As the world shifts its focus to the environmental man-made disaster of global warming, it is increasingly becoming mandatory for local leaders to ensure that they buttress international efforts to stop climate change by advocating environmental preservation through better service provision to their citizens. In late September the world lost one such leader, Wangari Maathai, a woman of great courage who saw the planting of 30 million trees under her Green Belt Movement in Kenya.
Maathai was handed the Nobel Peace prize in 2004 for efforts to combat deforestation and promote women's rights. Poor service delivery has in many instances led to environmental degradation as society tries to meet their basic needs by taking from nature albeit without ploughing back. Often, power cuts in developing countries will lead to the cutting down of trees and the burning of fossil fuels which is unhealthy for humans when inhaled.
The incessant power shedding and failure to supply power to all parts of the country leaves many homes with little choice but to cut down trees. As part of their domestic duties, women and children are faced with the burden of looking for alternative energy sources which are usually dangerous for their health and degrades the environment. At an environment level, it must be understood that trees act as a carbon absorbent by taking in all the carbon toxins from cars, industry and burnt firewood amongst other fossils. Thus, the more trees are cut down, the lesser the ability of the environment to regulate these toxins which in turn pollute our air and also damage the ozone layer.
At a human level, nearly 2 million people die prematurely from illness attributable to indoor air pollution from household solid fuel use. Nearly 50% of pneumonia deaths among children under five are due to particulate matter inhaled from indoor air pollution. More than 1 million people a year die from chronic obstructive respiratory disease (COPD) that develops due to exposure to such indoor air pollution. The chronic power cuts have not yielded any sense of responsibility for the service provider Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) which has so far failed to seek out alternative energy generating means or to at least carry out safety and awareness campaigns amongst the paying residents on how to use environment safe alternative energy.
Poor service provision is the basis for many societal ills including poverty, disease and gender imbalances amongst others. Basing on definitions by various development institutions, Zimbabwe is fast becoming a fragile state. Fragile states are those where the government cannot or will not deliver core functions to the majority of its people, including the poor. They lack the will and or the capacity to manage public resources, deliver basic services, protect and support the poor and vulnerable. The failure by service providers like ZESA to invest in research and awareness campaigns to save lives and the environment points more to a lack of will than an inability to meet the needs of society.
ZESA is not alone in its negligence. Zimbabwe’s capital city has for years been without a constant supply of clean running tap water. The second largest city Bulawayo still has no reliable water sources. The road network is in a chaotic state. Security of property in light of ZESA power cuts coupled with corruption the incapacity and infrastructural challenges facing the country’s police force plainly leaves the citizens at the mercy of both natural and man caused disasters. Refuse collection in Bulawayo currently happens once a month if at all and burst sewerage pipes are an eye sore in many parts of the country. The failure to provide more space to informal traders in the city or to liberalise vending policy in the city has led to many people practicing large scale urban agriculture to meet their food needs. This is at times at the expense of the environment.
Therefore, while governments may sit in conferences and deliberate how to circumvent the “natural” disasters caused by climate change, it is ironic that the policies made by the same governments at a national level thwart these efforts and even go further in worsening the situation. For instance, if the Zimbabwe government does not change policy to allow more players in the power supply market, then Zimbabweans will continue to cut down trees. If the government does not reverse the centralised system of power then peripheral development will continue at a slow pace affecting the capacity of local authorities to efficiently access resources to offer better services.
It is women who suffer the most from poor service delivery which drastically reduces their quality of life. Due to the fact that it is women citizens who are in charge of cleaning up their homes and thus getting rid of domestic refuse, they are the ones usually forced to dump rubbish in undesignated areas when city council does not collect rubbish regularly. This increases the amount of non-biodegradable left unmanaged in the environment and which can further pollute our water sources. Furthermore, in order to cut costs and meet their basic food needs, it is mainly women who practice large scale urban agriculture and in-turn face economic losses when their crops are cut down by city council authorities. When women cut down trees to meet their families’ energy needs, they face the risk of arrest, health deterioration from cutting, carrying and burning of these trees. At worst women even have to use sex to gain access to land with lots of firewood and to avoid arrests. The current situation is a clear indication that gender and environment discussions are still a cosmetic issue not implementable at grassroots levels because policies still work against the majority poor and marginalized groups. It is thus important that leaders and service provider think critically about the impact of certain laws, actions and failure to provide adequate services to different groups of customers. Policy evaluations must ensure that no laws encourage further environmental damage or gender inequality.
