The staggering cost of POLLUTION

IN a comprehensive environmental assessment report pertaining to Pakistan, the World Bank talks alarmingly of over 50,000 persons dying in Pakistan every year as a result of pollution and the economy suffering a loss of Rs356bn in the same period.

The loss to the GDP by environmental degradation is six per cent of the GDP amount, while the average economic growth now is around seven per cent, making possible a net gain of only one per cent a year despite the overall growth figures.

Population growth is now an understated 1.8 per cent. That means the net gain per capita is 0.8 per cent or around one per cent so what we are gaining on one hand we are losing on the other. The GDP loss is equal to the outlay of the annual public sector development programme last year which shows the colossal dimensions of the loss or how much more we could have gained had we not had to deal with pernicious pollution problems.

With the population increasing, the environmental degradation in the cities getting worse and squatter settlements springing up everywhere, the outcome can be alarming unless effective and sustainable remedies are found quickly.

There is no time to lose. But the fact is that much of what the report says is not new, only the quantification is new and that may be debatable. In fact, in the 1990s, when Asif Ali Zardari was the minister for environment, the government came up with a very comprehensive report on the state of the environment and the urgent remedies needed. But hardly anything was done to reverse the trend and put the country on safer rails.

It was good that the report was presented to the public in Lahore as it is the headquarters of Wapda which oversees the Indus River system and generates hydel power.

The rivers carry the industrial chemicals downstream to Sindh. When it rains, more chemicals flow into the river and come down. The waters eventually make their way to the sea in the south, rendering seawater even more salty and imperiling certain fish species.

Large lakes in Sindh like Keenjhar are also affected by the inflow of water laden with salt and chemicals. Environmental degradation is varied in Pakistan and includes aerial, water-borne and food-related pollution. The result is that there are many sorts of respiratory ailments and stomach diseases in Sindh. Water scarcity in large areas of Sindh forces the people to consume impure water, the cause of several ailments.

In Karachi many industrialists, by not treating effluents, send these on to the sea making it unsafe for marine life. It has been reported that the Pakistan Navy spends one billion rupees every year to keep its part of the harbour clean. But this is a small sum when compared to the total economic cost of pollution.

The report says that in Pakistani cities, a principle offender is the two-stroke rickshaw. While the government has been trying to eliminate these vehicles, their numbers have been increasing. Many rickshaws are being operated without a licence. They add to the fumes of badly maintained buses and decrepit old trucks. Together these vehicles produce a lot of smoke which is highly injurious to health.

In an effort to get clean and safe water, many people use bottled water. However, tests have shown that few bottling companies are following the rules and that lack of quality control results in even this water being impure. There is no protection against such pollution. Food pollution, too, is common as eatables are exposed to flies and other disease-causing agents. The result is frequent gastroenteritis in Karachi and the interior of Sindh.

Food adulteration is common and worse is the fact that the poor are often treated with impure drugs. So when the first line of protection for the poor fails, the second line of protection too fails — in spite of the fact that food items in Pakistan are priced higher than in other South Asian countries.

It is the duty of the local bodies or local governments to protect the people from pollution and the infections and diseases that this causes. But like everything else regarding the local government, it is more politically preoccupied and least concerned about the protection of the people. This, in fact, hardly seems to be a priority.

With a great deal of fanfare, one ‘gutter bagicha’ was set up and it underwent various trials and tribulations. What Karachi needs is not one of these but at least a dozen so that we can make the city green.

The World Bank report also points out that pollution has affected productivity. It has reduced the output of farm labour by about 20 per cent. A sick industrial worker is all too often absent from work and the output of the factory suffers as a consequence. Hence pollution has a dimension far beyond what is immediately visible and must be combated with vigour and political will.

A sick student is an irregular student. When he is not well, he will not be able to study well.

Having come up with a report on the environment, the World Bank will also be ready to provide the funds to combat pollution. It will be for the government to make the best and most judicious use of it, instead of concentrating on achieving seven per cent economic growth while foregoing six per cent due to pollution.

The government would also do well to launch an extensive campaign to educate the people on the importance of a clean and safe environment. The people should play a full role in creating such an environment, which would be to their own benefit. Aid money should not be wasted like it was in SAP I and SAP II.

Combating pollution is difficult in a country with a large population, especially one that is not given to protecting the environment, as this means too many polluters. The people have to be turned into protectors of the environment, and made to sustain their campaign against pollution and its effects.


By Sultan Ahmed

http://www.dawn.com/2007/10/07/ed.htm
October 07, 2007 Sunday