Description
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the environmental problems confronting the Lagos Metropolis. The problems are both natural and man-made and can be grouped into physical, sociological and management. After describing the phenomena of poverty and environmental degradation, the paper examines the nature of prevalent environmental problems in the Lagos Metropolis and the causes, consequences and how infrastructure contributes to environmental degration. It was discovered that the urban poor play a major part in causing these problems. They are also particularly vulnerable to the consequences of problems. Lagos metropolis is quite far from achieving any of the targets of the Millennium Development Goals. The paper concludes by advancing good urban governance as a strategy for achieving a sustainable Lagos Mega-city and meeting the targets for the MDG’s.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER PAGE
TITLE PAGE
APPROVAL PAGE
DEDICATION
ACKNOWELDGEMENT
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER ONE
- INTRODUCTION
- URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION – CONCEPTUAL ISSUES
- CONTEXT OF THE RESEARCH – THE LAGOS METROPOLIS
- EFFECT OF THE STUDY
- TYPES OF LAND DEGRADATION
- TYPES OF LAND DEGRADATION
- OTHER TYPES OF DEGRADATION
- LIMITATON OF THE STUDY
CHAPTER TWO
- LITERATURE REVIEW
- REVIEW OF ENVIRONMENT
- REVIEW OF DEGRADATION
- REVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
- HUMAN ACTIVITIES ON THE ENVIRONMENT
- REVIEW OF LAND DEGRADATION
- PROBLEMS OF THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
- REVERSIBLE DEGRADATION AND LAND RECLAMATION
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 METHODOLOGY
- EMISSION OF GAS FROM TANKER VEHICLE ALONG IKORODU ROAD
- ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION IN THE LAGOS METROPOLIS
CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 IMPACTS ON ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION ON YIELD AND AREA YIELDS
4.2 OTHER SOURCES OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATIONSOLID WASTE
4.3 MAJOR CAUSES OF GAS TANKER EXPLOSION
CHAPTER FIVE
- CONCLUSION
- RECOMMENDATIONS: TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE LAGOS MEGACITY
- REFERENCES
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The critical problems facing cities of the developing world include deteriorating living conditions, increasing rates of death and diseases caused by pollution and poor sanitation. The environmental and social consequences of urbanization are quite visible. Conversion of environmentally fragile areas to shantytowns by indigent migrants highlights the inextricable environmental degradation. Environmental degradation is both a cause and consequence of poverty. The slum is the poster child of urban environmental degradation. Poverty puts pressure on people to engage in unsustainable and environmentally unfriendly practices.
In order to address the issues of environmental degration, The Millennium Declaration was adopted in September 2000. All the member countries of the United Nations agreed on a set of international development targets, designed to help create a better world. Consequently, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were put forward. These goals include those dedicated to eradicating poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development. Nigeria is a signatory to the Millennium Declaration and has a responsibility to implement the MDGs locally.
Today’s Nigerian city, according to Mabogunje (2002) is typified by substandard and inadequate housing, slums, and lack of infrastructure, transportation problems, low productivity, crime and juvenile delinquency. Poverty is also endemic in Nigerian cities. While available statistics put the national poverty level at 70% as at 2004(UNDP), a number of real indicators show that the current poverty level is actually higher than that.
Lagos represents the epitome of urban decay. The metropolis is replete with environmental problems ranging from slums and squatter settlements, to crime and delinquency. As far back as 1984, 42 settlements had been identified as blighted (UNCHS/Lagos State Government). The number has risen to about 100 as at 2004 (UN-Habitat/Lagos State Government). This paper, therefore seeks to inquire into the environmental problems in the Lagos metropolis. In order to sharpen the focus of the enquiry, the paper looks into the environmental degradation, traces the incidence of these problems from physical, sociological and management perspectives and analyses the effects of these issues on sustainable urban development. The paper concludes by advancing urban planning strategies for achieving environmental sustainability and thus meeting the targets of the Millennium Development Goals.
1.2 URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION – CONCEPTUAL ISSUES
Environmental degradation can be said to refer to specific forms and levels of deprivation, which impose major limitations on normal human functioning and existence (Akinyele, 1994). Poverty is inseparably linked to lack of control over resources including land, skills, knowledge, capital and social connections.
Section 38 of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency Act defines the environment as including water, air, land and all plants and human beings or animals living therein and the inter-relationships that exist between and among them. Degradation connotes reducing the quality of a thing. Environmental Degradation can thus be described as the process of reducing the quality of the environment. Koleosho and Adeyinka (2006) refer to environmental degradation as those activities that render the environment unhealthy and unsustainable over time.
Environmental degradation is inextricably intertwined, resulting in a vicious cycle in which causes environmental stress, which in turn perpetuates more poverty. When the physical environment in and around cities deteriorates, those most affected are the urban poor.
Environmental degradation puts pressure on people to engage in unsustainable and ecologically damaging practices. Bartone (1991) discovered that the urban poor, confined to economically fragile and ecologically vulnerable areas, contribute to the incidence of environmental degradation and urban congestion. According to him, economic disadvantages usually as a result of unemployment/ underemployment are the root causes of urban environmental degradation. Environmental degradation creates slums, shantytowns and squatter settlements. Akinbode (2002) corroborates this by saying that the concentration of the poor in unplanned settlements leads to the emergence of slums and shantytowns. The urban poor converge in certain geographic loci within the city. These loci, which have been identified by Aina(1990) as shantytowns are deprived settlements characterized by very high residential density, largely uninhabitable housing, and absence of sanitation, basic infrastructure and social services. George (2002) describes a slum as an environment in which a set of forces interact to give rise to a devalued physical and social image of an area by the larger community. Squatter settlements are uncontrolled illegal and temporary settlements.
Slums, shantytowns and squatter settlements exhibit similar characteristics. These include poor sanitary surroundings, dilapidated structures, high occupancy ratio, and physical dullness of surroundings in terms of landscaping and social amenities, inadequate provision or complete lack of public facilities, absentee landlords, low rent, haphazard architectural design and general features of vandalism.
Environmental degradation is an enormous threat to the political stability, social cohesion and environmental balance of our cities and until it is tackled decisively, sustainable urban development will remain a mirage.
3 CONTEXT OF THE RESEARCH – THE LAGOS METROPOLIS
The study is set in the Lagos Metropolis, Lagos state, South Western Nigeria, on the narrow coastal plain of the Bight of Benin. The metropolis, an estimated 300 square kilometres, is a group of islands endowed with creeks and a lagoon. The city began in the fifteenth century as a Portuguese trading post exporting ivory, peppers, and slaves, and comprises settlements that have grown from predominantly farming and fishing villages to highly urbanized settlements. Lagos metropolis is inhabited by about 80% of the population of the Lagos State making it the most urbanized state in Nigeria today. With a population of over 10 million people, it is regarded as a mega city (Mabogunje, 2002). Lagos is the commercial and industrial hub of Nigeria; this has attracted a high rate of migrants to the city.
The lagos metropolis is an environemntal disaster. The city reflects the epitome of contemporary urban decay; from overcrowded tenements, desecrated environment to growing crime. According to Nubi and Omirin (2006), a 2002 survey revealed that over 70% of the built up area of the Lagos metropolis is blighted. According to UNDP (2004), 51% of male residents and 54% of female residents of Metropolitan Lagos are poor.
1.4 EFFECT OF THE STUDY
The effects of the major environmental problems on both health and productivity are:
a.Water pollution and water scarcity: As per the estimation of UN, more than two million deaths and billions of illnesses a year are attributable to water pollution. Water scarcity compounds these health problems. Productivity is affected by the costs of providing safe water, by constraints on economic activity caused by water shortages, and by the adverse effects of water pollution and shortages on other environmental resources such as, declining fisheries and acquifer depletion leading to irreversible compaction.
b.Air pollution: As per the estimation of UN, urban air pollution is responsible for 300,000—700,000 deaths annually and creates chronic health problems for many more people. Restrictions on vehicles and industrial activity during critical periods affect productivity, as does the effect of acid rain on forests and water bodies.
c.Solid and hazardous wastes: Diseases are spread by uncollected garbage and blocked drains; the health risks from hazardous wastes are typically more localized, but often acute. Wastes affect productivity through the pollution of groundwater resources.
d.Soil degradation: Depleted soils increase the risks of malnutrition for farmers. Productivity losses on tropical soils are estimated to be in the range of 0.5-1.5 per cent of GNP, while secondary productivity losses are due to siltation of reservoirs, transportation channels and other hydrologic investments.
- Deforestation: Death and disease can result from the localized flooding caused by deforestation. Loss of sustainable logging potential and of erosion prevention, watershed stability and carbon sequestration provided by forests are among the productivity impacts of deforestation.
- Loss of biodiversity: The extinction of plant and animal species will potentially affect the development of new drugs; it will reduce ecosystem adaptability and lead to the loss of genetic resources.
- Atmospheric changes: Ozone depletion is responsible for perhaps 300,000 additional cases of skin cancer a year and 1.7 million cases of cataracts. Global warming may lead to increase in the risk of climatic natural disasters. Productivity impacts may include sea-rise damage to coastal investments, regional changes in agricultural productivity and disruption of the marine food chain.
1.5 TYPES OF LAND DEGRADATION
For the purpose of this study, the many and varied processes of land degradation have been grouped into six classes: water erosion, wind erosion, soil fertility decline, salinization, waterlogging, and lowering of the water table.
Water erosion covers all forms of soil erosion by water, including sheet and rill erosion and gullying. Human-induced intensification of landsliding, caused by vegetation clearance, road construction, etc., is also included.
Wind erosion refers to loss of soil by wind, occurring primarily in dry regions.
Soil fertility decline is used as a short term to refer to what is more precisely described as deterioration in soil physical, chemical and biological properties. Whilst decline in fertility is indeed a major effect of erosion, the term is used here of cover effects of processes other than erosion. The main processes involved are:
- lowering of soil organic master, with associated decline in soil biological activity;
- degradation of soil physical properties (structure, aeration, water holding capacity), as brought about by reduced organic master;
- Adverse changes in soil nutrient resources, including reduction in availability of the major nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium), onset of micronutrient deficiencies, and development of nutrient imbalances.
- Buildup of toxicities, primarily acidification through incorrect fertilizer use.
Waterlogging is the lowering in land productivity through the rise in groundwater close to the soil surface. Also included under this heading is the severe form, termed ponding, where the water table rises above the surface. Waterlogging is linked with salinization, both being brought about by incorrect irrigation management.
Salinization is used in its broad sense, to refer to all types of soil degradation brought about by the increase of salts in the soil. It thus covers both salinization in its strict sense, the buildup of free salts; and codification (also called alkalization), the development of dominance of the exchange complex by sodium. As human-induced processes, these occur mainly through incorrect planning and management of irrigation schemes. Also covered is saline intrusion, the incursion of sea water into coastal soils arising from over-abstraction of groundwater.
Lowering of the water table is a self-explanatory form of land degradation, brought about through tubewell pumping of groundwater for irrigation exceeding the natural recharge capacity. This occurs in areas of non-saline (‘sweet’) groundwater. Pumping for urban and industrial use is a further cause.
1.6 OTHER TYPES OF DEGRADATION
Other types of land degradation are treated briefly, treated as causes, or excluded from this review. This is because they are localized or of small extent on a regional scale, or because they are more fully treated elsewhere.
Four further classes are recognized as types of land degradation, and as having considerable importance in the region. One case, deforestation, has been treated by reference to an external review. The two other types are considered in more generalized terms.
Deforestation The occurrence of deforestation is widespread and extremely serious in the region. It is not independently assessed here, in view of more detailed treatment in the current FAO Forest resources assessment 1990 project. Deforestation is also discussed as a cause of erosion.
Forest degradation This is the reduction of biotic resources and lowering of productive capacity of forests through human activities. It is under review in a current survey (Banerjee and Grimes, in preparation).
Rangeland degradation This is the lowering of the productive capacity of rangelands. It is considered in generalized terms, but no quantitative data have been identified.
1.7 LIMITATON OF THE STUDY
Aridity and drought’Aridity’ and ‘drought’ are referred to in the ECOSOC resolution on which this study is based. These, however, are problems of the natural environment in semi-arid and aria areas. In the subsequent amplifications of the terms of reference it is clear that degradation, namely human-induced adverse environmental changes, is the intended focus. Therefore aridity and drought would only properly be included if it could be shown that rainfall had been reduced, or drought spells made more frequent, as a result of man’s activities. This has not been established.
Problem soils. Soils which present special difficulties for agriculture may be called problem soils. They include saline soils, sandy soils, cracking clays, strongly acid soils, shallow soils, and soils on steeply sloping or poorly drained land. A comprehensive review for Asia and the Pacific is given in FAO/RAPA (1990) and a map of problem soils is in preparation.
To the extent that these are problems of the natural environment, problem soils do not constitute land degradation. However, land degradation frequently leads to an increase in the extent or severity of problem soils, for example, erosion causes shallow soils. A clear case is that of saline soils: these occur naturally, in which case they are problem soils, but their extent has been greatly increased by human-induced salinization.
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 REVIEW OF ENVIRONMENT
The Oxford Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary of Current English defines environment as conditions, circumstances, etc affecting people’s lives. It is the complex of physical, chemical and biotic factors that acts upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determines its form and survival (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 4). Viewing the human environment from the economic point, Odiette (1993) describes it as natural, capital and analogous to financial capital assets. In this case, any damage done to the environment runs down capital, which sooner or later reduces the value of its recurrent services
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