Valuation of environmental damages of Kasardi River: a case for benefits of timely action

Environmental economics is a relatively new term for both, economists and environmentalists. However, this space is rapidly evolving and it is trying to make an impact in the field of environmental sustainability. The current paper attempts to assess the monetary cost of a polluted river ecosystem. The case considered in the study is of Kasardi River located in the state of Maharashtra, India which receives partially treated effluent from the adjacent common eftluent preatment plant (CETP). Kasardi being a non-perennial river has its ecosystem and needs conservation by restoring the polluted river stretch and treating the effluent to the prescribed standards before discharge. Due to the non-existence of the market rates for the river ecosystem, surrogates available methods such as avoided cost method (ACM), vatue mransfer Method (VTM), and control cost method (CCM) were employed in ascertaining the economic cost of the polluted ecosystem. Thus derived value is considered as the cost to the environment due to the incurred negative externality. Avoided cost method (ACM) has been used to understand the magnitude of environmental damage caused by the semi-treated effluent discharged into this river using the cost of operation and maintenance of various technologies used in India for industrial wastewater treatment to arrive at a monetary estimate of the damages. Value transfer method (VTM) has also been applied to estimate the economic value by transferring the monetary-based information from past studies adjusted to Indian scenarios to understand the differences in methodologies and magnitude of valuation between the two methods. Further, the cost of delayed action has also been evaluated using control cost method (CCM) and is represented as the river restoration cost. The cost of damages calculated using ACM and VTM is in the range of ~ 210–240 million INR whereas CCM value the damages to be worth ~ 850 million INR. The study demonstrates that timely action can save a lot of resources both in terms of money and the health of the ecosystem. Graphical abstract