What are the problems in rural areas эссе

TRAINING
MATERIALS IN RURAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Unit B1

PROBLEMS IN THE RURAL ENVIRONMENT

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People who live in rural areas are usually more aware of the limitations
of their natural environment because they live so close to it, and it is
easier to see the damage that human activities may do to resources that
are important to them. This unit discusses general problems in most rural
environments. It can be replaced by the special units on drylands,
mountains and small islands which have unique environmental problems.

Most rural environments have a number of environmental resources: land
used for agriculture and food production, grazing land for animals, forest
or woodland, natural areas with native vegetation and animals, perhaps
some freshwater features such as streams, a river or lake, and for some a
coastal area along the ocean or sea. There are also the villages or towns
where human activities are concentrated. Each of these may have some
particular environmental problems or management challenges.

WIDESPREAD
ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

The following are qualitative descriptions of the most pressing
environmental concerns facing most rural areas.

Domestic Waste

The most widespread environmental problem, affecting almost all rural
areas with populations of any size, is the safe disposal of liquid
domestic wastes, particularly human wastes and urban sewage. Few
developing countries have adequate waste collection and treatment
facilities even in the most developed urban areas, and those that exist
are costly and seldom properly maintained. In spite of considerable
efforts at rural sanitation, facilities in many rural areas are still
rudimentary or entirely lacking. The result is serious water pollution
both of fresh water supplies (wells, springs, rivers, groundwater and even
rainwater catchments) and of coastal waters around beaches, reefs and
lagoons that are important for tourism, recreation and fishing. This
pollution presents grave risks to human health.

It is only in the last few decades that countries have begun to pay
serious attention to this problem, but the investments required to collect
and treat domestic wastes are such that progress is very slow.

Forest cover

Another major environmental concern for the future of developing
countries is the steady reduction in forest cover in almost every country
(except those that already have no forest left). Forests are logged for
local use or export; shifting cultivation and clearing for agriculture are
constant pressures on the forest resource; and frequent uncontrolled fires
eat into the forest margins in some countries. This not only represents
the loss of a significant productive resource, but contributes to many
subsidiary problems such as water shortages, soil erosion, and loss of
habitat for endangered species. While many countries have tree replanting
programmes, these have rarely been more than marginally successful.

Land Use
and Land Tenure

In rural areas, productive land is usually the most important resource
for local people. It must be used efficiently to meet the needs of the
people for water, food, building materials and reasonable quality of life,
and to maintain the functioning of natural systems on which all these
depend. This requires comprehensive planning and careful allocation of
land to the most appropriate use or combination of uses. Traditional
systems of land and resource tenure often worked effectively when
populations were smaller western approaches to land management were
sometimes introduced in colonial times. But rural person’s attachment to
his or her land may go far beyond western concepts of ownership, and
include mystical and spiritual dimensions rooted in traditional cultures.
There were often systems of collective tenure that were effective before
European contact in maintaining the fair allocation and wise management of
scarce resources, but authority and control within traditional land tenure
systems tend to break down with modern influences and over-population.
European systems of individual freehold ownership are no improvement in
this respect. Where neither traditional nor Western systems of ownership
function effectively, there can be anarchic development, resource abuse
and destruction without the possibility of imposing modern systems of
zoning or control in the common interest. While some land is abused, other
areas are neglected. However, tampering with land rights in rural areas
can produce the same type of reaction as would interfering with religion.
Restoring or building on customary systems of management may be the most
acceptable and effective approach where it is still possible.

Human Habitat and
Infrastructure

There are also problems of the human habitat in most rural areas,
particularly involving housing and sanitation. In countries where cyclonic
storms, hurricanes or typhoons are common, many houses are unable to
resist hurricane force winds, or are in areas subject to flooding or
landslides. Rural areas often lack essential infrastructure like roads or
other means of transport that allow rural products to be sold in urban
markets or for export, and that make it possible for rural children to
continue their education beyond what is available in the village. The
pressure of migration to urban areas has also resulted in overcrowding and
makeshift construction in towns and cities, with consequent health and
social problems. Some cities now have at least partial sewage treatment,
but the problems of urban pollution in general are far from solved even
there.

COMMON
ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS

The above problems are the most widespread in their impacts in the rural
areas of most developing countries, and thus rank first in priority.
Another group of concerns affect many countries and territories. They are
frequently given high priority at a national level.

Soil Loss

The soil resource, essential for agriculture, is the fundamental basis of
rural prosperity. Developing countries are subject to the same problems of
soil erosion and loss of fertility as most other parts of the world.
Places where soils were poor to begin with, or with irregular topography,
geological instability, heavy rainfall or large areas of cleared land, all
face increased susceptibility to erosion. Traditional agriculture
generally involved lengthy fallows or the addition of humus, but these
techniques are being abandoned with modernization and increasing pressure
on the land. The result is a steady increase in soil loss and an increase
in degraded land.

Water Shortage

While heavy rains are characteristic of many tropical areas, they can be
irregular from season to season and from year to year. Since most rural
areas have little water storage capacity, dry periods can result in
serious water shortages which hamper development, and can create serious
public health problems. Destruction of forest cover has caused many
formerly perennial streams to stop flowing in the dry season. In coastal
areas, groundwater supplies can be irreversibly contaminated by saltwater
if too much water is extracted from wells. Rainwater catchments are
dependent on regular precipitation. Where these problems are common, water
is often the most limiting factor in development.

Solid Waste
Disposal

Traditionally where all the materials people used were produced locally,
wastes also could be absorbed by the natural system. Today with more and
more imported materials, there is a growing problem with solid waste
disposal even in rural areas. The steady increase in imports from overseas
has brought with it an accumulation of old car bodies and broken down
heavy equipment, appliances, bottles, cans and plastic. Disposal sites are
often in swamps or along rivers, or take land from other important uses.
Collection and disposal of wastes are expensive on a small scale, so that
wastes are either not collected, or the disposal sites are improperly
managed, with resulting health and pollution problems.

Toxic Chemicals

There is widespread concern about the potential dangers of the toxic
chemicals being used in rural areas in increasing amounts. Most developing
country governments lack adequate legislation controlling toxic chemicals.
Pesticides or herbicides may be imported in bulk and then repackaged
without adequate labeling, resulting in accidental poisonings. Chemicals
brought in on a trial basis, or given on aid, may simply sit in a
warehouse until the containers deteriorate and the contents spill out or
seep down into the groundwater. Products considered too dangerous
elsewhere are still in widespread use (and misuse) with no public
awareness of the risks involved. Pesticides have been widely used in
campaigns to control mosquitoes and other insect pests with no monitoring
of possible environmental effects. Spraying equipment may simply be washed
in the nearest stream, which may also serve as a village water supply.
Accidents with toxic chemicals can have serious effects on people’s health
but few rural doctors have experience in identifying poisoning by toxic
chemicals, so most incidents probably go unreported. Monitoring for
chemical residues in foods and the environment has hardly begun.

Nature
Conservation

The problem of the conservation of nature can be important in developing
countries where there are still large natural areas undisturbed by human
activities. Sometimes these areas have unique floras and faunas with
endemic species found nowhere else. The demands of increasing human
populations make it difficult protect natural areas even where the land
tenure situation would allow such action. Steady habitat destruction, and
competition and predation by introduced species further increase the
pressure on native species. The problem of nature conservation can become
critical as the area of undisturbed natural habitat diminishes, but in
developing countries the scientific and financial resources available to
deal with the problem are very limited.

While a number of developing countries have made great efforts in setting
aside protected areas, the needs far exceed the means. In addition,
creating protected areas can reduce the natural resources available to
local people. Solutions need to be integrated into larger programmes of
rural development so that the people benefit from and support them.
Conservation areas which are created and managed by the traditional land
owners represent the kind of creative approach to conservation needed in
rural areas.

SIGNIFICANT
LOCALIZED PROBLEMS

A third group of environmental concerns are not as widespread as those
above, affecting only a few developing countries, but they are significant
in the local areas affected.

Fisheries

The damage or destruction of productive coastal resources and fisheries
is a nearly universal problem. Coral reefs are destroyed by construction
or dredging, pollution, siltation and dynamiting or poisoning for fish.
Mangroves are killed off by dredging or filling, or by changing essential
patterns of water circulation and salinity. Seagrass beds are dredged or
silted over. Modern boats and fishing techniques combined with increased
fishing pressure have driven some coastal fisheries resources (such as
giant clams, dugongs or manatees, and sea turtles) to extinction in local
areas, and left others seriously depleted. Ciguatera fish poisoning has
increased with damaging activities in coral reef areas, further reducing
useable fish resources. The result has been a steady reduction in the
productive potential of coastal fisheries, one of the most important
subsistence sources of protein, with a corresponding increase in imports
of canned fish and other substitutes.

Coastal Erosion

Coastlines are in a dynamic relationship with the sea, with material
constantly being deposited on or carried away from the shore. While the
building of new land is usually considered desirable, coastal erosion is a
serious local concern, particularly where it affects roads, buildings or
scarce agricultural land. The expense of protective works to control
erosion of shorelines is a continuing drain on those countries suffering
from this problem. The sea level is now rising more rapidly because of
global warming, so the problem of coastal erosion and flooding can only
get worse.

Mining

Mining is a significant economic activity in some rural areas of
developing countries, and it is inevitably accompanied by serious
environmental problems. These include the disposal of mine wastes,
tailings and processing wastes, erosion problems and the pollution of
rivers in mined areas, loss of natural habitat or of land with
agricultural potential, and the abandonment of unusable wastelands once
the mining has ended. While new mines today are generally subject to
strict environmental controls, older mines and areas abandoned after
earlier mining continue to present serious environmental problems.

Industrial
Pollution

Industry is not widespread in rural areas of developing countries,
concentrating mostly on the processing of food or minerals for export.
However, it frequently causes pollution and other problems in localities
where it occurs. Wastes from fish and fruit processing plants, effluent
from textile dyeing, and dangerous air pollution from smelting operations
are some examples of localized industrial pollution problems in developing
countries.

SUSTAINABLE
USE OF LOCAL RESOURCES

The above problems all contribute in one way or another to the most
critical environmental issue facing developing countries: the sustainable
use and management of limited land resources. Population growth as such is
not always the most important factor; some countries have rapidly
increasing populations, while in others the population may have
stabilized, and in some industrialized countries it is declining.
Nevertheless, human activities are leading everywhere to a gradual (or not
so gradual) erosion in the resource base on which all people, and
particularly rural people depend for survival. In rural areas where there
are not many alternatives, the limits to resources are closer and there is
less room for error; if people can no longer survive on their resources,
they must migrate.

It is clear that the solution to these problems of the environment and of
sustainable resource use will require management skills and a good
scientific understanding of the local environment. Unfortunately, skilled
people and scientific infrastructure are sorely lacking in developing
countries, and even more so in rural areas. In the past there were
traditional experts on resource management at the local level, but more
than a hundred years of missionary activity, colonization, European
education and modernization have largely destroyed this knowledge and the
traditional management systems through which it was applied.

If the people in rural areas are to ensure for themselves a satisfactory
environmental future, they must take measures to reverse the steady
erosion in their resource base and to stabilize their populations within
the carrying capacity of their local area, even if this means modifying
what they see as deeply held cultural values. They must increase efforts
to restore damaged resources, and to achieve comprehensive management of
different resource uses and development activities. This will be very
difficult, as it requires questioning some of the development assumptions
and goals inherited from former colonial masters or copied from elsewhere.
It is clear from the above list of environmental concerns that each local
rural area requires forms of development adapted to the limitations of the
environment, and drawing as much from the traditional societies that
successfully lived within those limits for generations as from the modern
world.

A comparison of the environmental concerns of developing countries with
those of industrialized countries shows a profound difference of emphasis,
at least in the short term. The pollution resulting from modern
technological development is much less important than the need for
sustainable management of the natural resource base. As non-renewable
resources such as fossil fuels run out, we shall need to return to a form
of economy based largely on rural resources like agriculture and forestry.
Rural areas can therefore become a potential model for the future, facing
now what must become the long-term preoccupation of the whole world as
resource degradation approaches the limits of the planet.

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QUESTIONS

Which of these environmental problems are the most important in your
country?

Why are they so important?

Which problems are not significant where you are?

Why not?

Which problems are caused primarily by local people?

Have some problems been imported from outside?

Can the government solve all these problems?

What can you do to solve environmental problems where you are?

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Instructions for trainers in the use of
this unit

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