Envirofit-the sooner, the better

I always suffer from my trips to the 'big city', in this case, Kochi, a good two-three hour jaunt depending on the roads-which are dependent on the weather, and traffic. It usually includes the sight of at least one overturned car, truck, or auto-rickshaw. Yesterday it was a jack-knived truck flipped on its side, now acting as cornucopia, spreading rivers of the gravel it had been transporting over most of the highway.

Besides the aches from the jostling of what feels more like trails than super-highways, what I suffer from most is a splitting sinus headache. I can only wonder at the tolerance of the urbanites who live in the kind of pollution that Indian cities are renowned for, and particularly the lowly auto-rickshaw driver-who probably contributes to the problem more than the rest put together.

Of course, I don't have to travel that far to become asphyxiated. The local town (a mere 10-minute drive) is just as bad on a mini-scale. And this is not from industry, but purely diesel buses and cars, and the ever-ubiquitous rickshaws.

I am encouraged to see that help is on the way from Envirofit International. They have developed a "Direct In-cylinder (DI) fuel injection retrofit kit for two-stroke engines that is cleaner and more fuel efficient than the replacement four-stroke engines." This kit"reduces carbon monoxide emissions by 76%, carbon dioxide emissions by 35%, and hydrocarbon emissions by 89%. At the same time, fuel use is reduced by 35% and oil by 50%."

Right now, it looks like they have only been adopted in the Philippines, I wonder how long it will take for India to catch up. I pray that it will be today.