Are cars not polluters?

Editor | Thursday June 26, 2008 00:00

However, it looks like in developing nations like Botswana, where the industrial sector is still in its infant stages, greenhouse gases are coming from other sources like automobiles.

Batswana, despite high fuel prices, are buying second-hand Asian cars in large numbers, thereby simultaneously putting pressure on Botswana roads and the environment.

Therefore, the question being asked is whether anyone, particularly the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, ever cares to find out if our environment is not being subjected to undue pollution through emissions from some of these vehicles that are now flooding the country?

With the number of cars on the country's roads having tremendously increased it is not uncommon to see fumes being emitted by some of these vehicles.

It would be a wise thing for the powers that be to take remedial measures. Needless to say these smoking cars/vehicles are plainly a health hazard as they are contributing to air pollution.

The first port of call should be the licensing authorities, who must come up with measures to ensure motor vehicles that do not meet certain environmental requirements are not allowed onto our roads.

The issue of environmental pollution may not be peculiar to imported cars, however, so an all-encompassing legislation should be the way to go. We understand that the Road Traffic Act is being reviewed to meet the growing challenges on the county's roads.

We hope, therefore, that the review will cover the concerns raised above. While it is the right of every citizen to own a car, the need to protect the environment cannot be overlooked.

The envisaged review should help cleanse our roads of all the 'vintage' cars and trucks that spew dirty oil and fumes that contaminate the environment.

                                          Today's thought
'Britain is not homogenous; it was never a society without conflict. The English fought tooth and nail over everything we know of as English political virtues - rule of law, free speech, the franchise. The very notion of Great Britain's 'greatness' is bound up with empire. Euro-scepticism and Little Englander nationalism could hardly survive if people understood whose sugar flowed through English blood and rotted English teeth.'
                                                 - Stuart Hall