CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
It has been observed in recent times that the role the environment play to a nation‟s development process can not be relegated to the background. Apart from being the physical surrounding for natural habitats, the environment provide the basis for human exploits for agricultural, industrial, commercial, technological and tourism development of a society (Gbehe, 2004). For this and several other reasons, environmental issues now occupy a centre stage in academic discourse and other public fora both at the national and international levels. Recorded evidence has also shown that the environment represents a wide range of the external circumstances, conditions and the things that affect the existence and development of an individual, organism, group (Isaichei 1999) and/or society. In Nigeria for instance, environmental issues did not gain official prominence until the 1988 Koko toxic waste dumping saga which also brought to the fore the exigent need to establish the Nigeria Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA), Federal Ministry of Environment and other relevant agencies, ostensibly to tackle environmentally related issues, in the country. These include issues such as environmental pollution, sanitation, depletion of ozone layer, desertification, flooding, erosion, poverty, bush burning, deforestation, soil conservation etc. All these mentioned above are a pointer to the fact that issues of environment and infact environmental pollution which forms the basis of this paper has taken a centre stage in the nation‟s (Nigeria‟s) development process (Gbehe, 2004).
Environmentally minded scholars: Ocheri (2003:174), Gbehe (2004), and Aja (2005:114)
have associated environmental pollution with human activities and albeit persistent human interaction with the environment. Research has also shown that as the population of a country grows/increases with attendant pressure on the environment especially in the wake of improved technologies, environmental abuse and pollution is nevertheless heightened with corresponding effects on lives of people and other living organisms, (Ocheri, 2003) and (Hauses, 1971). It has been observed further that man through industrial, agricultural and the ever increasing urbanization process, security and terrorist activities tend to directly and/or indirectly pollute the environment. Jande (2005) and Aja (2005) in their separate observations, also in tandem with the foregoing agree that unrestricted use of pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and indiscriminate dumping of refuse, excreta and animal dung as well as spillages from refineries, large scale bush burning etc are perceived as some of the leading factors of environmental pollution in Nigeria.
Environmental pollution takes place when the environment cannot process and neutralize harmful by-products of human activities in due course without any structural or functional damage to its system. Pollution occurs when the natural environment is unable to decompose the generated elements and on the other hand, when man fail to decompose these pollutants artificially. This has negative impacts on crucial environmental services such as provision of clean water, air and arable land without which life on earth as we know it would be difficult (Gbehe, 2004).
Environmental pollution is a problem both in developed and developing countries. Factors such as population growth and urbanization invariably place greater demands on the environment and stretch the use of natural resources to the maximum. Such overuse of natural resources often results in nature‟s degradation.
Human environment is made up of the following aspects: The physical, social, economic, political and technological. The physical environment consists of air, land and water; the social environment consists of the relationships existing among them; the technological environment consists of experiences and practices required for constant adaptation and survival; while the political environment is defined by the degree of authority exercised by some over others. Despite the major efforts that have been made over recent years to clean up the environment, pollution remains a major problem and poses continuing risks to health. According to Hagget, (1975), the problems are undoubtedly greatest in the developing world, where traditional sources of pollution such as industrial emissions, poor sanitation, inadequate waste management, contaminated water supplies and exposures to indoor air pollution from biomass fuels affect large numbers of people. Even in developed countries, however, environmental pollution persists, most especially amongst poorer sectors of society. In recent decades, too, a wide range of modern pollutants have emerged—not least, those associated with road traffic and the use of modern chemicals in the home, in food, for water treatment and for pest control. Most of these pollutants are rarely present in excessively large concentrations, so effects on health are usually far from immediate or obvious. The interactions between humans and their physical surroundings have been extensively studied, as multiple human activities influence the environment. The environment is a coupling of the biotic (living organisms and microorganisms) and the abiotic (hydrosphere, lithosphere, and atmosphere) (Hagget, 1975).