‘SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT IS THE NEED OF THE HOUR’

IWOULD like to welcome and introduce you to my column that would be published here on Fridays. The column will be talking about environmental issues and sustainable management of the environment. This is because the environment is a determinant of health and the disease burden keeps rising due to poor management of the environment.

For instance, due to pollution and deforestation, the health of many people has become poor. Conserving the Environment would certainly improve the health of people.

Most noteworthy, saving the environment would reduce many diseases and certainly protect the animals. Doing good to the environment would protect the ecosystem.

According to the National Geographic Society, an ecosystem is a geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as weather and landscape, work together to form a bubble of life. Ecosystems contain biotic or living, parts, as well as abiotic factors, or nonliving parts.

Biotic factors include plants, animals, and other organisms. Abiotic factor include rocks, temperature, and humidity.

This column, therefore, is one the efforts employed to contribute protecting the environment from severe damage and subsequently reduce the disease burden in Zambia.

According to Biology Online, environment refers to the natural surroundings and conditions in which we live. If you mean physical environment, then it is defined as the surrounding conditions and elements with which a living thing interacts with.

However, apart from the physical, there are other types of elements that make up an environment.

They are the chemical and biological attributes. Thus, an environment contains all biotic and abiotic factors that have a role in the survival, evolution, and development of the organism occupying it.

A related term “environ” is defined as “to surround” or “to enclose”. The scope of the environment varies - from the tiniest, “micro” scale to the largest, global scale.

Unfortunately, the environment has come under serious threat. This threat is almost entirely due to human activities. These human activities have certainly caused serious damage to the environment. Most noteworthy, this damage risks the survival of living things on earth.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to save the environment.

First of all, planting trees should be given massive attention. Above all, a tree is the source of oxygen. Unfortunately, due to construction, many trees have been cut down. This certainly reduces the amount of oxygen in the environment.

Growing more trees means more oxygen. Hence, growing more trees would mean better life quality.

Similarly, people must give attention to forest conservation. Forests are important for the environment. However, deforestation certainly reduces the area of forests.

The government and its stakeholders should continue investing in programmes to conserve the forests. If anything, the government should make harming forests a criminal offence.

Soil conservation is yet another important way to save the environment. For this, there should be a deliberate control of floods, and soil erosion.

Furthermore, there should also be afforestation and tree plantation to conserve the soil. Also, terrace farming and using natural fertilisers are some more ways that should be encouraged to prevent soil erosion.

Waste management is a powerful way of protecting the environment. There must be proper disposal of wastes. Most noteworthy, this would help to keep the surroundings healthy.

There is need to ensure that streets and other polluted land areas are clean. There should be toilets in every house. Also, there should be a deliberate policy of providing public toilets.

For argument’s sake, how many public toilets are on Lusaka’s Lumumba Road? That is a topic for another day.

Pollution is probably the biggest danger to the environment. Smoke, dust, and harmful gases cause air pollution. These causes of air pollution come from industries and vehicles mostly. Agricultural chemicals and pesticides cause land and water pollution.

The world climate will remain normal. Harming the environment and causing pollution have caused global warming. Due to this many humans and animals have died. Hence, saving the environment would reduce global warming.

Saving the environment would certainly protect the animals. Extinction of many species will not take place if we avoid environmental degradation. Many endangered species would also increase in population.

Those born after 2000 would not know the blue head lizard locally known as Gumugumu, they are rarely seen because the specie has fast gone into extinction due to environmental degradation.

The list is endless of animals that have fast gone into extinction as the result of damaging the environment due to human activities such as construction. All in the name of development and yet we are creating a problem on the environment that supports life.

The water level would rise. Damage to environment has severely reduced the level of groundwater. There is a scarcity of clean drinking water around the world resulting in many people falling ill and eventually die. Saving the environment would certainly avoid such problems.

In conclusion, the environment is a precious gift on this planet. Our environment is facing a big danger. Saving the environment is the need of the hour.

Probably, it should the biggest concern of humanity right now. Any delay in this regard could be disastrous.

So next week, we begin to narrow down to environmental issues that impede human health and wellness.

These issues include chemical pollution, air pollution, climate change, disease-causing microbes, lack of access to health care, poor infrastructure, and poor water quality.

(The author is a communication expert specialised in Agriculture, Environment and Public Health Journalism) Comment: +260977694310

Email; ngosastan@gmail. com, stanslousngosa@yahoo.com,