Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics EJAIB

10Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 18 (January 2008)births were both types of population growth, and even inaffluent countries with low birth rates, the energy that wasinvested in bringing up a child was enormous. As a medicaldoctor, he saw old people in hospitals, and the amount ofenergy that was needed to keep them surviving was alsoenormous. While he was not suggesting terminating theirlives, he argued that these were problems we had notaddressed in our quest to live longer, healthier lives.Dr Md. Fakrul Islam from Bangladesh spoke on the‘Trend of using fossil fuel for irrigation purposes: A case studyof the Teesta Barrage Target Area, Bangladesh’. Megairrigation projects in Bangladesh and India drew on ancientwater cycles between the Himalayas and the Bay of Bengal.Water flow had been decreasing in recent years, however,and farmers were increasingly relying on diesel-poweredwells to extract groundwater to irrigate their crops. As a result,the use of imported fossil fuels in Bangladeshi agriculture wasincreasing, and as global prices for these commodities rosemany farmers were at risk of poverty. Dr Islam raisedconcerns about the impacts of extracting groundwater on alarge scale when health, hygiene, income and employmentlevels did not appear to be improved. He suggested thatregional cooperation, for example, bilateral treaties betweenIndia and Bangladesh, was needed to secure water andenergy sources, and to protect the environment.In discussion, Dr Nguyen Hoang Tri suggested thatsimilar problems could be found in the Mekong Delta also,and what happened in Bangladesh to avert flooding wherethere were no barrages. Dr Islam said that embankmentscould be built to protect river banks, although it wasexpensive. Constructing reservoirs was another option,although the area he had been discussing was unsuitable forthis as it was flat. Dr Abhik Gupta made the comment thatmodern international flood management was going againstbuilding embankments, and they had proved ineffective inAssam. He suggested that the reality was that these areaswere flood-prone, and that rather than flood control, weneeded to think about flood management to reduce thehuman misery caused by flooding. Dr Islam explained thathis preferred solution was not flood control, but an economicsolution that optimized water sharing between India andBangladesh.As the last speaker for the conference, Dr Ir. Khin Ni NiThein from Myanmar spoke on ‘Sustainable hydropower andengineering ethics: A quest for a two in one solution’, drawingon her previous advisory position to the World Commission onDams and her current position as Vice President forDevelopment and Resources at the Asian Institute ofTechnology (AIT). She said there were enormous ethicalissues linked to water resources. The world’s richest peopleconsumed the most, while a billion poor people still had noready access to drinking water; they often have to buy theirwater from vendors at a price which is 10 to 20 times higherthan water sold through the regular distribution network.Dams raised a particular set of issues. Whereas in the past,debate had focused on whether dams should be built at all,dams were gradually being recognised as being aboutdevelopment strategies and choices, and the focus hadshifted to how to build sustainable dams. AIT was currentlyconducting research and providing education on sustainablehydropower that included engineering ethics and corporatesocial responsibility. Five sustainability measures wereproposed: technical, economical, societal, ethical, andenvironmental.Dr Tavivat Puntarigvivat asked about how we might goabout achieving more equality in access to water. Dr Theinreplied that there were many actors working for waterequality, including the United Nations, NGOs, CSOs andglobal water partnerships which went into regions and formedwater user groups so that people could manage their ownwater. It was an uphill battle, however, because a growingnumber of companies selling water believed that water was acommodity to be bought and sold for profit, whereas shebelieved water was a human right. Dr Alastair Gunn asked aquestion about teaching engineering ethics and how it couldbe incorporated into degree structures. Dr Thein said that shecould only speak for the Asian Institute of Technology, andthat they were integrating ethical issues into course materials,for example, their course on sustainable hydropower. Ideallythey would like to develop a specialist unit on engineeringethics that could be offered as an elective. At the moment,however, they were offering guest lecturers and seminars tostudents in engineering and other courses on campus, suchas gender studies, management, and environmentalresources.The remainder of the day was spent in working groupmeetings on subtopics to develop activity plans in parallelgroups, interspersed with plenary sessions for generalfeedback.Working group reportsThe working group report on Interregionalphilosophical dialogue and ecocentric world views,environmental rights and timeframes was presented by therapporteur, Prof Alastair Gunn. They raised some preliminaryquestions including: should the term be intercultural ratherthan interregional? This was because regions are simplygeographical groupings, whereas dialogues between differentcultures are both meaningful and urgently needed. Culturesshape values in a way that regions don’t. However, theimportant thing is for people to seek common ground thoughdialogue. The group described the United Nations’ ideologyas universalistic. But genuine dialogue between people fromdifferent cultures, with different worldviews and different (orno) religions implies a pluralistic position with respect fordifferent ethical positions as genuine alternatives.The group then discussed universalism andmulticulturalism, and why UNESCO needed to change itsorientation if it is to achieve the goals implied in the topic. Thistopic is fundamentally about values. There are many views onthe source of values, such as religion, authority, reason orintuition. The group took the view that the values that peopleactually hold and live by are best seen as a product of culture.What are claimed in UN documents to be universalvalues are often a historical derivation from theAbrahamic/Christian tradition through the EuropeanEnlightenment and Modernism, which seem to have beenadopted without argument. According to one group member,they have even formed the basis for documents such as theIndian Constitution, which has few roots in the philosophy thathas been the basis of Indian society for thousands of years,for example.A universalistic approach ignores people’s attachment totheir cultures. The group thought that ordinary people did notthink in such terms. The UN could be said to have helped topave the way for globalization by encouraging the view thatethics is concerned with universal values. Globalizing forcesoften dwarf and squeeze out local values.Nation states are not necessarily representatives of anysets of values because many are not directly represented.Typically, even in participatory democracies, policies thatstates will advance in the UN are not the subject of dialogue.The example of Indian philosophy was taken as aworldview. Indian philosophy was an example of a source ofecocentric values, whereas UN values focus on individualrights which are not a good basis for ecocentrism.Philosophical traditions are the basis of ways of life in Asia.The texts of the Vedas and Upanishads are the basis ofHinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Karma is animportant principle which could be described as universalorder based on law of cause of effect (Newton’s SecondLaw). It reminds us that our environmental behaviour willreturn to haunt us. Another relevant principle is Dharma,which is duty and righteousness. Nature is sacred, for