ASIA PACIFIC TODAY. Wastewater surveillance for Covid-19, and is the quest for renewables threatening the Himalayas?

ASIA PACIFIC TODAY. February 23, 2021

In this episode, we speak to Dr Paul Bertsch, Deputy Director of Science of the new Land and Water Business Unit at the CSIRO. The Business Unit brings together a diverse team of approximately 650 scientists and technical specialists from across CSIRO and builds partnerships with industry, government, and other research providers to generate the science which underpins sound stewardship of land and water resources, ecosystems, and the built environment.

Wastewater-based epidemiology approaches, to detect Covid-19 in wastewater, are being implemented worldwide as an environmental surveillance approach, to inform health authority decision-making.

Dr Bertsch’s team is at the forefront of developing more accurate tests for Covid-19 in wastewater in Australia.

Prior to joining CSIRO in 2013, Paul was the Director of the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment and Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology, University of Kentucky, Lexington. He is the Georgia Power Professor of Environmental Chemistry Emeritus at the University of Georgia, Athens and is an adjunct Professor of Environmental Systems Engineering and Science at Clemson University, South Carolina.

A tragedy occurred recently in Northern India where a part of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off, triggering a massive flood and washing away parts of two hydropower plants and other infrastructure, leaving 50 lives lost and over 150 feared dead.

While some climate experts rushed to declare this a climate change event from rising temperatures, rational observers point to other causes including the construction of back-to-back dams and rush for renewable energy projects that may have destabilised the fragile environment in the Himalayas.

We're joined by Sanjeev Ahluwalia, is an Advisor at Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. Sanjeev's expertise is in economic regulation, political economy, public sector financial management and governance. He has had experience at senior levels in The Energy Research Institute, Ministries of Finance, Commerce in the Government of India and in Finance and Industry in the Government of Uttar Pradesh.

Sanjeev has a Masters in Economic Policy Management from Columbia University, New York; a post graduate Diploma in Financial Management from Delhi University and a Masters in History from St. Stephens College, Delhi. He hosts a blog: Opinion India (ahlu-india.com) which is also available at Times of India Blogs and writes for the Asian Age; swarajyamag.com and theglobalist.com (Washington DC).

ASIA PACIFIC TODAY. February 23, 2021