Recent introduction of e- rikshaws in public transportation system of Delhi has been a revolution in field of eco-friendly means of transport. The successful operation of this vehicle promises a bright future in field of urban transport, with many more electric vehicles on road.
E-rikshaws have been in news all over the media for its reduced air and noise pollution. Apart from it the greater margins of profit for rikshaw operators has been a major driving factor for adoption of this means of transport. A e-rikshaw can carry 7-8 passengers compared to 2-3 passengers in traditional manually pulled rikshaws.
Since any system is not perfectly efficient and has its own drawbacks, e-rikshaws also have many problems associated with them. Problems of registration of these vehicles, no need of driving licence to drivers, issues related to insurance and handling the cases of accidents are already under consideration of authorities. But apart from it there is one more problem which need immediate attention and has far more bad consequences.
As the number of e- rikshaws are increasing day by day, means many more rikshaws on road in coming future, means increased number of batteries to drive their motors. And 10 year down the line the disposal of these large number batteries that are being used today, would become a huge challenge. Batteries contain heavy metals and chemical compounds that if not disposed of in right manner, is a hazard to environment and human beings. The results could be devastating like pollution in underground water, land degradation, many skin problems, and rise in cancer cases etc.
As of now we are less that under-prepared to face this devil. Our waste collection,
segregation, transportation, disposal and recycling systems are largely inefficient at each level.
Moreover direct physical involvement of persons without adequate safety equipments with wastes and garbage in waste disposal system would affect the marginalised people of our society first and then would slowly spread to the society.
It has been evident in history that we have been a step behind in acting against any problem. May be this time we could put our thoughts together and form a scheme/programme to attack this menace with a preventive stroke and stop this problem before it spread these poisons substances in our environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment