Danger: iceberg ahead - includes related articles on United Nations

UN Chronicle, Spring, 1999

The Sea as Suitable Dump Site

Human economic activity for industrial growth and development has left man's fingerprints everywhere on the coastal margin, and encroachment on territorial waters proceeds at an alarming rate. The diversity of operations include offshore activities such as marine transportation, fishing, dumping of wastes and exploitation of crude oil and natural gas. The growing exploitation of the coast and open sea is a reflection of population increase, accelerating urbanization, greater affluence and faster transport trends. As a consequence, aquatic habitats are being lost irretrievably to industrial installations and civil constructions, to the development of tourist facilities and aquaculture, and to the rapid growth of coastal settlements and cities. Although difficult to quantify, the neglect and destruction of beaches and wetlands, including mangrove swamps, as well as the phenomenal erosion of the shoreline, continue to be unchecked. This trend can only lead to widespread deterioration in the quality and productivity of the marine environment.

The direction of technological development may solve some immediate problems, but may cause even greater ones in the long run. Settled agriculture, the diversion of water courses, the extraction of minerals, the emission of heat and noxious gases into the atmosphere, commercial forests and genetic manipulation are all examples of human intervention in natural systems during the course of development. Until recently, such interventions were small in scale and of limited impact. Today's intervention is more drastic in scale and impact, and more threatening to life support systems both locally and globally.

Beyond meeting basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, etc., there is the legitimate aspiration for improved quality of life. A society may in many ways compromise its ability to meet the essential needs of its people by over-exploiting resources; therefore, there is a need for sustainable development. Economic growth, it is felt, is intertwined with physical ecosystem. Exploitation needs to be planned. The effects of soil erosion rates, water regimes and genetic oloses have to be taken into account. Renewable resources, like forests and fish stock, need not be depleted, provided the rate of use is within the limits of regeneration and natural growth. To achieve this, maximum sustainable yield must be defined after taking into account the system-wide effects of exploitation. In essence, sustainable development is seen as a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and institutional change are all in harmony. The concept implies limitations imposed by the present state of technology and social organization on environmental resources and by the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities.

It is agreed that the equity will only be avoided by political systems which ensure conservation programmes, together with non-governmental organizations and environmental pressure groups. Sustaining human life and well-being require development of a healthy environment. This can become difficult to achieve if natural resources are depleted by degradation of the environment. The ultimate goal of all strategies for development and protection of the ocean coastal and nearshore areas and their resources should be to ensure their rational use.

I will not focus so much on the causes and sources of marine pollution because the problem is quite widespread - it has become a topical issue during seminar presentations, workshop discussions and even courses of study in many institutions. What the world needs is how to take care of the mess we as humans have created for ourselves. The solution, just like the problem, is around us, only the will to implement is sometimes very dicey.

Humans have to live within the constraints that this planet imposes. Already, there are many instances of human interferences with natural systems, leading to severe adverse consequences. The key to our survival must be an understanding of the nature of natural systems and the complex interactions between the natural environmental compartments. The oceans probably constitute the greatest of these compartments and, in many ways, the least understood. It is of enormous importance to our ultimate survival as species that we recognize what the oceans can do for us, not only as a source of food, minerals and energy, but also as an aid to proper management of our waste products. It is equally important that we do all we can to understand the complexities of the oceans so that we do nothing that causes irreversible damage.

For a long time, the sea was considered a suitable dump site. Today, it is realized that marine environment has limited capacity to receive waste without harmful effects. Since the sea is a common property and marine pollution does not respect national boundaries, management of marine pollution should be globally done. Therefore, there is need to inculcate an environmentally-friendly attitude, adopting appropriate technologies enforcing legal controls.