The Polluter-Pays Principle in Nigeria

-

By Jacinta Ewheavworiome


Source: LinkedIn/ Center for Architecture & Design



For over twenty-one years the Polluter-Pays Principle (PPP) has been a part of the Nigerian Environmental laws to guide against the indiscriminate disposal of harmful substances into the environment by industries and individuals alike.

 

The principle is a consequence of the large number of deaths that trail environmental pollution in Nigeria yearly. In 2018, more than 11,200 people died from air pollution-related causes alone, says a world bank study. Another study reveals that polluted water and other related casualties lead to an annual 1.7 million deaths in the country. 

 

Environmental pollution is mainly sponsored by man-made activities like bush burning, dumping of wastes into water bodies, burning of fossil fuels and the release of exhaust fumes by vehicles, industries and factories. The Polluter-Pays Principle aims to curb these indiscriminate acts.

 

For instance, in the Niger Delta region where oil spills lead to land and water pollution, this principle compels polluters to cover the costs of controlling the pollution and also compensate the victims of the pollution. Like in the case where SHELL Nigeria was ordered by a Dutch Appeal court to compensate farmers for the damage caused by oil leakage from their pipelines in Goi and Oruma villages in Rivers State.

 

Despite its high success rate in other countries, the Polluter-Pays Principle in Nigeria does not seem to have a significant effect on environmental pollution due to anthropogenic activities. Nigeria continues to rank among the top 10 countries in the world with the highest exposure to harmful airborne particles.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UNEP has ended the use of leaded petrol

-
Image
By Patience Asanga Image source: Pexel After almost 2 decades of the campaign for clean fuels and vehicles, which was led by the United Nations environment programme, the use of leaded petrol was officially brought to an end, globally, on the 30th of August, 2021. This feat was achieved after Algeria, which was the last country to use leaded petrol, stopped selling in July. According to Inger Andersen, the executive director of UNEP, the ban is a huge leap for global health and the environment. Lead, which is added to automobile engines to prevent knocking, is a rather severe environmental contaminant with a notoriety for causing drastic health problems, especially in children. The effect of this toxic chemical spans from mental impairment to reproductive issues.
Read more

The Carbon Footprints left by Cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) Mining, how bad is it?

-
By Patience Asanga If Bitcoin were a country, it would rank 50th in the world in terms of energy consumption Last month, a giant automobile company, Tesla, revoked the use of Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency in circulation, for the purchase of its vehicles because of its impacts on the environment. In a tweet made by Tesla’s CEO, Elon Reeve Musk, using his verified Twitter handle, the company expressed its concern over the increasing use of coal for bitcoin mining and transactions. Coal is known to emit greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Cryptocurrency is decentralized digital money that is based in a distributed database known as Blockchain. This database stores data across multiple computers but appears to the user as though it is a single site. Although blockchain technology is used in other industries like banking, medical science, during elections etc, it is more popular in the world of cryptocurrency. Blockchain is a method of keeping records in a way that can...
Read more