Which european river was till recently called as europe industrial sewer?
Answers
The Rhine river is one of the most intensively used river in Europe. Since 1950s, untreated sewage and industrial waste were released into the river for decades. The river was so polluted that it was named as ‘the sewer of Europe”. Since 1980s, countries surrounding the Rhine river worked together to form the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR), which manages and monitor activities along the river, ensuring that the pollution in the Rhine’s river is well regulated. The sandoz chemical spill is the pivotal point of this change, whereby countries realised the importance of a joint responsibility to regulate the Rhine river.
countries that cooperate to manage the Rhine river source:http://download.springer.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/static/pdf/286/art%253A10.1007%252Fs10750-012-1433-1.pdf?auth66=1422341112_b8969d0fe66c0accefe9ee37b490b32f&ext=.pdf
countries that cooperate to manage the Rhine river
Today, the Rhine river water quality has improved tremendously, and it is now one of the cleanest international river in Europe. 37 species of fish can be found in the Rhine’s. Monitoring of the industrial plants is so strict that any pollution can be traced and fined.
“We catch almost everything, pike, perch, trout, eels. The Rhine is very clean, there’s a lot of controls since that big accident,” a fisherman in Rhine river
This case study shows that it is possible for different nations to work together, despite having national resentments after the world war 2. It also shows that it is possible for countries to work together to reach a common goal, just that sometimes it might take time to negotiate to reach one. The success of the Rhine river’s river recovery also depends on the cooperation among different stakeholder – public and NGOs – and not just the state leaders alone. A bottom-up, top-down communication amongst the stakeholders, and the horizontal exchange of information among countries have shown to be effective. However, this requires political trust, which can be build overtime.
Lastly, even though the Sandoz incident triggers the cleanup of the Rhines river, it evidently showed that a lot of time and effort is needed to recover environmental damages. Therefore, other nations should see this as a precaution, and should start taking measures to regulate their river so as to prevent another major disaster.