SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
How many pairs of shoes can you wear at a time? The answer is one. So why do many women have over 100 pairs of shoes. The same for men, how many pairs of trousers can you wear at a time? The answer again is one. Now we are not asking people to have only one pair of shoes or trousers, but go and take a look in your wardrobe and count how many pairs of shoes, socks, trousers etc do you have?
If there are too many then you are not practicing responsible consumption. In many countries due to everything having a ‘use by date’ edible food is being put in dustbins. It is still good as there is usually a 3 month safety period built in, but the minute that date appears we throw out the food and tonnes of food is wasted for no good reason. This is a waste of food, it can be given to people or organisations to use.
Reasonable consumption is a safety, health and environment issue as we must preserve our natural minerals and prevent extinction. Many of the sustainable concepts such as lifecycle analysis, natural capital and the 5R’s assist us to manage our consumption. A few years back I asked a group of environmental science third year students how these sustainable concepts could help us. Unfortunately, only 2 knew what I was talking about. I say no-more.
Sustainable production relies on these sustainable concepts to be able to provide employment and production in that field. Why, then do we want to deplete everything for short-term gains and in the long-term have nothing to do? Oil and gas is one of the obvious industries. Yes Uganda has oil, but if not well produced, much will be lost due to environmental incidents. The whole of Lake Albert could be destroyed and the compensation to be paid out could be in the trillions. People’s income could be interfered with and just as with the Exxon Valdez incident; it could take decades to return to its previous condition if at all. Hundreds of Ugandans and Congolese would be affected.
Keeping track of the EISA and the implementation plan, needs many Safety, Health and Environment Officers/Managers. With many needed the way forward is to have many trained Ugandans in Safety, Health and Environment and this can be undertaken locally at the international standard.
To achieve this Uganda needs Safety, Health and Environment. Can you be instrumental in making this happen, if yes contact EISMAT at
info@eismat.ac.ug/ 0705 336 066.
