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Levels of pollution standards in poorer countries

This paper looks at pollution problems in poorer countries and how they are being viewed by richer, more developed countries. Ways of ensuring the progress and development of these countries, while at the same time protecting their future in terms of the health of their people and their environment are discussed. Opinions on how best to set pollution standards for poor countries are explored.

From the western world, the view of environmental issues in the third world and developing countries is usually that of worrying about endangered species such as the pandas, elephants and whales, or about disappearing forests and advancing deserts (Sandbrook 33). Rarely is it thought of in terms of pollution and the damage this is doing to the people who live there. Extremely polluted conditions now exist in nearly all Third World cities and towns. Urbanization and industrialization in these countries has been rapid and the administrative systems there are not able to cope with the pollution issues these processes bring.

The late Indira Gandhi responded to the charge by environmentalists several years ago that developing nations were worsening the worldÆs pollution problems and using up natural resources by saying that the ôpeople in developing countries do care about the environment, but their first concern is survivalö

(Cusack 24). She went on to say that ôwhen children are dying because of poor nutrition, bad water, and no medical care, efforts to change these conditions through rapid development have to come first.ö

Pollution by sewage and airborne pollutants is lethal in the Third World. In India, for instance, defecating in the open is a common practice because one third of the urban population (more than 50 million people) do not have latrines, and another third have only bucket latrines, and disease spread this way is a major cause of death in India (Sandbrook 35). AsiaÆs rivers are among the most polluted ...

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Levels of pollution standards in poorer countries. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 11:44, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1701403.html