Women Transform
the Mainstream
Cause of the Environmental Crisis
Impact of the Crisis on Women and the
Community
Women's Response to the
Crisis
Case Studies
Women do not want to be mainstreamed into the polluted stream.
We want to clean the stream and transform it into a fresh and flowing body.
One that moves in a new direction- a world at peace, that respects human
rights for all,
renders economic justice and provides a sound and healthy environment.
-Bella S. Abzug (1920-1998)
Clean,
accessible water -- aqua vita - is essential to the existence of our planet and
to the health and livelihoods of human beings and other forms of life. The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments have
recognized the rights of everyone to a standard of living adequate for their
health and well-being, including food and medical care, housing and the
necessary social services. So do human beings have a right to safe water? If
so, how -do they realize this right? Is water simply another commodity?. If so,
how will the market price be determined-and how will the product be allocated?
What is the public sector role and responsibility in ensuring universal access
to safe water?
At
every UN conference from Rio to Rome, governments agreed to ensure universal
access to safe sufficient quantities by the year 2000. Yet, the world's water
resources are under siege, from contemporary predators who despoil and exploit
seas, rivers, lakes and land for profit in the name of technological progress.
According
to the 1996 WHO/UNICEF Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Monitoring Report,
one billion people lack ready access to safe water supplies, and two billion
live without sanitation facilities. Unfortunately, no data is available for
over 70 countries so the real extent of the problem is unknown. Other UN
sources estimate that one quarter of the world's 5.9 billion people have no
access to clean drinking water. Industrialized countries are assumed to provide
more than 90% of their populations with access to safe water.
As
water quality is declining in many industrialized countries, the market has
responded. Entrepreneurs have been quick to capitalize on the profit-earning
potential in cleaning up environmental disasters. Increasing numbers of private
firms have entered the market to supply bottled water as a consumer product.
The market share for bottled waters of all kinds -- mineral spring, flavored,
etc.-- has exploded in the last two decades. Bottled water is now regularly
exported and imported by a growing number of countries.
The
market for water filtration devices has also increased dramatically over the
last decade as consumer confidence in the quality of publicly provided tap
water has declined. A majority of the people in industrialized countries,
particularly those with low incomes, continue to rely on the public sector to
provide safe drinking water piped into their homes and places of work- The
majority of people in developing countries still rely on shallow and deep
tubewells as well as low-cost means of purifying surface water.
What
are the public policy implications resulting from the commodification of water?
The 84 countries attending the March 1998 international conference on water and
sustainable development held in Paris discussed this very question. Government
delegates appealed to market forces to manage the world's water supplies.
Governments agreed that water should be paid for as a commodity rather than
treated as an essential staple to be supplied free of cost Delegates concluded
that costs of water should remain "low and that the poor must be assured
of access," but they did not construct a formula to find this delicate
balance between the capacity of each category of user to pay for access.
The
World Bank and International Monetary Fund have been promoting the concept of
user fees for social services as part of their market-oriented, structural
adjustment reforms. Indeed the market is extremely useful in determining the
consumer's willingness to pay for goods and services. Unfortunately, there are
many market "externalities" and "imperfections."
Inequalities and injustices abound.
The UN
estimates that some 80 countries, comprising 40% of the world's population, are
suffering from serious water shortages and that, in many cases, the scarcity of
water resources has become the limiting factor in economic and social
development. Only 0.3% of the total fresh water reserves on earth are found in
rivers and lakes, which along with ground water form the bulk of the water for
drinking (10%), industry (21%) and agriculture (69%).
While
many industries pollute and pillage water resources for private gain,,
countless women around the world work in their local environments to protect
and preserve water sources for their families, communities and regions. In
their traditional and modern roles in society, workplaces and communities, most
women have a strong interest in conserving and utilizing water resources. Of
necessity, most women develop their own methods to purify and manage scarce
water supplies and often serve as "environmental educators" for their
families and the community at large to better manage water supplies. In the
context of fresh water management women also bear the greatest impacts of water
misuse, water contamination, and water scarcity. Most importantly, women, as
critical stakeholders in deciding courses of action, are constantly overlooked
by policy-makers.
While
women's participation and representation in governments around the world has
been increasing in many countries, there is still a serious participatory
democracy deficit. Gender-inequitable governance and decision-making structures
do not produce the most effective and sustainable solutions to the water crisis
and other critical problems.
In the
1992 Earth Summit Agenda 21 and subsequent international conference agreements,
including the comprehensive 1995 Women's Conference Platform for Action,
governments have agreed on the need for gender analysis to reflect the
differential impact that policies and programs have on both women and men.
Beyond this rhetoric, "mainstreaming a gender perspective into
policy-making" and acceptance of women as equal partners in decision-making
remain largely unrealized. However, as we near the 21st century women's
participation is increasingly being recognized as the key to sustainable
development and a healthy, equitable and peaceful planet
Disparities
between the ways in which men and women use and control natural resources are a
key indicator of gender inequality. Traditionally, women have been responsible
for managing basic resources because of gender-based roles that assign women
responsibility for household care. Of the basic resources, water has been
crucial for survival. But water is increasingly a scarce resource, and
difficult choices are being made regarding its use among industry and
agriculture, personal health and development opportunities. These are political
questions. The tradeoffs are choices that governments are making by their
action or inaction. In such situations, the lack of attention to the needs and
capabilities of women in their public, economic and family roles contributes to
reinforcing and increasing gender disparities.
Effective
gender analysis does more than assure women's participation in creating
environmentally-sound development. It reflects how resources are allocated
between men and women, highlights constraints imposed by women's socially
constructed and confined roles, and proposes women-empowering policies. Failure
to include gender analysis in policy-making has often resulted in recurrent
cases and widespread suffering among women, men and children.
For
example, the World Bank has pioneered the use of social assessments as part of
its project development process. But it has not yet succeeded in having these
assessments adequately use the potential power of gender disaggregated data
collection and gender analysis as evidenced in the recent social assessment of
the Aral Sea region. One is left with the impression that the report is not
simply gender neutral but gender blind. Survey research teams interviewed
"the adult in the household" in almost 1,000 homes but the reader has
no idea whether men or women were interviewed.
Using
gender analyses will provide a framework for understanding local cultures by
exposing differences in the way women and men cooperate, share and control
resources. Getting to know how decisions are made; who is involved in what type
of activities; and the overall cultural context of a given community will
influence the establishment of broader mechanisms for democratic participation.
Governments
at every level should take into account women's expertise and experience to
ensure environmentally sound policies and programs. The following case studies
illustrate the value of women's holistic approach in dealing with a range of
environmental crises and in creating sustainable communities.
Cause of the Environmental Crisis
During the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade of the
1980's, governments and international agencies made considerable progress to
ensure safe water for billions of people. In addition to agreeing to ensure universal
access to safe drinking water in the Earth Summit Agenda 21, governments
highlighted the need to conserve and maintain water resources in the face of
gradual destruction and pollution. Alarmingly, new threats to achieving these
goals continue to emerge.
Most of the environmental hot spots highlighted in these cases are the result
of serious democratic deficits, power struggles and conflicts over the
direction and nature of development. Competing interests involving multiple
sectors run through every story. Each story highlights debates over critical
principles and asks each of us to decide what are the core principles that
should guide our economic system, which is but a subset of our larger
ecosystem.
In all parts of the world, expansion of industrial activity has saddled
communities with multiple environmental problems, including rivers and lakes
overloaded with industrial discharges, agricultural run-off and radioactive
wastes, resulting in poisoned drinking water supplies. Progressive encroachment
of incompatible activities is one of the main challenges in water planning and
management.
The following compilation of case studies illustrates the multiple effect of
increasing globalization of the economy on women and their families. As the
influx of multinational corporations into previously pristine environments has
occurred without regulatory safeguards or appropriate environmental planning
and management, the environment has suffered and human health has deteriorated.
In three decades, from Rachael Carson's pioneering 'Silent Spring' to Theo
Colburn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers' powerful, 'Our Stolen
Future,' we have increasing evidence that we are threatening the survival of
many species, including our own, as well as the survival of life on this
planet.
In many communities there are simultaneous releases of hazardous materials into
the air and water leading to environmental changes so great that local
populations are completely overwhelmed. In cases of water pollution, there are
far reaching consequences no matter what kind of water body is involved. The
case studies highlight environmental problems related to a range of water
bodies that include a sea bounded by several countries, a lake, several rivers,
and communities with polluted groundwater. They illustrate the multiple
challenges to women in environments where complex inter-relationships exist
between local economic activity, agriculture, recreation, water supply, and
military and industrial activity. Industrial sources of pollution include
military and non-military nuclear facilities, mining and metallurgical
operations, agro-industry and the petrochemical industry. The cases document
the problems resulting from discharges of both organic and inorganic effluents
into rivers, which are the main drinking water sources for local communities.
Environmental contamination is often cumulative, building up incrementally over
long periods of time in local ecosystems. This is clearly demonstrated in the
case study of the petrochemical industry in Ogoni, Nigeria. Evidence of
environmental links to cancer and damage to women's reproductive health is
mounting. In most cases, multiple substances have been released by a variety of
industries, often with inadequate testing and identification of releases into
the environment. Three case studies, including the Mediterranean sea,
Chelyabinsk in Russia and the Kelly Air Force base outside San Antonio, Texas,
focus on military facilities that are sources of complex mixtures of
potentially dangerous substances. Volatile organic compounds, hazardous and
radioactive wastes, solvents and munitions are released from these locations,
endangering regions far beyond their original source. Mining and metallurgical
industries release an array of heavy metals including copper, iron, zinc and
cyanide with long-term impacts on ground and surface water sources.
Agro-industry, highlighted in the Aral Sea region, can be a source of dangerous
pesticides, buildup of nitrogen, phosphorous and phenols as well as lead to arsenic
poisoning.
Impact
of the Crisis on Women and the Community
Eleven case studies provide a sampling of threats to the health of our
vulnerable planet. Damage to local communities varies in degree and form.
Health problems result from consumption of polluted drinking water, swimming in
polluted water supplies and consumption of contaminated food and fish.
Assessment and identification of the health effects has often been difficult,
with a number of the cases demonstrating conflicts of interest and
interpretations between official organizations and agencies and local community
groups. These discrepancies may be due to difficulties in pinpointing effects
of long-term cumulative buildup of pollutants from industrial facilities in the
region or because the health effects are a result of multiple causes, including
poverty, inadequate nutrition and diet in affected populations.
Women are disproportionately affected not only by high mortality and morbidity
rates in the cases described, but also because increasing health problems in
the communities place a particular burden on women given their traditional role
as caregivers and healers. Communities in the Essequibo River region of Guyana,
Chelyabinsk, Russia and the Black Mesa region of Arizona in the United States,
faced with heavy metals and cyanide releases from the metallurgical and mining
operations, report increased immune system responses, skin rashes and
irritations, respiratory illnesses and elevated cancer rates. Lead
contamination is shown to increase blood diseases and brain damage. Radioactive
exposures in Chelyabinsk, Russia, in the Ukraine and in the Mediterranean are
associated with higher birth defects, cancer increases and gene mutations.
Military facilities such as the Kelly Air Force Base in Texas, where various
volatile organic compounds are stored, appear to increase multiple illnesses,
including neurological diseases. Ear, nose and throat irritation, and immune
system, skin, digestive, respiratory and learning disorders are also on the
rise. Arsenic exposures in Bangladesh from agricultural activities have lead to
conjunctivitis, skin cancers, nervous system disorders and damage to internal
organs.
Several case studies report multiple sources of contamination: for example,
drinking water quality in the Karakalpakstan region of Uzbekistan bordering the
Aral Sea was affected by toxic chemical releases from both agro-industry and by
releases from chemical weapons factories. These communities show exacerbated morbidities
such as increases in birth defects, infant mortality, hepatitis, kidney failure
and higher levels of anemia in pregnant women. Long-term exposure to persistent
organic pollutants from agro-industrial use of DDT and lindane results in
chemical transmission through the food chain to mothers who in turn expose
their children to risk while still in the womb and through their breast milk.
Aquatic life, domestic animals and wildlife can also be harmed by pollution
from these industrial activities as shown in the Ogoni region of Nigeria and
the Essequibo River area of Guyana.
The cases also document changes in traditional economies and lifestyles.
Depleted fish stocks and reserves are devastating for women and families
heavily dependent on fishing as a source of income. Unplanned and unsustainable
industrial practices have resulted in relocation and disruption of longstanding
spiritual practices and tourism activities as well as shifts in traditional
balances of power, in several cases to the detriment of women. The economic and
class disparities among women result in primarily victimizing those who are
poor and uneducated. And the breakup of the former Soviet Union has deprived
large numbers of women of paid employment and inclusion in government decision-making
bodies.
Women's Response to the Crisis
Each of the case studies in this report is a tribute to the creative energy of
women in the face of a range of ecological disasters and difficult trade-offs
about the quality of life in their community. Women in various parts of the
world have responded by increasing their self-sufficiency, empowerment and
capacity in the face of threats to their families and communities. Women have
played an active role in mobilizing the community to become aware of the
problems and respond appropriately. In some cases resistance by local
authorities to conducting more comprehensive health analyses has galvanized
women to mobilize their own resources for more systematic analysis of health
effects.
By coming together and forming strong support systems, women have helped people
affected by the crisis more effectively to: (1) identify and document the
health impact, (2) interface with and put pressure on government agencies
responsible for responding to the problems, and (3) educate and reach out to
focus attention on the issues. Local governments and international agencies are
described as slow, bureaucratic, and often ineffective in coping with such
community concerns. They tend to have a more conservative approach, acting
without an appropriate level of consultation with the affected communities and
without incorporating the precautionary principle adapted as part of Agenda
21's statement of principles.
In response, women have used a wide variety of tactics. The organizational
frameworks established have facilitated their use of lawsuits and more activist
status in permit hearings. Strategic alliances with activist organizations in
the country of origin of a transnational corporation have been formed and
partnerships with institutions such as universities and hospitals have been
useful. The activism in response to these problems has given women valuable
experience and expertise in NGO and legislative activity at the local, national
and international levels.
Recommendations for Action
Each of the cases described in this document proposes specific recommendations
for action responsive to its particular situation. More generic suggestions,
based on the lessons learned in these cases are listed below for consideration
by delegates attending the Commission on Sustainable Development. Combined,
these actions would serve to mainstream gender and promote gender equality,
civil society participation and sustainability. But designing and making
participatory decision-making processes that work effectively in different
cultures and political contexts is far from simple. Many lessons can be
distilled from the case studies that point us toward a new culture of working together.
Among the proposed remedies:
As this
report indicates, women must be fully recognized as our globe's greatest
"natural" resource. Progress to heal and restore our dangerously
threatened and vulnerable planet is being made... but too slowly and only in a
limited number of areas. Governments and power-holders must reach out to
include women in our common struggle to halt and reverse harmful practices that
are despoiling our communities and sickening and killing women, men and
children around the globe. Women everywhere must demand their full rights as
half the world's population to work in equal partnership with men to provide a
healthy and sustainable future for our one-and-only Earth.
Karakalpakstan, UZBEKISTAN
Karakalpakstan is a semi-autonomous republic in Uzbekistan with an area of
165,300 sq. kilometers (half the size of Italy and four times larger than the
Netherlands) and a population of 1.5 million. Karakalpakstan lies in the delta
area of the Amur Darya river and the Aral Sea.
Abstract
The Aral Sea, once one of the world's largest inland freshwater seas, is now a
shrinking sea due to unsustainable water use. The local population used to live
on fishing, commercial shipping, rice growing or cattle herding, but the
ongoing Aral Sea crisis has dramatically affected the health and livelihoods of
the 35 million inhabitants of the region. Doctors and NGOs in the region say
that there is a strong link between the environmental crisis and the health
problems of women and children living in the region. Local women and children
suffer from menstrual disorders, anemia, liver diseases, cancer and birth
defects. Infant mortality is said to be the highest in the former Soviet Union
(40 to 60 deaths per 1,000 live births in Karakalpakstan compared with 19 per
1,000 in Russia and between 7-12 per 1,000 in Europe). Birth defects are also
on the increase (27 per 1,000 in Karakalpakstan compared with 3-5 per 1,000 in
Europe). There has been a clear destruction to the region's economy. The Aral
Sea has shrunk to almost half its orginal size, which has led to the loss of
livelihoods of an estimated 40,000 - 60,000 fishermen and fish-processing
workers in the area. Karakalpakstan is now the poorest region in Uzbekistan and
the area hardest hit by the Aral Sea crisis.
Cause
of the Environmental Crisis
The arrival of Soviet developers in the 1930s heralded the destruction of the
age-old system of rice-field irrigation and water pricing and the installation
of a wasteful, large-scale irrigation system. Under the Soviet economic system,
the entire region along the Amu Darya River (Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan) was designated for the production of cotton. To ensure the
productivity of the cotton agro-industry, large quantities of water were needed
to irrigate the fields. Thus, the Amu Darya river was dammed at several places
along the river, diverting water that would have ordinarily gone into the Aral
Sea, to irrigate cotton fields instead.
In the 1960s it became apparent that the dams and large-scale irrigation
projects were drawing too much water from the Amu Darya river (which feeds into
the Aral Sea), as the sea was beginning to dry up. The large cotton monoculture
developed by the Soviet regime is the main reason for the dying of the Aral
Sea.
Cotton production also led to toxic pollution of the region. Pesticides like
DDT and lindane were used to maximize the total yield of cotton. Defoliants
containing dioxin were used to make it possible for mechanical pickers to
harvest the crop. The use of DDT and lindane has now been banned, however
defoliants and other pesticides are still being used. The entire population
continues to be exposed to chemicals. Often, pesticides are sprayed from
airplanes, which fly over villages and cotton field workers, many of whom are
women. These chemicals have entered the food chain where they bio-accumulate
and are transferred from fatty foods, such as oil and milk, to women who then
transfer the chemicals to their children through their womb and breast-milk.
Reports recently published by the World Bank, the Japanese International
Development Agency (JICA) and UN agencies testify to the immense environmental
pollution problem in the area, particularly water pollution and water
mismanagement. At the UN international meeting on Urgent Human Needs, held in
Tashkent in January 1994 an Uzbek government representative observed that
150,000 tons of toxic chemicals had entered the water over the last 10 years
and that these would continue to pollute soil and water supplies. The report
from the 1995 UN conference on the Aral Sea states, "Once a prime source
of potable water, ground water is no longer suitable for drinking in most
areas."
A 1996 JICA report attributed deterioration of water quality to the discharge
of mineralized water into rivers, highly contaminated with organic and
inorganic substances (nitrogen, phosphorus, pesticides, phenols, etc.). The
defoliants (used on the cotton fields) polluted underground and river water
which was used as drinking water in the downstream areas. In addition ground
water was also used for irrigation, leading to underground salt deposits, thus
exacerbating the salinification of the soil. The 1996 JICA report describes
increasing aridity, as salt crystallized on the dry bed of the sea and on the
agricultural land due to surface water evaporation. Salt dust blown over the
surrounding area, caused damage to agricultural land and adverse effects on
people's health. More than 40% of cultivated land has suffered salt damage.
The inefficient irrigation system installed by the Soviets eventually caused
declining cotton yields and infertile agricultural land. Furthermore, the
region was affected by pollution from upstream, particularly from heavy metals
used in mining and metalworking industries. In the Pamir mountains, dams and
large industrial sites include chromium plants, which emit waste into the Amu
Darya river and chemical and biological weapons factories in Kongrad and
Muniak, two towns in Karakalpakstan, that tested their weapons in the Aral Sea.
This toxic inheritance probably continues to pollute the area.
Impact
of the Environmental Crisis
The Aral Sea case is a prime example of how unsustainable water management can
lead to an economic and human disaster. The local people see more and more community
members becoming ill or dying. They see their environment becoming increasingly
hostile as salt crusts on the land thicken, fewer trees grow old, the growing
season is shorter and harvests are lost. They see the places they used to swim
in the sea when they were young, covered by sand. There are no more fish and
the animals and plants are disappearing. They notice how they have less and
less water and how bad it tastes.
The women of Karakalpakstan are worst hit by the environmental crisis, because
women traditionally bear the burden of caring for ill family members. Often it
is the women who are wrongly blamed for illnesses. Two studies (Crosslinks
1994, Binnies 1996) blamed the high level of anemia, diarrhea and consequent
increase of morbidity and mortality, indirectly on women for not cooking
adequately for their families and not providing their children with a balanced
diet and clean water. Many women in Karakalpakstan work in the kolkhozes (state
farms) or are in the service sectors (doctors, nurses, schoolteachers, etc.) In
their spare time women try to grow some food in their gardens, if they have
them and if they can find sufficient water, which is becoming increasingly
difficult.
Health effects on women and children in Karakalpakstan:
A 1995
UNDP report stated that the average infant mortality rate was 4.48%, the
highest in Uzbekistan, which has an average infant mortality rate of 3%. In
1996, a JICA report found infant mortality rates to be 10% in some areas. This
report also found that 6.49% of children below the age of 14 years suffer from
skin diseases and that children are prone to water borne diseases such as
diarrhea and acute respiratory illness.
Health effects on general population of Karakalpakstan:
The
effects of environmental pollution on people are being played down by
government and international agencies. According to these agencies, the causes
of health problems are lack of hygiene and poor diet, rather than environmental
pollution. The population of the Aral Sea region and particularly women and
children, generally suffers from poor health. Part of this is due to a
breakdown in the health care infrastructure since the dissolution of the Soviet
Union. There are repeated outbreaks of infectious diseases and average
lifespans are declining dramatically. This phenomenon is seen in most of the
newly independent states; however, Karakalpakstan and other regions bordering
the Aral Sea have been particularly hard hit. Poor drinking water quality is
assumed to have contributed to documented increases of certain morbidities such
as hepatitis, kidney failure, birth defects and spontaneous abortions
(Ataniyazova 1994, Abdirov 1993).
Anemia is often disregarded since almost 50% of the world's population suffers
from it, but policy makers must examine the severity of the problem, not just
the occurrence. One out of seven women in Karakalpakstan suffers from severe
hemorrhage (bleeding) during pregnancy which is the main cause of maternal
death (they bleed to death, so to say). A World Bank report (Binnies 1996)
relates hemorrhaging directly to severe anemia. Severe anemia is also found in
60% of newborn babies. The same 1996 World Bank report relates severe anemia in
newborns to increased fetal morbidity and mortality, impaired language and
motor development and impaired coordination.
Frequent pregnancy and poor diet were considered to be the causes of anemia
among Central Asian women. Thus, programs designed to address anemia have been
directed at regulating the number of births, proper diet and iron
supplementation. However, Dr. Oral Ataniyazova's research has shown that the
high frequency of anemia among women in Karakalpakstan is independent of
pregnancy and age. The study reveals a high frequency of anemia in women who
were not pregnant (92%), teenage girls (87%) and among newborn babies (85%).
This research has shown that environmental factors such as high mineralization
of drinking water have led to anemia amongst women in the Aral Sea region.
Effects
on the climate and economy
The drying up of the Aral Sea and water pollution have led to economic decline
in the region, through loss of resources and productive labor. The Karakalpak
tourism industry along the Aral Sea shore was abandoned in the 1980s. It is
estimated that some 40-60,000 fisher people have lost their livelihoods. While
fishing and related activities once provided 50% of the region's income, large
fish canning industries now have hardly any fish to process. Species extinction
is taking place with almost 40 fish species in the Aral Sea having become
extinct. The former fish catch of 40,000 tons a year has declined to zero. The
mutagenic activity of the water is 1.5 times higher than in Moscow. Great
numbers of other species (i.e., mammals, birds) have also become extinct.
Under the Soviet system the entire region specialized in growing cotton, which
was then exchanged for wheat and other goods from other areas of the Soviet
Union. This specialization is increasingly problematic for the newly
independent states of the Aral Sea Basin. The quality of Aral Sea Basin cotton
is low, because it has short fibers. Although cotton exports still make up most
of the country's income, cotton sales are declining and the Uzbek government
has to import three million tons of wheat to feed it's people.
The greatest effects of the Aral Sea crisis are expected to hit the
agricultural sector of Karakalpakstan, where local climate changes and
increased salinity are starting to take their toll. The agricultural output of
the region has already declined by 20-30% due to soil salinity, climate change
and reduced labor productivity stemming from health problems. As a result of
the shrinking Aral Sea, the Karakalpak region suffers increasingly from climate
change. The climate of the Aral Sea basin used to be tempered by the moderating
influence of the enormous water body. Now, temperature changes are wider and
more abrupt, resulting in shorter growing seasons and higher probability of
harvest loss.
Response
to the Environmental Crisis
Response by Governments and International Agencies
The enormity of the ecological crisis in the Aral Sea basin became more visible
following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It also became increasingly
clear that no country acting alone could stop the destruction and an
interregional effort of all the riparian states - Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - was necessary. The Heads of State of
the five riparian countries came together to form the Executive Committee of
the Interstate Fund for the Aral Sea (ICAS). Each country contributed to this
fund, for activities to improve the Aral Sea problems. The five countries also
asked the UN and the World Bank for assistance.
In January 1994, the Aral Sea Basin Program was set up in cooperation with the
World Bank, UNEP and UNDP. The objectives of the program were to:
The
program included seven sub-programs divided into 19 projects. The cost of
implementing these planned projects was estimated at US $470 million. The money
came from donor countries including Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and Kuwait
(progress report No.3, p. 1).
There was a great deal of hope and optimism in 1994, it was the first time that
these five newly independent states had established international relations
independent of Moscow. The governments of the five countries believed that
their problems were the problems of the world and that the world community
would help them solve this crisis. In this state of euphoria, the heads of
state of the Aral Sea riparian countries declared themselves committed to
sustainable development and signed the Nukus Declaration on September 1995 at
an UN International Conference on Sustainable Development of the Aral Sea Basin
(ICAS) held in Nukus. The state leaders acknowledged the need to "Preserve
the quality of life for our peoples, without compromising the life of future
generations by encouraging and supporting initiatives aimed at improvement of
health, income generation and preservation of cultural heritage" (UN ICAS
final report, p.20). They also committed themselves to human development
stating, "As representatives and supporters of the new democratic
countries of Central Asia, we are committed to achieving the participation of
our peoples and NGOs in the overall economic process and in the solution of
their problems." (UN ICAS final report, p.21)
Several million dollars have already been spent on feasibility studies by the
World Bank and more than 131 foreign missions and delegations have visited the
Aral Sea area, discussed the problems, and published articles and reports.
However, no epidemiological studies have been done to look at the links between
the chemical pollution of the region and the health disorders. In 1997, several
World Bank reports stated that it had been shown that there were no health
problems resulting from agrochemicals in Karakalpakstan. The World Bank bases
this conclusion on the 1996 JICA study on water quality of urban drinking water
reservoirs. But the JICA report only measured treated drinking water; it did
not look at untreated water used in rural areas or at other sources of chemical
intake such as cotton oil, used for cooking, or milk. More than half of the
test sites in the JICA report are not those closest to the Aral Sea. Other
measurements are also inconsistent and show major mistakes. For example,
chemical tests for lindane and the DDT breakdown product DDD are indicated in
milligrams per liter, or in grams per liter, whereas they probably meant to
write one-millionth of a gram per liter, as these pesticides are usually
measured.
The World Bank health project's final report focuses entirely on the
bacteriological health problems in the region. It states that chemical pollution
is not a problem and that if water was indeed chemically polluted,
"experience shows that in such incidents the water usually becomes
undrinkable owing to unacceptable taste, odor and appearance and is not
consumed." (Aral Sea Program 5 project no. 1 Uzbekistan Water Supply
Sanitation and Health Project Final Report Health Aspects, p.5). What is
omitted is that when people have nothing other than polluted water to drink,
they will have to drink it, and that is what is happening in Karakalpakstan. In
rural areas people even use water from the irrigation drainage ditches for
drinking water.
In 1997, a change in strategy occurred. It became clear that the health
dimension bothered officials at the World Bank. World Bank officials wanted to
get on with their work and look for economic projects that would promise a
return on investment from which to start paying back the interests on the
loans. The World Bank officially appeared all too willing to accept the
outcomes of JICA water tests, a few fish analyzed for pollutants, and a
graduate student's study on the causes of anemia. The World Bank transferred
the responsibility for the program to a 2-person team in Tashkent, and decided
to reduce the number of programs and to focus primarily on the agricultural program
to improve cotton production. Health projects were integrated into the water
supply program. After spending around US $2 million, donor countries seem
uninterested in giving more funds to relieve pressing human needs. The UN
agency which was supposed to focus on the human needs issues, the UNDP office
in Tashkent, is busy with internal problems and is in the process of being
reorganized.
In Fall 1997, the heads of state of the five riparian countries came together
and, following recommendations from the World Bank, decided that the sea should
be left to die since there was no longer a chance of saving it. Trying to save
the Aral Sea would mean making economic sacrifices that were deemed too great.
This decision was taken without any input from the affected populations. It
could mean that some of the populations living closest to the Aral Sea, like
the Karakalpaks, will now have to leave their towns and villages. A
representative of Doctors Without borders in Tashkent remarks, "Isn't it
just incredible that five years and $13 million dollars later we are still
trying to find out what pollutants exactly occur in the drinking water of the
Aral Sea region?" The region still does not have a good hospital; there is
no diagnostic center to identify diseases; and no toxicological laboratory
where environmental hazards can be studied.
NGO Response
In most countries, women are society's most experienced and important natural
resource managers. In Karakalpakstan women do most of the agricultural work,
supply water, care for the ill and try to grow sufficient food for their
families. Environmental degradation has added to women's low status in society
by increasing their burdens in an environmentally vulnerable region. Their
children are at increased risk of disease from unsafe water, nutritional
deficiencies and lack of knowledge about prevention. A 1997 UNICEF report on a
children's right to sustainable development states, "Environmental
problems are social problems and the time women spend each day with the ramifications
of environmental decline is time lost to their own development and that of
their children and the wider community. Sustainable development cannot be
isolated from implementing the rights of women to sustainable livelihood and
equal opportunities for education, training, technology, access to credit and
decision making."
With the premise that sustainable development is not possible without the
direct participation of women, the NGO Center-Perzent has initiated a number of
projects in Karakalpakstan. These projects incorporate women's perspective into
the research and analysis of the crisis as well as directly involve them in
programs such as health education and organic food farming. The following
initiatives are being undertaken by Center-Perzent in collaboration with
international networks.
Research
Center-Perzent conducts research to assess the quality of environment and human
health in the Aral Sea region. In collaboration with the NGO ECOLOGIA,
Center-Perzent has engaged the public in monitoring water quality, made
recommendations on how to improve household water quality and developed several
workshops with local authorities and physicians on water quality and health
problems.
In collaboration with the Russian Scientific Center of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Center-Perzent is investigating the epidemiology of reproductive pathology and
reproductive toxicity. In collaboration with the Laboratory of Ecology and
Evaluation at the Russian Academy of Sience, Center Perzent investigated the
level of pesticides in food, soil, water andnursing women's breast milk in
Karakalpakstan. In cooperation with World Resources Institute, Center-Perzent
is developing an investigation on reproductive health indicators. This project
covers several countries including Brazil, Mexico and Uzbekistan.
Center-Perzent is also receiving assistance from an international team of
experts to carry out research in the Karakalpak region and to identify problem
areas, thus reducing the population's exposure to contaminants.
Education
and Community Awareness
There is a need for enhanced community participation, self-sufficiency, and
empowerment in Karakalpakstan. Center-Perzent has chosen a strategy of
education, information and training as the central components of moving towards
this goal. In its first year of existence Perzent brought out a series of five
booklets on women's health, providing basic information on hygiene, diet, the
functioning of a woman's body, ways of contraception, the needs of pregnant
women and how to take care of newborn babies. The booklets were printed in the
Karakalpak language and distributed in hospitals. The NGO also publishes a
women's newsletter, as well as booklets on "a safe childhood" and the
relationship between health and environment.
Center-Perzent has an environmental education program for 200 children in Nukus
schools. It established an ecological club "Shagala" for children and
has an environmental librasy open to the public. In collaboration with Save the
Children Fund, Center-Perzent has a program which provides water filters to
kindergartens and environmental educational programs for pre-school children.
Since 1996 Center-Perzent has been running a 'women, health and environment'
project with Women in Europe for a Common Future and partners in Russia and the
Ukraine. As part of this project a group of 20 women from five towns in
Karakalpakstan have been trained on basic health and health and environment
issues. They are now conducting workshops for women in their communities and
run a 'health-desk' where people can come for advice and information.
It is crucial for education and information projects to be interactive, and not
to use a top-town approach. Often women have a lot of knowledge of the local
environment and resources that has been handed down through the generations.
The key is to revitalize that knowledge to improve the current situation.
Community
Projects Build Self Sufficiency
Center-Perzent has recently set up the project 'Sustainable Chimbay,' a
self-help, organic vegetable and fruit farming program to improve women's and
children's diet and avoid further contamination. The local authorities in the
town of Chimbay provided 20 hectares of land for the organic farm.
The goal is to use the vegetables and fruits from this farm in meals served at
the school, thereby improving the health of the children. Another part of the
harvest will be used to improve the women's diet, particularly pregnant women.
If the harvest is good, the families of participating women will consume the
surplus food and sell the rest. The income from the sales will be used for the
target group's most serious needs, such as securing additional food, repairing
the kindergarten's heating system, building a hand pump, filtering drinking
water and obtaining medicines and syringes for the children's clinic. The
project also includes plans of capacity building training for women who work on
the farm. The training sessions will look at methods of organic farming and
methods to reduce exposure to pollution and improve personal health including
hygiene, diet and water purification.
The main aim of the Sustainable Chimbay project is to show that organic farming
is a viable alternative to pesticide intensive farming. It will improve the
diet of children and families in Chimbay and offer income-generating
opportunities for women farmers and the staff at the training center. The
project will become a training and education center for surrounding farming
communities. Thus the "kindergarten-farm" will gradually become a
demonstration farm where local farmers and Kolkhoz directors can see how
different crops can be cultivated with good yields using organic methods.
Furthermore, the demonstration farm can serve as an experimental center to test
new species of plants which can regenerate the soil, adapt to saline soils and
require less water. Also, the cultivation of organic cotton in rotation with
other crops will hopefully become a pilot project in this demonstration center.
For the last 50 years the local population has been conditioned against
undertaking any individual action. All responsibility for society's well being
was the domain of the state. The local population appears to think that someone
will come and solve all the problems for them. Local communities need to
realize that they possess the power to improve their environment and their
lives. It is in this context that projects promoting self-sufficiency, like the
organic farm in Chimbay, take on a greater significance.
Recommendations
for Action
Based on the experience in the Aral Sea region, the following recommendations
are made:
Make Women's Health a Priority
Women and children are the main victims of the Aral Sea crisis and they cannot
be expected to bear the increasingly high cost of health care. Therefore, we
call on donors of international aid and credit projects to create a special
fund with grants to pay for health care and monitoring programs, using a gender
differentiated approach with special attention to the health impact on women
and children.
Make Environmental Health a Priority
The Aral Sea case shows that there is a need to create a training program for
staff of the World Bank and other international agencies on the links between
health and the environment. In addition and parallel to existing expertise on bacteriological
health issues, expertise is needed in toxicology and epidemiology. Therefore,
we call on donors of international aid and credit projects to engage
environmental health experts and dedicate funds for research on environmental
health effects, as well as funds for practical projects working on ways to
reduce this impact.
Increase Funding to Women's NGOs
"National and local NGOs are at the cutting edge of the environmental
movement and no government or international agency can afford to ignore their
critical contribution," according to a 1997 UNICEF report. In countries
with a history of authoritarian rule, NGOs are often the only ones trusted by
communities. NGOs with strong participation of women can motivate and mobilize
communities to understand the health and other harmful effects of their
activities and show how this can be changed. The World Bank and other
international agencies working in Uzbekistan have made some attempts at working
with NGOs but the proportion of funds dedicated to working with NGOs is a
fraction (0.25%) of total funds spent. Therefore, we call on donors of
international aid and credit projects to set apart at least 5% of total funds
for grants to community-based NGO projects, with specific attention to the
participation of women.
Create an International Independent Assessment Committee
The responses to the Aral Sea problem have been marked by the misallocated
expenditures of funds. To prevent further misallocation, an International
Independent Assessment Committee should be created to monitor and assess the
international programs on the Aral Sea, involving local and international
scientists and NGO representatives.
Create a UN Fund for Ecological Disaster Zones
Environmental pollution and resource mismanagement of fresh water bodies like
the Amu Darya river and Aral Sea can cause the devastation of a region and its
people. The UN should develop international agreements to avoid the devastation
of one region's livelihoods by pollution from other regions. The UN has a role to
play that is similar to its peace keeping function.
Beyond developing international conventions, the UN needs to assist the
affected people in cleaning and regenerating their region. How can such regions
repay loans if their resources have been severely damaged and are increasingly
unproductive? We call on the UN to create a fund for grants to pay for
clean-up, resource regeneration and health care in ecological catastrophe areas
like the Aral Sea Region.
Integrate Agricultural, Environmental and Health Policies
After five years and such high expenditures, there still has not been any
scientific analysis of the contaminants in the air, soil, water and food of the
Aral Sea region. The World Bank and UNDP need to integrate their research, for
example, the agricultural department has data which the health department has
not looked at.
Governments must ensure that policies and programs to fulfill people's basic
needs such as clean water and their right to know what is harmful to their
health. It is inappropriate to place trust in a trickle-down approach and more
attention must be given to UNICEF's recommendations and utilizing a bottom-up
approach that involves women's NGOs.
Humanitarian Aid
International agencies, including the World Bank, UNDP and UN, need to create a
fund for humanitarian aid to this region. Above all, international agencies
need to treat the Aral Sea Basin with the same urgency that they would treat a
war or earthquake zone. The Aral Sea region is an environmental disaster area
in need of immediate assistance.
Case
prepared by:
Center-Perzent is an NGO based in Nukus, the capital of the
semi-autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan. The goal of Perzent
(a Karakalpak word meaning "progeny") is to unite the strengths of
organizations and progressive people seeking to improve the status and health
of women and children by empowering local women's groups.
Contact: Dr. Oral Ataniyazova
P.O. Box 27
Nukus-12, Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan
Tel: (7-361) 227-5517; Fax: (7-95) 251-7617
E-mail: perzent@center.nukus.silk.org
Women in Europe for a Common Future, an NGO based in the
Netherlands, networks women working on environment and health in Western and
Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States. Its primary aims are to link
European women's organizations and networks that promote sustainable
development and to strengthen their decision-making power in environmental and
health policies.
Contact:
Sascha Gabizon
P .O. Box 12111
3501 AC Utrecht, The Netherlands
Tel: (31-30) 231-0300; Fax: (31-30) 234-0878
E-mail: wecf@antenna.nl
Chelyabinsk, the capital of
the Chelyabinsk province in Russia, is located at the eastern
foot of the Ural mountains and has a population of 1.3 million. The province
has a land area of 90,000 sq. km and a population of 3.6 million.
Abstract
Chelyabinsk was one of the former Soviet Union's main military production
centers, which included nuclear weapons manufacturing. Accidents, nuclear waste
disposal and day to day operation of the Mayak reactor and radiochemical plant
contaminated a vast area of the province. In the early 1950s there were so many
occurrences of death and disease from the nuclear waste dumping in the Techa
river that 22 villages along the river banks in a 50 kilometers zone downstream
from Mayak were evacuated. In 1957, a nuclear waste storage tank accident
released radiation double the amount released by the Chernobyl accident. This
accident was kept secret and 10,700 people were evacuated. The severe
environmental contamination of this region led to dramatic increases in cancer
rates, birth defects, and sterility. Over the past 33 years, there has been a
21% increase in the incidences of cancer, 25% increase in birth defects and 50%
of the population of child bearing age are sterile.
Cause
of the Environmental Crisis
During World War II, Chelyabinsk was one of the Soviet Union's major armament
production centers. Entire factories on the western side of the Urals were
taken apart and reconstructed on the other side of the Urals, the Chelyabinsk
province. Chelyabinsk had one of the largest tank factories in the country, as
well as one of the major nuclear armament plants. Due to these "strategic
industries" the province was closed to visitors until 1989. Following the
political and economic transformation in Russia, the tank factory now produces
tractors, and the Mayak nuclear armament plant is trying to evolve into a fast
breeder recycling plant for foreign spent-plutonium (nuclear wastes).
The
Mayak nuclear complex was one of the Soviet Union's main military production
centers. During the last fifty years this complex has contaminated the
Chelyabinsk region with highly dangerous nuclear and chemical wastes. The
following is a chronological listing of the practices and accidents that caused
the environmental crisis:
From
1949 to 1956, medium and high-level radioactive liquid wastes were dumped into
the river system Techa-Iset-Tobol. During this period about 76 million m3 of
radioactive wastes were released into the Techa river. Over 124, 000 people
living along the banks of the river system were exposed to radiation.
Protective measures finally began in 1956 when hydrological engineering
measures aimed at immobilizing deposited radioactive substances in the upper
reaches of the river were implemented. The river system is currently in the
process of a natural deactivation that will take a few hundred years. The water
downstream is nearly free of excess radioactive caesium, however the riverbed
sediment and the riverbanks still contain high levels of caesium and strontium.
On
September 29, 1957 a liquid radioactive waste storage tank exploded following a
failure in the cooling system and polluted an area equal to the size of New
Jersey with plutonium and strontium. The explosion formed a radioactive cloud
over the provinces of Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk and Tyumen. A total area of
23,000 sq. kilometers was contaminated and the area is now called the East Ural
Radioactive Trace, the EURT. This accident was kept secret from the outside
world for military safety reasons and 10,700 people were silently evacuated.
This nuclear accident released twice the amount of curies that were released by
the Chernobyl accident.
Two
self-contained natural lakes near the plant were chosen to divert waste dumping
in the river-system - lake Karachay for high-level waste and lake Staroe Boloto
for medium level waste. During the long, hot summer of 1967, lake Karachay
dried up and radioactive waste from the exposed lake blew over an area of 2,200
sq. kilometers. Other accidents, irresponsible nuclear waste disposal and
day-to-day operations of the Mayak nuclear-chemical facility have contaminated
an area with a diameter of 400 km.
In addition
to pollution from the nuclear complex, the metallurgical industry has heavily
contaminated this region. The Ural mountains are rich in iron ore, chromium,
copper and nickel and the region has an enormous metallurgical industry. The
amount of lead in the air in Chelyabinsk city is equal to the total amount of
lead pollution in the Netherlands (population of 15 million) in 1982, before
unleaded petrol and catalytic converters were introduced. Any improvement of
air quality in the Urals has been due to the economic downturn and closing of
factories. Hardly any investments have been made by the government to reduce
pollution levels.
Impact
of the Environmental Crisis
Soon after the Mayak nuclear complex became operational, death and diseases in
the region increased dramatically due to the dumping of medium and high level
radioactive waste into the river system. As a result, 22 villages on the
riverbanks, in a 50 km downstream zone from the complex, were evacuated. The
village of Muslymova, just outside the 50 km zone was particularly
contaminated, but it was never evacuated. Muslyumova lies 45 km north west of
Chelyabinsk city and has 4,000 inhabitants. The village had no wells and until
recent years depended on the river Techa, for drinking water.
The
villagers of Muslyumova grew increasingly ill following contamination of their
water. The number of birth defects and cancer deaths soared, but the
authorities refused to take remedial measures. Statistics show that
gene-mutations in the villages just outside the evacuated zone were 15 times
the average for the Russian Federation. The local authorities attributed the
high level of birth defects among newborns and the high mortality rates to a
low standard of living.
A
report on the health of the people living on the banks of the Techa River was
published in 1991, which showed that the incidence of leukemia increased by 41%
since 1950. From 1980 to 1990, all cancers in this population rose by 21% and
all diseases of the circulatory system rose by 31%. These figures are probably
gross under-estimations, because local physicians were instructed to limit the
number of death certificates they issued with diagnosis of cancer and other
radiation-related illnesses. According to Gulfarida Galimova, a local doctor
who has been keeping records in lieu of official statistics, the average life
span for women in Muslyumovo in 1993 was 47, compared to the country average of
72. The average life span of Muslyumovo men was 45 compared to 69 for the
entire country.
Chelyabinsk
regional hospitals were not allowed to treat the villagers and they were sent
to the Ural Centre for Radiation Medicine. The medical data of the UCRM was
classified until 1990. Records of the UCRM chart the decline in health of
28,000 people along the Techa and all of them are classed as seriously
irradiated. Since the 1960s, these people have been examined regularly by
public health officials.
According
to the head of the UCRM clinical department the rate of leukemia has doubled in
the last two decades. Skin cancers have quadrupled over the last 33 years. The
total number of people suffering from cancer has risen by 21%. The number of
people suffering from vascular diseases has risen 31%. Birth defects have
increased by 25%. Kosenko carried out a small epidemiological study of 100
people selected at random. From this group 96% had at least five chronic
diseases (heart diseases, high blood pressure, arthritis and asthma), 30% had
as many as ten chronic conditions. Local doctors estimate that half the men and
women at child bearing age are sterile.
Even
today, the local population still does not know the actual levels of
radioisotopes in its home grown products. German scientists who did a field
study in Muslumova in 1996 have measured some food samples in the villages and
found astonishing levels of radioactivity, 17,000 becquerrel per kg in fish,
and 8,000 per kg in vegetables (in Europe, products with more than 600
bequerrel are taken off the market). Only since 1989, the villagers have
started to get information about the dangers of the radioactive contamination
of their river.
After
the 1957 storage tank accident, 10,700 people were permanently evacuated from
the EURT. Half of these people were evacuated eight months after the accident.
These people had been consuming contaminated food without restriction, since
the accident and until their evacuation. The Karachay accident from 1967
affected 63 populated areas with a population of 41,500 with 3.7 kBq/sq m
(0.1Ci/sq km) The 4800 residents nearest to the lake received an average dose
of 13mSv. At the time of the Karachay accident, the International Commission
for Radiological Protection (ICRP) had set the safe limit on radiation at 5mSv
per year. At present, the ICRP standard is 1mSv per year.
According
to the Russian Scientific Centre Kurchatov and the Obninsk Institute of
Radiology, a total of 437,000 people have been affected by the three accidents
at Mayak. Of the total 437,000 people affected, very few were ever evacuated
from the area. Very often the evacuees were moved to areas not far from the
contaminated zone and the people continued to use their gardens within the
contaminated areas.
Other
people exposed to elevated levels of radiation in Chelyabinsk region are
workers of Mayak, people living in the districts in the vicinity of Mayak and
participants during cleanup and restoration activities. At the beginning of
operation of Mayak, the average annual exposures for reactor workers and
chemical plant workers was 940 mSv and 1,130mSv respectively. (At present, the
ICRP safety standard is 1mSv per year.) The workers from Mayak lived in
Chelyabinsk-65 and Chelyabinsk-70, both closed cities situated about 80 km from
Chelyabinsk city, and close to the Mayak complex. Chelyabinsk-65 and -70 were
nicknamed chocolate city, because these cities were among the few cities in
USSR where chocolate was available in abundance.
In the
early 1990s, Ivan Druzhko, a Mayak plant official, told reporters from a US
television show that he believed nearly 8,000 Mayak workers were exposed to
doses exceeding 1,000mSv. L.A. Buldakov, deputy director of the institute of
biophysics in Moscow presented data on a conference in Paris in 1991 that
showed a total of 1,812 Mayak workers were exposed to least 2,450mSv over the
period 1949-1954 and another 1,286 people were exposed to at least 1,220mSv.
These exposure levels are horrifying when you compare these levels with the
ICRP's present safety standard, which is 1mSv per year. In the 1980s, Ural
Medical Radiation Center started registering diseases caused by radiation. In
1989 a booklet was published stating that 935 workers at the Mayak complex were
suffering from chronic radiation syndrome. This number later came down to 66
but was changed back to the former figure after campaigns by local organizations.
While
the rural communities in Chelyabinsk suffer from the effects of radioactive
contamination, the urban populations face the effects of the chemical and
metallurgical industries. In 1994 the Chelyabinsk Provincial Institute for
Public Health and Environment did a survey on non-infectious diseases in the
cities of Karabash, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk, Zlatoust, Kopeisk and Miass. The
survey showed considerable increases of various diseases in the Chelyabinsk
region. The results from Karabash and Magnitogorsk were so bad that the
provincial Ministry for the Environment classified these cities as ecological
disaster zones. (SOE rep. P. 195) Children from Karabash were found to be
considerably smaller than children from the control group; they had 3.5 times
more birth defects; 2.7 times more skin diseases; streptodermia 10 times more,
and 2.1 times more diseases of the digestive organs.
Cancer
rates in the metallurgical district of Chelyabinsk are four to five times
higher than the Russian average. Children's morbidity and mortality rates in
the metallurgical district are three times higher than the average for the
city. Lead intoxication from the metallurgical factories causes blood diseases
and brain damage. Chromium is another major pollutant. U.S. studies have shown
that the incidences of lung cancer for chromium factory workers are 28 times
than the average rates. Workers barely survive until their retirement age and
male life expectancy has gone down to 57.
Statistics
from the neighboring province of Ekaterinaburg show that in the early 1990s the
number of women workers in the metallurgical and electrical engineering
industry doubled, and their numbers in light industry tripled. Statistics in
Chelyabinsk, if available, would probably show the same trend. After the Soviet
Union dissolved in 1991, unemployment soared and Russia's social security
system became more and more insecure. Today, most women cannot afford to lose
their jobs and will keep on working as long as possible. The women work even though
the working conditions badly affect their own health and their children's
health. Maternity leave with pay was well taken care for under the Soviet
system but now for fear of losing their jobs, women keep silent about their
pregnancy as long as possible. Many women work more than one job. Apart from
working under very unfavorable conditions women also have to take care of their
families. Wages are low and poverty is increasing.
Even in
the "workers paradise", as the former Soviet Union was called, working
conditions were not always favorable. In the late 1980's, 20-50% of workplaces
did not meet Soviet standards. By the end of the Soviet era, 14.5 million women
worked in industry and 3.4 million, about one-fifth of them, worked under
hazardous conditions such as toxic fumes, extreme high or low temperatures, and
excessive noise and vibrations.
Chelyabinsk
has long been a region of strategic military importance and has a history of
secrecy. Even today it is not easy to obtain environment or health information.
Obtaining information from independent sources is even more difficult.
Response
to the Environmental Crisis
In 1992, Movement for Nuclear Safety (MNS), in co-operation with local
authorities, organized an international conference on the consequences of
nuclear industry in the South Urals. This was the first time that the public
gained access to classified information concerning the health of the population
affected by radionucleides from the nuclear military complex, Mayak. In the
same year MNS began campaigns to register people affected by nuclear
contamination in Muslyumovo. By the end of 1993 the democratic process was
interrupted and the co-operation with authorities became less effective. By
then, however, MNS had obtained a large group of voluntary workers and support
from the local population.
During
the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, Natalya Mironova of
MNS met with Women in Europe for a Common Future and partners in Uzbekistan and
the Ukraine and discussed setting up a joint project on women, health and
environment. In 1996, a project entitled Women Join Forces for Health and
Environment, was launched to better understand the health effects of the
environmental contamination in the Chelyabinsk region, particularly effects on
women and children. MNS offered courses to women on healthy living and on
strengthening their immune system. The NGO also sponsored seminars on how to
reduce the effects of contamination of the human body caused by bioaccumulation
of radionucleides. Women received information from a dietician and were taught
how to cook to retain vitamins.
MNS
also started publishing a series of brochures titled 'Simple Answers to
Complicated Questions,' on the immune system and healthy food in a region
contaminated with radionucleides. The brochures were widely distributed among
the villages just outside the evacuated area near Mayak.
Together
with other NGOs, MNS has been campaigning for resettlement of the village of
Muslyumovo. In 1997 these actions finally became effective: the province
administration decided to resettle the village. It is still unclear, however,
when this will happen and where the villagers will go. MNS is also active in
local politics and has been campaigning against the development of plutonium recycling
facilities at Mayak to treat imported plutonium waste from abroad, particularly
from Germany and the U.S.A. MNS promotes sustainable economic alternatives
including energy-saving, alternative energy sources and organic farming.
Recommendations
for Action
Most of the information about plutonium contamination and plutonium impacts is
still classified, although plutonium contamination has affected a geographical
area 10 times larger and 100 times more intensely than expected. Despite this,
the local administration is eagerly looking at potential revenues from
plutonium recycling. Plutonium recycling is not a sustainable solution.
Chelyabinsk needs assistance from the international community to identify
viable alternatives to polluting industries.
When the
Cold War ended Russian women wrote letters to the UN asking for assistance and
tried to force the Russian authorities to listen to the voices of the NGO
community. The international community can support the fight for a healthy and
sustainable future by endorsing our demands to:
Case
prepared by:
Movement for Nuclear Safety (MNS) was formed in 1989 by a
group of Russian women who were concerned about the levels of radioactive
pollution in Chelyabinsk. MNS now runs environment and health education and
awareness-raising programs and actively advocates in local politics for
non-nuclear energy solutions instead of investments in fast-breeder technology.
MNS has more than 150 active volunteers and is supported by five million
citizens from the region.
Contact:
Natalya Ivanovna Mironova
9-12 Kaslinskaya, 454084 Chelyabinsk, Russia
Tel: (7-3512) 356-459; Fax: 7-3512-356-459
Email: chel@glasnet.ru
Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF), an NGO based in
the Netherlands, networks women working on environment and health in Western
and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States. Its primary aims are to
link European women's organizations and networks that promote sustainable
development and to strengthen their decision-making power in environmental and
health policies.
Contact:
Sascha Gabizon, Hanna van Vonderen
P .O. Box 12111
3501 AC Utrecht, the Netherlands
Tel: (31-30) 231-0300; Fax: (31-30) 234-0878
E-mail: wecf@antenna.nl
Black Mesa is located in northeastern Arizona
and includes the Dineh (Navajo) and Hopi Reservations. The region spans 3,000
sq miles and has a population of 3,000 indigenous people.
Abstract
The Black Mesa region in Arizona, USA is home to the indigenous communities of
the Dineh (Navajo) and Hopi peoples. This region also contains major deposits
of coal which are being extracted by North America's largest strip mining
operation. The coal mines have had a major impact on families in the region.
Local water sources have been poisoned, resulting in the death of livestock.
Homes near the mines suffer from blasting damage. The coal dust is pervasive,
as well as smoke from frequent fires in the stockpiles. Not coincidentally, the
people in the area have an unusually high incidence of kidney and respiratory
disease.
The
Dineh (otherwise known as Navajo) were stripped of all land title and forced to
relocate. Their land was turned over to the coal companies without making any
provisions to protect the burial or sacred sites that would be destroyed by the
mines. People whose lives were based in their deep spiritual and life-giving
relationship with the land were relocated into cities, often without
compensation, forbidden to return to the land that their families had occupied
for generations. People became homeless with significant increases in
alcoholism, suicide, family break up, emotional abuse and death.
Cause
of the Environmental Crisis
In the 1930's, the U.S. government tried to replace the traditional governing
mechanisms on the reservations with Western-style governments, but these
institutions quickly collapsed from lack of support by the inhabitants. In the
1950s, vast coal deposits were discovered in Black Mesa. Because no government
existed with the power to issue leases to the mining companies, white attorneys
with strong ties to the mining industry used legal provisions dating back to
the 1930's to create new tribal governments. The people on the Hopi reservation
did not recognize the validity of the government or of the coal leases, and
filed a suit in the U.S. courts to overthrow the leases, on the grounds that
coal mining violated the Hopi religion. U.S. courts dismissed the suit, stating
that the industry-created tribal council was a sovereign power, and the Hopi
people could not use the U.S. courts to appeal its actions.
In
1974, the mining industry played a major role in passage of the Navajo-Hopi
Settlement Act of 1974. This crucial piece of legislation resulted in the
largest relocation of Native American people since the 1860's. The relocation
effort has been a disaster. More than 12,000 people have been relocated over
the past 22 years. Some were sent to cities where, unable to speak English or
relate to a non-traditional economy, they quickly lost the small sums of money
they were given at the time of the relocation. The rest were sent to the
"New Lands", an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund site
contaminated by the nation's worst nuclear spill. But many families resisted
orders to relocate, and 23 years later, several thousand still remain on their
traditional homesites. This relocation has cost the U.S. taxpayers over $350
million.
The
people affected by the legislation were never directly informed of its
adoption, never allowed to testify in any Congressional hearing and never
allowed to be represented in any way through the process. All the decisions
that led to partition of their land were carried out and enacted by newly
created male-dominated tribal councils located 100 miles away from the directly
affected people.
With
assistance from the U.S. government, the mining industry has supported a new
faction on the reservations consisting of businessmen who profit from mining,
large-scale cattle ranching, and other non-traditional economic activities.
This faction controls the tribal governments and rejects traditional religious
views about the sacredness of the land. It views the traditional Dineh living
on the land as obstacles to the success of its business ventures. This faction
is considered to be the sole legitimate voice of all the people and has been
granted sovereign powers which deprive the people of fundamental civil rights.
Impact
Of the Environmental Crisis
The mines threaten the sole source of water for the communities in the region.
Ancient natural springs, washes and wells in the region are contaminated and
have run dry, others have only a few years left. Mine soils, spoil and coal
stockpiles are affecting surface water used for human consumption, as well as
worsening potential plant and soil toxicity due to fugitive dust and airborne
particulate from the stockpiles. The coal from the Black Mesa mine is
transported to the Mojave Power plant through a slurry line that requires pumping
3 million gallons of water each day from the Navajo aquifer. The slurry line
operates without any permit from the EPA. In a region where water is extremely
scarce, the use of such a precious resource just to transport coal is a tragic
waste.
Coal
strip mining and the burning of fossil fuels is one of the most unsustainable
ways of land and resource management. The operations of Peabody Coal have
destroyed countless sites that are sacred to the Dineh. Stripping the land
years in advance of the planned mining operations has degraded the biota and
caused displacement of the Dineh people, causing disruptions to their family
life and health. Local residents living in the mining permit area have been
told that they and the livestock upon which they are dependent for their
survival can no longer drink from traditional water sources. Environmental
degradation continues as multi-colored toxics seep onto their land. Some herbs
used in traditional medicine were only available at places that have been
destroyed by mining, rendering the herbs now unavailable. Since traditional
medicine is closely interlinked with religion, this interferes with religious
practice. Contaminated surface water discharge and elevated levels of selenium
is causing livestock poisoning in the adjacent leaseholds. This has also
threatened the livestock used for human consumption.
Unlined
coal stockpiles and fugitive dust blown from mining and reclamation activities
have increased the incidence of respiratory illnesses. Coal-fired power plants
in the region generate over 10% of the nation's electricity, and are the
largest point-source of greenhouse gasses in a country that leads the world in
their production. The plants (exempt from all environmental laws by grandfather
clauses dating back to the 1960s) operate without scrubbers or other emission
controls and emit 350 tons of sulfur compounds and 250 tons of nitrogen
compounds into the atmosphere each day. The incredible volume of these
pollutants reduces visibility in an area of thousands of square miles,
including a 50% reduction of visibility in the Grand Canyon in the last 15
years, and causes desertification, and acidification of rain and surface water
in the region. The Mohave Generating Station burning Peabody Coal Company's
Black Mesa coal stands out as one of the worst offenders because of its large
scale, lack of pollution controls, and excessive emissions due to burning of
moistured coal.
The
current laws deny the Dineh families who remain on their land a fundamental
constitutional right enjoyed by other citizens of the U.S. They are not allowed
to vote or in any way to participate in the government which controls their
lives. They are not allowed to participate in the legal system other than as
defendants. They have no right to appeal any police or government action.
Mining company security personnel, harass and intimidate elders, threatening
them with imprisonment if they try to protect their homes, property and burial
sites from Peabody Coal's bulldozers. They can be arbitrarily thrown in jail
for resisting actions by the mining company. People and their livestock are
given trespass notices. Ceremonial hogans, houses, sacred sites and graveyards
are bulldozed. Armed rangers visit elders at their homes and threaten and
harass them and confiscate their livestock at the government's discretion. They
are denied access to water, their water wells are fenced, capped off and
dismantled.
The
struggle in Black Mesa is between two divergent viewpoints on the relationship
between humans and their environment. One group, led by male-dominated mining
corporations and tribal councils, views land as property that title-holders
should exploit for the maximum profits regardless of the impact on the land or
on people who currently inhabit the land. The other group, whose leaders are
grandmothers in the matriarchal traditional Dineh culture, believe that the
land is sacred and should not be violated by a strip mine. They believe that
they must remain upon their lands, where their families have lived for countless
generations and protect it from destruction.
The
Dineh grandmothers represent a different set of values. The earth is a mother
who gives life and must be respected and protected in turn. And while they want
to be able to continue their traditional way of life they are also open to
exploring other sustainable technologies, such as solar energy or alternative
organic agricultural methods.
The
grandmothers and other indigenous people in the area need a mechanism to
participate in the policies affecting their community that is independent of
the completely male-dominated, industry-established tribal governments. The
coal strip mines do not represent a permanent solution to the economic problems
of the Dineh and Hopi tribes. The coal-fired power plants in the Four Corners
region are the largest single point source of greenhouse gases in North
America. The enterprise for which the fundamental human rights of the Dineh
families are being sacrificed is but a doomed scheme to make quick money.
The UN
Conference on Environment and Development recognized in Agenda 21 that
"women have an essential role to play in the development of sustainable
and ecologically sound consumption and production patterns and approaches to
natural resource management." It is essential to recognize the value of
the Dineh grandmothers and the sacrifices that they have made to protect their
land from destruction.
Women
in Dineh society play the pivotal role, culturally and religiously. It is
women's primal role as protectors of the land that is traditionally responsible
for their religion, government and economy. Women were mainly responsible for
income produced through sheep herding and weaving. In contrast, the impact of
mining has created a transition to a male-dominated set of institutions in
society. Jobs that have arisen from the mining industry all go to men. The
traditional self-sufficient economy has been undermined by coal mining jobs
that have created a new society run by men. Royalties generated from coal
mining go to male-controlled tribal councils, both Hopi and Dineh, and women
have never been chiefs of either executive institution. Women who have
historically been protectors of the earth now face male-dominated institutions
that view the earth as a resource.
Response
to the Environmental Crisis
In 1996, Congress passed a law endorsing a 75-year lease arrangement that would
allow a few of the families to remain as tenants on the land. The law sanctions
the relocation of families not eligible for these leases and forces the
families who sign the leases to live without benefit of civil and religious
rights exercised by other Americans. In April 1997, when all efforts to obtain
justice in the U.S. judicial system failed, and in order to get the relocation
laws repealed, the Dineh filed a formal request for the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights to conduct an investigation of human rights
violations against them by the U.S. government. Several visits to New York by
Dineh helped create an Inter-faith coalition of faith-based Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs). A delegation of NGOs traveled to Black Mesa to witness
the historic meeting between the traditional Dineh and Hopi people and Mr.
Abdelfattah Amor, Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance of the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights. Mr. Amor traveled to Black Mesa in early
February 1998 to investigate charges of human rights violations by the U.S.
government. This is the first time the U.S. is being formally investigated by
the United Nations for violations of the right to freedom of religion or
belief. It is the hope of the Dineh people that the UN will cite the U.S. for
violations of International Human Rights law.
"The
forcible relocation of over 10,000 Navajo people is a tragedy of genocide and
injustice that will be a blot on the conscience of this country for many
generations."
-- Leon Berger, Executive Director, Navajo-Hopi Indian Relocation Commission
upon resignation
"I
feel that in relocating these elderly people, we are as bad as the Nazis that
ran the concentration camps in World War II."
-- Roger Lewis, federally appointed Relocation Commissioner upon resignation
"I
believe that the forced relocation of Navajo and Hopi people that followed from
the passage in 1974 of Public Law 93-531 is a major violation of these people's
human rights. Indeed this forced relocation of over 12,000 Native Americans is
one of the worst cases of involuntary community resettlement that I have
studied throughout the world over the past 40 years."
-- Thayer Scudder, Professor of Anthropology, California Institute of
Technology in a letter to Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, UN Special Rapporteur on
Religious Intolerance
The
International Peoples Tribunal on Human Rights and the Environment, stated that
the Dineh case along with 12 other cases presented in June 1997, demonstrated
the globalization of unsustainable development particularly involving the
exploration and extraction of fossil fuels. The United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change, which aims to reduce the production of carbon
dioxide through limiting the use of fossil fuels was signed at Rio. The
Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
is the second-most widely ratified international human rights instrument.
Women, both in their own right and as mothers and heads of households, have
borne the heaviest burden of policies of globalization. Women have also
suffered from unsustainable development and or developmental violence. At the
UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, women finally gained unequivocal
recognition that women's rights are human rights. The Beijing Platform of
Action of the UN Conference on Women and Development sets out an agenda to make
those rights a reality. Both CEDAW and the Beijing Declaration are crucial if women
are to reverse the conditions they face as a result of unsustainable
development practices.
Dineh
matriarchs have been active, traveling to Washington, DC, New York, California
and Geneva, Switzerland. They have submitted hundreds of testimonies to the
U.S. Congress but still they are denied access to water, the right to fix their
homes, and protection of their land and livelihood. Over 100 Citizens
Complaints have been submitted to the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office
of Surface Mining. This has resulted in federal regulatory inspections and
numerous citations against Peabody Coal Company. Solar operated seismograph
machines are now visible next to some traditional hogans. Nighttime blasting
and some other practices have ceased. The Black Mesa issue is the first case of
environmental justice brought by Native people to the executive branch of the
U.S. government since President Clinton signed Executive Order 12898 on
Environmental Justice in February 1994.
The
grandmothers request the human right to full and equal participation for all
persons in environmental decision-making and development planning and in
shaping decisions and policies affecting their community on the local national
and international levels. When a government denies certain communities
fundamental rights, it places the rights of all its citizens in jeopardy.
Other
obstacles include the fact that most of the women do not speak, read or write
English and are unfamiliar with western society and U.S. governmental
structure. They can't afford to buy computers, fax machines, pay for copying or
finance activism. Outreach is difficult since they live in a vast remote region
without paved roads, electricity, telephones and running water.
Recommendations
for Action
The Dineh people would like to see a future for their communities that is not
tied to a unsustainable industry. They would like a future that is in harmony
with the earth and which provides them the opportunity to pursue their
traditional religion and values. It is their most fundamental human right to
practice their religion, continue their culture, including the right to own,
use and protect their land. It is this non-recognition of their rights to their
ancestral territories and the resources found therein that perpetuates ethnocide
and genocide against them. The distinct identity of the Dineh people is
crucially linked to the lands they have occupied since time immemorial.
Displacement from these territories means death, destruction of Dineh identity,
culture and way of life. It will only be with the participation of women in the
decision-making processes that their voices will be fully heard.
U.S.
government actions contradict paragraph 256 of the Beijing Platform for Action,
which states among other things that all governments should:
NGOs
must advocate that women's human rights cannot be denied and should take
precedence over national sovereignty -- whether it be the sovereignty of
independent nations or the dependent sovereign status accorded to tribal
governments. A strong statement to this effect would educate many people as to
the nature of the struggle faced by indigenous women and would give
encouragement to people and institutions who are hesitant about extending
support in these circumstances.
Concerns
about development policies and their economic and ecological impact are human
rights issues. Governments must reaffirm the universal right of every woman,
man and youth to ecologically sound development, in marking the fiftieth
anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. International human
rights covenants and other human rights treaties and declarations are powerful
tools necessary for implementing Agenda 21 and the commitments made in Rio.
The
goals of the matriarchs from the communities in the Dineh nation can be
summarized as truth, participation, and sustainability. They would like to be
given an opportunity to present testimony to an independent body that would
look at the overall situation -- that would be open to information about the
past so that it could understand the dynamics of the present and that would
listen to the voices of the women and the indigenous families and not just the
voices of the government lawyers. They would like direct participation in the
decisions which affect their lives. The people have never had an opportunity to
vote in any referendum on any of the issues that have devastated their
communities.
Case
prepared by: The goal of the Sovereign Dineh Nation
(SDN) is to ensure that the traditional Dineh are honored, respected and
protected, and that they are able to remain on their land and continue their
traditional way of life. SDN was founded ten years ago by a Council of Elders,
with Roberta Blackgoat, an elder matriarch, the spiritual leader and
chairperson of the organization. A SDN New York Support Group was created to
interface and advocate for them with various agencies and NGOs. This group
identifies institutional frameworks that can be used to combat industrial
practices that constitute violations of the Surface Mining Coal Reclamation Act
(SMCRA). It helps to facilitate the filing of formal complaints to the UN Commission
on Human Rights and other UN forums.
Contact:
Marsha Monestersky (New York Support Group)
244 Fifth Avenue, Box 2767
New York, NY 10001
Tel: (1-718) 349-1841; Fax: (1-718) 349-1841
Email: sdnation@earthlink.net
Ukraine has a population of 50.9 million and a
total land area of 603,700 sq. km. The five cities featured in this case study
were Artyomivsk (Population 90,000); Kalush (Population 136,000); Pripiat
(Population 49,000); Chernobyl (Population 12,500) and Kiev (Population 2.6
million)
Abstract
Extensive pollution of surface and groundwater in the Ukraine has had a severe
impact on the drinking water supply of the country. Deteriorated, centralized
water pipeline systems, disastrous sewage systems and excessive agricultural
drainage have led to the gross contamination of Ukraine's drinking water. The
poor quality of drinking water has led to a wide variety of diseases in the
country including hepatitis, oncological diseases, metabolic disorders,
allergies and skin diseases, endocrine dysfunction and others. Periodic acute
epidemics of intestine infections, cholera, and hepatitis A can also be traced
to the poor quality of drinking water.
Cause
of the Environmental Crisis
Drinking water in Ukrainian cities comes from surface water and groundwater
sources. Although it is well known that surface water is extremely polluted,
the quality of artesian water has yet to be investigated. There is data that
proves that the level of drinking water contamination is very high. Major
contaminants include DDT, lindane, and other pesticides which were officially
prohibited in Ukraine many years ago. Even though pesticide use has decreased
due to the current economic crisis, there are residual pesticides stored in
plots in the countryside that are unknown to the general public. These
persistent organic pollutants have been leaking into the soil and groundwater.
While
world wide attention has focussed on the massive environmental crisis of the
Chernobyl disaster, there are also other significant environmental threats to
the region. According to the Ministry for Environmental Protection and Nuclear
Safety of Ukraine, in 1995, ambient air in Ukrainian cities contained 36
pollutants. The major share of registered contamination (about 60%) was
represented by common contaminants: sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and
nitrogen dioxide. In the case of specific hazardous substances monitored in
cities, average annual concentrations exceeded environmental norms:
formaldehyde (3 times); benz(a)pyrene (1.9 times), phenol (1.5 times), ammonia
(1.36 times). The poor condition of water mains and sewage treatment
facilities, frequent accidents at these facilities, lack of disinfection and
poor distribution networks have resulted in drinking water quality that is
below the set standard. Quality monitoring of surface water shows contamination
by untreated municipal and industrial wastewater, sewage and parasitic agents.
The
town of Tatarbunary, located in the Bessarabiya steppe area, has been suffering
from shortage of water for centuries. Under the Soviet regime, the Black Sea
bay Sassyk was partly desalinated and converted into a fresh water lake. The
purpose of desalination was to build up a fresh water reservoir for irrigation.
The use of water from Sassyk caused soil salinization (approximately 30
thousand hectares of land), salinization of natural sources of drinking water
and the loss of recreation of the area. Artesian drill-holes and wells became
mineralized beyond the maximum allowable level (MAL). Due to the absence of a
centralized water supply system in the area, people are forced to consume
processed water from water tanks.
In the
city of Odessa, the condition of water pipelines is extremely poor. The
population of the city is supplied with drinking water only twice a day.
Independent experts claim that the quality of tap water and immediately
purified water at the water treatment works outlet differs greatly. The major
concern of NGO's is that deteriorated pipeline systems lead to a dramatic
change between the quality of drinking water from centralized water supply
systems and tap water actually consumed. The Odessa region has a constant
shortage of water as do all other southern areas of Ukraine. Analysis of the
drinking water of one city in the Odessa region (Luzanovskiy) has shown an
excess of residual active chlorine, which indicates that the water is
hyper-chlorinated.
In
Kalush, there is a centralized water supply and 72 artesian wells. Water turbidity
has recently increased to 11mg/dm3, well-above the standard, 1mg/dm3. Though
chlorination is the only way to disinfect drinking water at present,
hyper-chlorination has resulted from the disinfection process. Local experts
claim that the drinking water supply is being monitored. However, in rural
areas, there is no monitoring system in place. The regional public health
station has no data on the chemical composition of the well-water in 39
villages.
Kiev,
the largest city in Ukraine, has high levels of air and water pollution. The
length of the water pipeline network is extremely long, exceeding 3,500 km, and
there are sections which have not been replaced since 1900. The renovation of
pipelines is done only in emergencies. The problem of hyper-chlorination is
also very acute, particularly during flowering period in natural reservoirs,
when the maximum allowable level (MAL) of chlorine is exceeded by several
times. Artesian water from drillholes in Kiev is extremely popular. At present
there are 36 drillholes operating throughout the city and people regularly
stand in long lines to fill up their buckets, jars, and containers. This
reflects people's concern over the quality of tap water and their health.
Ukraine
occupies one third of the overall territory of Central European countries and
contains almost 40% of the world's most productive terrestrial soil. Yet, only
27.4% of land is virgin territory. There are only 163,900 sq. km (25% of
Ukraine's territory) suitable for human habitation of which 14,800 sq. km is
moderately contaminated and 49,100 sq. km is conventionally clean.
Impact
of the Environmental Crisis
There are a wide variety of diseases that could be connected to drinking water:
hepatitis, oncological diseases, metabolic disorders, allergies and all sorts
of skin diseases (including dermatoses, eczema), endocrine dysfunction and
others. Periodic acute epidemics of intestine infections, cholera, and
hepatitis A are caused by the poor quality of drinking water.
Contemporary
Ukraine is part of the group of European countries with the lowest birth rates
(along with Spain, Italy, Germany, Bulgaria and Russia), mainly because of the
catastrophically bad state of the women's reproductive health. Medical research
shows that 70% of pregnant women today have extragenital and obstetrics
disorders. Among them 27.9% suffer from anemia, 8.1% from late toxicosis, 5%
from cardiovascular disorders and 7.6% from urogenital diseases.
Consuming
processed water in the area of Tartarbunary (instead of drinking water) causes
many diseases among children and pregnant women including metabolic diseases,
nephritis, polyarthritis, scoleosis and pregnancy-related illness.
In the
Luzanovskiya area of Odessa, excessive residual active chlorine, had led to
intestinal diseases (dysentery, virus hepatitis), measles, whooping cough,
meningitis, and diphtheria. The population of the district suffers mainly from
endocrine and urinary system diseases, blood diseases and oncological diseases.
Results of the population poll in the district showed that only 4.8% of
respondents estimated their health as "good" and 51.7% of respondents
characterized their health as "bad and very bad." People complain of
frequent headaches, eyes pains, nervousness, coughing, nasal bleeding, pain in
the abdomen, nausea, vomiting, heart pains and palpitation. A number of other
contaminating sources (disastrous sewerage system and railway cleaning branch)
located in this district, influence air quality as well.
In the
town of Artyomivsk (population: 90,000) located in the heavily polluted
industrial and mining area, tap water is highly contaminated and has dark
coloring. The water supply comes from an artesian drillhole and the Severskiy
Donets-Donbass channel water. Research showed that groundwater closest to
surface layers is heavily polluted. Relatively clean groundwater can be found
only in non-industrial areas, namely in the northern and western parts of the
Donetsk region. In the industrial Artyomivsk-Horlivka-Yenakyevo center of the
region, groundwater is polluted with mercury (15-20 times the MAL), nitrates
(4-5 times the MAL) and zinc (2 times the MAL). Water is also polluted in the
Donetsk-Makiyivka area by nitrates (12-31 times the MAL), fluorine (2.5 times
the MAL), mercury (6 times the MAL) and arsenic (up to 24 times the MAL).
In the
industrial Artyomivsk-Horlivka-Yenakyevo center of the region, local experts
claim that there is a direct correlation between groundwater pollution and
incidences of disease among the population. Heavy metals, halogens, pesticides,
and nitrates are major pollutants that cause the non-infection illnesses. In
the industrial areas of the region it is very common to find people who suffer
from gastro-intestinal, respiratory diseases, blood exchange disorders, and
oncological diseases. The high level of mineralization has also been shown to
be a problem for dry residue excess-1821mg/dm3 (MAL-1000mg/dm3) and
sulphates-805mg/dm3 (MAL-500mg/dm3).
Response
to the Environmental Crisis
MAMA-86 is a solution-oriented organization that works on the issues of
preventive health care. MAMA-86 activities include preventive health care
advice and conscious parenthood counseling. The NGO also organizes summer camps
for children and mothers. For several years, MAMA-86 has had an in-house clinic
where 4,000 children are examined. MAMA-86 has recently set up a new clinic for
preventive health care for mothers and children. The organization also has a
"hot-line" where concerned consumers can obtain information about
contamination of food products (radiation levels, additives, water pollution)
and a newsletter on environment and health issues.
The
goals of MAMA-86's Drinking Water Project are:
The
final report on the project will be compiled and issued in November 1998 and
distributed to partner organizations, including those involved in the inquiry,
to be disseminated in the regions among the citizens to raise public awareness
on the issue.
Recommendations
for Action
Based on the experiences with the drinking water supply system in Ukraine, the
following recommendations are made by MAMA-86 to improve policies and programs
carried out in the region:
The
Ukrainian women are the worst hit by the drinking water crisis in Ukraine.
Ukraine is in a state of 'depopulation' mainly because of the extremely bad
state of women's reproductive health. It is unnacceptable that the consumption
of processed water should cause diseases among children and pregnant women. In
order for new policies on water to be effective, women's health and women's
needs must be addressed.
According
to Ukraine's Environment Protection Law "every citizen has the right to a
safe environment, considering his or her life and health." In 1996 this
right was approved by new Ukrainian Constitution (Articles 3, 13, 50).
According to Article 16 of the Ukrainian Constitution, the government must
provide environmental safety and stability and Article 49 guarantees free
medical service. MAMA-86 calls upon international agencies and international
NGO's to put pressure on the Ukrainian government to fulfill its promises and
duties.
NGOs
are concerned that the Ukrainian government does not adequately address the
problem of public health and drinking water supply. The situation with drinking
water in different regions of Ukraine is critical. Notwithstanding the current
economic crisis, it is imperative that the Ukranian government take immediate
action to improve the drinking water situation.
Case
prepared by:
MAMA-86, a women's ecological organization, was founded in
1990, with the objective of raising awareness of the importance of sustainable
development for the health of the people of Ukraine. MAMA-86 monitors women's
rights, sustainable development, health, democratic choice, consumer choice and
prophylactic environmental strategies.
Contact:
Anna Onisimova
Michailovska Str. 22-A
Kiev, 25001, Ukraine
Tel: (7-044) 228-3101; Fax: (7-044) 229-5514
E-mail: mama-86@gluk.apc.org