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The UN has warned that pollution from Asia's cities, farms and industry is threatening the economically-vital coastal areas and called on governments to wake up and address the issue.
Land-based activities such as the wholesale discharge of untreated sewage and rampant deforestation were leaving the region's marine environment increasingly stressed, killing off ecologically important corals and mangroves and driving away more mobile sea life.
According to UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the amount of sewage being treated before release varies widely in the region from roughly 60 percent in Japan to 15 percent in Mumbai and just 6 percent in Karachi. Discharges from many big industrial plants situated along the coast were also a threat and were a common feature in much of South Asia.
The statistics and warning were issued on Monday last at a Beijing conference looking at how marine pollution could be combated, by the UNEP official Veerle Vandeweerd. "The Asian region crystallises the challenges and opportunities facing the global community trying to balance economic development and poverty eradication with social and environmental factors," she said.
While more than 60 countries had developed national action programmes to reduce marine pollution from agricultural run-off and the release of untreated water from sewage systems and industrial sites, good intentions were being overtaken by problems on the ground.
"These successes are being overwhelmed by booming populations, rapid urbanisation and industrialisation and a range of growing pressures in the coastal zones," said Vandeweerd.

Copyright Pakistan Press International, 2006

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