The Toxic sector study is an attempt to bring together the various 'toxic' projects that are funded by the World Bank in India especially in light of the large number of environmental clauses that have been added by the Ministry of Environment in the period post greening of the Bank. The sector intends to understand the issue largely under 4 heads:
- Industry
- Health
- Agriculture
- Garbage and Sanitation
Under these larger heads, the issue will highlight the following:
- Industrial policy/import-export credit-promotion/industrial import projects: how has the Bank influenced the kind of industrial development in the country? The kind of industries, sitting of industries, industrial technology transfers, trade (imports/exports of chemicals) etc. Many of the phased out industries/ technologies got promoted in the developing world in the early 80's. Examples like petrochemicals products can be adopted as case studies.
- Public health systems: use of pesticides in sector control related programmes, medical waste management-incineration, incineration of syringes.
- Agriculture: promotion of pesticide use, kinds of pesticides, any specific promotion of companies and kinds of pesticides, shifts of crop production based on bank recommendation.
- Urban development/sanitation: garbage management-incineration
- Environmental management/capacity building: pollution abatement technologies/hazardous waste mgt-landfills, CETPs, incinerations, silting policies etc.
This presentation will put together a dossier with an overview of all the above sectors (focusing on toxics) and then provide a note on each sector with case studies (where they exist). The presentation should draw linkages between Bank' funding or policy inputs in certain Government of India decisions.
