Celebrate “World Oceans Day” on June 8 and Protect the Mother Ocean

KUDANKULAM ANTI-NUCLEAR SATYAGRAHA, INDIA, 4 Jun 2012

People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy – TRANSCEND Media Service

PMANE Plans Special Prayers, Floral Tributes and Cultural Programs in Coastal Villages

The long-concealed and much-hidden Site Evaluation Report (SER) for the Koodankulam nuclear power project (in Tamil Nadu, India) has just been obtained after a long and arduous RTI and legal fight. Among other things, the Report reveals that the liquid waste from the Koodankulam nuclear plants will “be diluted” and “discharged into the sea.” It is clearly established that the radioactivity in the liquid waste of 6000 mCu/year from two units will be removed in the Ion exchange resin and as evaporator concentrate. It will be further diluted by condenser cooling water to meet the AERB (Atomic Energy Regulatory Board) limits and discharged into the sea.

Now can you imagine the amount of liquid waste that will be dumped by six to eight nuclear plants at Koodankulam, and the other mega nuclear projects by the sea at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu, Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh, Haripur in West Bengal, Jaitapur in Maharashtra, and Mithi Virdi in Gujarat. Our beloved Indian Ocean will soon become one big nuclear dumpsite.

With two mega nuclear projects both at the northern end and the southern tip of Tamil Nadu, our Tamil Nadu coast is particularly threatened by nuclear contamination. During the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, the Tamil kingdoms of the Cheras, the Cholas and the Pandyas developed intensive trade relations with the Roman Egypt and Indochina. The Indian Ocean was the Tamils’ playground and today we are fighting to preserve it.

It is high time those of us in India stood up and protected the Indian Ocean, its Bay of Bengal, the Andaman Sea, the Gulf of Mannar, the Palk Strait, the Arabian Sea, the Lakshadweep Sea, the Gulf of Khambhat, and the Gulf of Kutch! What is at stake is our seafood, marine life, coral reefs, biodiversity, our beautiful weather machine – put briefly, our mother of life.

The Indian Ocean is a huge body of water bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and the Arabian Peninsula; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean, the portion of the Indian Ocean south of 60 degrees south, which was delimited as a fifth ocean by the International Hydrographic Organization in 2000. The Indian Ocean is named after the geographic location of India.

“World Oceans Day” is being celebrated on June 8^th since its original proposal in 1992 by Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and it was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008. According to the UN, it is “an opportunity to raise global awareness of the current challenges faced by the international community in connection with the oceans.” The World Oceans Day is an ideal occasion to emphasize our individual and collective duty to protect the marine environment and to manage its resources carefully. Clean, safe, healthy and productive oceans are crucial for all our wellbeing, economic security and sustainable development. The theme for the World Oceans Day 2011 and 2012 is “Youth: the Next Wave for Change” with a special focus on getting the young people in our communities inspired to conserve our world’s oceans.

The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) calls on the youth all over Tamil Nadu, India and the world to commemorate the World Oceans Day by organizing special prayers by the sea, carrying out beach and ocean clean-ups, paying floral tributes to the sea, and performing cultural programs with youth rallies in the coastal villages.

People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE)
Idinthakarai & P. O. 627 104
Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu
India
koodankulam@yahoo.com

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 4 Jun 2012.

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