Cure needed for plague of rural pollution

Unlike cities, rural consumers do not have places to dump their garbage and littering ensues. Restricting plastic bags and similar polluting products will be a big step to treating the disease of rural pollution.

Another important action that has to be taken sooner or later - better sooner - is to build the necessary infrastructure for garbage collection and recycling. As rural areas become urbanized, authorities need to ensure that such infrastructure can cope with the garbage generated by residents. Without proper collecting, treatment and recycling infrastructure, a community will soon become surrounded by garbage.

In the United States, garbage trucks go into rural areas to collect waste on a weekly basis. This can be done in China as well. Building an effective garbage collection, treatment and recycling system will not only cure the sickness that plagues the land and improve food safety, it will also stimulate the economy, as dumpsters will be built, trucks purchased, and people hired, to clean up the environment. It will also create green businesses to professionally treat the collected garbage.

A cleaner countryside might also attract talent back to rural areas as jobs will be created and local economies will improve, which will be to everyone's benefit. Authorities at various levels should work on curbing pollution, and international organizations can help by providing ideas and best practices that may help deal with what is a colossal problem.

Changes created or mandated by government institutions cannot succeed without cooperation from rural residents. Many may fear that rural people are not educated enough to participate in creating a greener environment, that they will litter anyway, that they will not care enough to change their habits. I admit that it is not easy to change people's behavior, but I am optimistic enough to say that you may be surprised if you try. Rural residents' minds are not yet polluted beyond repair. Appeal to their reason, their love of their hometowns and their desire for a better future for their children. Fundamentally, who wouldn't want to live in a cleaner environment?

It is going to be a long and hard-fought battle, but one worth fighting, as it is good for our physical, psychological and spiritual well-being to have a better environment. It is not everyone's job to work on pollution control, but everyone can do something to improve the environment.

The author is a US-based instructional designer, literary translator and columnist writing on cross-cultural issues.