Course:ECON371/UBCO2009WT1/GROUP3/Article5
Article 5: India's "Toxic" Hindu Idols Choke River
India's "toxic" Hindu idols choke rivers
Summary
As part of Hindu rituals, decorated idols are eventually immersed into accessible bodies of water. As these rituals have become more commercial, the once small idols made of simple biodegradable products have been replaced by larger idols made of materials which are damaging to the environment. These materials include plaster of Paris, which is said to reduce the oxygen level in water, and paints laced with heavy metals. There is also a powder thrown during the Holi festival that has been found to contain toxic chemicals linked to temporary blindness, asthma and skin cancer.
Analysis
Cost-Benefit Analysis of Ceremonies
There are many different associated costs and benefits related to the commercialization of religious ceremonies in India. Commercialization leads to an increase in non-ecofriendly goods and therefore an increase in the pollution of many rivers and lakes. The costs/benefits of placing restrictions and/or restricting the commercialization of these religious ceremonies is summarized below. It is very difficult to set a price on the many different costs and benefits associated with policy changes as it is tricky to numerate ideas such as a lost sense of community.
| Costs | Benefits |
|---|---|
| loss of sense of community | Citizens go back to using the pre- commercialization goods ie) vegetable paints and bio-degradable statues which leads to less pollution |
| less vibrant dyes used and therefore a loss of excitement of religious followers | increased oxygen content in lakes/rivers leading to increased quality of marine life |
| loss of economic welfare that the commercialization the festivals provided | less cost of drinking water filtration |
| less health care costs due to decreased risks of cancer/blindness etc. |
For the India's government to get a basic measure of benefit estimation they could use many different methods. Direct approaches would use market prices in order to determine the numerical value of each benefit and cost (for example health care costs and loss of human capital.) Indirect approaches could also be used, where the citizens willingness to pay would be inputed, including methods such as contingent variation (for example a CVM questionnaire) to determine the pollutant effects. Consumer surplus could also be used to measure the WTP of a private good (the change in consumer surplus caused by a price change for example, represents a consumers net benefits changing to this policy and hence the consumers willingness to pay!)
The existence value of the commercialized ceremonies is also a large determinant of costs and benefits of enforcing environmental policies. The fact that the ceremonies take place and the benefits that come from them (for example public worship, prettier idols, friendships made)could mean a lot to the religious followers in India. Contingent Valuation is most likely a great way to determine citizens WTP for these public ceremonies.
Potential Government Policies
1. Standardized materials used to make idols.
- The government could impose a regulation on what materials are acceptable to be used when creating the idols.
- There would also be a penalty for not complying with these regulations.
2. Government imposed clean-up after festivals.
- The government could make it mandatory that each festival be responsible for cleaning up the section of water that they submersed idols in.
- Penalty clean-up fees would be charged if this rule was not followed.
Things to consider:
-Enforcement would be difficult and costly making this solution less efficient. The total abatement and compliance costs (area under the "MAC plus compliance cost curves") from the unregulated level of emissions to the standard level will be greater than the efficient level of emissions. Therefore the socially efficient level will be difficult to obtain.
-It is difficult to force festival organizers to clean up "sections" of water. The idols cannot be removed for religious reasons, and are left to decompose in the water. Perhaps a better method would be for the firm to donate some of its resources/profits to an environmental organization that would after a while collect enough proceeds to develop appropriate technology to aid in the purification of the water.
3. Moral Suasion
- Government could develop a campaign that might create a climate of public shame attached to festival runners who continue to use environmentally invasive goods.
Things to consider:
- does India's government have the appropriate resources (for example funds for advertisting etc) to properly suade firms to produce more green idols as well as for consumers to only attend festivals where greener idols are used.
Standards
There are materials that are made out of chemicals that do destructive damage to the water and its inhabitants, and there are materials that don't. The chemicals in the paint used when making a large number of the idols include mercury, chromium and lead. Fish and other organisms, including humans, feel the effects created by these damaging chemicals. The toxic powders thrown during these festivals has been known to cause asthma, temporary blindness and in some cases skin-cancer, causing a loss of human capital while these people are recovering as well as the loss of disposable income that could have been spent on other things that is now being spent on health care costs There are clearly alternatives to these unhealthy chemicals. A strictly enforced set of standards should be implemented for the well-being of the environment and the festival-goers.
Liability Laws
As is the case with many other aspects of environmental damage, making those that are responsible for the emissions they create is the simplest and most fair solution to this problem. For those that create the garbage that is detrimental to the water bodies of India, it is clear that they should be liable and forced to clean-up after themselves. A strong set of liability laws is necessary in making sure that damage to the environment is kept under control and there is no more harmful waste destroying the water bodies and everything that lives in the water.
When firms/fesitval runners are liable for the damage they cause to the marine life, qualitity of drinking water, as well as the natural beauty of the lakes and rivers getting polluted they will pollute less. Instead of producing idols where the firms MAC = 0, they will now take the responsibility to produce at a more socially efficient level because they are now responsible for the MAC of cleaning up. They will produce at the level where the total costs of damages minus the total abatement costs plus the compensation to the pollutees (ie the citizens of India) are minimized.
A strict liablilty would be possible if specific government agencies have enough time to examine each idol/inputs used to make them prior to each ceremony. The cost of this is truly dependant upon how many ceremonies are taking place as well as how many idols are used per ceremony. If many of both then negligence would be an appropriate and less costly method. The burden of proof would we tricky as the rivers and lakes of India are often polluted by many other causes including pollution run-offs from other firms as well as excretement from humans. The transaction costs of implementing punishment via court could also be an issue as India's government often be investing more into the punishment then what it is worth.
Green Goods
The marginal social cost of producing non-green goods is higher than that of a green good. Consumers will purchase green goods if they feel they are a suitable substitute for the ordinary good. This causes an increase in the demand for green goods and decrease in demand for the ordinary good as consumers shift their purchases towards more eco-friendly Hindu idols. The equilibrium quantity and price of the ordinary idols will decrease so that less will be sold at a lower price, and those buyers no longer purchasing the ordinary good will purchase the eco-friendly good. The difference between the production of the two goods on a MAC vs MD graph is shown by the MAC of the green good being shifted down as less pollution is yielded per unit than with the ordinary good. The marginal damage curve remains the same with both goods because each unit of emissions doesn't change the amount of pollution it creates. The substitution towards green goods yields a lower level of pollution even without government policy. The India's government could perhaps at least try to have green Hindu idols as an option for people to substitute towards, so that they will have the option of purchasing an eco-friendly or eco-invasive idol!
In terms of the Holi festival they could adopt an educational initiative that could introduce green alternatives. Promoting a site such as
could be part of such an initiative. The key is to find the efficient amount to spend on such a program. Given that the reduction of emissions would require an initial investment in education but because it would spread through word of mouth and because the cost to maintain the initiative would be less than to create it, the shape of the abatement curve would look similar to figure c) on page 92 of the text book. The marginal abatement cost initially being high but then dropping before rising at some point near zero emissions. If a marginal damage curve could be estimated, the efficient point could be determined.
Notes
It should be noted that attempts have been made to correct the problem of the pollution caused by idols being immersed in public bodies of water by creating specific ponds for idol immersion and attempts have been made to adopt a burial policy for the idols as well.
These solutions ignore one of the main problems which is the use of toxic paints. In specific ponds or underground, the toxic substances which include lead would still be polluting the environment. It also speaks to a larger issue of the general use of this paint. If lead based paint is being used elsewhere then the problem goes well beyond the water sources. Inhaling dried flaking paint or incidental ingestion of lead based paints can lead to health problems. The Indian government could consider a ban of lead-based paint which would reduce overall lead contamination. Canada is an example of a country which has phased out lead based paint in favour of other alternatives. According to the Health Canada website, mercury is also no longer used in paints.
Conclusion
It is clear that there is a major problem linking the environmental degradation of the water bodies used to immerse the idols and the festivals that take place due to the large Hindu population in India. The biggest problem facing the environment here and those that care for it's well-being is accountability. Finding those that are the direct source of the problem and forcing them to clean up they're own damage is the hardest part of the problem. It is evident that there are problems with how these festivals are currently operating. It is also evident that there is always a solution to these kind of problems. The task is to find a proper solution that is fair and isn't too out of reach. Whether it be a government-imposed solution or one where a Greenpeace organization can find a common-ground between the festival organizers and the longevity of the environment in India.
The problem goes beyond idols and powder used in ceremonies. The use of toxins such as lead and mercury is something that should be addressed on a greater scale. By addressing the greater issue the use of mercury and lead in consumer products, the government could create policy that is much more efficient. A ban on lead based paint would result in a reduction of lead emissions from a wide variety of sources. This would certainly appear to be a more cost effective approach.
Prof's Comments
One additional method to assess the WTP is analogous to the travel cost method. The value of participating in the festival has to be at least as great as the amount that people spend to participate.
I agree that the transactions cost associated with any incentive based policy that targets the emissions is likely to be high. However, an input tax on the dies and paints that cause the problem is one possibility. Taxing plaster of Paris is also a possibility. However, if this is used in other areas, then it may not be an effective thing to do. Moral suasion that has a religious foundation, a Hindu equivalent to the recent 'What would Jesus drive' campaign in the USA, may also have some influence.