Pollution free growth
THE Daily Star's May 24 editorial on "Water pollution" came as a delightful coincidence right when the authors of this article were sharing ideas about the dyspeptic river pollution, public health, and economic well being of the people of Bangladesh.
Monetary and fiscal authorities in advanced countries strive to realise inflation-tamed growth with least damage to environmental resources (lakes, rivers, air, forest, public parks etc). But if inflation tamed output growth is realized at the expense of water and air pollution, long-term health hazards and afflictions will make that growth a misery growthand for sure, an unsustainable growth.
Unsustainable because among the factors that contribute to economic growth, worker productivity, that is, output per worker (GDP = hours of work X output per worker) stands alone, and health of workers and their living environment becomes paramount in the process.
Industrial workers and their family members in Bangladesh work and live in the most hazardous health risk surroundingsand the same is true of people living in cities. Don't forget that last year's ranking of Dhaka city as the second dirtiest in the world is a no nonsense ranking.
Water pollution has been grouped into "point source" pollution (PSP) and non-point source Pollution (NPSP). PSP include discharges from a wastewater treatment plant, outfalls from a factory, leaking underground tanks, etc. NPSP include nutrient runoff in stormwater from sheet flow over an agricultural field, or metals and hydrocarbons from an area with high impervious surfaces and vehicular traffic. Rapid urbanising also contributes to NPSP.
According to the editorial, Dhaka WASA in 2003 had listed 36 industrial plants as the main polluters of the Balu River and the ancillary canals. In April 2007, the relevant ministries threatened the polluters to install effluent treatment plants (ETP) by October or face electricity, gas and water supplies cut off.
The threat went unheeded as a mere lip service. Polluters were apparently shielded from any such ultimatumshutting down factories would make workers jobless, culminating in industrial unresta politically unsettling predicament for the party in power. Today, non ETP equipped industries have multiplied in numbersnearly 150 in Tejgaon industrial area alone.
These industries discard human waste and industrial effluent in Begunbari canal, polluting Balu River in the processone that provides water for Saidabad Water Treatment Plant, the principal source of treated, supposedly safe, water for Dhaka city.
Human waste is bio-degradableso, that's a minor problembut the discarded effluents deplete oxygen content in the water bodies, threatening the life cycle of fish population and their healthy regenerations.
There are compelling evidence of the presence of patches of oxygen depleted anoxic or "dead zone" all over Buriganga Rivera hapless spectacle for people of skimpy livelihood and subsistence.
Coastal waters can be protected from toxic dumping, sludge, and sewage discharge by creating riparian buffer areas. These buffers protect coastal rivers, and ponds from excess nitrogen runoff responsible for causing hypoxia (low oxygen), anoxia (no oxygen) or the so-called "dead zone."
A study by the Center for Watershed Protection (Ellicott City, Maryland) found that riparian forest buffers reduce an estimated 21 lbs of Nitrogen per acre/yr for $0.30/lb compared to $3-5 for Washington DC area wastewater treatment facility. In Atlanta, Georgia, officials estimated that a 20% loss in trees/vegetation in metropolitan region caused 4.4 billion cft increases in stormwater runoff.
The Tata Group's 2005 proposal and recent bid for building 1,000 MW power plants, steel mill, and one million ton (MT) capacity fertiliser factory in Bangladesh are certainly much desirable projects, yet they raise serious concerns. For example, do these projects look promising for sustainable growth from public health and environmental consequences perspectives?
In US and other western economies, prior to any threshold environmental policy reviews at national level the project proponent obtains approval from local authority after a due public disquisition of the process.
The ordinary citizens of Bangladesh are unlikely to know that water pollution is the leading worldwide cause of deaths and diseasesaccounts for the deaths of more than 14,000 people daily but the investors and government knowand, therefore, it is imperative that the public be told of the pros and cons of building all industrial projects prior to their approval.
One contentious aspect of the Tata's project is the proposed mining of 3 MT of coal a year. Coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels and mercury (Hg) emission from mining or coal burning in a power plant poisons surface and groundwater through seepage since the network of rivers, lakes, and ponds are hydraulically connected.
Mercury bio-accumulates in the form of toxic methyl mercury (MeHg) in fish tissues. Primary human exposure to MeHg occurs through dietary consumption of fish (examples: Minamata disease first recognized around Minamata bay in 1956 and again in Agano River basin in Japan in 1965). Mercury poisoning is also known to adversely affect the development of nervous systems of unborn and growing children. Add to these the green house gas (CO2) emissions.
In the US, the power plants in upwind Midwestern states triggered widespread edible fish mercury advisory in lakes and rivers in Boston area and other New England (NE) states in the northeast region. Majority of mercury pollution in the six NE states and New York waters come from air deposition of mercury blowing from coal burning power plants in Midwest.
Given the overwhelming and irrefutable health risk of coal burning energy, the government should insist that Tata or other investors' use "ultra-clean coal" for the proposed 1000 MW power generation.
West Virginia-based CENfuel FPU Ltd. has developed commercial availability of a process for ultra-cleaning coal prior to combustion. It's a low cost process that removes 99.5% of toxic ash and can reduce emissions up to 50%.
The process, proven in 25 years in laboratory and pilot plant testing of more than 100,000 tons in Europe, Asia and the US, is the only method for cleaning coal pre-combustion. Since 1981, CENfuel™ has been tested successfully at generators abroad such as Japan's Hitachi Zosen, and Switzerland's Brown Boveri.
Policy-makers and environmentalists must initiate all necessary measures to reverse the water pollution already consummated and halt further degradation to the environment. Reducing toxic emissions requires eliminating toxic ingredients, recycling or reusing chemicals to keep them out of the waste stream, and using a wide range of alternative materials to replace polluting ones.
The authorities must prosecute the polluters much the same way they are locking up the corrupt politicians and public servants. Polluters are also political contributorsthat's how they got away from past violations and that's how they'll continue polluting the environment in the future.
Creation of a single powerful pollution watchdog headed by an environmental scientist accountable to a parliamentary committee may expedite actions previously hamstrung by procedural intricacies. The multiplicities of agencies that exist now pass up responsibilities; create openings for reciprocal aggrandisement leading to delays and inaction while letting the country's water and air degrade.
Pollution-free growth entails a burden of cost now, but the long-term economic and social cost of not protecting water and air from pollution will be much more burdensome and irreversible.
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