Most times, when people talk about pollution, their minds usually go to the big things that causes pollution like oil factories releasing Large smoke into the air, cars releasing gases into the environment, oil spillage into the river or industries pouring chemicals into rivers. These are big causes of pollution but there are small things we do everyday that also contribute to pollution. These small things may look unimportant but have great implications.
Pollution is anything that makes the environment unfit for living and can be harmful and there are several minor things that we may see as normal but can actually cause pollution. One of them has to do with the noise pollution. Personally, I do not like too much noise. Anything that affects my peace, especially my sleep, feels like pollution to me. Even when someone is talking to me and what they are saying is not relevant or useful, it feels like noise pollution.
When there is too much sound in the environment like loud music especially from people having loud electronic speakers in their homes or people discussing and shouting or generators that has not been serviced making loud noise, this things contribute to noise pollution. Sometimes people do not service their generators or cars, and once they switch them on, the noise becomes unbearable. The whole environment becomes so noisy that it is hard for anyone to have peace or rest.
That is noise pollution.
Another form of pollution comes from how we handle waste. Many people throw plastic bags, leathers and empty bottles on the ground instead of using the dustbin. This may look like a small act, but it adds up to polluting the environment.
When these things are thrown around, they dirty the environment, block the drainage system and make the environment look very dirty.
Most times especially during rainy seasons, these plastics and leathers block the water passage and that is one of the reasons for flooding in many places. Water cannot flow freely because of the trash inside the gutters and the drainage system.
There are also people who throw used batteries and old electronics carelessly anyhow on the ground and most of these items contain harmful acids or chemicals. If these things are exposed to fire or heat, they can explode and cause harm to anyone nearby. I have personally experience that when I mistaken sleep a rechargeable battery into the fire. It exploded. Lucky for me I wasn't close to the fire.
I remember a day someone was burning tyres close to the house. The thick black smoke that came out covered the entire area. It was very hard to breathe. The smoke polluted the whole environment and these tyres release dangerous chemicals when burnt which can affect people’s health. The air becomes dirty and people living in that area can suffer from cough and breathing problems especially those having breathing issues.
Another pollution I experienced was during my service year in a community I served. In that community, people practiced open defecation. They come out and defecated openly behind their houses. The whole place used to smell badly. Whenever I'm passing some axis around the community, the air is always filled with bad odour. Aside from the smell, the faeces often flowed into the river during the rainy season. And the worst part is that the same river was where the people fetched water to drink, cook, bathe and do daily activities with. It was very disturbing to the extend that my colleague and I had to carry out sensitization in that community. We had to explained the dangers of open defecation and how it could lead to the spread of diseases like cholera, typhoid, and diarrhea if not stopped. Some of them didn’t know the health risks attached to open defecation not until we sensitised them.
So pollution is not just about big factories and industries releasing chemicals to the environment. It also comes from what we do daily, the little things we do like the noise we make, especially those that have loud electronic speakers at home and raising the volume to the highest limit or those discussing and shouting or the way we throw waste carelessly. Burning things like tyres, plastic or waste materials carelessly adds to pollution. These are things we can avoid if we are more careful and more responsible so that the environment can be healthy for living.
All pictures used in this post are taking by me.