A healthy environment, ideally, is one that supports the well-being of all living beings - humans, animals, and ecosystems - by maintaining balance, sustainability, and resilience.
A healthy environment should be free from air pollutants like particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds. Water should also be free from pollutants; it should be safe and accessible for drinking and other activities.
Our environment can't even be healthy because of the rate at which we are using land without thinking of conserving any to help prevent erosion and earthquakes. Even agriculture that we practice now is all about chemicals; nobody wants to grow their crops the natural way without chemical fertilizers, which in turn has started reducing the pollinator population.
Here in Port Harcourt, everybody wants to build on a land they bought, especially the Ikwerre part, forgetting that the house will need windows for ventilation, a walkable pathway, and channels for drainage. The pattern in which houses are built in that part of Port Harcourt makes it impossible to reduce sprawl and pollution.
As for managing waste, that's a story for another day, especially for those living close to the water body in Port Harcourt. They don't even bother to bag their waste; they will just dispose of it directly into the water body.
What component should be put in place before it can be deemed fit?
When everybody learns to bag their waste in and dispose of it properly, clean their gutters and surroundings without waiting until sanitation day to do so. When plastics are not thrown into the water bodies.
Let the waste management team do their work on time, like employing more hands to dispose of waste instead of allowing it to litter on the road, in the market place, and cause air pollution before they will do the needful.
Is my environment healthy?
Is there any environment in Nigeria that is healthy?Let me start with the state I am in, Rivers State used to be one of the cleanest states during the reign of our former governor Rotimi Amaechi. There is sanitation every last Saturday of the month.
If you fail to bag your waste, you will be arrested. Even if you are in a bus and drink sachet water, you are not allowed to throw the sachet out of the window or you will pick every single sachet around. Bunkering wasn't the order of the day; we breathed fresh air but not now.
Almost everywhere is littered with dirt, some places people have turned the road divider into a dump site; bunkering has made breathing hard for people. My environment is not a hundred percent clean; we are working towards that.
What do I need to do?
I make sure to keep my surroundings clean and free of dirt. But living with dirty neighbors is not funny. I will dispose of my waste properly, but they will just use a parker and pour it on top of the waste bin. Some things I allow to be fine, I just sweep them clean. I can't do anything about the constant noise of their children and the parents always exchanging words or fighting or the neighbor who can't keep one woman. I will keep trying my best to keep my environment clean until I move out.
Images are AI generated
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