ABSTRACT
The study focus on Environmental Pollution in Nigeria: causes and effects.
Nigeria's environment is under increasing threat from human activities and natural disasters. There are already certain ominous problems with the environment and visible scars associated with the destruction of the natural resource base (land, water and air) upon which all life depends are being noted. The country's large population of about 170 million and its rapid growth rate of 2.8 per cent are contributing to its environmental degradation. The key environmental issues facing Nigeria include land degradation, deforestation, and land, water and air pollution among others. Land is by far the most important resource necessary for subsistence. Simply, put land is that part of the earth's surface that is not covered by water, To this has to be added wetlands which are seasonally or permanently under water. Much of this land is rural, carrying farmlands and vegetation of various types as well as water reservoirs. This portion of the country’s land area is the stock from which urban uses are aggressively incurring into to meet growing unbridled nonland use demands. Earth mining for urban development is a major component of this “eating” up the rural land that has evidently been ignored over the years. Left uncontrolled as it is today, future access to rural land for agriculture will be precarious.
Even the land now under rural use is severely threatened. Much of Nigeria's arable land is being sapped insidiously of its productive potential through overuse, inappropriate technologies and urbanization. Rapid deforestation, resulting from multiple uses of forest resources for human survival (e.g. fuel wood and energy, housing etc.) is a major contributing factor to land degradation. The end result of deforestation and other agricultural activities, including intensive grazing, and over-cultivation, is severe land degradation. Fossil fuel use, particularly oil and gas exploration, has aggravated the problem of ecological damage in the Niger Delta. Similarly, indiscriminate and illegal mining for tin and columbite on the Jos Plateau and other mineral resources in many parts of Nigeria have left many areas of the country severely degraded. There is also a growing concern about air and water pollution, associated with continued urbanization and industrialization in the country. Pollution from oil exploration activities and gas flaring in the Niger Delta remains a source of concern to the government. Oil spills from leaking underground pipelines and storage tanks are a regular occurrence, rendering vast tracts of land and water bodies unproductive in the region. National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) recorded in first half of the year 2007 a total of 424 spill incidents involving 33,799 barrels of oil. In addition, pollution from gas flaring goes on daily because the flare-free deadline set by government has been postponed many times. The resultant heat stress and acid rain continue to degrade the ecosystem. Nigerians in general are increasingly being exposed to the hazards of highly polluted gaseous and dust emissions from industries and vehicles and dangerous industrial wastes that are constantly being discharged into the environment.
However, little research has been done. Against the backdrop of this research, this study therefore attempts to examine environmental Pollution in Nigeria: causes and effects.
