ENVIROMENTAL IMPACT IN NIGERIA.

The Environment is the totality of atmospheric edaphic and aquatic resources of nature as well as their living,dead and non living components.Although these environmental resources and their components are always at equillibrium with themselves,the living resources cause change in this component species of the environment through their routine activities.these creates changes in the environment which result in the commensurate modification of the plant and animal community,with the most sensitive and more stressed less able to compete.Despite this the environment is dynamic and because plant and animal populations have evolved in conformity with their aggregate environment,there has resulted natural evolution through systematic adaptation to natural changes within the environment.However population explosion,urbanisation in recent times have resulted in man’s gross pollution of the environment leading to accumulation of these solid ,liquid ,gaseous and excess energy in significantly higher than normal concentrations.The effect is the drastic alteration of the pattern ,trend and mode of natural evolution causing injury and damage to environmental populations including man.

In Nigeria as in other developing and developed economies, these diverse activities need to be understood in details to ascertain their implication in environmenal degradation.

URBANISATION AND POPULATION EXPLOTION.

  As population increases, there is an attendant increase in the demand for housing and expansion of cities.This results in an increase in the volume and possibly the complexity of the waste generated.Similarly, the liquid wastes of various composition as well sewage will increase simultaneously.In Nigeria where few sewage facilities exist,treatment of sewage is a far cry from what obtains in developed economy where the resulting waste water is subject to bio-chemical treatment to produce cleansed water of highly acceptable quality.A very important problem accompanying this is the rise in the level of water borne diseases as a result of the contamination of drinking water sources by the waste waters.Similarly, where raw sewage is dumped into the sea as is practised in most of the coastal cities and towns, these wastes foul the receiving water media , de-oxygenating the aquatic environment, making it unsuitable for fish and other aquatic animals to survive.Also such improper disposal method for sewage create a significant odour nuisance that will result in the aquatic medium.Some of the few sewarages and sewage treatment works are hardly maintained that these easily break down spilling sewage effluent through or into aqueducts-contaminating drinking water network.Such is very visible in inland cities like Kano and Ibadan.

From SAMUEL O. ADOUN.DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY,ZARIA-NIGERIA.