Industry Practices

Background
Dredging is the mechanical/hydraulic removal of underwater sediments from one location and disposal at some other location, which may be on land or in water. Dredging is primarily used for building and maintaining waterways. At times it is also used for creating coastal protections, beach nourishment or land reclamation in the sea.

More often than necessary, in-appropriate methods of dredging lead to disruption in local eco-systems of marine flora and fauna. This has led to the common belief that dredging is environment unfriendly. In reality, it is the faulty design of dredging or incorrect methods of disposal that are to blame and not the whole practice as such. “Green dredging” is a term coined to represent environment friendly dredging techniques.

Uses of Dredged Material
Environment friendly disposal of excavated material is one of the most important aspects of dredging, a concept that is being increasingly followed in developed nations. The idea is to treat the dredged material as a valuable resource that can be beneficially used elsewhere. Such material primarily finds use in engineering works, agricultural land and environmental projects.

Land reclamation/restoration and offshore berms are some of the common applications where dredged material can be put to use. All types of soil (clay, silt and gravel) can be efficiently used for such projects. Also, the material (especially gravel) can be used for building road embankments/foundations and noise barriers. The former is a very economical way of reducing the cost of a green-field project in an undeveloped area (roads/rail connectivity is low). The latter is an efficient way of building/expanding ports near human habitats, as noise pollution from cargo handling operations is huge deterrent in such projects.

Fine silt and clay finds excellent use for replenishment of agricultural top-soil. Being rich in minerals and sediments, it can be used for enriching the top soil in forests/farms where the same has been depleted of valuable nutrients due to prolonged usage over a period of time.

These days, environmental scientists and dredging experts are exploring the uses of dredged soils in environmental projects such as creation/nourishment of wetlands and building habitats for fisheries. Such practices are still being explored and thus do not find universal application.

Checklist for Green Dredging
Adequate planning involving pre-operation studies such as soil surveys, bathymetry studies and hydrographic studies are a prerequisite for enabling environment friendly dredging. The onus should not be restricted to the dredger operator or the port alone, but should be shared in ratio of one’s domain competencies. One effective method of implementing “Green Dredging” is to prepare an Environment Impact Assessment report for dredging alone. Most of the countries stipulate the preparation of such reports for ports/waterways but not for dredging on a piecemeal basis.

An Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report is basically an amalgamation of existing environmental conditions at the location; project background and rationale; proposed techniques of dredging; an assessment of the potential effects of the project on local flora-fauna; methods that will be used to circumnavigate the potentially baneful effects and long term benefits of the project.

The basic premise behind making an EIA report is to ensure that the dredging operations conform to environment protection through sound engineering techniques and do not pose any adverse challenge to the environment on short/long term basis.

The Future
In the near future, dredging will find numerous applications in tackling the adverse effect of climate change. Seal levels are rising at an alarming rate which will lead to destruction of existing coastal habitats and also decrease the land available for the growing population. Moreover, sea-based natural calamities have increased in frequency and intensity. Dredging will be a tool for combating all such problems through land reclamation and creation of coastal protections.

A Google Earth Image of Palm Islands and World Islands - Dubai


Above captured Palm Islands and the adjoining World Islands in Dubai, represent the largest land reclamation project in history of mankind. The services of the three largest dredging companies in the world – Jan de Nul, Van Oord and Royal Boskalis are being extensively used for building these islands and upon completion they will house more than a million people. Many such projects are envisaged to be implemented in the future.

The Verdict
With the increasing trade volumes being catered through waterways, dredging is becoming an integral part of the market mechanics. Thus propagation of environmentally sound dredging techniques will go a long way in preserving the natural eco-systems on the planet and pave way for successfully employing technology in projects aimed at supporting mankind’s existence on this planet.

P.W.D. (ROADS DEPTT.) GOVT. OF W.B.

The following travelogue is the first hand experience of the author. The blog is not meant to draw any conclusion or public opinion.

… this is what a mile stone read when I crossed Udaipur, the last village in Orissa, and enter Digha, oops!!! New Digha, (I could not draw the line separating New Digha from Digha or Old Digha whatever you choose to call it). Sometimes I feel the correct line should have been “Beware - You are Leaving Orissa & You are Entering W.B.”, though the feeling was not the same until I visited West Bengal recently on one of my official tours.

As we crossed the border our taxi was stopped and surrounded by at least 10 odd people waving sticks as if they were ready to hit me. For once I got scared and asked the driver to rush and not to stop the vehicle (we had hired our vehicle from Bhubaneshwar). Our driver was smart enough and he stopped saying - “Agar nahi roka to ye log gaadi ka sheesha tod denge” (if I don’t stop the vehicle these people will break the window panes of the vehicle.). The people around started yelling at the driver in Bengali, and I could not understand even an iota of what they said.

With my heart thumping, I got down from the vehicle and asked if anyone knew Hindi to which all of them replied – “Haan boliye!!!” (yes speak up.). Trying to be as polite as I could get, without revealing that I was scared, I enquired about the matter. I was told that a West Bengal registered vehicle without a permit (one needs to get a government permit after paying the road tax while crossing state border in a taxi) had entered Orissa and was held up there by the police for not having all the papers. In retaliation West Bengal taxi union had decided to stop all the Orissa registered taxies until a decision was taken on the issue.

I requested to allow us to go back to Orissa to which they disagreed saying that I might take another route and enter West Bengal (of course they were smarter than I was.). I was held up in New Digha for almost two hours and I decided to utilize the time for lunch in a restaurant where I was the only customer. After two hours my driver came and told me that the problem has been sorted out and all the vehicles have been released after collecting Rs. 200, equivalent to what the West Bengal taxi had to pay in Orissa.

(…to be continued)

India and China unarguably are the most promising economies in the coming years. They share at least two characteristics: Both have population of more than billion people and most importantly, both have vast and expanding ‘skillful’ labour base. Moreover, both the nations share same ideologies and have their respective civilization going back some 5,000 years.

China and India both have shown remarkable economic growth in the past few years. However, when it comes to seaborne trade the Chinese are far ahead than India. Infact there exist a lot of differences between the two Asian giants. For e.g. the overall seaborne trade of China was almost 10 times that of India in the year 2007. The container trade of China was staggering 16 times of India in the same year.

China has about 18,000 kms of coastline with almost 1,400 ports, which means on an average a port at almost 13 kms of coastline whereas India has 7,500 kms of coastline and nearly 200 ports implying on an average a port at 37 kms.

Six of the container ports of China are among the top 20 world class container ports and the overall container traffic handled by China stood at nearly 114 million TEUs whilst for the whole India it stood at 7 million TEUs.

The main reason that can be attributed to the Chinese story is that Chinese economy opened as early as 1978 whilst in India it was in early 90’s. Also, the growth story of China is more on the shoulders of manufacturing and trade whilst for India it depends more on services.

The other reason for this difference is the fact that the processes in India are slow with more of the policymaking regulatory functions in the port sector being centralized whereas in case of China it is more decentralized. The port reforms in china were more encouraged by private partnership and foreign investments, affecting the overall trade picture.

Another reason is port induced infrastructure. Chinese were able to connect and improve their overall connectivity not only in terms of road and rail but also the inland waterways and airports making them an international destination base. India lags in this regard.

Other differences include the overall approach of the Indian and the Chinese governments. For e.g. In China SEZ’s were seen as test reforms which were ultimately adopted nationwide while in India SEZ’s are not regarded as reforms but just another means.

The port sector development in India rests on the overall development and more of the private participation which will bring in more authority and decision-making capability. Moreover, the government should act as a supporting authority in developing the ancillary infrastructure rather than the governing body.

No doubt that India can have its own share of pie and become comparable to China but for the fast paced development, the emerging Asian monster needs to look deep inside its policy making and overall decision making process.