COURSE:ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY

(209)-2022

LECTURE 2

Environmental Problems and Challenges at Higher

Levels

Instructor: Prof. Dr. Mohammad Rafiq Khan

Environmental Problems and Challenges:
Town and City Level
Environmental responsibilities of the towns and cities are similar in nature except they differ in
their magnitude. They also differ in the facilities available to combat the environmental
problems.
Control Organizations: As part the total administrative control of the town or city are
popularly known as town committees, municipal committees, municipal corporations and
metropolitan corporations on the basis of the size of the population. In some countries these are
also called councils.
Their environmental responsibilities include the cleanliness, maintenance of the hygiene to
protect the public health, disposal of solid and liquid wastes, supply of clean water, drainage of
rain water from the low lying areas and so on.
Other Responsibilities: Primary education institutions as share in the national literacy. help in
the eradication of poverty from the cities and towns.
The administrative and social setups of these organizations and their capability of handling,
extremely deplorable situation in the developing countries, Even in the cities controlled by the
metropolitan corporations, the environmental conditions are worse than that of the villages
where ignorance is, yet considered as bliss.
Example of Lahore; Walled city, drains full of dirty human and animal excreta, nuisance
due to obnoxious odors, storehouses of diseases and models of dirtiness historical heritage,
refusal of residents to move to open and clean places, Misri Shah and Shadbagh on day of
heavy rain, consequences, Mall, and entry points, nullahs and open sewage, different areas
of Lahore polluting the atmosphere around, coverage of some, Hall Road and a couple of
others.
According to a report from Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Water and Power (2002),
only 1% of the domestic and industrial wastewater is treated.
There are three wastewater treatment plants in Islamabad out of which only one is
functional. Karachi has two treatment plants based on the use of trickling filters, where
wastewater generally receives screening and sedimentation. Lahore has been reported to
have some screening and grit removal systems, which are hardly functional. There is a
wastewater treatment plant in Faisalabad where the wastewater is given only primary
treatment. The wastewater treatment does not exist in rural areas (Pakistan Water
Gateway, 2008).
The condition is even worse in other big towns such as Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sialkot,
etc, which are otherwise considered as prosperous cities. The small towns, apart from being
environmentally in the worst condition, are in the most congested condition traffic wise.
Example of Town Center of Wazirabad
Developing countries: Same state of affairs, gravity is further increased by
the lack of financial resources
The challenges are many and the experts, people and the welfare
organizations of these countries have to equip themselves to control these
problems by pooling together all types of resources i.e. social, economic,
political, and technological and many others. Major problem; Education of
masses, which set their line of thought in such a way that they are not in a
mood to change, ignorance as a blessing of the Great Lord,
Results of this type of rigidity and ignorance: Disastrous.
Examples:. Storing of construction materials in mullas, blocking of flowing
public drains to make routs to houses or business points.
Consequences of low literacy rate plus ignorance and the rigidity
accompanied by arrogance, then there is the chance that even the most
sincere efforts may go fruitless
 Environmental Problems &Challenges:
Province / State and Federal Level
Inter-relationship between the federation and composing units:
States or provinces, federation, autonomy and dependence, distribution of powers,
Key powers are left with the center, while remaining are handed over to the provinces. Major examples
of the departments (Centre): Finance, defense and foreign affairs. Examples of departments that exist
in the center as well as in the provinces: Health, education, Federal and provincial finance, interior
affairs and many others Environmental protection also falls in above category.
National assemblies frame the federal laws and statutes, while the provincial or state assemblies frame
the provincial laws and statutes.
The center and federal departments frame policies keeping in view the national and international
scenarios and implement them through the state or provincial departments.
Federal environment protection agency (EPA) and policy framework and implementation through
provincial departments including EPDs. Similarly, the laws or statutes framed by the federal assemblies
are implemented by the federal environment protection agency directly in the federal areas and
indirectly in the states or provinces through the state or provincial environment protection departments
or agencies.
The provincial assemblies can also frame laws and statutes related to the state or provincial problems.
Environmental problems of the developed countries: Planning well ahead, scientifically planned
villages, towns and cities, available resources and the high literacy rate, appropriate town
planning with an objective to provide the basic health and sanitation needs of the people such as
the clean water supply and sewage disposal has prevented the cropping up of, at least, the basic
environmental problem of accumulation of wastewater in the streets or on the roadside.
The solid pollutants are also being efficiently lifted for disposal through recycling or by dumping
underground in the places made available to the developed countries by nature.
An additional advantage is the advanced science and technology that offers, in time, the cost
effective solutions of the environmental problems. The most potent reason sounds to be the high
literacy rate, which may be used as an index of the public consciousness for the aesthetic tastes
for the cleanliness of environment, understanding of the existence of the environmental
problems, preventive measure against the environmental pollution, development of aptitudes to
solve the problems at family or local community level, communication of the environmental
problems to the control authorities and their follow up till these are solved, etc.
The situation in the developing counties presents an opposite picture.
Who is to be blamed for this lack of planning, is not our concern.
Bad luck of the developing counties, erection of environmental protection model accordingly.
Lack of resources, scarcity of capital, poverty, unemployment and hunger,
malnutrition and squalor, diseases like aids and cancer, etc, are the common
features of the developing countries.
Absence of appropriate technologies
Very low literacy rates in the developing countries that translate into the lack of
mass consciousness
Inappropriate choice for installation of industry: Lack of town planning,
weaknesses of law enforcing agencies to implement the environmental protection
laws and statutes. The polluting industries in the heart of the cities or in the
vicinity of delicate institutions such as schools, colleges and the universities,
hospitals, etc.
The major tragedy is that the people living near these installations, even, do not
protest against their presence in the said delicate areas due to lack of social
consciousness of the damages these may inflict on the environment they are in.
If they protest against the illegal existence of an environment polluting industry in
their locality, they may not be successful in its shifting somewhere. Shifting, lot of
expenditure and the industrialist may not be in a position to invest in this type of
shifting or may not do so intentionally due to his selfish motives.
Another reason could be that the industrialist may be the owner of the industrial
establishment and an executive of the law enforcing authority at the same time.
The country as whole is the policy framer. Thus, problems and the challenges of the
nation are the same as those of the provinces discussed above.
The difference arises when the nation is placed in the international scenario as, every
country has to fulfill its international obligations irrespective of whether it is the most
developed country like USA or the least developed country like Afghanistan.
The environmental problems at the global level have magnified so much that every
country has to frame or reconstruct its policies at home according to the international
conventions and protocols.
This does not involve the departments of environment protection only but also the
other departments such as departments of industries, commerce, education, science
and technology, finance, and many others under the close supervision of the heads of
the states.
The major advisors in every country will be the research and development institutions
based in the universities and the higher education colleges, research laboratories and
the research organizations.  
Environmental Problems and Challenges: Global Level
The global problems:, Global warming and climatic change, ozone depletion and protection of the
Ozone Layer, depletion of the animal species, damages to the plants, desertification of the lands
and so on.
These are not the problems of the United Nations or few countries only. The spectrum of
responsibilities is so broad that it extends from the individual to the United Nations Organization.
Unwanted increase in temperature: New records. In Pakistan, for example, the recorded
temperature in Sibbi was 52oC, which is a record in the history of this country. Global Warming: An
increase in the global temperature with the passage of time, which is responsible for the future
climatic change.
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs): The representative examples of the greenhouse gases are carbon
dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons, etc.
Carbon dioxide is the major contributor and its major source is the burning of the fossil fuels in
human homes, industries and almost all kinds’ establishments functioning for running of different
machines in use of mankind.
The forests, rice cultivation, sewage treatment plants and natural fermentation in the marshy
places are the major sources of methane.
The chlorofluorocarbons are being extensively used all over the globe as cooling agents in the
refrigerators, air conditioners, etc, and are entering the atmosphere as a result of continuous but
slow leakage from these devices.
Greenhouse effect: the gases absorb heat of the sun more than that they radiate back to the
atmosphere retaining the balance.
The experts are predicting that the results of the global warming and climatic change will be
catastrophic. The important translations of the future global warming include the following:
  Heat shocks and the depletion of the heat sensitive species.
 Melting of the glaciers in the cold regions of the globe as a result of which the low lying
areas including the countries like Bangladesh, Maldives and many others will be flooded.
 Turning of some of the irrigable lands into deserts.
 Mass migration of people and transmigration of animal species
 
Ozone layer at interface of Stratosphere and Troposphere
Ozone: Composition, tri-atomic oxygen, while oxygen itself is diatomic in nature.
The ozone layer acts as filter of the UV-radiations of the sun before the light reaches earth
for the supply of energy to put everything starting from a minute particle to the bulkiest
body on Earth into action.
The UV-radiations are carcinogenic in nature, and thus if let reach unfiltered, cause cancer
and other diseases in the living species on earth including man.
The ozone layer is being continuously depleted due to the continuous entry of the agents that
react with ozone to destroy it. The common examples of the ozone depleting agents are the
Large number of hazardous chemicals: Pesticides, fungicides, etc,
This risk and trans-boundary disputes between different countries
A large number of pesticides and the industrial chemicals such as Chlordane and Heptachlor banned in
Europe and North America are still in use in the developing countries.
The DDT continues to be released into the environment and is poisoning the human life and wildlife.
The Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that are highly toxic to humans are found in the blood and tissues of
the victims thousands of kilometers from where these chemicals are released.
Desertification of the irrigable and fertile lands
Reasons; Global warming, water shortage, etc
Consequences of the drying and desertification of lands; food shortage, malnutrition, mass migration of
people and animal species in search of food and survival, etc.
The protection of biological diversity; There are more than 30,000 species of Fiona and Flora that have been
enlisted as endangered. Immediate attention and special efforts are required for the protection of the animal
species such as elephant, rhinoceroses, etc.
The protection of water resources from the pollutants and the trans-boundary transmission of pollutants:
This problem has led to the cropping up of a large number of trans-boundary disputes, whose resolution has
become obligatory on all the nations if they are interested to live and let live.
At the top of the whole scene is the disposal of industrial wastes such as industrial solid wastes, industrial
wastewaters, nuclear wastes and many others, whose amount is bound to increase with the rapid progress of
science and technology.
To conclude, the problems are many. A few have been flashed to acquaint the reader with their nature and
gravity. The detailed discussion on these problems will be resumed and done later. The challenge these
problems pose is the search of ways and means to resolve them. How to meet these challenges will also be