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Citizen Crusade for Cleaner Air |
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By Gustavo González *
A project sponsored by the Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and conducted in Mexico City, Santiago and Sao Paulo promotes ''third sector'' action in fighting air pollution.
SANTIAGO - Air pollution is worsening in Latin American cities and the measures to combat the problem will come up short if environmental management efforts are not reinforced by public participation and awareness.
With that premise, the Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has been working since 1999, with backing from the Japanese government, on a study of the three most polluted metropolitan areas in the region: Mexico City, Santiago and Sao Paulo.
This research is one of the pillars of a project to ''strengthen citizen awareness in managing atmospheric contamination in Latin American cities,'' the results of which will be applicable to other urban centers facing air pollution problems, says ECLAC, a regional agency of the United Nations.
''The critical and aware citizen is one who understands, is interested in, and demands recognition of environmental rights and is also willing to exercise his or her own environmental responsibilities,'' states Daniel Blanchard, Secretary of ECLAC.
Blanchard spoke Aug 20 at an international seminar on the air pollution study as part of month-long course organized by ECLAC with the support of Italy's Foreign Relations Ministry.
Air pollution threatens the health of more than 80 million Latin Americans and, as such, is a critical problem for the entire region, not just the three cities targeted by the project, pointed out Hiroaki Tamura, an official from the Japanese embassy in the Chilean capital.
The ECLAC project seeks ''to support metropolitan governments in achieving greater efficiency in establishing public policies related to air quality,'' explained Daniela Simioni, Environmental Affairs official for ECLAC's Environment and Human Settlements Division.
It also represents an attempt ''to draw up recommendations for local authorities as far as reinforcing citizen environmental awareness,'' she added.
''As a result of the reduced role of the state as a mediator of social interests between different groups and because of the rise in environmental problems, citizens in many countries of the region have opted to organize themselves and to build a third political force, what is known as the 'third sector','' stated ECLAC Secretary Blanchard.
This new force ''is sustained on principles of autonomy, self-management and self-determination in promoting participatory environmental management and decentralized development,'' he said.
Civil society organizations have thus surpassed a first phase in which their efforts focused on denouncing local environmental problems to one in which they are taking the lead in coming up with proposals to solve the problems, according to Blanchard.
''An environmental culture with profound citizen foundations points not only toward new human rights linked to sustainable development, but also toward a project of social democracy,'' he said.
* Gustavo González is an IPS correspondent.
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