Our Environment And Us

Due to the increasing size of the human population which leads to a high level of consumer goods in demand and supply, as well as technological innovations in meeting the needs of society, the environment is endangered. In my country, particularly where I reside, during the rainy season most cities are heavily flooded due to blocked waterways by plastics and cans disposed indiscriminately by people. Many people have lost their homes and properties due to damages caused by these floods.

The call to save the environment is for all citizens— individuals, groups and government.

Individuals can leads the march by taking personal responsibility of saving and preserving the environment by ensuring to abide by sanitary standards of living such as:
• Recycling plastics and cans instead of disposing of them indiscriminately.
• Make proper use of waste bins and incinerators.
• Call the attention of authorized waste management agencies to illegal waste dumping.
• Carrying out weekly, or monthly environmental sanitation exercises around their homes such as clearing bushes around the house or street corners, removal of accumulated waste in gutters etc.

Local communities can form sanitation groups to join hands in carrying out the above activities where individual efforts are not enough. Communities can form alliances with governments in executing environmental preservation policies in their various communities as well as enforcement of laws against environmental degradation.

Government is a major agent of social change in some countries. The people might not even realize how much their environment is degraded until the effects start becoming hazardous. Government should:
• Carry out environmental enlightenment or awareness campaigns to educate the public about environmental degradation and preservation.
• Ensure that heavy duty factories or industries abide by standard environmental safety practices in their production activities to prevent the degradation of the environment of host communities.
• Laws against environmental degradation such as indiscriminate disposal or dumping of refuse, illegal cutting down of trees or hunting, illegal disposal of industrial waste etc should be firmly followed up by clearly defined sanctions against defaulters.
• Laws for proper environmental or town planning should be enacted so as to avoid indiscriminate building of houses or other structures that might constitute environmental nuisance.