Thursday, 14 March 2013

POVERTY- OUR COMMON ASSASSIN


Silently, I watch ‘Iya akara’, a recent widow with two small children scoop some spoons of ground beans into the bubbling oil while arranging more chunks of wood to burn under the tripod stand. I am vexed because this woman is contributing to environmental degradation, yet again, I feel pity for her; this poor woman who fries akara to fend for her children
And I ask myself, within myself, the solemn question- what is responsible for environmental degradation in Nigeria
To properly guide us through this engaging discourse, I will define the words ‘environment’ and ‘environmental degradation’. Environment has been defined by the Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary as conditions or circumstances affecting people’s lives. It has further been defined by the Encyclopaedia Britannica to mean a complex of physical, chemical and biotic factors that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determines its form of survival.
The term ‘environmental degradation’ is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil, the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife. Environmental degradation is a process through which the natural environment is compromised in some way reducing biological diversity and the general health of the environment. The process of environmental degradation can be entirely natural or accelerated by human activities.
Nigeria, like many developing nations of the world is faced head-on by the problem of environmental degradation. The problem of environmental degradation is in fact a more serious one than it appears since there is only one planet earth and as soon as it becomes irreparably compromised, it could signal the end of human existence. So the question on everyone’s mind remains ‘If environmental degradation is this serious a problem, why do people not stop activities that accelerate it, and instead adopt sustainability measures?’ this is the question I will answer within the course of this debate
Environmental degradation can happen in a number of ways; in one instance, air, water and soil resources become depleted through overuse. It could also result from pollution of the environment, where toxic substances render a normally safe environment, unsafe and unhealthy. This pollution could result from vehicle emissions, reckless sewage disposal, accidental runoff, agricultural chemical release from factories, burning of fossils, thermal power stations. These directly contribute to the popularised global warming. If we can also rightly recall, the ‘acid rain’ which was projected in 2010 in the country was an offshoot of environmental degradation, where sulphur oxide, carbon monoxide and nitro oxide were competing with oxygen in the atmosphere. These gases however were released into the air by Nigerians, through fossil burning, emissions from generators, vehicles and the negative returns stay with us. Is it poverty or conflict?
My debate on this topic is people-related, hence I will be using a number of practical illustrations to drive home my points. Iya akara, whom I introduced in my introduction, is a young widow on western Nigeria who has two small kids to fend for. Her husband died of a chronic case of malaria, since he had no access to the medicine he needed to cure him- they were way too costly. Iya akara resorted to frying akara for a living soon after her husband died in order to take care of her children. Iya akara’s fears of tomorrow are heightened because she has just enough money for two meals a day for her and her children. So, tell me, will this woman listen to anything anyone has to tell her about her burning of wood contributing to environmental degradation. Won’t she tag any such person as an ‘enemy of progress’? Iya akara is only an innocent but poor woman who is trying to make ends meet. Her only crime is that she is poor, and there are so many like her, whose poverty will keep causing environmental degradation in the country.
Mr Hassan is a small scale farmer in Northern Nigeria who has encountered a lot of obstacles while trying to acquire land to enlarge his small scale farming to something on a medium scale. With little money to acquire more land, Mr Hassan has applied for subsidies to enable him purchase, however there is no such thing forthcoming from the government. Hence, Mr Hassan has to keep farming on the same piece of land, year in year out. So tell me, will Mr Hassan listen to anyone who comes to him preaching ‘shifting cultivation’ as a panacea to environmental degradation when he has to survive and there is no money to acquire more expanse of land. Soon, the resources in that piece of land are depleted.
Okolie is a fresh school leaver in eastern Nigeria who is among the unemployed populace. While trying to make ends meet, luck smiles upon him when a friend approaches him to tell him of something that will put food on his table- sawing down trees for carpenters in the area. Despite the fact that the government has marked certain areas restricted from deforestation, Okolie takes the risk of taking the job, and soon the trees are falling again, and degrading the environment, Okolie’s own environment, but he doesn’t care as long as he can get to eat something. Okolie ambition isn’t to get rich, it is to stay alive.
 And so, poverty wins- again. Poverty has remained, is and will continue to remain the prime cause of environmental degradation in Nigeria. People are desperate to put food on their tables, and the system doesn’t make it any easier, so people keep killing their environment and themselves everyday in order to survive- The irony of it all.
The solution to environmental degradation starts with an answer to the begging question of poverty. The government should implement schemes that would alleviate poverty while intimating these folks on the importance of preserving their environment. Nobody gives two hoots about preserving their environments when they’re hungry. Environmental degradation will continue to increase at breakneck pace until the problem of poverty is solved.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Say something