Invironmental Problem
The very concept of growth and development has undergone a radical change over the past decade. In the eighties those who swore by national development indulged in indiscriminate burning of fossil fuel, unabashedly released harmful chemicals, gaseous material from industrial establishments and dumped untreated, often toxic affluents into the atmosphere particularly the oceans, river, lakes, forests were ravaged and exploited to the hilt. Consequently the planet earth had to face the problem of global warming, acid rains, greenhouse effect and gradual depletion of ozone layer and a host of other environment threats. The natural flora and fauna were faced with near extinction.
However, the Riode Janeriro meet in 1992 aimed at identifying environmental and economic link and replacing the concept of growth at all costs with the concept of sustainable development.
The fallout of environmental degradations and pollution have primarily affected women, because women are pivotal characters around whom the family life evolves. The woman is viewed as a care provided, family manager, resource person and presently even as an economic provider. The reflections of environmental degradation on family health is what this paper focuses on. The various family needs includes energy in the form of fuel/firewood, water, clean air (breathing space), food and adequate shelter for protection against natural calamities and elements of nature.
ENERGY CHOICES
As Dr. Reddy (1992) has very rightly stated the preent Growth Oriented Supply sided Consumption directed (GROSSCON) Paradigm has to be replaced by Development –Focussed End Use Oriented Service directed paradigm (DEFENDUS). The grosscon depends heavily on energy sources which are non renewable or sources which are getting depleted at a more rapid rate when compared to the rate of replacement. The availability of energy sources is also linked to another problem i.e. wherever energy sources are available, industrial establishments are coming up. This leads to problems of dislocation of communities. Displacement of communities causes human unrest, leading to the victims of development opposing these development projects. The economic aspect of the problem is that every unit of energy is becoming more expensive than the previous one. Thus families have to pay more for fuel/walk greater distances for collection of firewood, thus the already limited resources available to the women are placed under greater stress. Moreover fuel emissions such as gases cause respiratory problems for women who spend hours of cooking. The DEFENDUS paradigm offers an alternative wherein conventional energy sources such as coal oil, nuclear and major hydroelectric plants could be mixed with a supply of energy from wind, solar and biomass; such a mix of energy supply sources would result in a shift from energy consumption to provision of energy services.
FORESTS
Deforestation is depriving millions of poor households from subsistence: satellite imagery revealed that the country was losing on average 1.3 million hectares of forests per year and the quantity of top soil lost due to degradation an destruction of forest land was equivalent to the loss of 30.50 million tones of food grains/year. As a spin of deforestation the dams are silting at a much faster rate. Thus the ecological functions of the forests are being harmed to a large extent. Women are now forced to walk greater distances to collect firewood. They are also forced to look for substitute foods/ medicinal cures for their ailments because forests are being denuded at a rapid pace. The alternative would be to have wood production on a commercial scale on lands which are unfit for cultivation. Decentralized and ‘participatory’ forest management has been considered to be the long term solution to problems of deforestation and environmental degradation. The joint forest management includes negotiating partnership for sharing forest protection responsibilities in exchange for a share of the income from forest products. This partnership operates between local institutions (LIS) of forest users and State Forest Departments (FDs), West Bengal has the largest JIM programme and has yielded fairly good results. However patriarchal gender relations operating at all levels of society have excluded women from active participation at the community level. This has resulted in women having to travel longer distances to fetch firewood and also switching over to poorer quality cooking fire such as dung droppings and weeds.
WATER
Around seventy per cent of all the available water in India is polluted. The advents of technology and scientific advancements have accelerated the production of toxic effluents. For instance major industries release their wastes into nearby water sources. While doing so, they are expected to treat the waste and cure it of the toxic effect before release. How well this is being done is anybody’s guess. An example of the leather industry is narrated here. The raw hides have to be preserved and transported to tanning centers. This involves treating the skin with common salt. At the tannery, the sodium chloride is washed out-leading to the salty water causing soil erosion and salination of the land. Also hardedge amounts of water are used for this process. All industries there are thus at some stage drawing on previous water sources and releasing effluents into the atmosphere. The point here is that water is most precious commodity more so because there is no substitute for water. Hence, water pollution is a major problem which calls for innovative and alternate methods which would cut down on the quantity of water used and also minimize the pollution levels of surface and ground water deposits. Inadequate monitoring and control of industrial pollution of water is due to little or no involvement of community at various levels because the Government is presently charged with this responsibility. As and when local communities come into the picture, there is bound to be a more strigent enforcement of pollution control measures.
FOOD
According to the Centre for Science and Environment, “the poor live within a biomas-based subsistence economy, all their fundamental needs (food, fodder, fuel, firewood, cowdung, crop wastes, fertilizers, dung manure, leaf litter, building material, timber, thatch and herbal medicines are collected (often freely) from the immediate environment”. Water though not directly a biomass by itself is also crucial for survival. This being so the act of deforestation has resulted in destruction of vegetation, increased drought and water scarcity and has increased the water scarcity and has increased the water requirement of the cultivable soil. Local production of food grains is affected, leading to escalated cost of food purchase. Similarly, vast rural populations depend on livestock. The shrinking of flazing lands has reduced the fodder availability and production resulting in low yields and low income. The green revolution has pulled out more soil nutrients than adding to the soil nutriture, this aggravating the problem of food availability at a reasonable cost. India is the largest producer and consumer of pesticides in South Asia. The pesticide residue in food chain, in vegetables, fruits, milk, egg, fish, meat, edible oil is becoming a common feature, pesticide poisoning is killing both humans and livestock, Further the marine foods which were hitherto available to the fishing communities along the coastlines have also been affected due to release of untreated effluents into the sea and due to oil rigs being erected in the seas, disturbing the sea life. To compound the issue of food availability, we have the overwhelming problem of unprecedented pollution growth, thus already scared natural resources are placed under greater stress. Despite huge public expenditure on primary health and education, the vast population growth continues unabated and illiteracy reigns.
HEALTH IMPLICATIONS SOURCE HEALTH HAZARDS
1 (a) Fuel-Biomass (cowdung/ Foecal/oral /infections-skin
Charcoal wood and cooking infections, Co/smoke poisioning
Burns/traima/cataract conjunctivitis,
Respiratory and
Pulmonary infections
(b) Fuel Collection Allergies/Fungus infections
Bites from poisionous /venomous
reptiles/insects, Muscle
Fatigue body aches and pains
Infant and childcare affected
2(a) Water-infected Drinking water Diarrhea, Dysentery
Drinking water sources water borne infections.
(b) Stagnant pools of water/poor Viral microbial and insect
drainage borne diseases
(c) Nitrates in drinking water Gastric cancer, blue baby
syndrome
3(a) Food Over use of pesticides poisonous
residues on all food items, toxic
discharges in soil, water leading
to serious environmental cones
quences.
(b) Application of fungicides The personnel involved in the
pesticides, herbicides application are ignorant of
the toxic nature of the chemicals
involved. Poor handling inhalation
of the poison in the form of
fine droplet and penetration
through skin ha sled to deaths.
The health implications of an environment threatened on all sides spell doom for human life unless suitable and timely remedial measures are taken to arrest environmental degradation and pollution before it is too late. Therefore, it I gratifying to note that this vital issue of environment and education has been taken up for debate and discussion at the university level. The bottom line in this particular paper is that the health implications from environmental threats are very real and the environmental warning need to be headed to save the environment and human kind.
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