Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Increasing the status of women and guaranteeing their right to reproductive health, including the right to choose the size and spacing of their families, will help slow population growth and save the earth from further devastation, says the United Nations.
The correlation between worsening environmental conditions and increasing populations allowed for women to play a greater role in the eradication of poverty in developing countries, says a report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
According to the report, women's reproductive health and other basic rights was essential in efforts to achieve improvements to the welfare of the world population.
According to the ""The State of World Population 2001"" report made public here on Wednesday, the world population will grow by 50 percent, from 6.1 billion in mid-2001 to 9.3 billion by 2050.
Reading the report, UNFPA Regional Representative Nesim Tmkaya said that hundreds of million of people were already facing a shortage of food and water and were using degraded agricultural plots due to excessive exploitation of natural resources.
""The use of water increased sixfold over the past 70 years. In 2050, some 4.2 billion people (over 45 percent of the global population) will be living in countries that cannot meet the daily requirement of 50 liters of water per person to meet basic needs.""
He said women's involvement in health and environmental decisions was essential, as were laws and policies on women's rights and equality.
""Without such support, many women are trapped in a vicious spiral of continuing environmental degradation, poverty, high fertility and limited opportunity,"" he added.
Tmkaya said that all projected population growth will take place in developing countries, including Indonesia.
""The increasing population and consumption are altering the planet on an unprecedented scale. We see signs of stress to the earth: destroyed natural habitats, threatened and extinct species, degraded soil, and polluted air and water.""
Equal rights between men and women which ensured rights to reproductive health -- such as the number and spacing of children -- would help reduce the future size of the world population and relieve environmental stress, he told a media briefing.
Population and the environment were closely related and in the struggle to earn a living more people had exploited the resources, pollution and waste had increased, persistent poverty leaving ""footprints"" on the planet persisted, he said.
Indonesia had been carrying out its national family planning program for the last 15 years, but according to Tmkaya, enthusiasm for the project had stagnated.
""Many people said they have had enough of family planning, but that's wrong. They should continue as the program needs to move forward.
He said the ministry of health and the family planning program coordinators were also quiet about the facts. ""Two years ago there was a shortage of contraceptives and people preferred other things to contraceptives due to economic crisis,"" he added.
Tmkaya suggested that the government improve the efficiency of the family planning service to educate the poor and ensure the availability of free family planning services.
