Report hints at our water and soil neglect
NEW DELHI: The United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) recently gave two pieces of data to sober us up . First, a majority of the world’s poor are under 18 years of age. And the other, that a third of South Asia are multidimensionally poor.
By multidimension, the UNDP means not only less income, but lacking access to clean water, sanitation, nutrition, primary education and health. I believe it tells us about how deeply we have neglected our water and soil.
In South Asia, we have polluted our water bodies severely. Rivers have not been cleaned. Since centralised models to handle sewage have failed, clearly, decentralised models have to be rolled out urgently, even retrofitting building complexes if possible.
As far as industrial effluent goes, the story is different. South Asia has to rapidly move towards a circular economy, use materials, which are less toxic and make manufacturers and importers responsible for clean disposal of materials and items.
As far as nutrition is concerned, South Asia is already hit by climate change and as a result, agriculture is already in crisis. If business as usual continues, we won’t have the food we need. A quick shift is needed. There should be an incentivised move to go back to ecologically appropriate crops. Also, there should be a campaign to eat foods not only more climate change resilient but also more nutritious and affordable. South Asia already has a treasury of millets, for example. At this moment, small farmers have be a greater focus point. Last week’s grim news is our damning score card. We cannot allow this to continue unattacked with every weapon we have.