xxvi
Abel Wolman
The sheer comprehensiveness of our interests and tasks makes selectivity difficult. It
has been said, with some truth, that comprehensiveness of plan stands in the way of
quanta of implementation. On a broader scale, in some countries the peculiar situation
has developed where action is at least temporarily stalled while waiting for total
environmental impact coverage and diagnosis. For developing countries, this restraint is a
source of increasing concern.
Even at the risk of sermonizing, this occasion appeared an appropriate one at which to
suggest modest undertakings in post-auditing our activities, and in stock-taking of our
future objectives and goals. In these days of suspicion of science and technology — in the
recent colorful semantics of "the careless technology" — our precepts may well be
examined, without indulging in self-flagellation! In so doing, the highly pertinent
conclusions reached in the United Nations Conference at Founex, Switzerland, just one
year ago, give valuable guidance.
"The major environmental problems of developing countries are essentially of a
different kind. They are predominantly problems that reflect the poverty and very lack of
development of their societies.... In both the towns and in the countryside, not merely
'the quality of life', but life itself is endangered by poor water, housing, sanitation and
nutrition, by sickness and disease and by natural disasters."*
The quest for pure water is centuries old. The definition of purity has gone through
continuous up-grading, until, in fact, truly tailor-made water is the product. In this
practice, social choice has been a dominant factor. The guidance and implementation of
such choices remain our primary responsibility.
♦Development and Environment. United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. Founex,
Switzerland. June 4-12, 1971.
Abel Wolman
The sheer comprehensiveness of our interests and tasks makes selectivity difficult. It
has been said, with some truth, that comprehensiveness of plan stands in the way of
quanta of implementation. On a broader scale, in some countries the peculiar situation
has developed where action is at least temporarily stalled while waiting for total
environmental impact coverage and diagnosis. For developing countries, this restraint is a
source of increasing concern.
Even at the risk of sermonizing, this occasion appeared an appropriate one at which to
suggest modest undertakings in post-auditing our activities, and in stock-taking of our
future objectives and goals. In these days of suspicion of science and technology — in the
recent colorful semantics of "the careless technology" — our precepts may well be
examined, without indulging in self-flagellation! In so doing, the highly pertinent
conclusions reached in the United Nations Conference at Founex, Switzerland, just one
year ago, give valuable guidance.
"The major environmental problems of developing countries are essentially of a
different kind. They are predominantly problems that reflect the poverty and very lack of
development of their societies.... In both the towns and in the countryside, not merely
'the quality of life', but life itself is endangered by poor water, housing, sanitation and
nutrition, by sickness and disease and by natural disasters."*
The quest for pure water is centuries old. The definition of purity has gone through
continuous up-grading, until, in fact, truly tailor-made water is the product. In this
practice, social choice has been a dominant factor. The guidance and implementation of
such choices remain our primary responsibility.
♦Development and Environment. United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. Founex,
Switzerland. June 4-12, 1971.