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Cost-Effectiveness in Pollution Abatement
Wednesday 20 August
Workshop 5 - Full Day Workshop
Convenor : Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
Co-Convenors : Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Swedish EPA) and Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO)
With dwindling water resources, increasing climatic uncertainty, and countries becoming richer and more populous, governments face growing pressures to make more effective use of natural, human and financial resources to ensure sustainable development. The disposal of waste, human and industrial, has often been through dilution in water courses with subsequent human health and environmental problems as a result. This is no longer tenable and is nowhere the most effective or sustainable way to solve a growing problem in many parts of the world. Moreover, “waste” can no longer be considered as such. It is potentially a valuable resource, for example as a fertiliser, which is presently not only wasted but is damaging to others. Can its reuse effectiveness be assessed in economic terms?
Arguments for action to reduce pollution from different sources are usually expressed in social or environmental terms, as if they are obvious to any right thinking person. But decision-makers face enormous pressures from many sectors, pressure groups and scientists with similar arguments. We therefore need to make a better economic case for more focus on providing adequate sanitation and pollution abatement that relates both to society and environmental issues as well as the cost-benefi ts from a health point of view. We need to act smarter to extract the maximum benefi t from the limited resources available.
This workshop will share case studies and hard figures that show it makes good economic sense and benefits everyone to prioritise this issue. Can we assess the importance of the issue and show that it really makes a difference?
Workshop Details :
Chair: Mr. Karl-Johan Lehtinen, NEFCO
Co-chair: Prof. Ing-Marie Gren, SLU, Sweden
Commentator and Co-rapporteur: Prof. Mohamed Dahab,
WEF and Nebraska University, USA
Rapporteur: Dr. Husamuddin Ahmadzai, Swedish
Environmental Protection Agency
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