What are the consequences of development?

With development come consequences, these may either help or hinder development. Examples of areas were development has brought consequences are Aral Sea in C.I.S and the Great Carajas Project in Africa.

The Aral Sea development programme involved the government growing cotton to increase money in to the country in order to develop. This was badly planned as the cotton plants were built on the only two rivers to the Aral Sea, this saw most of the water first past through cotton fields and pick up chemicals before reaching the Aral Sea. This has resulted in the Aral Sea shrinking 80 km from its original coast; it is expected to have completely disappeared in 20 years time. The main consequences of this cotton plant have been the affect to human life. The shrinking of the Aral Sea has cause fishing villages to become deserted and people to move to the overcrowded cities to get jobs.  The only few people left fish in the small rivers which are partly infected with chemicals, these chemicals have led to a number of diseases.  The chemicals have had verse effects on the environmental issues; water pipes must be over ground due to erosion. The salt left from the Aral Sea and chemicals have also made it impossible to grow crops as there is to much salt on the ground to grow anything, leaving people staving and having no way of making ends meat. These factors all show consequences of the C.I.S attempt to develop.

The Great Carajas Project in Africa was a mining project in Africa, which was set up after a discovery in 1967 of minerals in the hills surrounding the area of Carajas. The positive effects were that the mining brought jobs to the local people who now have larger incomes as the minerals were being exported, this increased the economy, began development and finally started a better quality of life through the improvements of services such as health and education. However, the project brought consequences meaning that development came at a price. A main effect is the destruction of the environment, to make way for roads and infrastructure to support the new mining industry. The rainforest was cut down to make way for theses roads and new rail networks as well; this has left massive parts of rainforest as desert which has led to increase CO2 entering the atmosphere, which has increased pollution levels and adds to global warming. These all are consequences which will hinder development in the future as the deforestation taking place could well lead to a loss in fertile land and crops well many have to be imported effecting the countries economy and development in the long run.

                       In conclusion there are many consequences, which can effect development of a country, all factors must be included in developing looking at social, economical, environmental and political. If not, the consequences can resort in a country not developing or even moving back on the development scale. These can all be avoided by effective applications of the development programme and forward planning to prevent any more problems.