‘Cleaner production’ plausible solution to pollution

There’s an unfortunate school of though amongst many in the developing world, that we will in a zero-sum world where if man is to triumph, mother nature must falterSurely that looks to be the case today where the world’s most exciting economy in China, which grows by literal leaps and bounds, has come at the expense of severe water and air pollution, so much so that certain events scheduled for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics may have to be canceled or rescheduled at different venues. But the reality is quite different. The question of technology is where Rwanda can find an answer to a sustainable Earth for sustainable development. Rwanda’s Environment Management Authority (Rema) is to implement a new strategy, ‘Cleaner Production’, to deal with industrial waste products at their source to ensure environmental safety. Cleaner production is a way of producing goods and services with minimum environmental impacts under the present technological and economic limitations. The enforcement of the programme starts next year and will run through 2010. Not only does the clean up production protect environment but also increases profitability, lowers production costs and enhances productivity by reducing on the costs incurred in wastes treatment process The strategy is being used in Uganda and Kenya and it registered success. Environmental protection is one of the key policies in Rwanda mainly done through sensitising and mobilising population, targeting women and youth. One of the objectives of vision 2020 aims at reduction of the rate at use of wood in the national energy production from 94% to 60% and an increase of the rate of soil erosion form 20% to 80% by 2010 Also high on the national agenda is the establishment of regional and international cooperation to contribute effectively to the environment protection. This applies to shared resources like Lake Victoria which is shared among the East African countries. Many more developed countries in the world, though still producing pollution, operate productively while still clean. They are not using magic, they are using sound environmental policies, laws, and technology.Ends