Natural resources: 'poverty and population growth resulted in over exploitation'

Dr Saghir Ahmed Sheikh, Professor and Director Institute of Food Science and Technology, Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, has said that Pakistan, with its economy dependent on natural resources, faces the daunting challenge of the growing imbalance between an increasing population and the availability of natural resources to meet the basic needs of the people
He said that the country's environmental problems arising from poverty and population growth have led to over exploitation of natural resources. Indiscriminate use of pesticides and fertiliser has also resulted in polluted water. It is estimated that approximately 3-4 percent of GDP is lost annually due to environmental degradation, loss of resources, produce, resource base and increase in poverty particularly in rural Pakistan.
Dr Saghir said that due to lack of knowledge and awareness, frequent applications of pesticides on crops and their immediate harvest and sale in the market has put the people's health on risk. Food, which is contaminated due to chemical residues and food borne microbes, when consumed, causes disease and death. These diseases are growing public health problems in the country.
He said that the Institute of Food Science and Technology has initiated a preliminary work on people awareness for adopting cleaner practices for production of safe food and processed products untouched by human hands even this can only become possible through commitment, public participation, and appropriate training to the masses at national level.
He said that due to limited natural fresh water resources; a majority of population does not have even access to potable water, besides deforestation; soil erosion and desertification which have further as now added the problem leading to risks to polluted environment and risks to human health. Limited financial, technical and administrative capacity of the country in solving environmental problems is a major constraint in tackling these basic issues, he added.
Similarly, exponential growth of urban as well as population coupled with growing number of vehicles burning fossil fuels, and rapid growth of industries in local pockets is also posing serious threats to the surrounding environment. As a result, it is estimated that approximately 3-4 percent of GDP is lost annually due to environmental degradation. This environmental degradation along with other factors has led to an increase in poverty, which is now at an all time high of 33 percent of the population.
However the proportion of poverty is even 2.5 times higher in the rural areas of the country. The country's environmental problems are grouped into two broad categories with varying degree of impacts. The first, arising primarily from a combination of poverty and population growth, leading to the over-exploitation of natural resource capital, and the second, emanating from the largely unplanned increase in industrialisation and urbanisation, leading to the pollution of natural resource base including land, air and water.
Dr Saghir said that Pakistan 's deforestation rates are alarmingly high; threatening the lives of many Pakistani's who are dependent upon them for their livelihood. In Pakistan, as in much of the world, the most impoverished communities rely on natural resources the most.
They supply the wood needed for energy and the food to be consumed. Deforestation can be attributed to rapid population growth, illegal logging, unsustainable use of natural resources and the minimal participation in reforestation programmes. The important role forests play in many Pakistani's lives is the reason why some cut down trees illegally; not because they want to but because they must in order to survive.
Indiscriminate use of pesticides and fertilisers ensure that agricultural run-off from fields also contributes to water pollution. Extensive use of agricultural chemicals has already started affecting aquifers.
Insecticides and pesticides thus became popular both as a battle against diseases as well as saving crops from pests. It took around forty to eighty years to conclude, that these substances also had side-effects after Racheal Carson published Silent Spring, in 1962. It soon became apparent that new pests with greater resistance were emerging in addition to soil, air and water being contaminated and predators of the pests being eliminated. The environment and biodiversity of the planet was being destroyed which ultimately might have more adverse consequences.
Even today, the frequent use of pesticide on agriculture crops such as fruits and vegetables and immediate harvest and its supply in the market immediately after spray has threatened the human health many-fold, even it has resulted in deaths of some people. Apart from this, the use of contaminated food with such residues is also a serious problem and has led to in serious diseases such as hepatitis, etc.