Protecting The Environment Is Actually Protecting Lives- EIA Expert Warns
By Trek Africa Newspaper
• Responsibility begins with knowledge and awareness
For obvious reasons during rainy season, there are some environmental issues, such as flooding, erosion, waste and pollution thereby creating some potential for disease prevalence in terms of contamination and pollution of water systems leading to waterborne diseases.
Managing these issues requires joint responsibility of the government and the people.
The government set the regulations, policies and guidelines for environmental protection and waste management, its the responsibility of the populace to comply with the requirements for environmental protection.
Responsibility begins with knowledge and awareness on the impact of some of those actions or inactions regarding environmental protection and waste management
This is because when everyone becomes aware of the impact of environmental degradation, indiscriminate waste disposal and pollution on their health, everyone will realize that protecting the environment is actually protecting lives.
Therefore, let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap- so if you are aware that what you are doing is protecting the environment and invariably saving your life, then you will take responsibility.
Of course government takes the leading role in providing policies, laws, framework and infrastructures such as landfills, dump sites, corporate organisations and individuals can invest in waste treatment facilities and advocacies in environmental protection and waste management to promoting sound and sustainable environmental management initiatives.
Government plays the leading roles by creating the enabling environment and enforcement of compliance with regulations and guidelines to ensuring the goals of sustainable environmental management are achieved.
You dont just dump waste carelessly. There are ways to handle the different categories of waste. Some can be hazardous, while some are domestic/ non-hazardous, some can also be inert waste while others are radioactive.
Meanwhile some of the people who generate these waste dont give attention to the category of waste or know if it’s within permissible limits for discharge into the environment. For instance you see people discharging spent hydrocarbons products like lube oil, waste oil into open drains and soil with impunity, they discharge it anyhow without recourse to the impact of those substance on the environmental media such as soil, ground water.
This is where government and corporate bodies come in to create awareness on waste management and environmental protection.
It is expected that the people will take responsibility once they know what the law stipulates, and information regarding waste management facilities.
There are private-public partnership initiatives just like we have in Lagos. This provides the leverage for people to keep their wastes in their homes where waste trucks will come and pick them up to the dump site or landfill. In that wise, people have confidence but If that is not in place the significant population will have no choice than to dispose the waste in their most convenient way.
That’s how and why it is shared responsibility between the population and the government.
In relations to the rest of the world, we know our institutions are not matured, our systems and processes are not yet strong.
Take for instance In other parts of the world where you build per approved design and those designs will incorporate the plan for sewage disposal, so you don’t release your effluent into the drain.
There are sewers, septic tanks that will aggregate those and transport them to a sewage treatment plant which is central, here we don’t have such facilities so people have no choice than to release their effluent, like wastewater from the bathroom going into the drain because there are no systems or structures to aggregate those effluent to the treatment plant. This is a remarkable difference between us and the developed world where these systems are in place.
Same thing can be applied with solid wastes.
Such an interesting experience knowing that our work at Principles and Application of Environmental Impact Assessment (EiawithBenard) is saving lives and protecting the planet Earth. Very interesting to know that what you are bringing to the table goes a long way to protect our support system for living. You too, can let your contributions add value.
ABOUT EIAwithBenard
The expression Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), is a globally accepted tool used by environmental experts to systematically assess the cause-effect relationship between development activities and environmental sustainability as man continues his widespread and almost unabated development of his immediate environment.
Dr. Benard Omoyeni is the Author of the renowned EIA book titled: Principles and Application of Environmental Impact Assessment, a book that is widely circulated among the tertiary institutions of learning in Nigeria and accepted for sales on Amazon.com
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