More industrialisation, less pollution

05 Mar, 2017 - 00:03 0 Views
More industrialisation, less pollution

The Sunday Mail

Clemence Machadu Insight
One wise person once said, “The earth does not belong to the present generation, we borrow it from the future generation and have a responsibility to keep it safe and sustainable.”
Howdy folks!
About a fortnight ago, the Industry and Commerce Ministry, together with other ministries and agencies, completed a closely monitored test-run that was conducted in Harare’s New Ardbennie Park following concerns raised by Houghton Park residents about noise and air pollution from steel establishments in the New Ardbennie Park.
The test-runs were conducted jointly with the Environmental Management Agency, National Social Security Authority, City of Harare and the Health and Child Care Ministry with a view to establishing accurate results that will inform measures to mitigate against pollution in the suburb.
Pollution should be of particular concern as the country seeks to accelerate industrialisation of the economy.
There is more room for Zimbabwe to industrialise given the low levels of capacity utilisation, currently at 47 percent, and low volumes of value-added manufactured exports, as our exports are currently dominated by raw materials.
Section 73(1) of the Constitution says that every person has the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being, and calls for measures that “prevent pollution and ecological degradation”.
There have been several incidents where members of the community and workers, especially, have been injured or killed through different environmental pollution activities.
In 2014, two workers at a private waste disposal firm in Harare died of chemical poisoning while disposing of waste at a manhole located near Houghton Park suburb along Mukuvisi River which feeds into Lake Chivero.
The negative externalities arising from pollution to members of the public are yet to be actually calculated.
In the recent case of complaints of air and noise pollution by Houghton Park residents, it is hoped that the results of the test-run will lead to steps being taken timeously to address the anomalies, if any.
Continuous noise pollution tends to result in disruption in the natural balance.
Walking in the New Ardbennie area, one can easily observe that the steel manufacturers there use big machines which are capable of producing noise; together with different equipment such as exhaust fans, grinding mills and generators.
The safety of employees, who usually spend about eight hours daily at the factories, needs to be safeguarded by wearing ear plugs, for instance, to minimise the effects of noise.
If not resolved, noise pollution might threaten the health of residents and some may end up suffering from hearing problems, sleeping disorders and cardiovascular conditions.
The air pollution that is taking place might also affect respiratory and inflammatory systems, and can also lead to other serious conditions such as heart disease and cancer.
If pollution is left unchecked, it can increase the country’s health bill and reduce productivity as more people fall sick.
This, in an economy already battling to meet other critical expenditures, is not proper.
The majority of the country’s workplaces are unsafe and unhealthy as the national Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR), which is an indicator of how safe and healthy workplaces are, can prove.
A workplace with a high LTIFR (of one and above) is deemed to be unsafe.
Recent studies have shown that Zimbabwe’s LTIFR is actually above two, and that less than 20 percent of local companies do not have occupational, health and safety policies.
If industrialists and other businesspeople do not care for their employees, do you think they will bother about their surrounding ecosystems and the impact on people in nearby areas?
A report by the City of Harare in conjunction with Ema says over 200 companies in Harare’s major industrial sites have been found dumping excessive pollutants in rivers.
If pollution is rampant when industrial capacity utilisation is just 47,4 percent, how much more when it rises to 90 percent? Sometimes players in the private sector are driven by self interest and can act irresponsibly if not properly monitored.
One wise person once said, “The earth does not belong to the present generation, we borrow it from the future generation and have a responsibility to keep it safe and sustainable.”
We, therefore, have to make sure that we meet our current needs without compromising those of future generations.
Government, via its respective agencies, should play an active monitoring role and capacitate those agencies to ensure they play that role effectively.
Given the lower levels of compliance to environmental, safety and health regulations by many firms, there is need for the authorities to enforce compliance in the interest of sustainable economic development.
Later folks!

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