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| Sunday, 15 September 2002 |
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Sustainable development Biz Buzz by Iris & Aved At the United Nations World Summit in Johannesburg concluded on 4 September 2002, leaders from many NGOs, CEOs of multinationals and heads of State or senior ministers debated on how the global environment should be protected, while promoting economic development and adopting methods for eliminating (or reducing) poverty. Environmental issues, poverty and development are intractably linked. Any program to advance in one direction but ignoring the other two will have far reaching unfavourable and adverse repercussions. Access to clean water and sanitation, electricity and agricultural technology will alleviate poverty. Each of these goals, when pursued, will impact on the environment, some positively, others negatively. One fifth of the world population lacks access to clean water. Double that number lacks sanitation. The policy of providing water and sanitation should be carefully developed by developing nations like Sri Lanka, where vast strides are needed to improve the availability of this basic facility. Experts predict a global water shortage before 2020. They propose making water a commodity that needs to be regulated. Under those proposals, no citizen can dig a well or tap water from a stream or other natural source without regulatory approval. It is argued that countries such as the UK have such regulations and they are equally good and tolerable in other parts of the world. More pertinent to developing nations will be South Africa's model and its success. When Nelson Mandela's government came into power in 1994, one third of the population did not have access to clean water. Today, that fraction has been reduced to one sixth. South Africa had achieved, in eight years, what the world leaders at the Johannesburg summit estimated would take 13 years when they proposed to reduce by half on or before 2015, the number of people who had no access to water and sanitation. Interestingly, the target of halving the number of people living in absolute poverty is also the year 2015. Latest estimates show 1.6 billion people living without access to electricity or gas. These people, Calcutta is one example, burn refuse and cow dung to cook their meals and release smoke pollution into their homes and the environment. World leaders, environmentalists and energy experts seem to agree that smaller scale power generation to supply electricity to poor villages not connected by the national grid is an effective solution to giving access to the world's poorer segment of society. The other solution is renewable energy. The European Union countries had canvassed for targets to increase renewable energy. The oil giant, Shell had announced its program to provide and install solar panels in the homes of the rural poor in under-developed countries. A section of the summit participants, with the notable exception of the United States, pressed for the ratification of proposals made at the Kyoto Summit on the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases( that add to global warming). But they were in unanimity over the need to reduce poverty and its favourable impact on protecting the environment. While world leaders express solidarity to eradicate poverty, some of the most developed countries, in particular the U.S. and the E.U. states continue to interfere with the free trade principles and forces by offering farm subsidies (and by other measures such as the 30% tariffs on steel imports to the U.S.).Subsidies to farms estimated at US$ 300 billion a year, depress produce prices and erode the value of exports of poor countries. Farm subsidies and protective import tariffs by the developed nations hurt poor nations and keep them in abject poverty. Developing countries like Sri Lanka should carefully examine these practices of the developed nations when deciding on the rate(pace) of liberalizing trade, eliminating protective tariffs and embracing the formulae of rich nations. |
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