Pollution

A traveler without observation

is a bird without wings.”

–Moslih Eddin Saadi

A walk to school induces a coughing spasm. The diesel fumes in Cuenca are terrible. I guess that’s why all the women wear scarves and have them up over their nose while walking. The diesel fumes are spat out of the back of buses in a black plume after every stop, and that is quite often. The bus stops combined with the stops caused by traffic backup make for frequent plumage! Cuenca is though, overall, a relatively safe and clean city. It seems as if the economic development and lack of emissions regulations are severely affecting the air quality though. I did some digging and came across an article in the Cambridge Journals online about the air quality of Quito and the Sierra area in general, written by Jorge Jurado and Douglas Southgate. The study investigates the general ties between air quality and economic growth in poor countries and the public policy involved. When the issue of environmental concerns is raised in reference to Latin American countries, most people think about deforestation and endangered animals. To the residents in urban Latin America, such as Quito, air quality is also a major concern. Air quality is affected greatly by the massive increase in the number of vehicles in urban centers; more than two thirds of the population lives in urban areas such as Quito, Guayaquil, and Cuenca. Quito and Cuenca are at a disadvantage for air quality in general because they are situated in a narrow mountain valley. There aren’t strict regulations on manufactured or existing vehicle emissions. As it turns out, it is more difficult to organize proponents of regulation than to organize a group who will be subsidizing the cost of regulation to oppose it.

All of this information, by no means, implies that Quito or Cuenca are anywhere near the air quality of Beijing for example! It is just an example of the “costs” involved in economic development, which I happened to ponder on my recent walks to school. I personally think that the mountain/volcanic dust plays a role too, as it is stirred up by wind and passing vehicles. The biggest issues I foresee are passing and enforcing regulations. How can the Ecuadorian government institute environmental regulations when the population is currently blinded by desires for technological, economical, and social advancement? Any environmental regulation takes money to enforce, money the Ecuadorian government does not have. Their resources are already spread too thin trying to preserve important areas of biodiversity like the Amazon rainforest. The people of Ecuador don’t have the money to do any of these things, unless by some chance they discover a money tree in the rainforest!

JORGE JURADO and DOUGLAS SOUTHGATE (1999). Dealing with air pollution in Latin America: the case of Quito, Ecuador. Environment and Development Economics, 4 , pp 375-388