Pollution Hits Asian Economy
Asia's environment has become so polluted that it poses a threat not just to the quality of life but to the region's economic growth as well, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said yesterday.
A report released on the opening day of the bank's 30th annual meeting in the southern Japanese city said that of the world's 15 most polluted cities, 13 were in Asia.
Despite rapid and steady economic and income growth, at least one in three Asians still does not have access to safe drinking water, and at least one in two has no access to sanitation.
Also Read
The costs of this neglect of the environment are massive, the report said. Children that ingest lead lose precious IQ points. They and their parents also suffer from chronic respiratory conditions and other ailments.
The ADB said Asia's environmental crisis was in large part the result of failed policies and neglect. Economic growth was not directly to blame.
Estimates of the economic costs of environmental degradation in Asia range from one to nine percent of a country's GNP.
A 1995 study of Pakistan, for instance, estimated the annual economic losses from environmental degradation at $1.7 billion, or 3.3 per cent of GNP.
This calculation did not include costly non-economic damage, such as the long-term health effects of industrial waste.
Another study in 1996 showed that environmental improvements in China could yield productivity and health benefits amounting to between $20 billion and $36 billion, the ADB said.
It is entirely possible that Asia may become even dirtier, less forested, and less ecologically diverse in future, it warned.
Rapid urbanisation could worsen the situation. The share of Asia's population living in urban areas will rise to around 55 per cent in 2025 from 35 per cent in 1995, the report said.
The bank suggested that governments in the region had to change their policies in dealing with environmental issues.
A pollute now, pay later, approach to the environment increasingly makes little economic or ecological sense, it said.