Maquiladora Industry and Environmental Degradation Essay

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Introduction

Maquiladoras industries that are located at the border between Mexico and U.S have experienced one of the most dynamic industrial revolutions in the recent past. The border region is characterized by rapid population growth, urbanization and industrialization. This rapid escalation in population, urbanization and industrialization is influenced by political and economic changes. The Maquiladoras industries are the key players in the Mexican economic development with their operations taking the largest share of the economic activities at the border region. For example, between the year 1993 and 1998 the exports from the region accounted for 41.5% of the total Mexican export volumes (Kick and Jorgenson 319). Nevertheless, Maquiladora industrial activities have received criticism for their negative impacts on the environment and the criticism is based on impacts from population pressure, traffic and industrial activities (Dietz et al 281). For instance, the chronic water shortages on both sides of the border is closely linked to the poor management of natural resources resulting from the haphazard location of the industrial buildings and the growing population pressure (Kick and Jorgenson 329). These aspects cause indirect environmental externalities that subject the long term region water supply and sustainability under pressure.

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Despite these criticisms, the Maquiladoras industries are believed to perform better than non-maquiladoras industries in relation to direct environmental externalities. This is evidenced by the structure of the sector-presence of transforming intermediate goods rather than using primary materials (EPA 89). However, industrial development as a desired generator of prosperity in terms of job creation and tax revenues often generate negative impacts on the environmental goods and services such as water and assimilation of emissions respectively (Hawken 169).

Maquiladoras Industry and Environmental Degradation

Mexico has gone through poverty challenges resulting from political instability, structural adjustment programs, international borrowing, poor performance in the agricultural sector, and unfriendly policies from international partners. This situation forced the state to pursue policies that were export oriented in order to attract the establishment of industries in the region. The desire to become industrialized and cope with economic problems such as increased unemployment, Mexico accepted any industry that was in offer regardless of whether the industry was hazardous or not (Kick and Jorgenson 323). Availability of cheap labor in Mexico, lax regulation, and generous tax incentives led to a dramatic expansion of Maquiladoras industries in the mid 1990s increasing from 1,818 in 1990 to 3,486 in 2000 (Kick and Jorgenson 324). The Maquiladoras plants produce hazardous wastes and other substances which are not managed effectively resulting to contamination of water, air, and soil as well as jeopardizing the health of workers and other people in the neighborhood. These environmental damage and human health risk associated with Maquiladoras industries has led to numerous social and economic consequences that are not desirable such as staggering economic costs and unequal costs and benefits distribution (Kick and Jorgenson 329).

Hawken argues that restoring an economy calls for a rethinking of the fundamental purposes of a business. He says that business should not translate to making money or a system of producing and trading goods and services but rather should focus at increasing the general welfare of the society by providing essential services, creating invention and promoting ethical philosophy. He argues that there is capacity to develop a very different type of economy that can regenerate and restore the ecology as well as protect the environment while bringing forth innovation, wealth, and true security. Believing that this is not achievable is as a result of the assumption we make that economic forces only exploits and destroy. This is not the inherent characteristic of the economy or the inevitable result of free market systems. It is the outcome of the current commercial system’s framework and use. Commerce has three issues to address, i.e. what it takes, what it makes and what it wastes. This will lead to developing systems that fit the basic ecological principles (Hawken 171).

The location selection and high growth rate of Maquiladora industry has presented true challenges to decision makers. This is compounded by the fragile characteristic of the region caused by climatic conditions and the topography disadvantages which is vulnerable to erosion, landslide and flooding (Ojeda 47). According to EPA (94), the environmental effect takes the form of increased demand for space, water, energy, high traffic and traffic congestion, generating hazardous waste and demand for its management and disposal, air pollution and environmental accidents.

Great presence of Maquiladoras industries in the border of Mexico-U.S. have resulted to rapid population growth and urbanization. Large population has migrated from central and southern Mexico due to the wealth being experienced in this region of the country. Potential job opportunities in the industries describe the pull factor allowing migration to the borderland. This population growth has had indirect impact on the environment (EPA 96). A significant effect is water shortages in the region. The burgeoning population and the increasing number of industries have led to an increased demand for water resources resulting to higher demand than the supply. The water shortages in the borderland could be an indication of overstretched resource demand that the fragile ecology could not support.

As Hawken (174) observes in his book The Ecology of Commerce the planet has a distinct population to support in terms of good and services known as earth carrying capacity. The realization of the inability of the natural resource to support sustainably the population and industrial activities should urge the concerned party to quickly find an integration of our wants as exhibited and served by commerce with the capacity of the environment to meet them. Apart from water shortages, the Maquiladoras industry has led to rapid urbanization on the borderland. This has led to more environmental problem such as improper garbage management, inadequate and poor sewerage services, and overstretched physical infrastructure (Kick and Jorgenson 319). Waste generated by the increasing population and from the industries cannot be absorbed all by the environment. This eventually leads to pollution of soil through soil contamination, ground water pollution, and contamination of rivers, air pollution, and threats to plant, animal and human health and survival.

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Apart from the burgeoning population and urbanization, industrial activities have played a significant role in degrading the environment. Both water and air pollution has been common as the industrial waste water is hardly treated before it is discharged into water bodies. This has been made possible by the less stringent environmental standard in Mexico. Sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide threatens ozone layer depletion. The Maquiladoras also releases untreated solvent such as trichloroethylene, heavy metals such as lead, paints, resins, and plastic into the environment (Kick and Jorgenson 329). The environmental harm caused by these industrial activities, is in the long term experienced by the society in terms of associated health concerns such as cancers, respiratory problems, and neurobehavioral problems among other threats. The health concerns posed by the Maquiladora industry are so severe such that the Council on Scientific Affairs highlighted that environmental monitoring and disease occurrence data exhibited that the public and environmental health was rapidly deteriorating and severely impacting the health and future vitality.

The reason behind such severe health effect from industrial activities is lack of evaluating the environmental costs and benefits accruing from the industrial activities. The difficulty associated with such evaluation is the fact that health, safety, environmental and social effects are not part of commodities that can be traded at market places and therefore it is hard to monetize them and results to externalizing of such costs (Kick and Jorgenson 333). This sentiment is echoed by Hawken (170) where he points out the market failure in tabulating the costs of damage to the environment by commerce. Markets determine commodities prices by considering only the cost of production while the other costs are considered as external or spillover effects.

Conclusion

Failing to address the environmental concerns by coordinating industrial activities and natural resource capacity is endangering the long term sustainability in the borderland. Though a difference of measure of efficiency is evident between economists and ecologists, whereby economist measure it in terms of money and ecologists in terms of thermodynamics and resources conservation, a convergence exits where reducing inefficiency result to lower costs and less waste. As Hawken (179) observes, efficiency should be the pivot between economics and ecology and this provides a bridge to a restorative economy. Though the earth carrying capacity is not known, it is essential to know that it has a finite capacity to support a given population and absorb waste and therefore commerce be designed within the planets carrying capacity.

Works Cited

Council on Scientific Affairs. Permanent US-Mexico Border Environmental Health commission. Journal of the American Medical association 253:3319-3321, 1990.

Dietz Thomas, Frey Scott & Rosa Eugene. Risk Assessment and Management. The environment and society reader pp272-299, 2001.

EPA. Protecting the Environment of the Us-Mexico Border Area. Environment Protection Agency, 2000.

Hawken Paul. The Ecology of Commerce. New York, Harper business, 1994.

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Kick Edward and Jorgenson Andrew. Globalization and Environment. Journal of world systems research 9:317-355, 2003.

Ojeda Lina. Land Use and the Conservation of Natural Resource in the Tijuana. University of California, 2000.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Maquiladora Industry and Environmental Degradation." December 14, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/maquiladora-industry-and-environmental-degradation/.

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