Cross-border Pollution
A growing international problem
Pollution pathway: Air(left), Pollution pathway: Water (right). Photo courtesy: Bruno D. Rodriguez (left) and The writer's collection (right)
Cross-border pollution is the pollution that originates in one country but can cause damage in another country's environment, by crossing borders through pathways like water or air. Pollution can be transported across hundreds and even thousands of kilometers. Wind and water don't respect national boundaries. One country's pollution quickly can, and often does, become another country's environmental and economic crisis. One of the problems with cross-border pollution is that, the process can carry pollution away from a heavy emitter and deposit it onto a nation whose emissions are relatively low. It is fact that the heavy pollution that is evident in the developed world also becomes evident in remote areas of neighboring countries. And because the problem originates in another country, solving it becomes a matter of diplomacy and international relations. In recent years, cross-border pollution is a common phenomenon in Asia. Here, cross-border pollution from the People's Republic of China, one of the biggest economies in the continent, is causing serious environmental problems for other smaller states like Japan, South Korea and other neighboring countries. The Chinese are currently expanding their economy by putting the environment at great stake. South Korea and Japan complain that acid rain that falls on them is created by emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides from coal-burning plants in northern China. They also complain that the winds that carry the sulfur and nitrogen oxides also pick up heavy metals and carcinogens and dump them in their countries. Deaths attributed to yellow-sand-caused cardiovascular and respiratory diseases have been reported in South Korea. Even schools in southern Japan and South Korea had been compelled to suspend activities owing to toxic chemical smog produced from China's factories and sand or dust storms from across the Gobi Desert. The famous ice trees (juhyo) along with their supporting ecosystem and the tourism that they encourage in Japan are under great threat from the acidic influence of the sulfur that is produced at factories in China's Shanxi province and carried by the wind across the Sea of Japan. Eroded soil from China's over-grazed and deforested north-central plains adds dust to storms that originate in Mongolia. The relentless drive of deforestation has increased the effect of the chemical smog all the more. That smog aggravates a wide range of health problems, including asthma, bronchitis and cardiac illness. In Hong Kong, many suspect the city's near-constant haze originates in the heavily industrialised Pearl River Delta region of southern China. Recent reports also say pollution is threatening Hong Kong's mangrove trees and the air quality is exceptionally terrible. An explosion at a Chinese chemical plant in the northeastern part of the country had spilled 100 tons of cancer-causing benzene into Songhua River in late 2005, contaminating drinking water in a number of Russian cities located downstream. The spill of toxic chemicals poisoned the Songhua River, which provides drinking water to millions of people in China and Russia. The nearby city of Harbin was forced to shut off its water supplies to 3.8 million people for about a week shortly after the spill, and several other cities downstream from the spill also cut their water supplies as toxic chemicals reached them. Now the cross-border pollution is a serious global issue. China is not alone as it struggles to find a workable balance between economic growth and environmental sustainability. Japan too caused severe air and water pollution in the period just after the Second World War by trying to make economic progress, although the situation has improved since the 1970s when environmental regulations were imposed. Across the Pacific, the United States also committed the same crime by polluting other's skies and water. Pollution in Asia could affect air quality worldwide. Despite these efforts, environmental degradation in China and other developing countries in Asia -- including the problem of cross-border pollution -- is likely to get worse before it gets better. Pollution in one country can have serious environmental consequences in other countries. In 2007, governments of China, Japan and South Korea decided to have a common look at the problem. The goal is for Asian nations to develop a treaty on cross-border air pollution similar to agreements among nations in Europe and North America, but progress is slow and the inevitable political finger-pointing slows it even more. Canada and the United State's latest plan to curtail cross-border air pollution caused launching of three major projects designed to coordinate air quality management to reduce smog conditions that plague both countries. The announcement was made on June 23, 2003, under the Border Air Quality Strategy. The Strategy is designed to build on the success of the 1991 Canada-United States Air Quality Agreement, which established a framework for collaboration on science and emission reduction in both countries. The countries already have agreements on acid rain, ground-level ozone and scientific co-operation. Moreover, the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has passed legislation that would require vehicles passing daily into the United States from Mexico to meet state emission control standards. According to the law, California is to control the pollution to all of the states, to avoid harming of the people who live in the states. It is found that 7,000 vehicles registered in Mexico are driven to the US on a daily basis, producing up to 14% of the region's total pollution. California law currently requires vehicles registered outside of the United States that commute to the US on a daily basis, to meet California emission standards. According to Toshimasa Ohohara, head of air pollution monitoring research at Japan's National Institute for Environmental Study, emissions of nitrogen oxide, a greenhouse gas that is the primary cause of urban smog are expected to increase 2.3 times in China and 1.4 times in East Asia by 2020 if China and other nations do nothing to curb them. Cross-border pollution should be solved by strengthening common border countries' cooperation. To tackle the problem, we should focus on the causes and design solutions accordingly. To ensure an echo-friendly healthy living world, the respective governments can take initiative to reach some agreements between or among the nations lying on same border to reduce cross-border air or water pollution that creates hazard for environment as well as human health. There should be emphasis on how the air quality in common border countries can be improved; setting up monitoring systems, restricting the number of factories and controlling the industrial emission of pollutants can all be included in the agreements. To reduce cross-border pollution in South Asia, agreements can be signed among the SAARC countries, which are enjoying commom border. Md. Abu Sayed is an agriculturalist and environmentalist. Email: asayedmas@yahoo.com
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