritage Environment and Development of the Kochi Corporation, were among those who attended. READ MORE about GLOBAL OCEAN here.

In another article from the Hindu Times: ‘There’s ‘no action plan in the city for the management of plastic waste. ‘  Recent attempts to pelletise plastic and it in road building have not been fully successful.

So with its first world-class arts festival, can that moment build so that Kochi becomes the first to adopt an eco-industrial approach?

Let’s make sure plastic, pellets and rubber balls don’t choke them.

@alangreenhalgh 

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