Whenever I look at my environment and see how it has degraded, I often wonder if the earth will still be able to accommodate the subsequent generations.
I was discussing with a friend the other day and he opened my eyes to the fact that earth is a living thing and just as anything that has life dies if not properly taken care of, the earth can die as well.
It's a pitiful thing that we enjoy so much from our environment, oxygen, food, water and so on, but we don't bother to handle it with care.
Pollution is one of the things that destroys our environment. It is so sad that it is on the increase every day.
if you don't find one form of it, you will definitely find the other. These days it's as if we have finally accepted it as fate and we are comfortably living with it.
Improper refuse disposal is one of the sources of pollution that is confronting my environment at the moment. I don't know if it's lack of education or carelessness, almost every free land is considered an area for dumping of refuse.
Someone might say but it's just refuse, it can add manure to the soil. That's very true but if you are opportune to see the kind of waste I am talking about you would understand why I am lamenting.
There is this back road that leads from my house to the main road. It's one of the roads that everyone loves to use because of how easy it is.
People used to dump refuse close to the road and it is not only refuse that can decay without disturbing the environment. It's things like rotten food, dead animals, bottles, even used medical equipment.
Sometimes, our environment stinks badly as a result of those things, especially during the heat season. Funny enough that place is not sited far from houses, it's within.
This dumping of refuse doesn't only occur on land, even on water bodies. All the streams in my community have been blocked, people instead of dumping refuse where they can be burnt over time to prevent contaminating the environment, they throw them into water bodies and drainage systems, now those water bodies look so dirty and even stink. I doubt if aquatic animals still exist there.
Another source of pollution we are struggling with is noise from deforestation. The only time we have peace is at night, once the day breaks, those annoying machines come by and begin to disturb the environment with noise until evening. I thought they would cease soon but it seems to be increasing each day.
Bush burning is another source of pollution that disturbs the environment here. Now that it's dry season, the people around here usually go hunting, they set bushes on fire and disturb the environment with smoke, sometimes preventing visibility and generating unbearable heat that has the potency to affect the soil and its organisms.
These things might look harmless but seriously, it is destroying our environment and with time, I fear we might not be able to settle in certain areas if care is not taken.
Solutions
There is no kind of problem that can't be solved, even if a perfect solution isn't provided, something can be done that can save the situation.
Waste disposal is something that can be handled even by the people, the community can carve out a place far from the residential area for dumping of waste for her people.
All sorts of waste should be dumped there and burnt when they are dried. Anyone caught dumping waste anywhere else should be penalized. This will make our environment neat and also prevent unnecessary burning that affects the ozone layer.
Illegal hunting and burning of bush should be sanctioned, a specific time should be slated out for hunting, maybe once in three years so that it will allow nature recovery and also bushes near residential areas should not be burnt in the name of hunting but cleared when due to keep the environment neat.
Some of the misfortune we experience in our environments are usually not natural, sometimes it's our carelessness that causes them. If only we will begin to do things right and take caution, I believe our environments will be safe for us and our children.