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Assessing Health and Well-Being in Goa's Iron Belt

2001-03-15

A research project launched in 1997 with funding from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is helping India assess the effects of iron mining on human health and well-being in the province of Goa, south of Mumbai.

"We approached IDRC for some support to develop indicators so that local communities, the government, and mining companies could look at the changes, over time, in this area," said Ligia Noronha, a Fellow of the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI), during a presentation at IDRC headquarters in Ottawa. This project also involves the Mining and Energy Research Network, University of Warwick (UK), and the Instituto de Estudios Regionales, Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia.

Promoting sustainability

"What we are hoping will happen, as a result of this, is greater interaction between the three groups. If mining is wanted, then it should be done in the way that's most sustainable," says Dr Noronha.

Goa, a small, ecologically fragile state on India's west coast, is a former Portuguese colony that has been mining and exporting iron ore since it reverted back to India some 50 years ago. The mining industry brings about US$155 million a year in foreign exchange to India. However, TERI wanted to balance the national government's quest for foreign exchange with local needs, she says. "We had a situation in which the national imperatives get [attention] and sometimes the local concerns get forgotten."

Mining clusters

The research team picked four different mining areas or "clusters" in Goa, totalling 57 villages in different stages of economic and social development. In each cluster, the industry was in a different phase: in one area, it was just starting; in another two, it was at peak production; and in the fourth area, it was in a sunset phase, winding down after 50 years of operation.

Dr Noronha says their research framework is based on an ecosystem approach to human health. It includes biophysical, economic, social, political, and cultural spheres. Various issues of relevance to human health and well-being were identified in multi-stakeholder workshops involving the different players.

Key indicators

The research team reviewed the available literature to determine which economic, social, and environmental indicators could be used to define health and well-being in each of the four clusters. Then, to check people's comfort with the indicators, they added a "quality of life" or QOL instrument, based on World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and negotiated with the stakeholders. Finally, they factored in a regional income accounting process, which should eventually reveal whether a particular mining cluster is sustainable, or whether the local industry is degrading the area's natural, social, and human resources.

These tools will help TERI construct a picture of the mining industry's sustainability, helping stakeholders head off potential problems and address those that already exist. They will also foster the development of new assessment capacities by local government.

Impact of mining

So far, TERI has found that the mining industry's overall impact seems to be less socially negative where mines are fully active than where mines are on the way in or out of an area's economy.

"Where mining has been around for a long time, there is a higher level of economic and social development in terms of higher literacy rates and access to basic amenities like sanitation, toilets, water, and lighting," says Dr Noronha.

Final balance sheet

The ultimate goal is to help stakeholders assess the real long-term impact of Goa's iron mining industry. Dr Noronha says the final balance sheet would account for both positive effects such as local development and foreign exchange, and negative ones such as falling water tables, silt in local waterways, health problems related to airborne dust generated by heavy ore trucks, and social consequences such as alcohol abuse related to mining incomes.

One direct result of the TERI study, she adds, is that mining companies involved in the research process have been prompted to set up a foundation to remedy some of these negative effects.

Keane J. Shore is an Ottawa-based writer and editor.

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