Environmental Protection Agency Strategy for Reducing Health Risks in Urban Areas
Chapter One
Research Objectives
The general objective of this research work is to analyse environmental protection agency strategy for reducing health risks in urban areas. However, te following specific objectives are formed for the purpose of the research project;
- To evaluate the roles of the environmental protection agency in reducing health risks in urban areas in Nigeria
- To assess the performance of environmental protection agency in reducing health risks in urban areas in Nigeria
- To investigate problems affecting the effectiveness of environmental protection agency in reducing health risks in urban areas in Nigeria.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
The world’s population is put at about 6.572 billion people out of whom the United Nations data indicated that about 3 billion people (50 percent) live in urban areas (UNCHS, 2007). Whereas about 66 percent of the entire world’s population lived in the countryside in the early 1950s (World Bank, 2000; IMF, 2006), current estimates show that by 2030, about 61 percent of the total population in the world will be living in cities; and that all the world’s increase in population in the next three decades will occur in low and middle income countries (Peters, 2000:2; UNFPA, 2007). In view of the implications of the increasing urban population for sustainable development in low and middle-income countries, the 2002 Johannesburg’s World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) called on all governments to address the overwhelming challenge of provision of urban basic services especially decent houses, water and sanitation for the teeming people in slums where the quality of life is appalling. While continents like Europe and the Americas have stabilised their population growth and economy to a large extent, most countries in African, Asia and Latin America have in the last few decades not been able to deliver on their promises of alleviating the precarious state of living environment of their citizens (UNHABITAT, 2003).
Within the global context, Africa is generally assessed as a rural and the least urbanized continent with the antecedent high rate of slum development, crime, underdevelopment as well as overpopulation. However, in most recent time, current trends suggested that Africa’s rate of urbanization is two times faster than Latin America and Asia (Tannerfeldt, 1995; UNCHS, 2007). Globally, rapid urbanization is a major public health challenge for the twenty-first century and in Africa urbanization appears not to have translated to proportionate economic growth and better welfare for the citizens (Kjellstrom and Mercado, 2008). For instance, out of the twenty countries identified by the United Nations as possessing the lowest human development index (HDI) in 2005, about 19 representing 95 percent are in Africa. Within the sub-Saharan Africa for an example, there are well over 166 million urban slum dwellers, which also represent about 71.9 percent of its total urban population, and thus there is increasing urban poverty and low life expectancy in the region (UN-HABITAT, 2005a).
Conservative estimates indicated that within the next two decades, 87 percent of the population growth in Africa will take place in urban areas out of which about 55 percent would be living in urban areas. In view of the increasing environmental deterioration as a result of rapidly growing urban population without proportionate economic growth, seven African cities were selected for the start-up of the New Partnerships for African Development (NEPAD) Cities Programme to address the situation. The cities are Rabat in Northern Africa, Bamako and Lagos in West Africa, Durban in South Africa, Lusaka in Southern Africa, Douala in Central Africa and Nairobi in East Africa.
In Nigeria, Mba et al (eds) (2004) identified several types of environmental problems classified as ecological, poaching and habitat loss, increasing desertification and soil erosion. These are further subdivided into pollution, deforestation, global warming and slum development, etc. Nigeria’s coastal regions are currently experiencing widespread contamination from petroleum exploration (gas flaring, oil spillage) while the general poor living conditions in urban areas in the country constitutes an affront to human dignity. However, Mba et al (eds.) (2004) were of the opinion that pollution from oil activities should probably be given only a moderate priority in the light of Nigeria’s other severe environmental problems. They identified deforestation resulting from road projects, subsistence activities, logging, mining, and dam construction as constituting the greatest threat to environmental sustainability in the country.
In view of the above, this paper examines the environmental protection agency strategy for reducing health risks in urban areas, the adverse effects of environmental problems on sustainable development in Nigeria. It addresses the causes of urban environmental problems and their effects on humans and the surrounding ecological system. This paper hopes to explore the implications of the increasing environmental problems spurred up by human activities for sustainable development. This is with a view to making recommendations that might provide the road map to addressing the situation. It is the opinion of the paper that the attainment of sustainable development will remain a mirage in developing countries in general and Nigeria in particular if the current rate of urban population growth and increasing environmental decay are not matched with proportionate economic growth and environmentally friendly development practices.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
Methodological Approach
The bulk of the data used in this paper was derived from archival sources (Nwabughuogu, 1984) and content analysis of different research findings (Okewole, 1999) in relation to environmental problems due to impacts of human production and consumption activities in major urban centres in Nigeria. Also a good proportion of the data were those complied through observations in the course of involvement in physical development as architects, as well as teacher–student interactions in urban settings in Nigeria in which the authors have been involved over the years.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS
Main Features of the Urban Health Crises in Nigeria
The environment
The issues of environment and urban health refer to the continued exposure to the risks of infectious diseases and injuries associated with poor sanitation, unsafe drinking water, heaps of solid waste, dangerous roads, polluted air, and toxic wastes, all of which are environmental health problems of poverty. Urban poverty is the most important predictor of the environmental health risks because in its broadest sense it also includes other forms of deprivation: physical assets, political influence, access to basic services, and access to social capital. Before the turn of 21 century, poverty in Africa and indeed Nigeria was predominantly a rural phenomenon. It has many dimensions, which are part of the social reality of the poor in Nigeria, tends to be virtually re-enforcing, and trapping the poor in a vicious circle. The structural imbalances of the economy, bad governance, and an inappropriate development agenda and debt burden have been attributed to be major causes of poverty prevailing in Nigeria.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
The review has shown that managing environmental health issues of urban growth and urbanization in Nigeria have become one of the most important challenges of the 21 century. Urbanization has been seen as potential driver of economic development, industrialization, human welfare, and structural transformation as it makes cities become engine of growth and sustainable development. Hence, if managed carefully, urbanization could help to reduce hardship and human suffering; on the other hand, it could also increase urban poverty and squalor. As the nation grabbles with urbanization and urban health crises, two potential issues need to be addressed urgently. First, the law has to be amended to legalize the settlements of urban poor. These settlements have to be recognized as permanent features of urban life. This way, the settlements can have a legal status and be part of all future urban development planning. The urban poor are a problem of the nation and not that of urban authorities. Second, the Federal Government need to source for funds to channel to urban authorities nationwide for proper urban planning and development. Because of the nature of dominant health problems associated with rapid urbanization, these health problems can be addressed through the nine basic components of PHC (i.e. health education, food supply and proper nutrition, safe water supply and basic sanitation, maternal and child health, immunization, prevention of endemic diseases, treatment of common diseases and injuries, and provision of essential drugs). Finally, improved health outcomes will need a concerted effort to create and maintain the so-called urban advantage through reshaping of city environment. There is urgent need for institutional and legal frameworks to reinvigorate urban renewal. This will require inter-sectorial approach through the building of political alliance for urban health that involves stakeholders, urban planners, health officials, and practitioners.
Urban environmental problems are of different dimensions and are mostly due to geologic, climatic and cultural factors. However, the cultural factors seems to be more pronounced in the Nigerian context because most of the identified urban environmental issues are so much associated with the way of life of the people either as reactions to urbanization or their spatial heritage. Their effects are far reaching on efforts to attain sustainable development in the country. Since no section of the country’s urban environment is immune to environmental effects, there is urgent need to seek workable solutions by the application of planning, economic, legal, institutional and educational tools as have been suggested here. It is hoped that if these tools are properly adopted it will result in the enculturation of the right environmental protection and management practices that would prevent the further deterioration of our physical urban environment.
Recommendations
The NEPAD initiatives, National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies (NEEDS) and Vision 2020 have gradually embraced a new concept of sustainable development in the face of rapid urbanization and increasing environmental problems in Nigeria. These strategies embrace relationship between all human settlements, from small urban centres to metropolises, and between towns and cities and their surrounding rural areas. As intractable these approaches may appear, they are potent, dynamic and desirable forces for development. For these initiatives to produce the desired impact in Nigeria, they must adopt strategies that would make significant impact on problems and issue related to urbanization, attitudinal orientation and lapses in legal and institutional frameworks in environmental protection. Based on these, this research project offers the following suggestions in addressing these issues.
Rural –Urban migration remains one of the major contributors to the ever increasing urban population growth in Nigeria; this is probably due to the perceived wide gap between the urban and rural areas in terms of job opportunities and availability of basic infrastructural facilities. This infrastructure gap has to be bridged through comprehensive rural infrastructure provision. There is urgent need for the government to enter into partnerships with Community-Based Organizations in rural infrastructure provision. This will promote the establishment of agro-based industries, provide incentives for younger people to go into agricultural activities and make life worth living in rural areas. These will eventually reduce the number of immigrants to the urban areas and consequently cut down on the rate of urban population growth.
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