The Paris agreement of 2015 reinforced the commitment of the participating states to curtail the maledictions of climate change, but the future of the planet will still be prone to deforestation, air pollution and unhygienic water quality due to high population growth rate, urbanisation, industrialisation, radioactivity and new environmental constraints.
The long debate over environmental pollution was previously held in the convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP) in 1979, the Vienna Convention of 1985, the Kyoto Protocols of 1997 and several other international level conferences like these, but each resulted in limited successes.
In order to improve the standards of environmental protection, and to address contaminated water, multiple agreements were inked in the past decades like that of CRTD Geneva in 1989, the Bamako Convention of 1991, the Rotterdam Convention of 1998 and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), but the concerning situation still prevails.
Environmental protection agencies should be setup in each and every country, and thankfully this has already been done in Pakistan. A network of waste treatment plants needs to be initiated, with a focus on the developing world. And they can be financed by either a contributory fund provided by developed nations or through interest-free loans
The anathema of despair and pessimism in the environmental arena is a searing indictment of the way humanity has performed to date. The disastrous results of water borne diseases, especially in underdeveloped countries, are immense, and needs the full participation of the people in authority to come up with methods of prevention and minimisation of the many health hazards it might cause. For this purpose, environmental protection agencies should be set up in each and every country, and thankfully this has already been done in Pakistan. A network of waste treatment plants needs to be initiated, with a focus on the developing world that can be financed by either a contributory fund provided by developed nations or through interest free loans.
Furthermore, an international environmental protection tribunal should be set up, in order to provide our planet with the legal protection it so clearly needs.
Similar setups on a smaller scale might be beneficial as well, in order to persecute people, organisations or even states that play a part in hurting the planet. Basic tech like Vehicular Emission Testing Systems (VETS), Noise Meters, and Air quality monitoring equipment should be made easily available, while waste water, surface water and microbiological characterisation laboratories should also be set up around the world.
The lofty goal of public health and hygiene demands the galvanisation of water drinking policies all around the globe. For this purpose, Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS) programs should be made mandatory in households everywhere, and policies centred on the preservation of clean air, and reforestation should be implemented. In the end, access to a safe and sound environment is a right held dear by every citizen on this planet, and in order to avoid a situation where the Earth becomes inhabitable, humanity needs to start taking the right steps from now on.
The writer is an MBBS from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China and currently serves as medical officer at DHQ Teaching Hospital, KDA, Kohat, Pakistan. He can be reached at drfaisalali88@gmail.com
Published in Daily Times, July 8th 2018.