Environmental Menace: Can We Survive It?

Environmental menace could be described as a threat to the surroundings caused by man's quest for comfort. These threats originate from the different activities that man has engaged himself with across the years in order to achieve his comfort. The activities may be classified under two main headings as domestic and industrial activities.

Generally, the threats appear in solid, liquid, or gaseous forms and are referred to as wastes. Let us examine these threats one after the other.

1. Threats due to Domestic Activities.

Most of the waste generated from our domestic activities are in solid form. Though not all of them are threats to the environment, the way and manner in which they are collected and/or disposed has made them so. In Nigeria, for instance, typical examples are seen in our cities, where due to poor refuse disposal means, domestic wastes are dumped rather carelessly, some blocking the water ways and consequently help to bring about flooding in the cities after rains.

Furthermore, mountains of refuse are common sites in Nigerian cities and towns. When sometimes there are attempts to dispose them off, the diseased work ethics we have which fears thoroughness would drive the cleaners to do a careless job such that some wastes will again be disposed along the streets. The effect of this indiscriminate dumping and in-appropriate means of handling them often lead to out break of diseases.

The other domestic activity which is a threat to the environment results primarily from poor economy. A reasonable percentage of the rural dwellers cannot afford kerosene for cooking. They depend solely on firewood to meet their daily cooking requirements thus resulting in the indiscriminate felling of trees. This contributes significantly to the problem of deforestation that may lead to erosion and flooding in the long run.

2. Threats due to Industrial Activities.

The bulk of the waste generated due to our industrial activities are either in the liquid or gaseous forms. These do not deface our cities like the solid wastes generated mainly from our homes. However, they seem to have more direct and devastating effect on our eco-system. An example is seen in the discharge of liquid waste into rivers or streams. These waste not only make the rivers and streams unsafe for our use, they also lead to the death of aquatic creatures in such rivers and streams. In the developing countries of the world where a greater percentage of the population depend on rivers and streams to meet their daily domestic water demand, discharge of such wastes into the river would leave them with the option of rain water as the only source of clean water but rainfall is only seasonal thing.

Another example is experienced in the so called acid rain. This occurs when gaseous effluents dissolve in the falling rain water. The acid rain is known to cause skin cancer in mammals, death of agricultural plants and equally leads to the rusting of roofs of buildings.

More recently, the problem of ozone layer depletion and global warming have been subjects of great concern to all the nations of the world. These problems, no doubt are as a result of our industrial activities. For instance, CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons) which deplete the ozone layer are gases used by the air conditioning and refrigerator, aerosol and foam industries.

How then do we survive these environmental threats? So long as there is life, domestic and industrial activities must continue. The way out lies in striking a balance between our activities which ultimately threaten the environment, and the state of the environment which should be protected for the continued existence of man. One way of achieving this is by evolving means of ensuring that these wastes are properly handled and well treated in such a way that their harmful or destructive effects on both man and his environment will be highly reduced.

In the developed countries of the world, the problems caused by the improper means of handling domestic wastes have been solved. Better methods have been evolved over the years. These include separation of the waste into bio-degradable and non bio-degradable and subsequently recycling of the non bio-degradable waste for further use. The bio-degradable ones are then treated and used as manure. Adoption of this method of handling domestic wastes in the developing countries like Nigeria will go a long way in reducing the problem of domestic wastes management.