New Delhi, March 15 (IANS) The country should focus on natural debt rather than financial debt while framing development policies, chief of United Nations climate change organisation R.K. Pachauri said here Monday.
“Our method of measurement, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), does not take into account the depletion of natural resources which we have taken for granted. But the time has come for us to focus on natural debt to take into account the sustainability and not solely think about financial debt,” said Pachauri, the head of Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Speaking at a conference on ‘Environment Audit: Concerns about water pollution’ organised by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), Pachauri said, “We have ignored our natural resources and we need to study the implications on natural resources.”

Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai, who is the head of the Supreme Audit Institution of India (SAI), announced the agency would undertake an environment audit of water pollution in the country.

“The audit will focus on pollution in fresh water resources like rivers, lakes and groundwater, and their causes and mitigation. The aim of this audit would also be to identify critical issues and suggest solutions which would help the government to conserve and protect this scarce resource more effectively,” said Rai.

“We had sought suggestions from NGOs, public department, state governments and others on the audit, and we have received a huge response. We are in the process of looking at critical areas like encroachment in lakes, dumping of effluents in river, non-functional sewage treatment plants and shortage of funds for carrying out work,” he said.