Few people in the developing world realise that the Western model of industrialisation and urbanisation is a highly toxic one. As they become increasingly industrialised, all countries go through a period of intense air and water pollution-as epitomised by London's stinking Thames of the 1850s and Tokyo's choking atmosphere of the 1970s. Few of them shake it off entirely. Those Western cities that are passably habitable have had to make major investments in pollution control and prevention to become so. But when cities of developing countries attempt to emulate the Western model they mistakenly try to do it on the cheap and turn their habitat into a living hell.
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