Environment of Belgium
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The environment of Belgium has been heavily polluted on different levels (water, air, soil, noise, and biodiversity).
In the Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index, Belgium was ranked lowest of the EU member countries for overall environmental performance. [1]
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[edit] Air
In Flanders, until recently, there was an estimated 13,500 mortalities each year due to air pollution (alone). However thanks to researcher Vincent Du Four of the University of Ghent, we now know that this number is wrong. There are at least 140,000 mortalities when we consider only the organic pollutants, thus without other agents such as heavy metals. 33% of this is caused by road traffic, the rest is expelled by heavy industry, house heatening, vapourising manure, solvents in paint, ... It has also been reported that the air, because of all this pollution, is highly carcinogenic. The degree of air pollution is not better in any other part of the country. According to Vincent Du Four's research, the air pollution in the entire country of Belgium is very severe. Some places are even as much polluted as industrial cities in the ruhr area, such as Olen. Besides the health risk of polluted air, it also makes the weather oppressive (especially in summer). In fact, in such degree that in summer, visiting Africans complain it's "too hot". A quick look to the sky might also open one's eyes of the seriousness of the situation, since the skies are constantly appearing as steel grey (because of the carbon). But just to be on the safe side, here's a scientific report.
[edit] Air pollution agents
Of course, air is a mixture of gases, mostly containing NO², CO², NO, ... Thus if someone speaks of polluted air, we must carefully debrief every agent, say which agent is too high, too low and what agents normally should not be in there (in Belgium there are quite a lot of these "runaways").
The biggest share in this is nitrogen dioxide (NO²), carbon dioxide (CO²), formaldehide, benzene, and some 'minor' pollutants as ozone, fine particles, etc.
!! The above agents still need description !!
[edit] Fine dust
Each year a quantity of 17,000 tons fine dust (of which 65% has pollution effects by soil degradation together with some pesticides) is blown into the air. This amount makes around 20% of the air pollution in Belgium. The other 80% are from traffic from neighbouring countries that needs to pass through Belgium.
Due to new research by the University of Ghent from Ailee Kleiman, there are 14,000 per million mortalities. And, since Belgium has about 10 million people living, this would result in 154.000 mortalities for fine dust(!) alone in Belgium.
Depending, of course, on the wind direction, the number of fine dust changes often. But one can roughly say that there is about 20 to 30 micrograms per cubic metre (mg/m³).
Lastly, to show how serious the situation really is, here are some examples:
- in 2006, the yearly European norm for fine dust (!) was already surpassed in March.
- just walking aside the freeway, for not longer than 5 minutes, can already cause a measurable degree of permanent lung damage.
[edit] Water
79% of the surface water is heavily polluted, another 19% is 'less' polluted, and 2 percent makes the European standard. This is only a part because most of the polluted sewer water is not actively purified. Only the rain water is (which is mostly clean).
VMM and Aquafin, 2 organistations supported by the government, will try to improve this in the near future by doubling the water purificaction facilities. Instead of 228 facilities, there will be around 400. Of course the real problem lies in the sibbling of rain water in the sewers, which will keep us busy cleaning them for years.
Very few fish have been reported in the rivers, and bathing in the rivers is extremely hazardous. Not only the rivers, but the shores are also polluted (1% of the bathers got ill in 2004) And lastly, the fish that do swim in the rivers have dangerous levels of pcb's in their bodies.
However, the water quality has already increased a lot, as before 2003, things were even worse. Due to years of ignorance, water has been polluted almost enough to not being able to support any aquatic life (which was primarily the fault of fertilizer apllication). In 2003, Unesco gave Belgium the last place of all 122 countries in its first World Water Development Report. In the same year, Belgium was given one of the last places by Keele University.
[edit] Water pollution agents
Groundwater is mainly polluted by nitrate and pesticides, while the rivers suffer from domestic wastewater, that is still untreated in some Belgian cities. Industrial wastewater also contributes and leaves the Escaut totally damaged in Belgium. According to the quality norms, the most frequent excesses are from cadmium, chrome, mercury, lead, cyanide, detergents and different pesticides.
[edit] Soil
The statistics are just being started and already are 16,653 parcels filed as heavily polluted. By the end of 2007 more data will be available (30% will be charted).
!someone search and post already available statistics, please ! it needs more information.
[edit] Noise
33% of all flemish people have troubles with the level of noise in Flanders during the day. At night, 42% of the flemish people have troubles with it. The level of noise is probably above 42 decibels and can thus contribute to increased bloodpressure, heartproblems, depression, migraine and other according to the WHO. Most of the sound comes from road traffic. Although not such an important factor for the environment as the other (soil, water and air), noise levels can annoy birds, and other animal species and thus descreasing biodiversity.
[edit] Biodiversity
There are several sources from which we can determine the biodiversity in Belgium: from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, UNEP, IUCN, and to a lesser extent from the Belgian Government's follow-up on biodiversity ( biodiversity.be and its 'Biodiversity in Belgium'-publication) and GBIF.org.
[edit] Conclusion
In the environment report 2006 Belgium has been given practically the last place of all the countries in the world for biodiversity. By following the example of the IUCN or The World Conservation Union's Red List and the approach of the Dutch, who also have their own personalised red list, there has been a specific red list created for Belgium. The link below will guide you there. Besides the electronic version you can also buy the book "Atlas van de Flora van Vlaanderen en het Brussels Gewest", which includes the paper version of the personalised red list edition too.
[edit] The unsaid
There is still somewhat of a taboo on the subject in Belgium. environmental awareness is very low in Belgium, which could be (partly) due to the fact that although environmental actions (such as by the VMM) have been precisely covered in the media, in depth-information about the international environmental situation is never available by that very same media. For example: tax benefits on "clean" or better said less-polluting cars are precisely covered, while worldwide air quality (and comparisons between Belgium and -say- France) are not covered by the media. Besides that no real information on environmental issues are given (at least no comparisons to other countries or global charts), there are other problems associated with this as well. One being the fear for Belgians to go to countries deeper in the south, as being "too hot". This fear comes from the unbearable heat in Belgium during summer, which is in fact caused by the greenhouse gases, appearing throughout the country.
[edit] It could be worse
Some critics argue that although Belgium is already pointed out as being one of the worst in the world when it comes down to air quality and associated health problems, it is still quoted "too healthy". This is because, on global maps we see the polluting gases but we do not see how much is already absorbed by the earth. In Belgium, there is a constant high humidity and there is high precipitation. Water binds with a big part of the gases in the gas-mixture, causing it to fall back down to the ground and thus effectively eliminating a part of them. When this absorption by rain were not to be counted, Belgium would get a place even further to the back in the listings.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index - Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy and Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network
[edit] External links
- Research of Vincent Du Four
- Air pollution in Belgium
- Nitrogen dioxide pollution in the world (image)
- Tequila-Belgium
- IUCN's global red list
- Biodiversity.be
- GBIF.org
- Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
