Sustainable Development in the UK and the Netherlands - Essay Example

Who is more efficient in maintaining "sustainable development" UK or Netherlands Sustainable development refers to the social, environmental and economic development that takes place without affecting natural environment. That indicates sustainability without loosing biodiversity of rainforests destruction or over fishing so as to alleviate all the negative effects of our consumption patterns that are affecting our environment and the climate. When comparing the two nations, it is obvious that both the countries have now set up their own priorities for sustainable development. "UK has identified and selected the main areas of consumption and production, climate influences according to changes, natural resource protection and sustainable communities as priorities" (SD, 2008a). Netherlands have extracted and prioritised the demographic factor about world population, a knowledge based economy, energy consumption and mobility, sustainable water consumption and biodiversity functioning in the earth's ecological balance (NSDO, Feb 2002) It is just because of the workings of well-known sources of market failure, that the economy is left to its own devices for 'under supply' or ignoring the environmental goods and services that make up sustainable development, such as clean air and water, parks, wilderness habitats, water levels, and plant diversity (Scott et al, 1995, p. 4). The area I have chosen for analysing sustainability is the water management. Sustainable water management in UK UK realises the way we survive today i.e., we drink and breathe a carbon constrained and water constrained world. This is the reason for why UK has recently proposed the Eco-towns Prospectus that requires sustainable water development as a whole should reach zero-carbon standards. The Future Water Strategy as set in March 2008 for England plans the decisions of UK Government to set for water in the future and the practical steps that will need to be taken to ensure that clean water is available for the people to drink. The current plan of 2008 looks forward towards 2030 in order to examine the water cycle that have a profound effect, from rainfall and drainage procedures to discharge and treatment (TCPA, 2008a). Flood Risk: New development is going on in terms of managing flood risk in which sequential testing method is planned to be applied. In this case "Planning Policy Statement" is applicable and requires development away from the area that is subjected to highest flood risk. Therefore technical assessment is necessary in context with FRA (Flood Risk Assessment), where assessment easily identifies the main factors behind potential risks involved with the surface water drainage and sewer flooding, therefore the development should fulfill all the requirements for a sustainable master plan. UK now being aware of the possible threats of floods have managed eco-towns to clearly demonstrate innovative approaches so as to minimise the loss of flood risk while taking into account all those longer-term impacts of climate change that somehow directly or indirectly influences the lifetime development of water management. This has provided the UK water management some options like identifying the possible opportunities to reserve enough space for water usage while strategically locating green space for flood storage in times of flood, using conveyance and Sustainable Drainage Systems and recreating functional flood plains. This way the various flood zones work in accordance with the communities to improve their performance and vigilance so that in circumstances where exceptional flood occur, an eco-town suffers the least impact. Sustainable Drainage Outcomes (SUDS): A new technique incorporated by eco-towns is the SUDS that incorporate viable and cost-effective solutions by avoiding or reducing the need for hard engineering solutions. In order to avoid the threat of eco-towns exploitation, various planning authorities work in collaboration with planning and legal agreements to secure the implementation of SUDS. The SUDS approach encompasses the latest techniques to drainage from green roofs to permeable pavements, wetlands and ponds, since the SUDS make appropriate usage of a management approach that implements the natural pattern of drainage. The techniques that are allowed for Eco-towns to follow include prevention of run-off and pollution, source control, site and regional control. It is obvious that with the decline of the manufacturing industries in the UK sector, non-domestic water usage has fallen while representing about a third of the total amount of water used. There are valleys like 'Stour' that contains various small industries that depend on the river among which some directly are the descendants of the original mills, and a handful still use water power, but most simply use the valley's water in their various processes of production. The head of river possesses several dairies and cheese makers, watercress growers and fish farmers who require an ample supply of water, and for some the quality of this supply is critical too (Strang, 2003, p. 168). With no viable option to use mains water, the company has remained stressful about the falling water tables and has already had to invest in a second borehole and an evaporator allowing it to recycle some of the water used, cutting its abstraction to about 700,000 gallons a week. Improving Water Efficiency: Eco-towns are expected to integrate with high water standards of efficiency which follows a particular hierarchy of reduce-re-use-recycle. Although alternates are provided to the eco-town so as to ensure that reducing water usage must always be implemented before options to supply water from alternative sources, but still in case of alternates the total environmental impact of particular technologies will need to be assessed on a case by case basis. An emphasis on the future impacts of today's practices, policies, and institutions distinguishes concerns about sustainable development from more general concerns about environmental degradation. Sustainable Development in Netherlands In Netherlands the intensity of governmental attention to environmental protection had been growing since the 1970s. Already by the 1980s the Dutch government began to recognise that environmental issues could not be considered as isolated phenomena, and that integrative planning policies would be needed to deal with these problems successfully (Lafferty & Meadowcroft, 2000, p. 143). Groundwater Systems: The groundwater systems in the south and east Netherlands is more vulnerable than UK because the upper layers of ground water lie under porous sandy soils (Bressers & Rosenbaum, 2005, p. 110). This problem has been overcome by deploying the Dutch expertise in dredging, and that even under difficult circumstances and the ability to live up to the stringent environmental and implementation stipulations. Drinking and Industrial water supply: One of the main problems that Netherlands have faced since the increasing population density is the complication of clean drinking water delivery and that is because of the excessive useoffertilizers. This problem is based on the ground of using nitrate-rich manure inagriculturein large quantities that have leached through the soil to the groundwater, thereby causing serious problems for the water supply companies since they are subjected to mixing of heavy metals with water.Despite all these complexities, Dutch water sector has a top ranking in water supply for distributing chlorine free healthy drinking water (WaterNetherlands, 2008a). Still innovation techniques are developed and implemented such as desalination, membrane technology, and other disinfection techniques. Wastewater Treatment: It would not be wrong to say that Dutch water management is still too advanced and sophisticated as compared to that of the UK. This is evident from the fact that in 1970s new water management techniques developed in accordance with the Dutch legislation with an aim to protect surface waters. The Dutch legislation initiated the boom resulting in the Netherlands becoming one of the first countries to treat municipal and industrial waste on a large scale. At present all the wastewater is treated before it returns to the natural water system, this is to ensure that to this day Netherlands waste water treatment meets the modern and international water-quality standards. However this has not resulted in the limitation of new ideas. It is through the innovative efforts of Netherlands that the example of new hybrid biological membrane technique is before us that has been developed and tested using municipal wastewater. This membrane bioreactor (MBR) technique is not only limited to be utilised in the wastewater sector as agricultural sector also benefits from it. All these benefits have ended up in the scaling up of system fortreatment of300m3 of water per hour (WaterNetherlands, 2008a). The Eco-teams concept: While not a national-level scheme, the most innovative initiative of Netherlands in context with water consumption sector has been the so called 'Ecoteams'. The idea of Ecoteams arose after the UNCED conference at a meeting of Global Action Plan for the Earth. The underlying principle behind the ecoteams is to avoid water, gas or electricity wastage by analysing and assessing of consumption and through the behaviour that can only be changed if consumers are aware of the resources they consume. In an Ecoteam, members measure and compare their individual environmental efforts by generating an element of social control, and give consumers a direct sense of responsibility. Every team is supposed to measure its efficiency by calculating average of water, gas or electricity at each meeting and compared to other teams and to average consumption in the Netherlands. This way the intended objective of sustainable economic development, economic growth, increased competitiveness and job creation are combined with careful management of land-use, nature and biodiversity, a reduction in pollution and a substantial reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels and non-renewable resources (Lafferty & Meadowcroft, 2000, p. 161). Sustainable Development: Conclusion While comparing UK with Netherlands in context with the water sustainability and management issues, it is clear that Netherlands is far ahead of the UK in many aspects. Deploying the latest resources with the latest managerial skills, Netherlands arrange its resources to the best utilisation of water control and management, thereby leaving UK behind. However, there is a long way for the UK to be in comparison with Netherlands due to the reason that UK is still in the process of planning while Netherlands has implemented it long ago. Another reason is the late triggering of Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions of land improvement and urbanisation which produced a problematic legacy in the 1980s and 1990s. On the other hand Netherlands is not subjected to any problem except that of groundwater systems that is almost resolved with the experienced Dutch professionals. Therefore we can conclude that Netherlands sustainability is more prevailing than that of the UK. References Bressers A & Rosenbaum A. Walter, (2005) Achieving Sustainable Development: The Challenge of Governance across Social Scales: Praeger: Westport, CT. Lafferty M. William & Meadowcroft James, (2000) Implementing Sustainable Development: Strategies and Initiatives in High Consumption Societies: Oxford University Press: Oxford. Scott Anthony, Robinson John & Cohen David, (1995) Managing Natural Resources in British Columbia: Markets, Regulations, and Sustainable Development: University of British Columbia Press: Vancouver, B.C. Strang Veronica, (2003) The Meaning of Water: Berg: New York. TCPA, 2008a, Accessed from NSDO, Feb 2002, Accessed from SD, 2008a Accessed from < http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/what/index.htm> WaterNetherlands, 2008a, Accessed from Read More