Environment

The dangers of toxicity in Accra, Ghana

The toxicity situation in Accra is very challenging to the health conditions of the city's population. This situation is aggravated by a high level of urbanization and a large population. These chemical substances are from e-waste, industrial and institutional waste-discharge, environmental, and household waste. In the landfills where electronic waste substances are disposed of, children, mostly boys between the ages of 11 and 18, take apart the electronic scrap, often with their bare hands, burn it, and sometime use stones to extract metal parts. These activities pose many health challenges to these young children and others in the city, like itchy eyes, lung and kidney infections. Read more or join the discussion.

Submitted by Felix Nyamedor — Mon, 07/29/2013 - 00:00

Kenyan innovations in e-waste recycling

The fact that developed countries have been using Africa as a dumping ground for electronic waste is an old story. Under the guise of "charitable donations," tons of e-products of dubious worth — refrigerators, washing machines, computers, cellular phones, TVs (the list goes on) — are disposed of on the continent every year. Kenya is no exception to this trend: it is estimated that every day the port of Mombasa receives thousands of electronic devices. These subsequently get sold on to businesses and other institutions, but their shelf life is approaching its end and most of this equipment lives out its final years in the country and is subsequently not adequately disposed of. Read more or join the discussion.

Submitted by Katy Fentress — Mon, 07/29/2013 - 00:00

Toxic trash: Hazardous waste management in Bangalore

Nearly everyone in India has a mobile phone these days. Rickshaw drivers slow their engines to answer calls en route. Streetside fruit sellers take orders with their mobiles. And women picking up trash in the road use their mobiles to keep tabs on their children. Yet the growing availability of new technologies raises concerns for environmentalists, who warn that e-waste can be extremely hazardous if not dealt with properly. A Times of India article says that old computers and electronics can lead to public health issues such as mercury poisoning or a possible stroke if they are simply dumped and left to pile up. Hazardous e-waste is part of a larger issue in urban India about the lack of waste management services — especially for hazardous industries including biomedical companies, oil refineries, and chemical industries —leading to serious environmental and health issues. Read more or join the discussion.

Submitted by Carlin Carr — Mon, 07/29/2013 - 00:00

The price of contempt: The cleanup of the Tietê river

The Tietê river is the State of São Paulo's most important river. Its runs more than 1100 km and crosses almost the entire state from east to west. The river is particularly important to the city of São Paulo, as it marks its urban geography. Unfortunately, the river has been polluted for years due to the lack of care, especially from the São Paulo Metropolitan Region, which encompasses 37 municipalities and has around 20 million residents. The pollution of the river began in 1920 with the construction of various infrastructure projects in the city. Then, between the 1940s and 1970s, during the city's expansion, the river started receiving industrial effluents and domestic sewage. Read more or join the discussion.

Submitted by Catalina Gomez — Mon, 07/29/2013 - 00:00

O preço do descuido: A despoluição do rio Tietê

O Tietê é o rio mais importante do Estado de São Paulo. Com 1100 km, ele atravessa praticamente todo o estado de leste a oeste. O rio é particularmente importante para a cidade de São Paulo sendo que ele marca sua geografia urbana. Infelizmente o rio se encontra bastante poluído, devido a anos de descuido, principalmente na Região Metropolitana São Paulo que tem um total de 37 municípios e 20 milhões de moradores. O processo de degradação do rio começou na década de 1920 com a construção de algumas obras de infraestrutura na capital. A poluição industrial e esgotos domésticos tem origem principalmente no processo de expansão urbana ocorrido entre as décadas de 1940 e 1970. Leia mais o discutir.

Submitted by Catalina Gomez — Mon, 07/29/2013 - 00:00

The hidden cost of Bangladesh's ship dismantling industry

Bangladesh is one of the world's biggest ship dismantlers: about 52 percent of the world's big ships are demolished each year near the coastline of Chittagong. Every year, these ship breaking industries earn around US$1 billion. More than 30,000 laborers, including men, women, and children, work in the city's 70 shipyards companies. Though ship recycling is a profitable industry, ship breaking activities carry a real threat to the ambient environment and to workers, as the whole process entails a series of risky tasks and a number of hazardous substances. The demolition of ships is considered one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. Read more or join the discussion.

Submitted by Editor — Mon, 07/29/2013 - 00:00

Protests are just the beginning — change will come to Brazil

Anyone comparing countries can quickly conclude there isn’t a direct fixed relationship between economic growth and quality public services. Per capita income can be terrible while total national income is high. Economic growth can be high yet maintain widespread inequality. This is not a sustainable way to run a country, yet this is how things are and have always been done in Brazil, the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery and today the world’s 7th largest economy where 21% of the population is still under the poverty line. Brazil today is 106th in GDP per capita. We also rank among the worst in inequality, at number 17, although this is a significant improvement over the 1st place position we occupied two decades ago. Read more.

Submitted by Catalytic Communities — Thu, 06/20/2013 - 11:08

Green and "long-term livability" that might add up to sustainability

I have just returned from the European Foundation Centre’s (EFC) annual meeting in Copenhagen. The organizing theme was “Sustainable Cities: Foundations and Our Urban Future”, which generated much welcome and critical discussion. The bulk of the meeting was not so much—perhaps counter-intuitively—on sustainability in an environmental sense, but in a social one. For example, how can foundations play a role in the support of people, communities and cities that are prosperous but also just, equitable and inclusive? These are clearly key to long- and perhaps even mid-term sustainability. For, as several people at the conference memorably said: we have to survive today… and tomorrow and next week if we hope to sustain ourselves all the way to next year, next decade, and next century. Read more.

Submitted by David Maddox — Tue, 06/04/2013 - 16:32

The Nature of Cities: What kind of cities do we want?

What is the city we want to create in the future? What is the city in which we want to live? Certainly that city is sustainable, since we want our cities to balance consumption and inputs to make a footprint that can last into the future. Certainly it is resilient, so our cities are still in existence after the next 100-year storm, now due every few years. And yet: as we build this vision we know that cities must also be livable. Indeed, we must view livability as the third indispensible—and arguably most important—leg supporting the cities of our dreams: resilient + sustainable + livable. Read more.

Submitted by David Maddox — Wed, 05/22/2013 - 09:34

Partnerships key for equity in Transit Oriented Development

The term Private Public Partnerships (PPP) in India is a dirty one. While partnerships present an opportunity for stakeholder collaboration that generate value by pooling of complementary expertise and resources, the practice in India has meant subcontracting of tasks and strategy by public sector to the private sector with little accountability or responsibilities on outcomes. The only driver of the partnership has been project finance and profits. This has been especially true in housing or slum redevelopment schemes from Dharavi in Mumbai to Katputali colony in Delhi driven by PPPs between city governments and large private developers. Maximizing the value of land while delivering maximum number of low-income housing are contradictory and misleading national policy objectives with fatal social outcomes. Read more.

Submitted by Rakhi Mehra — Fri, 04/05/2013 - 04:51

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