Sustainable Development #16 Pollution of the environment

Hello steemians, this is my first post in a while on the series sustainable development. I will be writing on environmental pollution, as we all know that environmental pollution is a form of environmental degradation. When any factor or matter that is injurious to health is introduced to the environment, the environment is said to be polluted or contaminated.

Environmental pollution intensify after the industrial revolution increasing day by day and causing irreversible damge to nature in some cases. The factor or matter that pollutes is called a pollutant. Environmental pollution takes different forms and is caused by many factors or agents.

• Air pollution: This is the contamination of the air by the emission of gasses such as ammonia, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide, or visible matter such as smoke and soot, to the atmosphere. These pollutants come out of decomposing matter, open coal fires, vehicle exhaust, gas flares, and home or factory chimneys. Industrial workers are often exposed to inhaling polluted air from factory dust, fumes and chemicals, and are more likely to have respiratory diseases.
  
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• Water pollution: Water pollution happens when pollutants like bacteria, ordinary refuse, faeces, petroleum from oil spillage, mining and industrial waste are washed into streams or other sources of water supply, rendering the water harmful.
  
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• Land and soil pollution: this form of pollution is caused by decaying garbage, scrap heaps and other forms of solid waste which litter our surroundings. Also the careless disposal of factory waste, mining waste, oil spillage and deposits of lead precipitates in oil drilling sites.
  
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• Noise pollution: This is the release of unwanted noise and sound into the environment. Examples are noise from vehicles, factories, grinding machines, generating plants an heavy aircraft when landing or taking off.

Land, soil, water and air pollution is often related, because land dumps emit poisonous gases, smoke and unbearable stench into the air, and when rain falls the pollutants from the dumps either percolate down into the soil or washed down to the nearest stream or large water body available.

Effects of environmental pollution

• Pollutants are poisonous to human beings. Air pollution is known to be the cause of asthma, lung cancer and other forms of acute and chronic respiratory disease. Water pollution leads to cholera , hepatitis and other water borne diseases.
• Toxic pollutants kill not only humans but also plants , domestic and aquatic animals.
• Foods and economic goods deteriorate and spoil in quality when exposed to pollutants.
• Rubbish heaps are unsightly, psychologically depressing and often cause the obstruction of traffic flow when dumped by the road side. This is very common in developing nations where there is improper solid waste management.
• Scrap heap, industrial and mining waste degrade agricultural land and render it unusable for farming.
• Noise pollution cause discomfort and stress. It interfere with sleep, work and hearing, and has been proved medically to cause constriction of the blood vessels and tensing of the muscles.
• Atmospheric pollution and the fog or smog which forms when water vapour condenses around the soot particles, cause visibility problems, traffic congestion and accidents.

Mitigation and management of environmental pollution
To prevent, or at least reduce the ill effects of environmental pollution:

• The proper use of refuse bins in homes, offices and public places, to prevent the indiscriminate littering of the environment.
• Government should through its various sanitation agencies, provide adequate municipal refuse disposal facilities, plan and designated areas remote from cities as refuse dumping sites, re-cycle or adequately treat the refuse there and also enforce compelling legislation for the use of these facilities.
• Incompatible land uses in any city's master plan should be segregated to prevent the effect of pollution. Hospitals, schools and residential areas, which are noise sensitive, should be located far away from industrial or commercial zones which are noise producing.
• Industries should have a provision for proper waste disposal or waste re-cycling, with penalties for infringement.
• Legislation should be in place to discourage gas flaring and unsustainable mining activities.

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