The same behaviors are told of Americans in Strangers in Their Own Land.
7
This article really reminds me the 90's China when 'getting rich is glorious'.
5
Anthropogenic climate change at the meso-scale. India will drown in its own climate refugees even before the pacific islands drop beneath the sea.
The corruption of the caste system "married" to the values of the market. This is the future of 'globalisation', as currently practiced. No wonder the "world is turning (politically) upside down".
Visit India while it is still there.
The corruption of the caste system "married" to the values of the market. This is the future of 'globalisation', as currently practiced. No wonder the "world is turning (politically) upside down".
Visit India while it is still there.
4
Every community must start to realize that the Commons belong to all of us, and that we are all dependent on good management of our natural resources -- water, sand, oil, and many other things that are ultimately finite in supply.
And we need to realize that when we start placing an economic value on these resources, we can collect Natural Public Revenue, which will permit us to reduce the taxes on wages and sales and buildings and other evidence of production.
Read George: Henry George. He asserted that the Earth belongs to all of us in common. Observing that fact and conforming our policies and economic structures to it leads to a sustainable economy and society and environment in which all can prosper. Pretending it isn't so leads to environmental degradation and wealth concentration.
Which sort of community, society, world do you want to live in? Which do you want to leave to your children and grandchildren?
Read George. Henry George. There's plenty online.
And we need to realize that when we start placing an economic value on these resources, we can collect Natural Public Revenue, which will permit us to reduce the taxes on wages and sales and buildings and other evidence of production.
Read George: Henry George. He asserted that the Earth belongs to all of us in common. Observing that fact and conforming our policies and economic structures to it leads to a sustainable economy and society and environment in which all can prosper. Pretending it isn't so leads to environmental degradation and wealth concentration.
Which sort of community, society, world do you want to live in? Which do you want to leave to your children and grandchildren?
Read George. Henry George. There's plenty online.
6
It's funny how many commenters here say something along the lines of "I hope we in America can learn from this before it's too late."
It's too late.
How many rivers have been literally drained to support the still-burgeoning desert communities of California and the Southwest, with their lawns and their gulf courses and their people who can't seem to stop drinking water?
How many farther east have been polluted into oblivion?
How many businessmen are greedily plotting to take our Great Lakes, our last significant repository of reliable, useful water and ship them to Colorado, Utah, Arizona?
And how many corrupt politicians are lining up, palms out, to make it happen?
Sand is the supposed topic of this story, but its all about water, without which a sand-pile as big as all India is meaningless. As will become evident when more of those empty living units fill with people who expect to wake in the morning, twist a tap, and take a drink.
Just like us, Indian communities continue to insist that their rivers are 'sacred', their traditions unbroken, even as they rip the environment to shreds.
Just like India, we're embarked on what will be a minimum of four years of environmental happy talk meant to cover corruption by businessmen who are beyond reproach because they are businessmen, and rich, and politicians who succeeded long ago in convincing an easily cowed population that concern for the environment is either whack-job stupid or a plot to destroy the Real America.
It's too late.
How many rivers have been literally drained to support the still-burgeoning desert communities of California and the Southwest, with their lawns and their gulf courses and their people who can't seem to stop drinking water?
How many farther east have been polluted into oblivion?
How many businessmen are greedily plotting to take our Great Lakes, our last significant repository of reliable, useful water and ship them to Colorado, Utah, Arizona?
And how many corrupt politicians are lining up, palms out, to make it happen?
Sand is the supposed topic of this story, but its all about water, without which a sand-pile as big as all India is meaningless. As will become evident when more of those empty living units fill with people who expect to wake in the morning, twist a tap, and take a drink.
Just like us, Indian communities continue to insist that their rivers are 'sacred', their traditions unbroken, even as they rip the environment to shreds.
Just like India, we're embarked on what will be a minimum of four years of environmental happy talk meant to cover corruption by businessmen who are beyond reproach because they are businessmen, and rich, and politicians who succeeded long ago in convincing an easily cowed population that concern for the environment is either whack-job stupid or a plot to destroy the Real America.
19
Public officials like Mr. Nagendra P. Singh deserve public praise and credit for working tirelessly to try to protect India's precious river resources. The system is stacked against him and others like him trying to profit from plundering the environment. But he is wise to understand that it will be won through hearts and minds, followed up with the teeth of law enforcement for those who refuse to comply. India's building boom has been completely unregulated and all the investors in these beautiful high-rise complexes will find that they have no value if they have no water. Water is life and when one is gone so is the other.
11
Excellent Article..
Living in India, I also see indiscriminate use of Granite everywhere, I am wondering how sustainable this is. Moreover it cant ever be replenished.
Living in India, I also see indiscriminate use of Granite everywhere, I am wondering how sustainable this is. Moreover it cant ever be replenished.
9
people need housing. As much as environmentalists would like Indians to live in their 'natural' state, it's only a matter of time before people need apartments. High density housing is the only way to house millions on people within 'bus' distance of their workplaces. Interesting that the author thinks that concrete houses are a 'prestige' issue, I wonder if high rise apartments can be built with straw and mud. I stopped believing what the article was saying after I read about the prestige attached to living in concrete buildings. As much as I would like to believe, the facts just don't seem to line up. another alternative facts story?
2
The alternate fact is that we are not drastically overpopulated.
4
This story conveys a number of things but the elephant in the room is resource depletion. It is not just oil or water that is becoming scarce under the pressure of Billions of people and hundreds of millions joining the developed world.
Sand theft is a worldwide phenomenon and first became broadly apparent during the go-go boom years as China moved hundreds of millions from dung heated hovels to concrete high rises. They literally were driving the price of construction materials - including sand- upward worldwide.
Although the earth has the ability to regenerate some things and clean water, it does so at a limited rate. The pressure on resources from the developing world and the continued excessive waste of the developed world is exhausting the ability of Mother Earth to carry us all.
I would love to see the NYT do a deep dive series on resource depletion and how it will impact all of us. You can start with water.
Sand theft is a worldwide phenomenon and first became broadly apparent during the go-go boom years as China moved hundreds of millions from dung heated hovels to concrete high rises. They literally were driving the price of construction materials - including sand- upward worldwide.
Although the earth has the ability to regenerate some things and clean water, it does so at a limited rate. The pressure on resources from the developing world and the continued excessive waste of the developed world is exhausting the ability of Mother Earth to carry us all.
I would love to see the NYT do a deep dive series on resource depletion and how it will impact all of us. You can start with water.
19
Why is 7-11 billion better than one billion humans? 1/10 the depletion rate. Why not face the real human priority---our numbers.
3
"hundreds of millions of Indians migrating from villages to cities require up to a billion square yards of new real estate development annually"
An urgent call for a 'Chinese solution' of marriage forbidden before the age of 25 + 1 child only - paired with sterilization incentives.
It does not stop with the sand. They all need food, energy, education. You cannot fight poverty if the poor population grows exponentially.
An urgent call for a 'Chinese solution' of marriage forbidden before the age of 25 + 1 child only - paired with sterilization incentives.
It does not stop with the sand. They all need food, energy, education. You cannot fight poverty if the poor population grows exponentially.
16
PS: that may be one of the ways to combat Climate Change world-wide. But I am afraid that governments and religions hostile to women will prevent a 1 or 2 child policy.
15
msf--Agree that a one child incentive is the priority as overpopulation fuels climate change, mass extinctions, pandemics and depletion of resources including clean air and water---but it is not just governments and religions. The modern economy, the 1%, need an endless increase in consumers.
9
I live in California and water here is as polluted if not more than in India. I have tested tap water for pesticides and other pollutants with positive results each time. Obviously, we don't drink tap water and just like everyone else around here, use bottled water.
7
The World’s Disappearing Sand: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/23/opinion/the-worlds-disappearing-sand....
1
Please link this sand mining in India and the damage to rivers and water to your past articles on the world wide shortage of quality sand for highways, bridges, buildings, dams, levers, and housing.
It is not just finding quality sand but choosing to save a lot of money by not long hauling the quality sand. The Sahara and most of the other deserts have sands useless for concrete construction. I wonder if they could be used to replace river sand used for construction.
It is not just finding quality sand but choosing to save a lot of money by not long hauling the quality sand. The Sahara and most of the other deserts have sands useless for concrete construction. I wonder if they could be used to replace river sand used for construction.
5
Seems when Trump has rolled back all of the government regulations corruption will be the rule not the exception.
4
Humans = A species extinguished by their own greed.
14
Our species is what it is. True, a very empty and materialistic modern culture has replaced healthy pre-farming cultures. But it is our numbers more than greed that have us going over environmental cliffs. Everyone naturally wants what their neighbors have; there are simply too many neighbors.
4
During the 1999 earthquake in Turkey, the reason so many buildings crumbled and there were so many victims was the overuse of sand, in rule defying proportions, in the concrete.I hope in India they mix the sand and cement in right proportions.
10
I've been living on the banks of the Manimala and can attest to the destruction of this once pristine waterway. When I got here 8 years ago I was faced with about half a km of eroded and savaged riverbank on the ancestral property where I reside. Started planting bamboo at waters edge and about 4 monsoons later big difference , restored some of that riverbank. Some years before I get back to where it was decades ago. The annual monsoon is key but that has become erratic the last couple of years. Still, hoping for better outcomes.
8
"People are selfish." Apparently this is a universal tenet. So are the inescapable consequences of rampant, boundless population exploision: overbuilding, overusing, overburning. WIth a burgeoning population that shows no sign of slowing down its uncontrolled growth, India is teaching the rest of the world the painful lessons of unchecked air pollution, disappearing potable water. The famines that beset South Asia were last seen in Bangladesh during the early 1970s but they too can also reappear. What would prevent India's leadership from exercising their nuclear option, when they, like Mao's China, have so many "superfluous" humans to lose?
8
Mr. Romig, I want to express my appreciation for a well-written, insightful, thoughtful, and informative article. Thank you.
5
So the moral of the story seems to be that there needs to be a social compact on how a region's assets are to be used. If the compact is merely let the assets be taken by the whims of individual,clan or others who could care less about the eventual outcome, then the endgame is dreadful. It is pretty clear that humanity has yet to evolve past the hunter gatherer mentality and mother nature will have to school us all on the consequences of that world view. Hardly a difference between this and drill baby drill or our ever expanding population. That's why we pay to watch Star wars episodes. They simply build a new planet out there to house our ever expanding reproductive needs. Somehow I don't think it's going to turn out that way.
10
The truely sad part of this is that there is nothing unique about it. The crime of the rivers and their sand deposits was that they were not producing income for some group -- that there were devastating consequences afterwards was not their problem. Too many burdensome regulations, I think is the current mantra.
5
I am resident of South India and I thank you very much for highlighting this important issue. Even our national media has so far shied away from projecting this atrocity in a big way.
We have corrupt politicians and bureaucrats on the one hand and neo-corporate houses, that promise heaven on earth, on the other. When these two join hands, the result is destruction of nature.
It is not just rivers that we have lost, we have lost plenty of forest lands too. Almost all of India is naked without greenery. Plenty and plenty of species have been wiped out. The government is just not bothered about all these destruction.
India is known world wide as an agricultural country. Without water, there is no agriculture. When rivers are destroyed, I wonder where come we will get water. No dams are being constructed to save water. Our rivers are also not linked. Already there is water scarcity in many parts of India.
Unless Indian Government realizes that there is no substitute to nature, in the given situation, future of India is highly dangerous.
We have corrupt politicians and bureaucrats on the one hand and neo-corporate houses, that promise heaven on earth, on the other. When these two join hands, the result is destruction of nature.
It is not just rivers that we have lost, we have lost plenty of forest lands too. Almost all of India is naked without greenery. Plenty and plenty of species have been wiped out. The government is just not bothered about all these destruction.
India is known world wide as an agricultural country. Without water, there is no agriculture. When rivers are destroyed, I wonder where come we will get water. No dams are being constructed to save water. Our rivers are also not linked. Already there is water scarcity in many parts of India.
Unless Indian Government realizes that there is no substitute to nature, in the given situation, future of India is highly dangerous.
14
This is such a sad story. it so closely tracks what I have observed when traveling in India. How can sense ever come in such a chaotic society? Where could one begin? This is not to say anything negative about the many wonderful and intelligent people in India.
3
This is why India will never be a great nation.
3
I witness the same destruction in Bangladesh every time I visit: The mighty Padma and Brahmaputra (Ganges by other name) are shadows of what they used to be, with round-the-clock sand-mining disrupting the natural flow and destroying the rivers, all in the name of progress. You see the hideous urban jungles lining the banks and laborers groaning under their heavy load of sand and iron and brick, building sand castles for others while earning a pittance, completely under the whip of the local mafia. 'Riverine' Bangladesh is turning into a desert, particularly in the north. An environmental, and human, tragedy of enormous proportion, indeed!
16
India trumps the US, probably not China.
7
Absolutely it is right story as I am seeing and understanding without going into the depth of this Article. I also say that Mr. Nagendra Prasad Singh, District Magistrate, Noida, U.P. is an accused in my complaint lodged with Central Bureau of Investigation regarding illegal sand mining. I hope that Government of India may take note of the story published in this Article. Efforts of Mr. Rollo Romig to such an extent in discovering this story is highly appreciated.
20
"Why would any village so willingly accept such paltry gains for certain catastrophe?"
Why did the U.S. federal and state governments allow practically unregulated fracking a decade ago, without asking obvious questions; the Trump Administration allow the DAPL and Keystone Pipelines, and crush EPA which will be in no position to regulate them?
It's because we in the U.S. still haven't learned from the late 60's that if we destroy our water, we have nothing. We ruin our health, wildlife, quality of life.
And too many of us, including our Stock Market currently, still operate under the outdated perspective that the economy is separate from the environment. Whereas, each needs the other.
In contrast, the sustainable business field has learned to accept increasing levels of environmental responsibility, and should be a focal point of economic activity. The ecological economics field developed the ecosystems services concept, such as the ability of sand to pass through clean water to aquifers. And they and others have quantified the economic value of such services, which while misleadingly priced at zero, would be incredibly expensive if they have to be artificially replaced.
The knowledge exists of just how precious nature is. So those Indian villages are no more foolish than us in not acting on that knowledge when creative and better alternatives are possible.
We also need to begin to question why our self-worth is so dependent on what others think of our possessions.
Why did the U.S. federal and state governments allow practically unregulated fracking a decade ago, without asking obvious questions; the Trump Administration allow the DAPL and Keystone Pipelines, and crush EPA which will be in no position to regulate them?
It's because we in the U.S. still haven't learned from the late 60's that if we destroy our water, we have nothing. We ruin our health, wildlife, quality of life.
And too many of us, including our Stock Market currently, still operate under the outdated perspective that the economy is separate from the environment. Whereas, each needs the other.
In contrast, the sustainable business field has learned to accept increasing levels of environmental responsibility, and should be a focal point of economic activity. The ecological economics field developed the ecosystems services concept, such as the ability of sand to pass through clean water to aquifers. And they and others have quantified the economic value of such services, which while misleadingly priced at zero, would be incredibly expensive if they have to be artificially replaced.
The knowledge exists of just how precious nature is. So those Indian villages are no more foolish than us in not acting on that knowledge when creative and better alternatives are possible.
We also need to begin to question why our self-worth is so dependent on what others think of our possessions.
60
At the worst of the California water emergency from the fierce drought, fresh water was being used for fracking. Also, water mining by commercial companies were pumping ground water to bottle and ship out of State even as they were restricting the use of water by ordinary citizens.
11
India is on the road to complete destruction with continued coal mining for power plants, which will grossly pollute the atmosphere, to sand mining, to female infanticide which is leaving millions of men no possibility of finding a wife. Indian river are polluted with industrial and human wastes. Global warming will melt back or completely obliterate many of the Himalayan glaciers which will turned the rivers into seasonal rivers with low or no flow in the dry season. The endemic corruption is on a scale not understandable to American minds.
34
"Not understandable to American minds"- many things are not understandable to the american mind. why? very little interaction with different cultures, languages and challenges that such things pose. On an average an Indian knows at least 2-3 languages, has interaction and friends in multiple religions and races, understand and protects aboriginals living in forests etc. Things are not as bad they project in your media, especially international media. As far as contribution to Global warning and climate change goes, Americans are leading in "Complete destruction" of the world and moreover you(your govt) are in a state of denial. http://berc.berkeley.edu/ranking-global-warming-contributions-by-country/
2
an Indian friend told me - in India you get fair justice - unless one side bribes the judge, in which case they will get a decision in their favour
so both sides tend to bribe the judge, so they have a better chance of getting fair justice.
so both sides tend to bribe the judge, so they have a better chance of getting fair justice.
14
You can bribe a judge in India, they are one of highest paid civil servants.
he is living in the past. these days you pay a bribe and get nothing in return. Who will you complain to if you don't get value for the bribe paid? see the loophole?
I found this article to be imaginatively, and painfully accurate. To be an American in India is to live on an emotional roll-a-coaster of disbelief, joy at the impossible kindness of others, and outrage at the brutality of the many by the few.
Mumbai, the city I work in for part of the year, has "rivers of people". The only time the streets are relatively quiet outside my apartment is 3-5AM. Everything is concrete. Buildings go up for a couple months, and construction stops.
People move into the abandoned construction sites, that have floors, but no walls and live there with their families, with traffic at eye level, zooming by. Apartments and office buildings are built without a water supply, or sewage. Trucks come daily to offload water, or take away the waste.
Mumbai, the city I work in for part of the year, has "rivers of people". The only time the streets are relatively quiet outside my apartment is 3-5AM. Everything is concrete. Buildings go up for a couple months, and construction stops.
People move into the abandoned construction sites, that have floors, but no walls and live there with their families, with traffic at eye level, zooming by. Apartments and office buildings are built without a water supply, or sewage. Trucks come daily to offload water, or take away the waste.
31
This is becoming a problem all over the developing--and developed--world. People don't think of silica, or sand, as a finite resource, but given the volume used in constructing buildings and highways, not to mention the glass that goes into or clads those buildings, soon even the ocean may not be deep enough to supply human needs.
23
The question is how are developing countries gonna satisfy the short of homes? There are no cheap alternative.
Great story. Devastatingly depressing. Very few governments or businesses in the world interested in preserving a good environment for future generations. God save us from ourselves.
47
We are dumb species.we going to kill our self for greed.
2
Kudos! This is a captivating and thoughtful article accompanied by fine photos that reward second and third looks. I look forward to more from Mr. Romig and Mr. Georgiou.
15
Theft of the commons. I'd like to see a piece with same title as this, with the subject a river in the US. Perhaps how CA central valley industrial ag uses 80% of our water to grow and export product, and in the process pollutes the land, water and air.
31
The New Yorker has done a number of very interesting pieces on water in the western US
5
And the USA doesn't need the EPA, like we're exceptional?
39
"We have met the enemy,and he is us."
47
This timely report from a distant land such as India left us wondering about what the future might hold for our adult children and very young grandchildren. Will the human species succeed in literally digging its own demise due to the multiple and multiplying effects of environmental abuse? Given what we've read so far, it appears that there's very little hope left for us all. May God help us see the light before impending doom!
22