By Rahul Jacob in Hong Kong Published: June 18 2001 16:53GMT | Last Updated: June 18 2001 19:44GMT
Rapid population growth coupled with government inaction and weak institutions in Asia are pushing the region to the brink of environmental catastrophe, the Asian Development Bank warned in a report released on Monday.
The report predicted that the Asia-Pacific region is expected to replace the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development as the world's biggest source of greenhouse-gas emissions by 2015.
The ADB said the region had already lost up to 90 per cent of its wildlife habitats to agriculture, infrastructure and deforestation by the mid-1980s.
"Environmental degradation in the region is pervasive, accelerating and unabated," said Tahir Qadri, a senior environment specialist with the ADB.
Rapid population growth has contributed to the pressure on land in Asia being the "most severe in the world". Nearly 30 per cent of the region's land area had suffered some form of degradation. The march of the desert is unyielding, while about 1.3bn people, or 39 per cent of the region's population, live in areas prone to desertification and drought, the report said.
The region is also undergoing some of the world's most rapid urbanisation ever, which is creating problems of its own. More than half Asia's population is likely to be living in cities in about 20 years, tripling the urban population from 360m in 1990 to more than 1bn.
By some measures, air pollution levels in Asian cities are already among the highest in the world. By one yardstick of pollution - the levels of particulate matter in the air - 12 of the 15 worst offenders are cities located in the region. The study found that air pollution in cities in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is causing 100,000 premature deaths every year and the loss of more than 1bn work days.
Governments in south Asia are also doing an appalling job in providing their populations with access to clean water.
Mr Qadri rejected the notion that there was a trade-off between sound environmental management and poverty reduction, often used as a justification for lax environmental regulation in developing countries.
"Environmental mismanagement affects the poor first. Air pollution affects people living on the street, not people in cars. You can't separate poverty reduction from environmental management," he said. He argued that failed policies and weak institutions were a large part of the explanation for environmental degradation.
But the report also found cases of governments responding to the growing environmental crisis with policies that are working. Mr Qadri said China had reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 17 per cent in the past five years, a period of rapid economic growth. In Bangkok and Bogor, Indonesia, water pricing prompted consumers to use water sparingly, with consumption in the latter dropping a third after prices were raised sharply, he said.