Eco Friends in collaboration with Central Pollution Control Board organized a two days (Feb 19, 20, 2004) environmental training programme for teachers of 30 educational institutions of Kanpur at Huddard High School. The aim of the programme was to train the teachers on various environmental issues so that they could make their students more informed and sensitive towards the issues of environment.

The participants were welcomed by Mr K V Vincent, Principal, Huddard High School. Kids of the school played a skit on the importance of environment.

The programme was inaugurated by Labour Commissioner, UP, Mrs Anita Bhatnagar Jain. Mrs. Jain appreciated the collaborative efforts of Eco Friends and CPCB towards the cause of environmental education and emphasized the need to organize such programmes in future also. She said that we have to understand the environment and our dependence upon it, if development is to have a chance of success. She said that environmental conservation and development be made a part of the educational system. She added, “The teachers are the true guardians and can play a key role in shaping the future of a child”.

The training programme was divided into different sessions. Resource persons from CPCB and IIT spoke on various environmental topics like air pollution, water pollution, urban environmental issues, various rules and regulations, causes of pollution, its effects and control. Various pollution control instruments and equipments were put up on display. The teachers were also taught simple methods to measure the levels of pollution within their school labs.

B P Shukla, Zonal officer, CPCB gave the presentation on “Environmental challenges: Global and local”. Dr R K Singh, Scientist, CPCB spoke on the issue of water crisis. Dr Singh explained the importance of water in our life and how we have contaminated this vital natural resource. V K Shukla, CPCB spoke on various urban environmental issues, with special reference to Kanpur. Rakesh K Jaiswal, Executive Secretary, Eco Friends gave the presentation on Ganga and Ganga Action Plan. Dr Mukesh Sharma from IIT spoke on Air pollution. V P Yadav, CPCB spoke on biomedical waste management system.

Each session was followed by a lively discussion. The participants actively took part in the discussion. They raised several interesting questions especially in the context of Kanpur. Environment related literature was distributed to the participants.

On the second day of the environmental training programme participants were taken to a biomedical waste management facility at Bhauti. The idea was to apprise them with the processes involved in the biomedical waste management.

The participants assembled at Huddard High School where a brief introduction about the bio-medical waste management and the facility created at Bhauti was given by Rakesh K Jaiswal of Eco Friends and V K Shukla of Central Pollution Control Board. The participants then boarded the bus and started for Bhauti.

Dr Vinay Kumar Verma, Secretary, Medical Pollution Control Committee (MPCC) welcomed the participants and explained them the process involved in treating the waste generated from the hospitals. Dr. Verma informed the participants about the capacity of the plant and the quantity of waste it receives. He informed that there are around 900 hospitals and nursing homes in Kanpur and only 120 out of them give their waste for treatment. Approximately 780 hospitals dump their hazardous waste indiscriminately in an unsafe way. This poses a serious health problem for the citizens of Kanpur. He also gave the reference of the Act under which the hospitals are bound to treat their waste. He informed that the plant is one of the biggest is Asia with a capacity to treat 20,000 Kg of biomedical waste per day while it receives only 2000 Kg /day. Most of the waste which is received is un-segregated which hampers the process of treatment and also violates the Biomedical Waste Management Act

The participants asked several questions regarding the waste treatment. They felt sad to see the apathy of the hospitals and nursing homes and the negligence of the government in taking any action against the culprits.

The participants then came back to school and had a serious discussion on the issue.

Mrs Neeru Singh, Principal, Dr Virendra Swarup Public School, Cantt delivered the valedictory address and distributed the certificates to the participants. She defined the role of teachers in spreading the message of environment far and wide. She said that teachers have a very important role in the society and they can really change the city environment. She appreciated the sustained efforts of Eco Friends towards the cause of environment. Mr K V Vincent, Principal, Huddard High School assured his full cooperation to Eco Friends. The training programme ended with a vote of thanks by Mohd Owais of Eco Friends.