SDG 11 — Environmental Impact of Cities
Written by Priyanshi, class 12 (India)
This article is part of our 2020 Sustainable September Campaign. This article is written by a student participant of the School of Active Citizenship Young Leaders Policy Lab (YLPL) programme. Read more about the campaign here!
Sustainable Development Goal 11 — Sustainable Cities & Communities
Target 6 — By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management
Cities are growing inexorably, causing many to think that inevitably their environmental impact will worsen. The continued rapid growth of cities raises a number of persistent questions. Are they becoming so big that their negative impacts outweigh the opportunities that they provide? Is urbanisation damaging the planet or helping save it? How do we assess the growth of population in a city? Can the concept of sustainability provide a better way of understanding the local and global environmental impact of cities? Is there a future for cities?
The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) is a hypothesised relationship between various indicators of environmental degradation and per capita income. In the early stages of economic growth, pollution emissions increase and environmental quality declines, but beyond some level of per capita income (which will vary for different indicators) the trend reverses, so that at high income levels, economic growth leads to environmental improvement. This implies that environmental impacts or emissions per capita are an inverted U-shaped function of per capita income. The relation between development and the environment has been studied since the 1990s, documenting inverted U-shaped relations between per capita income and indicators of environmental degradation.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic further aggravated the problem?
As WHO declared the fast spreading of COVID-19 a pandemic, the citizens around the globe hastened to go home.
The coronavirus is spreading rapidly around the world, medical waste management has become a big issue. Medical health organisations and waste management companies have already taken steps in coronavirus decontamination services, it is becoming very crucial for them to find solutions.
COVID-19 does not affect everyone in the same way. There are several reasons why different socioeconomic groups are affected by this pandemic in different ways.
How has COVID-19 helped India restore the environment?
The worldwide spread of COVID-19 in a short time has brought a dramatic decrease in industrial activities, road traffic and tourism. Restricted human interaction with nature during this crisis time has appeared as a blessing for nature and the environment. Reports from all over the world are indicating that after the outbreak of COVID-19, environmental conditions including air quality and water quality in rivers are improving and wildlife is blooming. India has always been a hub of pollution with a huge population, heavy traffics and polluting industries leading to high air quality index (AQI) values in all major cities. But after declaration of a lockdown due to COVID-19, quality of air has started to improve and all other environmental parameters such as water quality in rivers have started giving a positive sign towards being restored.
The Problem of Waste Management:
Health-care activities protect and restore health and save lives. But what about the waste and by-products they generate?
According to WHO, of the total amount of waste generated by health-care activities, about 85% is general, non-hazardous waste comparable to domestic waste. The remaining 15% is considered hazardous material that may be infectious, chemical or radioactive.
In tandem with the increase in COVID-19 cases, cities across Southeast Asia could see a surge in medical waste that few have the capacity to deal with, warned the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as it urged governments to deal with the excess waste as soon as possible.
Calculating the extra waste that five of Southeast Asia’s largest cities could generate, based on the experience of China’s Hubei province — which saw infectious medical waste increase by six times to 240 tonnes a day — the ADB estimated that Manila, Jakarta, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi could be dealing with a total of 1,016 tonnes more medical waste per day.
The Solution:
The problem of medical waste management is tackled by different Asian countries in different ways, for example the cases of Bangladesh and China:
Bangladesh
Establishment of hospital waste management in public and private hospitals is one of the key measures to be achieved under the Health, Population and Nutrition Sector Development Programme (HPNSDP) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).Under this programme, an environmental assessment and action plan was made for the medical waste management in Bangladesh. The efforts of managing medical waste started in 2005.
An estimated 0.28–1.9kg/bed/day medical waste is produced in the country. The country has rules to manage its medical waste that requires hospitals to segregate it in a number of categories. NGO initiatives have led to training and establishment of waste management practices in some hospitals
The improvement of present waste management practices in Bangladesh will have a significant long-term impact on minimising the spread of infectious diseases. Medical waste requires specialised treatment and management from its source to final disposal. Simply disposing of it into dustbins, drains, and canals or finally dumping it to the outskirts of the City poses a serious public health hazard. Thus, there is a need to initiate a concentrated effort to improve medical waste management to reduce the negative impact of waste on: (a) environment; (b) public health; and (c) safety at health care facilities.
China
The disposal of medical waste generated from COVID-19 patients undergoes a strict treatment protocol to contain the spread of the virus. Medical waste is being disposed of at safe sites quickly to limit any possibility of the viral spread. Firefighters have been deployed to ensure quick disposal at waste designated sites where the environment protection department safely disposed of the waste.
What can citizens do on an individual level?
1- We should gain more and more knowledge about how to dispose of bio-medical equipment like masks and gloves after using them in our day to day life so that it doesn’t pollute the environment.
2- We should be able to distinguish between which equipment is reusable and try to use more of them rather than the single used equipment.
Priyanshi is a class 12 student at Amity International School, Gurgaon, Haryana. She is passionate about creating awareness amongst people and normalising LGBTQ+. She also believes that working towards sustainability in all spheres is the key to a liveable future.
NOTE:
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely by the author(s) and do not represent that of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF).
Copyright © 2020.
