The New Straits Times, December 17, 2000
By Prof Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
THE year 2000 is drawing to a close. Going by the number of conflicts that took place throughout the year, perhaps many do not realise, or do not remember, that this year is the International Year for the Culture of Peace (IYCP) as proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly.
In fact on Dec 5, 1980, the Assembly through resolution 35/55 established the University of Peace (UPEACE).
Just last week, UPEACE together a leading Thai university organised an Asia-Pacific meeting to discuss conflict resolution and peace building in the attempt to assess challenges and opportunities for regional collaboration.
Malaysia was invited to participate in the two-day discussion in Bangkok.
Peace is not a static concept. Attention is also being focused on root causes of conflict relating to "environmental and natural resource degradation and destruction, and unsustainable development practices”
It was noted that especially in Asia-Pacific, a region home to 55 per cent of the world’s population, the prospects for conflict are particularly "acute' due to the increasing competition for scarce resources, particularly water, land and energy linked to population and demographic pressures.
It contends that "the nexus between environmental policies and practices and disputes over water, land, forest, energy and other dwindling and scare resources, and increasing population growth, is a far stronger determinant and predictor of conflict" than what is currently acknowledged.
As testimony to this, the meeting was shown graphic pictures of the recent floods not only in the neighbouring Asian countries, but also as far as Europe (especially the UK experiencing the worst floods in five decades) and the US.
Eastern Australia too was submerged in water recently - the country’s worst for 50 years. Scientists are warning that "rainfall over northern Europe will increase by between 10 and 40 per cent" in the future.
At the other end of the spectrum, water resource can be scarce. Images of Africa starving for water due to drought could also provoke further conflict. Indeed according the Global Environment Facility, an environmental fund backed by the United Nations and the World Bank: "carcity is the central issue of the global water crisis". Its implication on food production can be tremendous. This can also translateinto poor sanitation, further threatening life. Reportedly, by 2020, estimated water use will increase by 40 per cent, and as much as 50 per cent more fresh water will be needed to produce food for the growing world’s population - expected to be more than eight billion by 2050 (NST, Dec 9).
By 2025, the Water-watch Institute estimates that more than three billion people will lack access to adequate water supplies.
Moreover, as noted by the UN-sponsored World Commission on Water, only 2.5 per cent of the water found on our planet is non-saline. More than two-thirds of them is either frozen in ice-caps and glaciers or located in regions far removed from populations.
Some predicted that by 2080 all Arctic ice will have disappeared. This will make global water source and distribution even less efficient and equitable, turning water into a potentially conflict-prone commodity as oil is today.
In other words, given the sad state of the environment it is becoming increasingly apparent that future conflicts could be more related to environmental degradation, as it erodes the capacity for peaceful co-existence, provoked by depleting natural resources.
To avoid this from happening, awareness about the environment seems to be vital. This means the cultivation of new environmental-friendly approaches and habits, for example the simple act of conserving fresh water resources. In the same way there needs to be proper ways of waste disposal so that the water resources are not polluted, or its flow not blocked, averting the occurrence of flood.
In this respect, the initiative taken lately to reinstate the waste recycling campaign is very timely. Malaysians apparently discarded millions of waste annually, approximately about 0.8 kg per person a day.
Thus, according to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, it takes just nine days to fill up the entire floors of the world’s tallest building (Petronas Twin Towers) with their discarded waste.
Yet, close to half (43 per cent) of the waste can be recycled. This amount of waste would be educed by two million tonnes per year (NST, Dec 8).
This issue is most pressing as eight per cent of the 230 landfills in the country will be filled in two years and there will be no more land available for landfills in Kuala Lumpur. Moreover the dumpsites can affect the water systems like rivers via chemical pollutants that seep into the ground.
At the same time recycling can also help preserve the environment, especially in terms of gas emission such carbon dioxide which is emitted when paper-based waste is being burned. The gas is known to trap heat and thus resulting in global warming.
This in turn causes the earth surface to get hotter to the extent that more ice will melt raising water levels, and the flooding. It is a vicious cycle indeed.
The only way to stop the cycle is to spur environmental awareness in earnest, backed by good policies and legislation and effective enforcement, which is now a major concern. Otherwise, as the situation gets worse, conflict is bound to develop.
Thus as the year 2000 slips away we must lay firm foundations for preserving the environment and acting on those who are simply unscrupulous.
Otherwise, as demonstrated by the recent burning of the aluminium factory in Johor, people are quite willing to take the laws into their own hands, perhaps in desperation. It clearly illustrated the point that overdue environmental pollution can indeed trigger violence and conflict.
Fortunately, this is preventable but we must act in unison fast.
