Asia's environmental abuse has to end: ADB
Asia's environmental abuse has to end: ADB
MANILA (Reuters): Environmental degradation in Asia and the
Pacific is pervasive, accelerating and unabated and policy-makers
have to respond to the problem now, the Asian Development Bank
(ADB) said on Monday.
Among 41 cities ranked by particulate pollution in the
atmosphere, 13 of the worst 15 are in Asia, the ADB said in its
Asian Environment Outlook 2001 report.
One in three Asians has no access to safe drinking water close
to home. In Asian rivers, the levels of human waste are three
times the world average and 50 times higher than the World Health
Organization's recommended maximum.
The Manila-based multilateral lending institution said there
was a worrying nexus between development and harm to the
environment.
"Economic changes such as large increases in population,
agricultural output, industrial production and capital, and
advances in science and technology have transformed the region's
natural resource base, both as a source of material inputs and as
a sink for pollution," the report said.
"Declining environmental quality and continued dependence on
natural resources are constraining the economic growth that is
needed to reduce poverty in the region over the next 20 years,"
it said.
Asia is home to two-thirds of the world's poor. About 900
million people in the region live on less than $1 a day.
The ADB said the region has already lost up to 90 percent of
its original wildlife habitat to agriculture, infrastructure, and
deforestation.
More than 350 million hectares of land in China, India and
Pakistan have been degraded. It also said that the Philippines
has lost 70 percent of its mangrove forests while Vietnam has
lost 50 percent.
Ely Anthony Ouano, senior environment specialist at the bank,
said at the launching of the report Asia's rising population and
urbanization will make existing environmental problems worse over
the next 15 years.
Asia's population is expected to grow by 700 million over the
next 15 years, with more than 50 percent living in cities by
2020, he said.
Ouano said that urban population will triple to over a billion
in 2020 from 360 million in 1990.
The ADB said a new approach, including integrating
environmental concerns with economic development to reduce
poverty, should be pursued.
"Abundant opportunities exist to redirect underlying driving
forces to change, create new and effective institutions,
establish markets for ecosystem services where none exist today,
and integrate environmental policies into mainstream economic
planning and management," it said.
"In this context, an abiding political will is essential to
translate rhetoric into action," the report said.
"Political will, policy integration and development by design
will become meaningless slogans unless all stakeholders act in
concert to ensure long-term sustainable development in the
region," it added.