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Concerted efforts needed on environmental protection
2005-09-27 07:00:57
By Editor
It is now agreed the world over that unless more attention is focused on environmental protection, the future of mother earth, more so the human existence, is at stake.
People’s economic and social progress depend very much on the planet’s environmental conditions.
These include: landscape and biological diversity protection as well as rational utilization of natural resources.
’That is why the development of the economy must be based on the principles of protection of the environment,’ says a recent study by United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).
The study titled ’Investing in environmental wealth for poverty reduction,’ which was presented to the UN 2005 World Summit, says targeted investments in the environment will generate substantial economic gains.
It concludes that ’investing in the environment makes economic sense especially for the poor.’
The study investigated the returns (economic gains) of investing in safe environment, and established that the economic gains of the poor would be fourteen times for every dollar invested.
In Tanzania, we are lucky to have a ministry charged with environment protection, which is responsible for spearheading safe and responsible use of the environment for posterity.
There are other arms of the government like the National Environment Management Council (NEMC) as well as civil societies, all of which have been championing for the same ideal.
Despite such efforts,we think that a lot more is yet to be done on the environment.
It would be prudent if environmental protection was integrated in all national development policies.
The world has so far not managed to contain global warming, which some scientists are associating with the recent hurricanes that have devastated the United States of America.
Part of Tanzania is the shoreline of the Indian Ocean. What if the mildest hurricane takes place in the ocean? God forbid.
For such a reason and many others, we cannot afford to be ignorant of climate change .
Global warming is a resultant feature of pollution of the atmosphere, which no country can safely say it has contained.
The problem is one of the most important environment protection problems of our times. We must do our part to contain it.
Luckily, some companies are already applying main pollutant emission reduction measures, like use of reduced pollutant fuel, implementing new and constantly upgrading existing technology. But many more others are yet to do the same.
There is need for developing and publishing policies and procedures for meeting standards for a safe environment in all realms of development at the same time.
While we are not underrating the policies in place, we think it would be prudent to make public, the legal disposal methods of potentially hazardous components or materials such as batteries, x-ray tubes, vacuum tubes, radioactive materials, equipment thought to contain lead, mercury or other heavy metals.
Safe environment for the nation would mean also a prosperous Tanzania. All players must work towards that goal.
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