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EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL IN YENAGOA AND THE INTRODUCTION OF MODERN WASTE MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The human race dwells in a dual world. The first is the original natural world of plants, animals, and water bodies etc., this world precedes the human existence by billions of years dating from the Precambrian, Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic Era till recent times which we are a part of now. 

The second is the world of social institutions and artefacts that we create for ourselves using science, technology and political organisation. These two worlds are essential to our lives, but harmonizing them successfully has caused a lasting tension. The early human inhabitants of the earth had very limited ability to alter their surroundings, but now we have developed tremendous ability to extract and consume resources, produce waste and modify our world in ways that now threatens our existence as humans and that of other organisms sharing the planet with us. In order to ensure a safe environment for ourselves and a sustainable future for generations unborn, there is the need to understand how the dual world works and what we can do to protect and improve the society.

SOCIETY

The world we live in today consists of people with diverse societal values. The term society is very ambiguous, thus lacking a precise meaning and connotation (Ingiabuna, 2004:18). (Marshall, 1996) defined a society as a group of people who share a common culture, occupy a common territorial area, and feel themselves to constitute a unified and distant entity. In the sociological vocabulary, the term society refers to a group of people bounded by the complex pattern of the norms of interaction. It is viewed as a chain of social relationships (Shah, 2013:21). A relationship is social when it is determined by mutual awareness, that is, the behaviour of one individual influences the behaviour of another (Merton, 1938). Humans have established and lived in different types of societies characterized by unequal access to resources, prestige, knowledge and innovation. These societies can be summarized in the Pre-Industrial, Industrial and Post-Industrial Societies.

ENVIRONMENT

The word “environment” is of French origin “environner”, meaning to encircle or surround. (Webster, 2015) defined the environment as the conditions that surround someone or something: the conditions and influences that affect the growth, health, progress, etc., of someone or something. These are the very things we depend upon on a daily basis e.g. water, food, market, industries, air, plants, and animals etc, the environment is a complexly interwoven system of ecology where a simple or drastic change in one aspect can emphatically or continually affect other aspects

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT

According to (cbdNews, 2015) Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a process of evaluating the likely environmental impacts of a proposed project or development, taking into account inter-related socio-economic, cultural and human-health impacts, both beneficial and adverse. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) also Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a tool used to identify the environmental, social and economic impacts of a project prior to decision-making. It aims to predict environmental impacts at an early stage in project planning and design, find ways and means to reduce adverse impacts, shape projects to suit the local environment and present the predictions and options to decisionmakers. By using EIA both environmental and economic benefits can be achieved, such as reduced cost and time of project implementation and design, avoided treatment/clean-up costs and impacts of laws and regulations. (Echefu and Akpofure, 2002:66) mentioned that in Nigeria the principal legislation on EIA is Decree 86 of 1992 which made EIA mandatory for both public and private sectors for all development projects. It has three goals and thirteen principles for how these are to be achieved. The goals are: 1. Before any person or authority takes a decision to undertake or authorize the undertaking of any activity that may likely or significantly affect the environment, prior consideration of its environmental effects should first be taken. 2. To promote the implementation of appropriate procedures to realize the above goal. 3. To seek the encouragement of the development of reciprocal procedures for notification, information exchange and consultation in activities likely to have significant trans-state (boundary) environmental effects.