A Triangular Fight vs. Pollution

A who's who of fifteen top American corporations has agreed to participate in a unique technical assistance program to help a number of Middle Eastern countries solve their industrial environment problems.

This new $1.4 million, 5-year program will be jointly funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) and U.S. private industry. The New York-based World Environment Center (WEC), an organization concerned with worldwide environment and development issues, will administer it.

The corporations which have so far agreed to participate include Atlantic Richfield, Dow Chemical, Fluor Corp., W.R. Grace and Co., General Mills, Philip Morris, Tenneco, Texaco, and 3M. Other corporations are expected to join them as the program gets underway.

In announcing the new program, AID administrator Peter McPherson said the project reflected private industry's commitment "to Third World development and to safeguarding the environment and human health."

The program marks the first time that government and the private sector have joined forces in this type of partnership. Dr. Whitman Basso, president of the World Environment Center, said in an interview: "I don't know of any other country where government funds are being used to send the private sector to solve industrial environment problems in developing countries."

The new program is being sponsored by AID's Near East Bureau for countries already eligible for U.S. aid, and will be funded by the agency's regional project development allocations. Services will initially be provided to Tunisia, Jordan, and Egypt, and the program is intended to serve as a model for other projects which, after evaluation, will be extended to other countries in the region.

According to Dr. Basso, industrial priorities and the scope of individual projects "will be determined entirely by the host country. No guarantee is offered to the participating companies that they will secure contracts in these countries."

The program allows for projects to be initiated from the moment an eligible country requests a local embassy to furnish an expert to diagnose the environmental problems of a factory, mine, or other industrial operation. The request is then transmitted to the WEC, which in turn contacts the appropriate participating corporation. An in-house expert is subsequently selected to make recommendations for remedial measures which become the responsibility of the plant management or local authorities to carry out.

AID covers the cost of the experts' travel and per them expenses while the companies pay their salaries and ancillary expenses such as translation fees. WEC and AID technical advisors jointly establish an inventory of polluting industries in recipient countries and identify U.S. companies qualified to provide technical and training assistance.

Two pilot projects have already been completed in Tunisia, the first country to ask for assistance, to diagnose and control the pollution problems caused by steel mills, paper mills, fertilizer plants and tanneries. Tunisia has also taken the lead in approving a basic environmental law, and according to some of the U.S. experts Tunisian authorities are closely following their recommendations. One of them told The Washington Report that "the Tunisians are particularly enthusiastic about water and air pollution clean-up projects-which augurs well for equipment sales."