Imagine yourself in a situation where you have to flee from your homes, abandoning the comfort of your life and you have to stay at a border - an invisible line separating the laws of one country from another, a line which, if crossed, will change your life, perhaps forever. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, are forced to follow this path each year. Thereafter they are called refugees or an asylum seeker. One in every 113 people globally is an asylum seeker or a refugee.

Through this article I want to touch upon one of the most sensitive and much talked about segment of the world- refugees. But I will not highlight the political, territorial or social issues involved with them but their impact on our environment.

The unstructured movement and displacement of large numbers of people have significant impacts on the environment. Arriving in an alien situation, refugees face hunger, fatigue, humiliation and grief. Food and shelter is the foremost concern for the refugees. Trees are felled to provide support for rudimentary shelters.

Among the most significant problems associated with refugee-affected areas are deforestation, soil erosion, and depletion and pollution of water resources.

Scale of Environmental Concerns

On a global scale, the impacts of refugees on the environment is not significant. At the height of the refugee crisis in Tanzania in 1994-1996, a total of 570 square kilometers of forest was affected, of which 167 square kilometers was severely deforested. An environmental impact assessment carried out in Zimbabwe in 1994, when Mozambican refugees had returned to their homelands, showed a reduction of 58 per cent in the woodland cover around camps.

Such figures are not intended to dispute the fact that concentrated groups of displaced people have a negative impact on the environment, but we need to reverse the loss or environmental damage around the camp.

UNHCR's Response

UNHCR has become increasingly concerned about the state and well-being of the environment around refugee camps and resettlement areas.

There is no uniform response to such needs: each refugee operation requires a distinct approach, tailored to the specific conditions and requirements of that time. Requirements for protecting the environment therefore vary from one country to another and from one situation to another, depending on local social, cultural and environmental conditions, as well as on opportunities and constraints.

Every cloud has a silver lining

Recently there has been a significant development towards reversing the negative impact on the environment around the refugee camp-Syrian refugees in Jordan's remote desert were connected to solar power making their community the world's first refugee camp to be powered by renewable energy.

The $4.5 million (4 million euros) plant was funded by a foundation established by Ikea, the global home furnishings retailer. The plant's capacity is to be more than doubled to provide power to all residents, for an eventual cost of $9.7 million (8.75 million euros), the U.N. refugee agency said.

The investment in sustainable energy and the world?s first solar farm in a refugee camp shows a paradigm shift in how the humanitarian sector supports displaced populations and the environment around them. The solar plant will also help humanitarian groups and agency to save about $1.5 million a year, money that can now be spent on other aid while reducing carbon emissions and improving living conditions for refugees.

Hope to know more about  such projects by Environment agencies as human welfare and society go hand in hand with the environment.There have been evidences that show that the welfare of people - whether refugees or local inhabitants - is closely linked with the well-being of the environment. Human actions deeply impact our environment and hence it affects the sustainability of our earth.

Inputs – Bloomberg, www.unhcr.org, photo credit - http://media.vocativ.com/photos/2017/05/GettyImages-507557690651482473.jpg

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