Planet Earth
BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
Once, I had a chance to visit Lake Tana and walked on the river bank. Surprisingly, my eye gazed at the oil that leaked from boats and contaminated the lake. I thought if things continued like this, no one would see the lake as the pollution slay organisms fighting to keep the natural balance.
This may be one incident that vividly showed how pollution will influence the living world. As part of the developing world, Ethiopia cannot escape from being affected by pollutants of various kinds.
To come out of the problem, the Ethiopian government has put in place several policies, strategies and laws that are designed to support sustainable development over the past two decades.
The country has developed and implemented a wide range of legal, policy and institutional frameworks on the environment, water, forests, climate change, and biodiversity. However, there is a need for action to reinforce the implementation of these instruments.
Ethiopia is a signatory to many multilateral agreements that have support for the sustainable development efforts of the country within the context of International obligations. Two environmental issues are of particular relevance and importance to Ethiopia from an international perspective. This includes regionally shared water resources and climate change.
Regarding regional water resources, Ethiopia is home to the Blue Nile and Ethiopia’s role as a major upstream water source constitutes an opportunity as well as a potential source of international conflict.
By and large, the downstream countries are vulnerable to changes in water flows induced by action in the upstream countries. Consequently, Ethiopia is a member of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and participates together with the governments of Egypt and Sudan in the Eastern Nile Subsidiary Action Programme (ENSAP).
The action to increase agricultural production to ensure food security should be in tandem with environmental pollution control. The increase in economic growth from the industrial sector (main production in sugar, textiles, leather products and cement) will impact the environment and pollution must be addressed.
The road network and increased maritime export should internalize pollution in the same way as power generation is capturing carbon tax and carbon credits. Currently, the main objective of the Environmental Policy of Ethiopia is to prevent the pollution of land, air and water in the most cost-effective way so that the cost of effective preventive intervention would not exceed the benefits.
To mitigate the adverse pollution impacts of the various wastes generated, there is a need to implement both preventive and curative mitigation measures. The aim of the preventive mitigation measures is generally to minimize the generation of wastes at the source.
The other pollutants of concern are oil and lubricants used for agricultural machineries, such as tractors, etc. Maintenance of agricultural machinery should be undertaken in a designated area and used oil and lubricants should be effectively managed.
The collected used oil should be appropriately stored in barrels and be sold to buyers in line with Performance Standards. Per Article 55(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the environmental pollution control proclamation highlights that the protection of the environment, in general, and the safeguarding of human health and wellbeing, as well as the maintaining of the biota and the aesthetic value of nature, in particular, are the duty and responsibility of all.
Ethiopia is one of the very few countries in Africa to develop CRGE. There are a lot of investments and economic activities in many sectors in the country. These encouraging economic development are sometimes at odds with the environment. Hence, there is a need to have a ‘workable’ environmental pollution assessment and monitoring mechanism.
Ethiopia is establishing industrial zones in different parts of the country. These industrial zones need to have ‘a state-of-the art’ solid and waste treatment plants. Here it is imperative to mention the facility found in Hawassa Industrial Park.
Ethiopia’s government has given more or less equal attention to both small scale and large-scale farming in the country. There is a high-level use of agricultural input such as fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and the like. Hence, there is a need to quantify the input of these chemicals and their impact on the soil, animals, ground and surface water.
Currently, there is only an uncoordinated and sporadic documentation method of agricultural inputs and their impacts. Given the fact that some of the major cities like Addis Ababa, Adama, Mekele, Bahir Dar and Dire Dawa are undergoing mega constructions, there is a need to identify the nature and type of pollutions related to these sites such as chemicals, fumes, noise and dust pollutions.
Adequate planning and resources have to be assigned to urban waste management services. As stands now the urban waste management systems are way behind the pace of urbanization and rapid population growth. Budgeting for urban waste management should be allocated.
It is crucial to minimize pollution vulnerabilities and disaster risks through appropriate and targeted risk reduction and management interventions that are well integrated with sustainable development strategies.
The fact that the impacts of environmental pollution are linked to poverty requires the integration of poverty reduction policies and programs to enhance the role and contribution of non-state actors as the intensity and wide spatial coverage of the problem of pollution, as some documents stated.
Non-state actors could, therefore, play a fundamental role in developing appropriate programs and action plans that respond to environmental pollution impacts. Enhanced cooperation and concerted efforts are needed among the non-state actors.
Pollution is considered a major problem with growing concern as industries and urban areas grow. Many rivers around Addis Ababa are polluted with urban and industrial wastes. There is also a high level of air pollution in urban areas. The landfills are not well developed and properly managed.
Pollution has become a health threat, for people and livestock. Ethiopia has made assessments and finalized a report on health and the environment in 2010. The need for the prevention of industrial pollution is crucial. Concerns were also raised on pollution from Electrical and Electronic wastes which are recently becoming a pressing national issue.
It is suggested to elaborate a national strategy on management of e-waste like batteries, mobile phones, computer parts, out of use radios, refrigerators and the like. Regarding e-waste, the authority finalized the preparation of regulation on electrical and electronic wastes.
The objective of the regulation is to prevent the hazards to human health and environmental wellbeing posed by electrical and electronic wastes and also to design a system that will set the collection, management and disposal of electrical and electronic wastes to be based on the precautionary principle through acclaimed management practices.
The Ethiopian government spends around 60 percent of its total expenditure on poverty oriented sectors, such as agriculture, education, health, water, and road development. Mainstreaming of environment and climate change in the policy framework according to African Development Bank (AfDB) the Ethiopian government’s existing policy and institutional framework for natural resource management and the environment is adequate and sound.
Policies are mainstreamed in sectoral programmes which are implemented at the federal, regional and district (Woreda) levels. The Ethiopian government continues to make efforts to mainstream environmental issues in development processes.
In woredas preparations and implementation of environmental management plans is on-going, including the scaling up of the protection and conservation practices (water, forestry) through community participation.
Although progress has been made and environmental issues are stated as a priority in many policies, there is a lack of implementation, and enforcement needs to be strengthened. Increasing economic growth and attaining middle-income country status by 2025 might result in improvements for some environmental problems but might increase pressure on some resources (such as water and energy) and increase emissions of some pollutants, typically those linked with urban traffic, transport and industrial production.
The Ethiopian Herald March 17/2021
