Problem overview:
Awareness and visions: The government of Fiji is determined to manage pollution from motor vehicles, as there is one chapter in the Sustainable Development Bill dedicated to pollution management.
Policies and measures: However, Fiji is still considered inadequate in terms of monitoring mechanisms, in addition that, non-cooperation from motorists, the regulations have been inefficiently enforced.
Background in summary:
Problem of air pollution in the urban areas of Fiji: For Fijis urban areas, smoky vehicle exhaust is amongst most common and offensive forms of pollution. This pollution is strongly suspected to be increasing - but in the absence of regular monitoring this cannot be quantified. The level of gas pollutants (carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone and hydrogen sulphide) appears not yet to have reached concentrations likely to result in adverse health affects.
Cause of pollution are from increasing number of vehicles: The deteriorating air quality situation is assumed to be caused by increasing vehicle numbers particularly the proliferation of second hand and reconditioned car imports from Japan. A clear example of environmental factors not being taken into consideration in economic decision-making.
Enforcement of pollution control regulations were inefficient due to: Air pollution from vehicle emissions is an obvious environmental problem that confronts decision-makers on a daily basis. However, there exist problems of antiquated legislations and over lapping of responsibility between the public health and transport authorities, and the police. There are also technical shortcomings in being able to measure vehicle emissions. The bus owners and taxi proprietors constitute a strong political lobby.
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Good practice rating:
(1 for the best, 5 for the lowest score) |
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Sustainability
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Efficiency
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| 3 |
 Improvement in either the environment of economic condition with no harm to the other. |
3 |
Cost efficient. |
| 3 |
Sustainable over time (not one-off) |
Process |
| Adaptability |
- |
Participation of the community |
| 3 |
Location adaptability (can the project be done in other places?) |
- |
Participation of resource owners/users |
| 2 |
Socio-cultural adaptability. |
- |
Partnerships between various actors (Governments, NGO, Academia, Private) |
| 3 |
Level of development adaptability. |
3 |
Degree of coordination and cooperation between government departments. |
| 2 |
Style of government adaptability. |
- |
Ability to attract political interest/support |
| 2 |
Degree of decentralization adaptability. |
3 |
Procedures for feedback and review. |
Comments on this example:
Traffic pollution seems to be an unavoidable problem for many developing cities. This is because as the economy grows and people have higher income, cars become affordable, especially second-hand ones. The reason many people would rather have their own transportation because the service of public transportation is poor in quality, unreliability and inadequacy.
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Sustainability of the project:
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Awareness and visions: Perhaps a change in perception or behavior should be introduced to motorist. Since, policies and measures are not as effective as expected to be, another possible alternative for reducing traffic emission is to reduce the number of cars on the road and make people change preferences to travelling by personal vehicle to public vehicles. This could be done through improvement in the service quality of public transportation and also the availability of the service in terms of frequency and coverage area.
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Adaptability of the project to other situations:
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| Process of decision making and implementation: |
Policies and measures: Similarly to other developing countries, although the Government of Fiji has written detailed provisions on air quality management and control in the Sustainable Development Bill, still air quality in the city has not much improved. Probably, it is due to the fact that peoples attitude and behavior have not changed according to the Bill. They may find that the regulations are too difficult to comply with, while enforcement and monitoring are still not serious enough to cause changes in peoples behavior.
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Documentation: |
Literature or other written project review references
Local Government Partnerships for Sustainable Development
Paper presented at the Commonwealth Local Government Forum
Good Local Government and Sustainable Development (Asia Region)
By Richard Slater
Islamabad, Pakistan 1997.
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Source of Information: |
Integration Environmental Considerations into Economic Decision-Making Processes in Pacific Island Countries: Institutional Arrangements and Mechanism (Unpublished)
Report prepared by Andrew McGregor
Koko Siga (Fiji) Ltd
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Contacts: |
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Submitted by: |
ESCAP
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