Of late, there is increased awareness among people (at least in developed countries) about the deteriorating conditions of the environment and man’s contribution to it. For the first time a world biosphere conference was held in the year 1968 under the auspices of UNESCO. Recently a human environment conference was held at Stockholm in 1972.
Solutions to environmental pollution problem are certainly not easy. They seem to include a change of life, habits and in some cases complete reversal of the present systems which is hard to follow. Problems of pollution are to be tackled not merely on ecological but also on sociological, economical, political and moral grounds.
There should be awareness among all, that all the systems of nature are not merely meant to serve the human needs that man is an integral part of the ecosystem, and it will not be in his ultimate interest to disturb the ecological balance to serve a temporary need. Several scientists have proposed various suggestions to control the pollution. Some of these suggestions are:
a) Identification of major causes of pollution.
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b) Factories, Industries etc, should have systems to minimise the smoke and other exhaust. Effluents from factories must be treated first, rendered harmless and only than should be released to water. Concentration of Factories in an area should be discouraged.
c) In general, factors that cause pollution should be minimised, and a neutraliser should be found for every pollution.
d) Indiscriminate use of dangerous chemicals in plant protection should be avoided.
e) Sewage should be properly treated and care should be taken to see that it does not get mixed up with drinking water source.
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f) There should be a department of environment in every Govt. to study and remedy the problems of pollution.
Unless all these measures are adapted seriously, man may be destroying himself in the long run, in his quest for more and more progress. As a scientist has pointed out, man may have become refined from the days of savage, but is now in the days of sewage. Will there be salvage?