Environmental Cost of Development: Pollution

"The earth will not continue to offer its harvest except with faithful stewardship. We cannot say we love the land and take steps to destroy it for the use by future generations." Pope John Paul

According to Lewis Mumford, cities rise out of man's social needs. In the present society, this generation rarely appreciates the natural environment for what it is. With the increasing population, the demand for space is higher. With this said, alterations are made to the natural environment in other to facilitate the human need for space. We say we love the land, but do we love the land in its all natural state or do we love the land for what it provides for us. We as humans should practice  environmental sustainability even though some of us believe that men came on Earth to conquer and be progressive. Some may believe that pollution is simply throwing a piece of paper in surrounding environments. No it is not. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, it is the act of polluting especially by environmental contamination with man-made waste. It can be through the form of land, air, water as well as noise pollution. However in this blog post, I will be focusing on water pollution.

Port of Spain being the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago with a wide plethora of businesses, industries, administrative buildings and much more has a constant influx of visitors. On my trip to the capital city, to my amazement, citizens pay no attention to their littering habits. A car was passing by and a citizen threw a plastic bag with rubbish right on the side of the highway. On the continued journey to Port of Spain, under close observations, almost if not all the rivers were polluted and stagnant, This creates the scene for this post about pollution.

Picture 1 : River along the highway to Port of Spain
Photograph by : Nicola Mathura and Dianne Mahabir 

Does this picture look like a river or a big drain? In fact it is a river. A very stagnant river. The only changes that can be seen in this river on a daily basis is the change in the level of water, not clean fresh water of course. This river flows into the Gulf of Paria. During the low tide, the river somewhat drains into the sea and during the high tide the level of water increases. This in turn causes a repulsive stench in the atmosphere which motorists can smell on their journey to the city.

The city of Port of Spain is usually maintained by it's city corporation however neglect is given to the water ways on the outskirts of the capital as industries and even citizens pollute these rivers without a care. They are destroying natural habitats. Most of the chemicals disposed of in rivers contain nitrates and phosphates which encourage the process of Eutrophication to occur which allows excessive plant growth in the surroundings as can be seen in Picture 1.

Citizens stereotype Port of Spain as "dirty or nasty". The inside and outside of Port of Spain are filthy. People do not seem to care about the environment as this seems to be "okay" as long as it does not affect them. It may not affect them directly but pollutants can contaminate the water table which will reduce the amount of clean drinking water available to the country. The solution is not only getting organizations such as the Environmental Management Authority (E.M.A) to clean up these polluted rivers or enforce laws to protect them. It is in best interest as citizens we help the cause and save our environment.

"What is the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on." - Henry David Thoreau