To what extent does government regulation and new laws solve problems of pollution? Discuss one example each of success and failure of legislation to change the quality of A) Public Life b) Private life
Answers
Answer:
Government laws play an important role in controlling the rates of pollution in a city. However, simply passing laws is not enough. They need to be properly enforced as well. It is also a fact that people tend to find ways of getting around laws. So, apart from legislation, government also needs to carry out intensive public awareness programmes aimed at educating the public about the need and ways of controlling pollution; and about how they too have a stake in environmental governance.
(a) Public Life:
• Failure: The Underground railway enhanced transport, but caused the demolition of many houses, rendering their inhabitants homeless.
• Success: The British state used public funds to provide for entertainment forms such as museums, art galleries and libraries for the working classes.
(b) Private Life:
• Failure: The availability of one-room tenements and no housing facilities for a major part of the industrial revolution time period caused the family to get divided into smaller units. There were even cases where rural people had to leave their families behind and live alone in the urban areas where they worked.
• Success: British administrative officials built houses in new suburbs for fulfilling the housing needs of the working classes.