SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

  • Definition: Sustainable development is the development, which will allow all future generations to have a potential average quality of life, that is, at least as high, as what is being enjoyed by the current generation.
  • The basic aim of sustainable development is to ensure that the present generation should leave a stock of 'quality of life for the next generation, which is no less than what we have inherited.
  • Environmentalists have used the term 'sustainability' in an attempt to clarify the desired balance between economic growth on one hand and environmental preservation on the other.
  • For economists, a development path is sustainable, if the ability of future generations to the stock of overall capital assets remains constant or rises over time.
  • The term 'sustainable development has its origin in the International Union for the Conservation of Natural Resources (IUCN) 1980 World Commission Strategy report.
  • According to the commission, sustainable development refers to the development that meets the need of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations, to meet their own needs.
    • Sustainable development is a development, that:
    • Meets the basic needs (employment, food, energy, water, housing) of all people, particularly the poor people; and
  • Ensures growth of agriculture, manufacturing and service sector, to meet these needs

Sustainable Development aims:

  • Sustainable and equitable use of resources, to meet the needs of the present and the future generations without causing damage to the environment.
  • To prevent further damage to our life-support systems;
  • To Conserve and nurture biodiversity and other resources for long-term food security.

How do achieve Sustainable Development?

  1. Restrict use of renewable resources: Renewable resources should be extracted on a sustainable basis. It means the rate of extraction should not exceed the rate of regeneration.
  2. Substitute non-renewable with renewable resources: As non-renewable resources are depleted, renewable substitutes must be developed, to maintain the flow of services over time. It means the rate of depletion of non-renewable resources should not exceed the rate of creation of renewable substitutes.
  3. Become Input Efficient: Technological progress should be made to become input efficient and not input consuming. It means efforts should be made to produce more per unit of input. It will reduce the exploitation of resources.
  4. Control Pollution: Pollution emissions should be limited to the absorption capacity of the environment.
  5. Control the growth of population: The growth of the human population should be controlled to a level, which is within the carrying capacity of the environment.

Strategies for Sustainable Development

  1. Use of Non-conventional sources of energy: India is hugely dependent on thermal and hydropower plants to meet its power needs. However, both these sources have adverse environmental impacts.
    • Non-conventional sources like wind Energy power and solar rays are cleaner and greener energy sources but are not yet been explored on a large scale due to a lack of technological devices.
    • In areas with a high speed of the wind, windmills can provide electricity without any adverse impact on the environment. In areas with high speed of wind, windmills can provide electricity without any adverse impact on the environment.
    • India is naturally endowed with a large quantity of solar energy in the form of sunlight. With the help of photovoltaic cells, solar energy can be converted into electricity
    • Both the sources (wind power and solar rays) are very free from pollution. Although their initial cost is high, the benefits are, such that the high cost gets easily absorbed.
  1. Use of cleaner fuels
  • In Urban areas, use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is being promoted to be used fuel. In Delhi, use of CNG in public transport has significantly lowered air pollution.
  • In Rural areas, households generally use wood, dung cake or biomass as fuel. The fuels have several adverse implications like deforestation, reduction in green cover wastage of cattle dung and air pollution. To overcome this problem, the use of LPG and gobar gas is being promoted, as they are cleaner fuels and help in reducing household pollution largely.
  1. Establishment of Mini-Hydel Plants: In mountainous regions, perpetual streams can be found almost everywhere.
  • These streams can be used to generate electricity (via turbines) through Mini-hydel plants.
  • Such power plants are more or less environment-friendly and generate enough power to meet local demands.
  • Moreover, large-scale transmission towers and cables are also not required in such plants.
  1. Traditional Knowledge and Practices: Traditionally, Indian people have been close to their environment. All practices relating to the agriculture system, healthcare system, housing, transport, etc. used to be environment friendly.
    • The shift from the traditional systems has caused large-scale damage to the environment and to our rural heritage.
    • For example, India is well known for its AYUSH treatment with about 15,000 species of plants, which have medicinal properties.
  • However, with the advent of westerthe n system of treatment, we ignore our traditional systems of Ayurveda, Unani, etc.
  • These old systems are environment friendly, relatively free from side effects and do not involve large-scale industrial and chemical processing.
  1. Use of Bio-compost: The use of chemical fertilizers to increase agricultural production has not only adversely affected the large areas of productive land but also contaminated the water bodies.
  • Due to use of chemical fertilizers, demand for irrigation has been going up year after years.
  • With the rise in demand for organic food, farmers have again started using compass made from organic wastes of different types.
  • In certain parts of the country, cattle’s are maintained only because they produce dung, which is an important fertilizer and soil conditioner.
  1. Control of Bio pest: The advent of green revolution has increased the use of chemical pesticides, which not only contaminates the food products, but also pollutes the water bodies.
  • To meet this challenge, better methods of pest control are promoted. For example, neem based pesticides are environment friendly and free from side effects. .
  • In addition, awareness is being created for use of various animals and birds (like snakes lizards, owls, peacocks) as natural pest controllers.
  • Mixed cropping and growing different crops in consecutive years on the same land have also helped farmers.
  1. Change in unsustainable patterns of consumption and production: With increasing purchasing power, wasteful consumption, linked to market driven consumerism, is stressing the resource base of developing countries further.
  • It is important to counter this through education and public awareness.
  • In several areas, desirable limits and standards for consumption and production need to be established and applied through appropriate mechanisms, including education incentives and legislation.