African-American communities are disproportionately burdened by environmental degradation, and unless real action is taken, the environmental and health risks facing our communities will persist.
According to the Village Voice, “One in four Newark children suffers from asthma; the hospitalization rate is 150 percent greater for kids living in the city than in the rest of the state, and more than thirty times the rate nationwide.” Environmental injustice, of course, is not unique to Newark.
In Newark, the City Council passed a first-in-the-nation ordinance requiring developers requesting environmental permits to inform the city of any environmental impacts.
At the same time, the president has proposed slashing the EPA’s budget by 31 percent, eliminating climate change programs, cutting funding to protect water and air quality, and eliminating 19 percent of the agency’s workforce.
The positions and policies of the Trump Administration are a direct threat to the health of African-American communities.
Their anti-science, anti-environmental regulation will only exacerbate the environmental threats that disproportionately impact African Americans, from climate change to harmful exposure to toxic substances.
In the American Lung Association’s “State of Air,” my district and many other metropolitan areas ranked as having the most polluted air in the country.
Given the Trump Administration’s relentless attack on environmental protections, we need to make it clear to our elected officials that we will hold them accountable for any actions they take to dismantle environmental protections and any failures to fight for environmental justice.
We also need to make it clear that environmental justice is a civil rights issue—that is, it’s not only about the health of our communities, but about fair treatment and equal involvement in environmental planning and decision-making.
Congressman Donald M. Payne, Jr. represents New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District.

Astonishingly, instead of providing requests funds and utilisation of the costly machinery as per its mandates the high-up of the Punjab Environmental Department (PEA) has shifted the staff of the laboratory to different offices of the Punjab Environmental Department.
An employee of the lab, on the condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that the laboratories were set up in six district of the province with a cost of Rs20 million.
He also pointed out that keeping in view the pollution situation in Faisalabad, the lab was set up but no efforts were made to make it operational.
“Lahore top officers of the PEA have always created impediments in the operation of lab and ultimately succeeded in rendering inoperative for indefinite period.” “Now all the samples for appropriate analyses of the gravity of pollution of air and water of the factories and other units are being sent to head office.
And that too at the discretion of the head office thus providing freehand to the pollution created units owners to play havoc to the public health with impunity,” he remarked.
The city has emerged as the one of leading victim of hepatics diseases due to poor water quality as every fourth citizen is suffering from this disease which also made it the city with highest death rate in the country.
Waterborne diseases in the city are over 25% to 35% of all hospital cases and 60% infant deaths.” “The worst conditions are prevailing in the rural area of the district where majority of population lives.
Consequently, polluted water is playing more havoc on the people living in villages who fell prey to a number diseases like tuberculosis, cancer, heart, Respiratory, high blood pressure, typhoid, stomach problems, kidney problem, food poisoning and skin problem and hepatitis,” he added.
Likewise, according to the survey conducted by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) about plight of Faisalabad environment, the environmental standards are only enforced by those who are involved in exports (as a mandatory requirement) while the rest of the industry does not have any binding.
There is a noticeable evidence that the wastewater is flowing out of industrial units without undergoing any treatment process and local doctors have complained about the adverse impact on human health.” Similarly, according to the Pakistan Medical Research Council (PMRC) survey, almost 74,000 people in Faisalabad are affected with hepatitis B and approximately 524,000 contact hepatitis C annually.

Locals Demand Environmental Cleanup – China Union Plans Restart.
“We drink water from a well that is muddy, because China Union has polluted our creeks with their chemicals,” says Oldman Sackie, born in 1946, 20 years before the mining began in the area."
China Union’s 25-year Mineral Development Agreement with the Liberian government required the company to contribute US$3.5M to the counties of Bong, Montserrado and Margibi each year in a Social Development Fund that was to be spent on county infrastructure improvements including water and sanitation projects, clinics and schools.
Since the company pulled out, residents of affected towns and villages say the water pollution has increased, leaving the inhabitants with no choice but to continue drinking waters from polluted creeks.
“But the company has polluted the water.
Sometimes the water can run people stomach (diarrhea), but we are still drinking the water because we do not have any other choice.” In nearby Bloumue Town, Chief Sekou Sumbai says residents are also suffering from similar issues, drinking from a nearby creek that is in the same condition as that of Neploleh Kollie Town.
"They would have said ‘If our water will be polluted during your operations, then we need an alternative source of drinking water,’” said Speare “The environmental degradation in these towns and villages is so huge, you see the sewage pipes of the company, emptying into the various water bodies in these towns and villages located under the mines."
The government agency responsible for oversight, the National Bureau of Concessions, says that it inspected the operations of the company a few months after it began and before they pulled out, and found out that it was not operating in accordance with the agreement regarding pollution and environmental degradation.
The Superintendent’s office has refused to turn the money over to my district office.
“We do not see what development is being done with the money, but if the money was given to my office, we would have built hand pumps and provided safe drinking water for the people."