Sustainable Development

Zinhle Sokhela:  PCB Director

The term “sustainable development” is a relatively new one in the socio-economic context of the world.  Literally, it refers to development that is able to sustain itself in the future, but its meaning goes beyond this.   In particular, it has been linked to environmental sensitivity to emphasise that our development cannot be regarded as something apart from the environment in which we live and work.   In days gone by, environmentalists tended to be known as conservationists and their primary interests, it seemed, lay in protecting endangered species of wildlife or plants.   “Save the rhino” and similar campaigns drew support from people who could afford to think about the threats to these species because they were not threatened themselves.   For children in advantaged schools, an environmental excursion was either to the Botanic Gardens or the beach.  It seemed to escape everyone’s notice that the school itself had an environment and that an interest in environmental issues need not be played out somewhere else.     The development of Pietermaritzburg, by the way, shows the extent to which people were ignorant about environmental impacts.    Experience has shown that the location of PG Bison at what might be the lowest point in the city was a disaster.   Its stack emissions could not easily escape the holding power of winter temperature inversions and the pall of smog that resulted was both unhealthy and unsightly.   It did not affect people living in suburbia, however, so the public pressure for this company to take some remedial action was a recent phenomenon.   As a matter of interest, the capital expenditure required to improve the quality of emissions amounted to more than R20 million.   Had this factory been located at one of the city’s higher points, the effects of the emissions would have been both less noticeable, and less dangerous because they would have more easily dispersed into the atmosphere.    In the modern context where legislation has been brought abruptly up to date, the pollution would not have been any more acceptable, however.

And this is the point.   The world, faced with the great threats of climate change and poverty, has responded by seeking ways to deal with both simultaneously.  Environmental issues have become linked to poor communities which, it is now appreciated, are most vulnerable to the severe impacts of global warming, uncontrolled disease, including HIV and AIDS, shortage of water and famine.    Their development, therefore, has to be sustainable in the interests of humanity and a world that has not completely lost its moral compass.    Heightened awareness of these dangers, and the reality of them, has prompted people to be more conscious of waste.    With so many people starving across the world, how can we justify waste of any type?   Waste of money is one such concern; but waste of resources and waste of opportunities are equally worrisome.  

We have a great deal to learn in this regard.  Consider, for example, how careless we are in dealing with our domestic and industrial waste.   We have the attitude that it is something to be dumped so that  someone else can dispose of it for us.  What we have to pay for this service bears no relation to the actual cost at all.   The maintenance of a landfill site is a huge expense, but nothing like the amount that will be required when it has to be replaced because we have failed to appreciate that we must lengthen the life of the existing site as much as we can.   Not only is this indiscriminate dumping of waste extremely costly, but it fails to take advantage of the value that remains in many things when they are discarded.    Rubble from buildings, for example, can be used to manufacture blocks to build more buildings; sawdust can be compressed with other commodities to make a product that has considerable strength durability.   In the Far East, apparently, there is a demand for used plastic which can be remoulded into new products.   This is what sustainable development is all about – the use of resources to the fullest extent for the widest benefit and without wastage.               

Leave a Comment