Billions of pesos lost due to air pollution, says World Bank study
AIR POLLUTION is costing the economy billions of pesos in productivity loss and health care expense, according to a World Bank environmental repoRt on the Philippines, highlighting the urgency to adopt remedial measures from the government to the household levels.
In its country environmental analysis (CEA) published last Oct. 29, the multilateral lender said 1.5 million Filipinos of varying ages are afflicted with respiratory sickness annually due to outdoor air pollution (OAP) in urban areas, while almost a third of that number suffer from various illnesses due to indoor air pollution (IAP).
OAP-related illness alone is costing the economy some P950 million annually. “Productivity loss [income and time loss due to absence from work and household activities] is the largest category [P502 million], followed by personal costs for treatment of disease [P360 million],” the World Bank said. Governmental health care subsidy stood at P88 million, the report noted.
Major contributors to OAP are vehicular and industrial emission, the report said.
With the finding, the bank proposed interventions to include improving vehicle inspection and maintenance programs, shift from two-stroke to four-stroke tricycles, introduction of cleaner fuels and installation of pollution-control devices in vehicles, in addition to increasing investment in mass transport systems.
“Investments in additional mass transport systems such as electric trains will significantly reduce the public’s reliance on jeepneys and tricycles, which are notorious for outdoor air pollution emissions…,” it said.
Meanwhile, the bank estimates IAP cost at over P1.5 billion based on 2007 prices, including loss of income and time due to absence from work and household activities (47%), treatment to households (38%) and state health subsidy (15%).
The World Bank noted that IAP has a higher impact on poor households due to particulates from the use fuel-wood and other biomass residue for cooking.
The institution’s proposed interventions to reduce IAP include the use of improved stoves, cooking outside the house, and switching to cleaner fuel.
“The introduction of improved stoves has high economic returns in a range of household cooking environments. Likewise, switching to liquefied petroleum gas is also found to provide higher benefits than costs in households cooking indoors in poorly ventilated conditions,” it aid.
The CEA is a country-level diagnostics tool used by the World Bank to evaluate environmental priorities, implications of key policies, and capacity to address priorities.
