Environmental Justice and the Pollution Problem in United Arab Emirates
The concept of environmental justice emerged in the 1980s in order to describe the social movement that is focused on the just allotment of environmental benefits and issues. Environmental justice also refers to the study of theories of the environment, environmental policy and planning, political ecology and environmental law. The conversation of the environment is a serious matter that should be supported and promoted by everyone. The reason for this is that whether or not people are interested in reducing the rate of environmental degradation or pollution. It will inevitably affect the way people live and most of the impacts will be negative. Furthermore, the future generations stand a risk of not being able to survive if the current generation does not conserve the environment.
There are three principal environmental principles that guide the behavior of lawyers, environmentalists and other conservationists. The first principle is to avoid, mitigate and minimize high and unfavorable human health and ecological effects, including social and economic consequences on marginal populations and low-income people. The second principle involves ensuring the complete and just participation by all potentially afflicted groups in the transportation decision-making process. The last principle involves the prevention, reduction and delay of receiving benefits by the low-income and minority groups (Wilks 76).
Abu Dhabi is an eventful and thriving city within the UAE where the effects of environmental policy have been felt the most. Evidence of environmental discrimination within towns in Abu Dhabi is evident, with the Mussafah industrial zone being the most prominent region where most of the policies have been poorly implemented and practiced. In Mussafah, there is a large population of construction workers and other lower class foreigners who live in sub standard housing units. The area is one of the most populated regions within Abu Dhabi mainly because of the low cost of living. Therefore, there is a higher level of pollution as compared to other parts.
The proximity to the desert brings in a constant haze of sand to the town making it abundantly dusty. Although the UAE or other groups do not deposit their garbage or deliberately contaminate the Mussafah zone, the presence of large projects and factories operating in the area created an unsafe, unsanitary and dangerous. The desert then becomes the cheapest and easily accessible site for dumping garbage from these factories. The pollution harms the flora and fauna. However, the relationship between environmental justice and decisions made in the transportation networks in the UAE forms the principal part of the environmental justice (Sandler et al 428).
Main Findings
The concept of environmental discrimination has surfaced as an emerging phenomenon within environmental justice. It entails novel features that are characteristic of minority groups who take up hazardous actions, not only because of a lack of other options due to their economic woes, but also because they are unaware of the folly of their actions. A mixture of this lack of awareness combined with their lack of economic and political power makes underprivileged minority groups of people a common target for environmentally harmful activities. Environmental discrimination is, therefore, an urgent subject that environmental justice aims to solve.
Various types of discrimination against minorities have been founded on the belief of racial dominance and ill-treating others by judging on their differences. Using racial advantages and privileges to promote racism is a new way through which inequality is promoted. These privileges, in tandem with prejudice based on race, may be the principal causes of the excessive waste and contamination that is evident in residential areas occupied primarily by minorities. This can be displayed by the various minority communities that have many incinerators, landfills and other possibly noxious facilities near groups of people. Environmental discrimination has been effectively eliminated in parts of the Middle East through fair distribution of resources and implementation of environmental policies.
Technological wastes are an emerging aspect within most developed and developing regions that have created more problems such as environmental degradation, animal poisoning and mutations among other complications. Electronic wastes are an example of the new age technological pollution that includes computers, fax machines, refrigerators, cell phones and home entertainment devices. Most of the devices become obsolete over a short period and have to be discarded. The problem arises when developed countries dump their outdated technology in the Middle East at cheaper prices. There have been numerous efforts at coming up with ways to limit technological pollution either by introducing recycling campaigns and investigating new technological materials that are bio-degradable and thus cannot pollute the environment (Alastair 19).
Environmental justice adopts the idea that human activities that include polluting plants or technology use can have unfair consequences in that groups, whether class or racial groups and geographical settings can deviate noticeably in their disclosure to risks or environmental and wellbeing impacts. Currently, an imperfect collection of government guidelines, community politics, and trade actions exists concerning electronic wastes. Many stakeholders do not even recognize e-waste as a worldwide ecological problem because it gives the impression as being part of the production system. A common position in the computer industry is that if recycling is done, it solves the pollution problem. There arises no need to investigate deeper into issues such as where the obsolete technology is taken or whether the recyclers experience adverse impacts. Although environmental justice is trusted with the responsibility of solving existing or emerging issues such as technological waste, the provision has not effectively controlled this form of pollution.
There have been attempts by different bodies within the UAE to manage the waste problem with excellent success. One of the massive attempts has been headed by the Dulsco Company that is a waste management solutions provider situated in the Mussafah area. The Dulsco facility was installed with state-of-the-art equipment that serves 70% of the population’s waste disposal needs. The Dulsco Company also has plans to make expansions in the Western region as well as the Al Ain area. The company works alongside the government and private sector clients from Abu Dhabi to achieve the national and private targets of ensuring a safe and clean environment by enforcing the health and environmental policies (Adamson et al 49).
Conclusion
The analysis of the status of pollution in UAE, particularly in Mussafah and shoddier areas of the United Arab Emirates, has produced many outcomes and that one of them should be placing more awareness on the continuation and expansion. The government should be responsible for increasing the stakeholders’ motivation in establishing a foundation for the underdeveloped regions so that the UAE will not experience cases of unethical environmental injustices. In conclusion, in the long term, there will be no opportunities for expansion in the Mussafah region. This implies that industries and other plants will have to establish new premises in other areas, and will pollute different environments apart from the ones they have already polluted. The approach through which already polluted environments can be sustainable can be through establishing a recycling program for technological and other types of wastes or at least cordon off the polluted environment so that no pollutant material can continue degrading the ecological system (Shrader-Frechette 40).
Work Cited
Adamson, Joni, Mei M. Evans, and Rachel Stein. The Environmental Justice Reader: Politics, Poetics & Pedagogy. Tucson, Ariz: University of Arizona Press, 2002. Print.
Alastair T. Mapping Environmental Justice in Technology Flows: Computer Waste Impacts in Asia. Global Environmental Politics. Retrieved from http://www.bupedu.com/lms/admin/uploded_article/eA.619.pdf
Sandler, Ronald D, and Phaedra C. Pezzullo. Environmental Justice and Environmentalism: The Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2007. Print.
Shrader-Frechette, K S. Environmental Justice: Creating Equality, Reclaiming Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Print.
Wilks, Sarah. Seeking Environmental Justice. Oxford Journals Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008. Retrieved from http://isle.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/4/889.extract
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