ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ASSESSMENT IN UGHELLI, DELTA STATE

Abstract

Environmental quality deterioration is the consequence of unregulated development and growth in urban areas in Cities of the developing countries. But there is no commensurate response to providing sustainable remedies to some of the environmental problems in the cities and towns. This study investigated the deterioration of environmental quality using selected indicators in Ughelli town, Delta State. 24 local indicators were selected to assess environmental quality in Ughelli town and results were largely consistent with literature with few exceptions. In depth interview sessions revealed a lack of synergy between relevant agencies of government saddled with the responsibility to enforce laws to improve environmental quality. Indiscriminate waste disposal, flooding, slums, erosion, land degradation, air and noise pollution, and poor compliance to approved building plans were the major environmental problems emanating from the rapidity of growth and expansion of the town. The study revealed that the informal sector is very difficult to regulate and has contributed enormously to environmental degradation. Outcome of One Way Analysis of Varianceshowed a remarkable variation in some of the indicators (waste disposal, poor compliance to approved building plan, noise pollution and congestion with the significant level 0.012, 0.038, 0.018, 0.0001 respectively) in the three sampled zones. But flooding and Erosion demonstrated that there is no variation across the 3 zones with the significant level of 0.479 which connotes that flooding and Erosion occurs in the same magnitude in the core, intermediate and urban fringe. Further Tukey HSD Post-Hoc test showed that variation in environmental quality is more visible between the core and urban fringe as the difference between the core and intermediate, and between the intermediate and urban fringe is not easily decipherable. Environmental problems are more severe in the urban core, less severe in the intermediate zone and moderate in the fringe zone. The strongest recommendation of this study is the urgent need to domesticate the Urban Sustainability Framework (USF) designed by the World Bank for countries with interest in Sustainable Cities, Towns and Communities (SDG 11).This recommendation and other recommendations in chapter 6 can guide relevant agencies of government to make improved decisions on environmental management to actualize SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities).