Environmental crisis threatens Asia's poor

Failed policies are causing the destruction of natural resources the poor depend on, says an ADB report

By Arturo Bariuad
STRAITS TIMES PHILIPPINES BUREAU

MANILA - Environmental degradation in Asia and the Pacific has reached staggering proportions, causing the poor to become even poorer and putting public health at risk.

'ENVIROMENTAL DEGRADATION IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC IS PERVASIVE, ACCELERATING AND UNABATED.' -- The Asian Enviroment Outlook 2001

This was the startling picture of the region portrayed by the Asian Environment Outlook (AEO) 2001 released here on Monday by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

'Environmental degradation in Asia and the Pacific is pervasive, accelerating and unabated,' the 91-page report said.

It warned that declining environmental quality and continued dependence on natural resources were constraining the economic growth that was needed to reduce poverty in the region over the next 20 years.

'The root cause of the poor state of the environment in Asia and the Pacific is failed policies and institutions,' AEO 2001 said, such as 'the grow now, clean up later' approach.

These institutional, policy and governance failures affected mostly the poor.

'The poor are often most directly dependent upon forests, fisheries and other natural resources threatened by depletion and degradation,' said Mr Rolf Zelius, chief of the ADB's Office of Environment and Social Development.

The poor, particularly children and women, suffered most from accelerating urban and rural environmental degradation, he said, noting that Asia was home to two-thirds of the world's poorest people.

Already, the region had 'lost up to 90 per cent of its original wildlife habitat to agriculture, infrastructure, deforestation and land degradation,' the report said, leaving one in three Asians without access to safe drinking water within 200 m from home.

By 2015, the region would be the 'world's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions', replacing industrialised countries belonging to the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development, it added.

As a result, air pollution had become a major cause of respiratory ailments and premature death in several Asian cities.

In South Asian cities, air pollution caused 100,000 premature deaths and more than one billion lost work days per year.

About 13 of the world's 15 dirtiest cities were in Asia, and smoke and dust levels were five times higher than in Latin America.

The cost of pollution damage to agriculture and production totalled 8 per cent of China's gross national production, the report said.

Damage to the Indonesian economy by excess lead and pollution particles in Jakarta's air was about US$2.16 billion (S$3.9 billion), or 2 per cent of its gross national product.

To reverse the region's grim environmental situation, governments in the region must fight pollution and habitat destruction immediately, the ADB said.

The report stressed that a strong political will was essential to translate environmental rhetoric into action, which meant a minimum level of environ- mental compliance, public awareness campaigns and more research into techno- logies to reduce pollution.