The Menace Of Land Pollution

I stood at the threshold of my house contemplating how to get in, I actually forgot to take my keys with me while I left for my business in the morning; when I noticed a 2005 model Toyota Land Cruiser which pulled up at the entrance to my street on the highway. A few minutes later, the driver and passenger deep in conversation opened the side window of the passenger’s seat, and out came paper bags and roasted corn curbs already eaten in quick successions, thrown directly on the highway street. I couldn’t believe my eyes! At that instant my whole being racked with anger, but before I could make a move to confront the culprits, they had already driven off. I actually stood for several long minutes, wondering how in the world so called “literate” car owners could be so little in their minds, and bereft in conscience and character as to pollute the environment in such a crude manner.

This is an everyday occurrence and a typical scenario of activities that lead to acute land pollution in the Warri metropolis in Nigeria. Most of the inhabitants of the city lack any form of cleanliness culture, that one can often see grown men and women who even drive the latest models of SUVs and automobiles, actually throw refuse like used recharge cards, empty coca-cola bottles, already eaten corn curbs, and even empty take-away food packs directly on the roads, streets and straight into the gutters. The environment right now is in a big mess because solid waste litters are a characteristic feature of the man made environment. And as the rains have become intense in Nigeria because it is the rainy season, these solid wastes which have been dumped into the drainage canals have caused a lack of drainage of water, which in turn is currently causing terrible flooding in the metropolis.

This is a very serious issue that again, I believe the Ministry of Environment at all government levels in Nigeria needs to address. With the exception of states like Lagos and Cross-River, Benue, Akwa-Ibom, whose governments have done considerable work in mitigating the ills of land pollution and going as far as punishing the culprits if caught, Delta State has a very long way to go in this regard. The Ministry of Environment in Delta State of Nigeria needs to wake up to this demise, and put into place adequate measures to alleviate this problem. The truth is nothing much is being done during the monthly environmental sanitation exercise. Refuse dumps are not removed; the gutters are still full of debris; the air reeks of terrible odours from the mountain of solid wastes heaped on the streets and on the roads, and that same day, after the environmental sanitation exercise people still throw refuse and litter their immediate environment. This cycle has to stop. The government at all levels in Nigeria needs to police the environment for the better good of her citizens, and the overall protection of public health.

Now, many current environmental problems have been caused or aggravated by the careless use of land and natural resources. Overgrazing of ranchland has led to erosion. Draining and dredging wetlands has however led to the disappearance of coastal wildlife. Dams prevent rivers from carrying sediments to the ocean and as a result beaches are disappearing and are being degraded.

In the United States, strip mining of coal is less expensive, faster and more efficient than underground mining. But it has transformed large tracts of land in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia,   Kentucky, and other states into a maze of deep pits and huge soil mounds. Once the land has been altered and exposed by trip miners, it is ugly and vulnerable to erosion and flooding. Moreover, although strip miners can be filled in and be cleaned, a process can actually take thirty to forty years. Increased construction is a problem along the coast of many nations. A report from the Council of Europe States which is now the European Union, said that trampling on coastal dunes have resulted in the loss of stabilizing vegetations and erosion of the dunes. To cope with this problem, the European authorities have erected stricter zoning laws in coastal areas and have attempted to build new dunes. Construction has also caused the Black Sea coast in Russia to disappear.  Building projects have been so numerous that soil is loosened and erosion has been frequent over the years. Builders have made it worse by increasing the damage as gravel from the coastal areas are being taken away while dams and reservoirs have disrupted the natural pebble making process.

Urbanization has rarely been accompanied by large scale, long range planning. Therefore, haphazard construction has turned many urban and sub-urban areas into commercial jungles. The physical deterioration of inner cities, the lack of parkland, and the proliferation of highways and neon signs all contribute to an unpleasant and psychologically upsetting environment. A major source of land pollution is the massive amount of solid waste disposed off each day by our consumer society. In African societies, for instance, taking a case study of Nigeria in particular, there is a high level of consumption of products due to high rate of importation of these foreign goods into the country. Investors from China, India and the Middle East especially have taken a toll on the nation’s consuming pattern by the introduction of their goods and services, and as a result, consumer levels have hiked feverishly, coupled with the government’s inability to put in place adequate solid wastes disposal methods to help check the ever increasing menace of land pollution. With the exception of a few metropolitan cities, like Lagos and Calabar, whose governments have done considerable work and put in place long term efforts in ensuring that the environment is kept clean and tidy, despite the high rate of consumption. Other cities, in the same country, however, seem to be bereft of the knowledge and awareness of the ills and consequences of a polluted environment. The United States which is the world’s largest consumer nation has the most serious solid wastes problem. Household refuse, commercial rubbish, industrial wastes, and contraction debris, total more than 700,000 metric tonnes daily in the United States. Among the major methods of solid waste disposal are open dumps, sanitary landfills, incineration, ocean dumping, feeding garbage to swine and composting. Seepage of rain water through the wastes in dumps and landfills may result in pollution of ground water. Incineration pollutes the air. Ocean dumping may damage ecosystems in part of the sea, and the African environment is characterized by the above mentioned. In small towns and cities, you can find on every street and even along the road solid wastes litters. People just dump household refuse and solid wastes directly on the street and directly on the road. Open dumps both large and small are found everywhere, and as a result they are running out of places to put these wastes. But in the developed countries, however, some cities are forced to ship their refuse long distances to disposable sites. For example, San Francisco, California in the United States has a disposal area in a desert about six hundred kilometers from the city. Swamps and abandoned strip mines are also considered as potential landfill areas. Several solutions to these disposal problems have been proffered; such as recycling. Recycling is the utilization of wastes of raw materials in the manufacturing of new products. Wall board, organic fertilizers and cellulose plastics and some end products of recycling. Also putting old items to new uses is another aspect of recycling. Another solution lies in the development of new technologies to handle the increasing mass of trash. One of such systems used in large apartment houses is the garbage “compactor”. This compresses garbage into slogs about one fourth of its original volume. However, the disadvantage of this method is that it makes decomposition of the garbage more difficult. Yet, there is another volume reducing system which is called Pyrolysis – a plant operation that burns garbage in an oxygen free environment.

Furthermore, a serious consequence of land misuse is the loss of various life forms. Urban sprawl, a spread of agriculture, rebuilding of dams, and the loss of forests have destroyed wildlife habitats. Lands reserved for parks and refuges are dwindling rapidly, and as a result wildlife is threatened. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural resources, some 550 species or subspecies of animals are currently threatened with extinction. These include representatives from every continent and ocean; the vicuna, whooping crane, orangutan, tiger, giant panda, polar bear, Tasmania wolf, blue Whale, and so on. About 20,000 species of plants are also threatened with extinction. Besides wildlife habitats being destroyed, we are poisoning animals and their food with pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals. These chemicals have killed large numbers of fish, birds and beneficial insects. Human life is also threatened, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people each year, and also injuring thousands. They may also have harmful – as yet unknown – long term effects.

The concentration of certain chemical pollutants is increased as they move along the food chain. A small insect nibbles at a blade of grass. A large insect eats up a small warm and in turn is eaten by a sparrow. A Hawk then eats the sparrow. This is the food chain. If the chemical is present in the grass, the little bud will absorb a small amount of it. Then the large insect that eats a lot of small insects will also absorb more of it. And so on will the creatures at the end of the chain often ending up with high concentration of the substance. The insecticide (DDT), moves along with food chain in this manner. Since 1946, DDT has been widely used as an effective weapon against agricultural pests. DDT does not breakdown easily in nature. Once it is in the environment, it remains there for many years,  concentrated mainly in birds and other animals at the end of the food chain. DDT can also cause serious physiological changes in animals than humans. For example, it disrupts the calcium producing mechanism in birds. This means that their eggs are laid with an inadequate, thin, flaky shell, which shows that many of these affected embryos never reach maturity. And so as a result, populations of the American eagle, osprey peregrine falcon, the brown pelican and the Bermuda Petrel are declining. It is also being noted that too much DDT is affecting humans also as analysis of the milk of some nursing mothers have shown. Research on animals has shown that the effect of the intensive exposure to DDT may include genetic damage, stomach and liver dysfunction, memory loss and slow reaction time. However, some governments of a number of countries like the United States, Canada, and Sweden have restricted the use of DDT.