Huzzah for the Dasherkandi Sewage Treatment Plant! Never thought I'd start a column on economics in praise of something that processes our, well, ordure. Yet this is one of those vital parts of that subject, economics.
In Britain they're having a vast political screaming match over who should do this vital work of keeping our ordure out of the rivers and process it in some manner instead. Should it be private, capitalist, companies out to make a profit? Or the state, the government in all its glory? I am at the Adam Smith Institute, the very people who designed that privatization system, so clearly I have views on that. On the other hand there's something delightful about having politicians having to deal with something suited to their position in life. That … ordure.
That shouting, however important it is to British politics at present, is really a sideshow. The argument is over a few percentage points this way or that in efficiency. Ok, maybe tens of percentage points in efficiency. Views differ, but we all do agree that we want the task done with maximal efficiency -- the views differ on what produces that maximal efficiency.
That the task needs to be done is something for an earlier stage of political debate. Dasherkandi is able to process some 15-20% of the output of Dhaka. Or, perhaps, of the people of Dhaka. That the processing is now happening means there are now fish returning to the rivers that are now cleaner. The vile smells are lifting. The basic environment around the city is now improving.
There is something called a Kuznets Curve. Basically, things will get worse then they'll get better. There's an environmental version of that curve -- pollution will get worse as a place gets richer and then the environment becomes cleaner as we get even richer.
As pollution clean up is clearly and obviously a communal activity then so does our expression have to be communal
In 1850s London, the River Thames became so polluted that it was difficult to even be in the centre of the city. In the 1950s, that same river was found to have a remarkable variety of ecoli -- bacteria from human guts, that product of, erm, ordure -- and no other living thing. Today the river has salmon in it -- the most picky of fish concerning water quality.
As places get richer then the environment becomes more polluted. That process of doing things to gain riches creates pollution. People put up with the filth simply because that's better than returning to the gross, vile, poverty that produces no pollution. But there's a point in this process when a clean environment is wealth. So, when that level is reached the environment becomes cleaner.
That's the environmental Kuznets Curve. Those early days of economic development are going to create filth unimaginable. But it will get better.
No, this doesn't happen just because. It's not some technological rule that this is true. Entirely the opposite, it's a political rule. As people become richer -- you, me, the guy down the street -- we'll put up with less of that pollution. We're willing to spend some portion of our increasing wealth on the more expensive ways of production that don't pump vileness into the world around us. Or even to process the ordure of our fellow citizens.
Because it's a political reaction, not something that just happens on its own, this does mean that we've got to organize in order to express our views on the matter. At least, we've got to vote on our willingness to bear those bills for cleaning up the ordure. As I say, this isn't something that just happens. As with any other consumer preference -- more rice, less fish, better bread, pizzas -- we've got to do something to make our preferences clear. As pollution clean up is clearly and obviously a communal activity then so does our expression have to be communal.
That ordure is now being cleaned up and Dhaka and downstream is the better for it. So, Huzzah! And yet there's one more thing. Bangladesh, today, is poorer than London was in 1950, when the Thames was dead. Actually, from the Angus Maddison numbers (those interested in economic development really should play with that spreadsheet) Bangladesh today is poorer than London was in 1850. But the clean up, the turning point of that Kuznets Curve is happening earlier.
Yes, indeed it is and isn't that great? The stage of it getting better after getting worse is earlier these days. The sewage plant is a temple, a monument, to modern civilization. In fact, if you meet one of the engineers on that you should shake them by the hand and say thank you. Worry not, they use machines these days.
Tim Worstall is a senior fellow at the Adam Smith Institute in London.
