A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF AIR POLLUTION AND ITS CAUSES. A RESEARCH PROJECT MATERIAL ON ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

posted on October 1, 2018

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF AIR POLLUTION AND ITS CAUSES. A RESEARCH PROJECT MATERIAL ON ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Nigeria, located in West Africa, has a total land area of 983,213 square kilometers, the estimated population is over 150 million people (World Bank Population Figures) yielding an average density of more than 120 persons per square kilometers.

Industrial activities, in its modern forms, are relatively recent in the history of Nigeria’s economic development. During the pre-colonial period, Nigeria featured considerable craft industry as modern factory activity was then not known. With the advent of the Second World War and its aftermath, the economy of Nigeria changed tremendously and there were demands from Europe for industrial raw material. With time, due to the low technological base, industrial development took on the assembly-type pattern of import substitution (Wikipedia, 2015). However, political self determination since 1960 did provide the opportunity for improving on its import substitution strategy as well as developing its potentials for real industrial take off through capital goods industry. Prior to the discovery of Crude Oil in Oloibiri, Rivers State in 1956, agriculture (before 1970) was the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. The Oil boom witnessed in the 1970’s led to a tremendous increase in industrial activities. With financial resources available from oil and no development policy, unguided urbanization and industrialization took place. As desirable and necessary as this development was, it became an albatross not of itself but because of the lack of appropriate environmental protection policies to guide it. The result was the indiscriminate silting of industries, deforestation and desertification, disregarding the need for environment concern. The process technology of some of these industries often resulted in unacceptable levels of toxic and dangerous industrial wastes and effluent emissions. These culminated in the degradation of the environment and devastating ecological and human disasters over the last three decades there has been increasing global concern over the public health impacts attributed to environmental pollution in particular, the global burden of disease.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates about a quarter of the diseases facing mankind today occur due to prolonged exposure to environment pollution. Most of these environment-related diseases are however not easily detected and may be acquired during childhood and manifested later in adulthood.

Industry plays an important role in the process of economic development in the world. It enhances the economics welfare of citizens and supplies the material goods they consume. The way in which society will develop in the future is largely dependent on how the growth which industry generates is distributed. Industry is also a major consumer of natural resources and a major contributor to the overall pollution load. Based on OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) estimates, it accounts for about one-third of global energy consumption of their member states and for about 10percent of the total water withdrawal. The relative contribution to the total pollution is obliviously higher for industry-related pollutants. The individual sector generates both traditional pollutants (e.g., Organic substances, sulfur dioxide, particulates and nutrients) and newly-recognized pollutants (e.g., specific toxic substance). The industrial sector includes a number of diverse activities created by industry.

Thus, industry has particular environmental responsibilities in terms of such factors as plant location and design, environmental pollution, vibration and noise controls, waste disposal, occupational health and safety aspects, and long range planning.