Accra, Ghana, December 6, 2017//-A staggering evaluation report conducted by the World Bank Group has revealed that nine million people die annually from pollution-related causes.
Out of this number, 1.7 million are mostly young children, while 4.9 million are the elderly.
That is three times more than deaths due to AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined.
The report titled -‘Toward a Clean World for All: An Evaluation of the World Bank Group’s Support to Pollution Management’ added that pollution could cost between 4 and 5 percent of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“And the burden falls disproportionately on the poor, with 94 percent of all deaths occurring in lower and middle-income countries”.
Strengthening pollution monitoring is a critical first step to helping countries take the necessary action to reduce pollution.
Development institutions should focus on the specific circumstances of the poor and their exposure to pollution, including outdoor and indoor air pollution as well as lead, mercury, pesticides, chromium or e-waste.
Significant co-benefits can be gained combining or better coordinating pollution and climate change interventions.
Pollution Matters for Development
Economic growth, combined with population growth, increasing urbanization, the motorization of traffic, increased vehicle use, and a gradual shift toward more industrialized economies, has led to high levels of pollution in many developing countries.
The importance of fighting pollution is firmly anchored in Goal 12 of the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ensuring sustainable production and consumption, and pollution is referenced by nine other SDGs. A “clean world” with “low pollution and low emissions” is an explicit strategic objective of the World Bank Group.
How Has the World Bank Addressed Pollution Management?
To implement its strategies, the World Bank Group has used 534 projects, with a total commitment of US$43 billion, that “target” pollution management directly during FY04–17. In addition, the World Bank Group has ramped up its climate change portfolio by 300 percent over the evaluation period.
The World Bank Group supports client country governments in their efforts to create or improve the enabling environment for pollution management. Many pollution interventions attempted to prevent or treat pollution; relatively few sought to build pollution monitoring systems.
Given that: client countries frequently struggle to identify pollution priorities; that pollution data are often weak; and that the World Bank Group’s own support is not always well targeted toward the client country’s most serious pollution priority.
Also, the evaluation report has found that this low emphasis on pollution monitoring is an important gap.
The World Bank Group made significant progress in improving pollution management in client countries:
Urban transport interventions that sought to address air pollution were relatively successful in achieving emission reduction objectives and setting up the air quality monitoring systems, but the positive effects were mostly limited to the narrow environs around the project footprint; broader, sustained environmental benefits were achieved only in projects with comprehensive approach that included both upstream and downstream measures.
- Efforts to address pollution through solid waste management and water treatment face multiple challenges. These interventions were successful less often, depending on the ability to recover costs and institutional capacity of the municipalities in charge.
- IFC’s Advisory Services have helped client companies reduce or recycle waste, increase energy or resources efficiency, or introduce renewable energy. These services were largely successful due to the high technical quality of advice provided by IFC.
- A substantial share of IFC Advisory Services supporting wastewater or waste management facilitated the structuring of public-private partnerships. These efforts often are confronted with lack of political support for private sector participation and hence frequently fail to reach commercial closure. Similarly, IFC investments in waste and wastewater utilities are challenging investments because of governments’ frequently faltering commitment to private sector involvement.
African Eye Report
