Governmental Policies Work Best

Almost nothing in life is stagnant. People grow, the earth revolves and time passes. Even while knowing this I find it hard to believe that something so significant to me as a child is no longer in existence. I recently read a book titled Unbowed, by Wangari Maathai, that put into perspective why rivers, key natural resources for many communities across the world, are slowly diminishing, to the point where they are almost nonexistent. Maathai uses the rivers of Kenya to illustrate how there can be problems associated with shared natural resources. This paper seeks to evaluate what happens in the process of diminishing rivers, the tragedy behind it, and what the best possible solutions are in stopping such things from happening. Some of the solutions include privatization, socialization and government restricted usage. Government restricted use, in most cases, is the most effective way to stop a tragedy of the commons situation from occurring, which in this case are the dwindling rivers.

A community without a source of water cannot survive. Wangari Maathai speaks about how the rivers in Kenya, her home country, are becoming a thing of the pass. As a result the people are suffering. After reading her book, I realized that this is also happening in my home country. If this is happening in Kenya and my home country, I am sure it is not unheard of in many other countries across the world. I was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica and moved to the United States when I was fourteen. When I was young, between ages 5 and 11, I would spend some of my summers in the rural part of the country, where my mother is originally from. In the country, there was a river that the people in the community depended on essentially for life. We would use the water to drink, to cook, to take baths, to wash our clothes, to do everything that somehow required the use of water. Maathai explains that this was the same case in Kenya. In both places, the land around the rivers were quickly changing. Trees were being cut in order to create buildings and satisfy the needs of companies that wanted more capital. Land equals capital. Paired with the constant river usages by the people who live in the communities, they are no longer.

Privatization is one of the ways to limit the amount of people a resource is available to. If companies privatize a natural resource it will no longer be freely open to the public but instead would have to go through the chains of a company in order to be distributed or made available. With privatization there can be an improvement of the quality of the resource, especially because there will be more direct management. Privatization induces regular maintenance that can be spurred from the money flowing in to the owners. In the case of the rivers of Kenya and Jamaica, that satisfy the needs of so many people, privatization could be helpful in making sure that the rivers stay alive. However, this method would disadvantage the community of people who are either not used to paying for their water or are used to getting their water for free.

Socialization could also be a useful tool in helping to stop the diminishing of river sources. Just like recycling has become an accepted norm across the university’s campus so can the idea of water conservation in rural communities. According to Maathai, one of the main reasons for why the rivers of Kenya are slowly depleting is because of the constant deforestation. In fact, she led groups like the Green Belt Movement that focused on teaching people of the importance of planting trees, in order to save the rivers, so that their families can benefit. Socialization can be the start of solving environmental issues a country is facing. However, because it relies so much on the way people think it is often harder to accomplish.

Government restricted usage on natural resources is one of the best methods that can be used to help the environment. This would involve policies and laws in order to implement controls on how much of a natural resource can be used, who can use it and for what reason can it be used. In Maathai’s book she explains that large businesses were practicing deforestation close to rivers in order to build their businesses. When the government intervened, imposing restrictions on where companies could place their businesses the land was saved, which helped save the rivers, which helped save the people’s source of life.

After evaluating the different ways by which global issues can be solved, I conclude that governmental intervention is the most guaranteed effective method. Though privatization can save the resource rom being effected by a tragedy of the commons problem and socialization can affect the way people think; hence, their practices with their resources, government intervention is the most reliable method. When something is law and limitations are set in stone, people either have to follow them or suffer the legal consequences.