December 22, 2024 10:48 (IST)
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TERI survey shows 90% people feel climate change is reality
New Delhi, Jun 4 (IBNS): The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in its recently published Environmental Survey 2014, stated that overall, a large majority of people felt that air quality had worsened and the number of bird species in their cities had declined.
TERI however, noted that a majority of people felt that drinking water availability and quality as well as waste management in their cities had improved.
TERI recently released the findings of its Environmental Survey 2014, which was initiated to gauge the perception, awareness, opinion and behaviour of people towards the environment in India.
This year, the survey covered eight cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Guwahati, Indore, Jamshedpur, Kanpur and Pune.
The focus of the survey was on the general environment, and in particular, water and waste related issues.
TERI said that a vast majority of respondents (90 percent) felt that climate change was a reality and a majority (over 80 percent) out of those felt that average temperatures had risen and rainfall levels had gone down over time (over 63 percent).
In his video message on the occasion, R K Pachauri, Director General, TERI, said, "This time, we have focused on cities which normally don’t get the kind of attention they deserve. If we want to bring about improvement in environmental quality, then the foundation on which any such effort would rest, would be on the awareness of the public."
Pachauri added, "I hope through this survey, we are able to bring about the level of awareness that really lays the foundation for action in the right direction. If we don’t, then we would all be taken over by urban blight."
Prodipto Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow, TERI, said, "TERI's Environmental Survey 2014 of residents of eight major cities of the country provides usual insights into the attitude and perceptions regarding India's environment. Urban respondents felt government and consumers played a positive role for improving the environment."
"The survey will be of immense value to policymakers in identifying areas where the sound environment management policy can play a significant role, and where greater efforts of outreach and awareness building are necessary," Ghosh said.
TERI in the Environmental Survey 2014 pointed out that, the respondents showed a great deal of awareness and concern about the state of the environment.
Over 90 percent felt that the quality of the environment had an immediate impact on health. While close to 40 percent felt that environment and development went hand in hand with no apparent trade-offs, a significant proportion (over 30 percent) thought that the government should prioritize the environment over development.
TERI noted that a higher proportion of women (48 percent) as compared to men (36 percent) felt that the objectives of environmental protection and development went hand in hand.
In terms of efforts to improve the environment, over 40 percent of the respondents ranked the government the highest, followed by general consumers (by nearly 30 percent).
Nearly one-third of the respondents felt that academic/research organizations were putting in the least effort to address environmental concerns.
On a positive note, a majority of people felt that drinking water availability and quality as well as waste management in their cities had improved.
However a slightly higher percent of women (28 percent and 30 percent) felt that drinking water quality and availability respectively, had deteriorated as compared to men (24 percent and 24 percent).
The responses varied, though marginally, across localities for some of the indicators.
TERI said that interestingly, the proportion of those who perceived an improvement in indicators like air quality, drinking water quality and availability, and tree/forest cover, was higher in high income localities when compared to other two localities.
TERI stated that over 70 percent of the respondents were aware of water being subsidized.
Of those who were aware, over half felt that water should be charged as per usage and 35 percent were against it.
The majority (over 73 percent) relied on municipal water supply though it is noteworthy that about 10 percent of people relied on packaged water.
TERI said that often, groundwater is used to supplement municipal sources of supply; hence the reliance on groundwater in cities is likely to be much larger than indicated.
Over 50 percent of the respondents indicated that they treated their drinking water before consumption, though a significant 32 percent didn’t do so.
The larger percentage of respondents in high income localities (68 percent) reported to be treating their water before drinking as compared to respondents from middle income (46 percent) and low income (40 percent).
Meanwhile, on the issue of waste, close to 50 percent of the people did not have garbage collected from their houses.
This was higher for respondents from low income localities (56 percent) than high and middle income localities (44 percent and 45 percent respectively).
Once again, people showed a great deal of awareness about the issue, TERI said.
Close to 90 percent felt that improper waste management imposed ‘severe’ (67 percent) to moderate (23 percent) health hazards.
There seemed to be consensus on this among respondents across localities, TERI said.
Generating less waste was seen as the best strategy to address the problem of waste management by around 60 percent of respondents, followed by segregation of waste by 25 percent.
More than 50 percent of respondents were not willing to segregate their waste into biodegradable and non-degradable.
TERI further reported that over 80 percent of the respondents were aware of the problem of e-waste, and most respondents either repaired or reused electronic goods.
Very few respondents disposed electronic goods along with household garbage. Around 86 percent respondents felt that polythene bags should be banned.
The survey had a sample of 11,214 citizens spread across the selected urban agglomerates of India.
It was conducted between December, 2013 and February, 2014, through face-to-face interviews in each city using a standardized questionnaire.
About 43 percent of the respondents came from low income localities, 24 percent from middle income localities and 33 percent from high income localities.
The distribution of respondents according to their educational qualification showed that 32 percent of the respondents had studied up to higher secondary and diploma, followed by 31 percent in the category of under graduation and above.
Around 23 percent of the respondents had studied up to middle and secondary education and the remaining 14 percent only up to primary school.
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