Survey of Attitude of Residents towards Environmental Deterioration in Nigeria and Factors Influencing their Willingness to Participate in Reducing the Trend: A Case Study of Waste Management

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study areas: This research was undertaken in two towns (Isuikwuato and Okigwe local Government areas) surrounding Abia State University (Southeastern Nigeria). The two towns were selected for this study because of the following:

STRUCTURE OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE

Data for this study were collected from questionnaires distributed to 1000 (500 in each of the study Areas) available respondents between February and May 2009. The survey instrument focused on respondents willingness to participate in curbing the rate on environmental deterioration and assess the level of awareness of environmental deterioration and general concern about the trend in the country. It also aims at surveying the rating of environmental quality in Nigeria. Few well structured questions were selected in order not to bore the respondents and yet achieve the aim of the study.

The questionnaire contained 8 questions with four major parts:

The questionnaires were administered using the contact and collect method in which the researchers personally delivers and collects the questionnaires. The questionnaires were administered in English language only. Studies such as this may present over-estimates as declared behavior may defer from actual behavior. Literature has shown that declared behaviors, whilst probably over-estimate of actual action, are likely to be proportionally accurate (Barr et al., 2001).

MODELING WILLINGNESS TO PARTICIPATE IN CURBING THE RATE OF ENVIRONMENTAL DETERIORATION

A model was developed to estimate willingness to participate in curbing environmental deterioration. Respondents selected their willingness to participate from four alternatives:

When the response variable is ordinal and has more than two levels, researchers have a choice between ordered logistic regression (ordered logit) and ordered probit models. Considering that the ordered probit is theoretically superior to most other models for the data analyzed in this study. The following specification was used:

(1)

Where:

The observed and coded discrete willingness variable, y_n, is determined from the model as follows:

(2)

where, the μ_i's represent the thresholds to be estimated along with the parameter vector, β.

The probabilities associated with the coded responses of an ordered probit model are as follows:

where, n is an individual, k is a response alternative, P(y_n = k) is the probability that individual n responds in manner k and Φ(.) is the standard normal distribution function. This multivariate approach makes it possible to examine the joint influence of several independent variables on the dependent variable which is not obtainable through correlation or contingency table analysis.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 1 shows a breakdown of responses by category on willingness to participate in curbing environmental deterioration. About 28.1% of our respondents are very willing to participate in any program initiated with the aim of curbing environmental deterioration in the country. A breakdown of responses for awareness about the deteriorating environment indicates that about 53.2% of our respondents are very much aware of the rate of deteriorating environmental condition in the country while 46.8% of the respondents answered No to the question are you aware of the deteriorating environmental conditions in the country?. This may indicate that a significant proportion of the respondents are still unaware of the ugly trend.

Breakdown of responses on awareness and concern about the deteriorating environment are shown in Table 2 and 3, respectively while that on environmental quality is shown in Table 4.

It is seen in Table 5 that 37% of our respondents is literate, 33.6% is semi-illiterate while 29.2% is illiterate. In Table 6, it is seen that 54% of male respondents are willing (very willing or willing) against 59.4% of the females who are willing (either willing or very willing) to participate.

Table 1:	Breakdown of the responses on willingness to participate in curbing the rate of environmental deterioration

Table 2:	Breakdown of the responses on awareness of environmental deterioration

Table 3:	Breakdown of the responses on concern about the environmental deterioration

Table 4:	Breakdown of the responses on rating of environmental quality

Table 5:	Breakdown of the responses on respondents’ level of education

Table 6:	Breakdown of the responses on willingness to participate by sex

In Table 7, it is seen that majority (57.7%) of the eldest respondents (≥65 years) are willing (very willing or willing) to participate. This is quite significant when compared to the other age intervals. In Table 7, it can be inferred that those with higher income are more willing than those with lower income since 59% of those with annual income (>x480, 000) are willing to participate. This surpassed the willingness to participate among the other levels of income earners (Table 8).

Ordered probit model that explained willingness to participate in curbing environmental deterioration estimated using Stata (Statacorp LD, College Station, TX) (Table 2) based on 871 valid answers (129 respondents provided incomplete information) is shown in Table 9.

Table 7:	Breakdown of the responses on willingness to support by age
Results are in %

Table 8:	Breakdown of the responses on willingness to support by level of income (X) per annum
Results are in % and x156 = $1 at the time of the survey

Table 9:	Model estimation results
No. of observations = 871. Results for willingness participate in curbing the rate of environmental deterioration; Log-likelihood = -1190.75; LR Chi-square (with 8 degrees of freedom) = 27.48; The corresponding p-value < 0.0006; Pseudo R2 = 0.0114. *, ** and ***Indicate significance at 1, 5 and 10% levels, respectively

From the model we have established that significant factors affecting willingness to participate in curbing the rate of environmental deterioration are awareness about environmental deterioration, concern about this ugly trend and the local level of environmental quality, age, sex and level of income. This was evidenced by the breakdown of the survey responses. Present results indicate that about 54% of our respondents were willing (very willing and willing, Table 1) to participate in curbing the rate of environmental deterioration. This is because majority of the respondents (53.2%) are aware of the increasing level of environment deterioration (Table 2). Similarly, 53.4% of the respondents were concerned (very concerned and concerned, Table 3) about the deteriorating environment. This is corroborated by the 60.2% of the respondents who rated environmental quality in the country either low or very low (Table 4).

The populations used in this study are more enlightened and/or educated when compared to the general population of the country. As a result, the findings of this study should be extrapolated with caution especially when considering rural areas that hosts less enlightened/educated populations.

Damage to the environment due to poor waste management can be avoided by implementing environmentally sensitive waste management techniques, through the principle of the best practicable environmental option, whereby minimization, reuse, recycling and recovery techniques are employed, where feasible (Clarke et al., 1999), in order to reduce the amount of waste going to the landfills (open dumps in Nigeria). Unfortunately the absence of formal recycling programs and landfills constructed using appropriate (or state-of-the-art) technology has resulted in the various low-end reuse of EoL goods and recovery of selected waste materials which leads to economic wastages and ecological degradation. Joos et al. (1999) observed that improved waste treatment is the most effective way of relieving the burden of waste management on the environment in the short term. As a result, waste treatment should be given preference, as it results in the recovery of waste and tolerable environmental pollution.

The finds of this study are quite interesting and partly agreed and varied with those of previous studies. It is partly in line with previous studies because age, sex and level of income (Barr et al., 2001; Long, 1997; Oskamp et al., 1991) were discovered to influence peoples’ willingness to participate in environmental sustainable programmes. However, it is at variance with previous studies in that it was discovered that the level of awareness and concern about the deteriorating environment and the local environmental quality are also significant factors that affect peoples’ willingness to participate in curbing the rate of environmental deterioration. This may be as a result of the fact peoples’ level of awareness and concern about the deteriorating environment and local environmental quality were not assessed in the previous studies.

The primary management action that affects waste treatment is the waste generation itself (Komilis et al., 1999). It is therefore necessary to create awareness on waste minimization as a tool in checking the increasing waste crisis in the country. Municipal waste minimization involves decision by parties in waste generation and management (product manufacturers, government agencies, householders) to reduce the amount of waste placed in the waste stream (source-reduction) and to divert waste entering the waste stream towards benign purposes (waste diversion) rather than towards disposal. Such waste materials should be channeled towards recycling, composting and waste-to-energy conversions (Taylor, 2000). The NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) attitude of most residents and industries results in the disposal of waste that the householders and industries knows could impact negatively on the environment and human health, at unapproved points including surface water bodies used for domestic purposes. In such situations, the out-of-sight, is out-of-mind attitude is adopted by the waste generator. The NIMBY attitude has been recognized as a basic participatory problem in waste management (Joos et al., 1999) and is encountered even when environmentally sound waste management facilities are been considered for construction in communities (Leao et al., 2004).

Barr et al. (2001) observed that recycling behaviors are associated with three sets of variables:

It is therefore necessary to assess the perception of environmental standards in Nigeria and the likely attitude of residents towards environmental protections should there be a program.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The fundamental finds of this study are that factors affecting willingness to participate in curbing the rate of environmental deterioration are age, sex, level of income, awareness and concern about the deteriorating environment and the local environmental quality. It is surprising in this study that education was found not to be a significant factor considering that it is expected that not having a good education decreases the willingness to participate and vice versa.

The rate of environmental deterioration is a growing concern across regional, national and international boundaries, therefore awareness and concern programs need to be created among people in order to make them willing to participate in any efforts aimed at controlling the rate of environmental deterioration such as recycling EoL consumer goods, pay more for environmentally friendlier goods, adoption of environmentally sustainable behavior and so on. For such programs to be effective, there is need for a sound understanding of the factors affecting peoples’ willingness to participate in curbing the rate of environmental deterioration. Based on the finds of our study there is need to create educational programmes on environmental issues targeting men, the younger population and the lower income earners in view of the fact that they are less willing to participate.

The results of this study indicates that a significant proportion of the sampled population are aware of the increasing environmental degradation in Nigeria and are willing to participate in any effort aimed at checking this ugly trend. There is a need for the government to introduce policy measures to halt the present waste management practices and introduce/develop an integrated set of policy measures to assure effective waste management practices in the country. Such policy instruments should encourage prevention of waste at source, reduction of pollutants both in the production processes and finished goods, reduction of waste by improving recovery and the environmentally compatible treatment of the remaining waste (Joos et al., 1999). In order to achieve this, the following are inevitable:

To achieve resource conservation and minimize environmental impact and resource consumption in Nigeria, policy instruments and legislation are required and these should be based on the 3R principles, i.e., reuse, reduce and recycle. Though the 3R will not eliminate waste entirely, it will however be required in reducing the volume of waste to be managed. Appropriate disposal methods (engineered landfills and incinerators) will then be required in the management of residual wastes (Rehardyan et al., 2004).

The increasing problem of waste management in Nigeria can be resolved by cutting back on waste generation and through waste minimization practices and by recycling more of the waste generated. The time to act is now. A generational change is required and this can be achieved by introducing waste awareness educational programs in our schools. Information dissemination instruments are required to inform the population what is expected of them and to persuade them to do same. Wilson (1996) observed that a well coordinated publicity and educational programs must form an integral part of any waste reduction program. The residents need simple information and publicity campaigns which should be backed by longer term education programs integrated into the curricula of our schools.

Finally, basic waste management infrastructure is required in the country. There is a need for modern landfills that uses engineered barriers and leachate collection systems. Such facilities reduce the possibility of leachate contamination of underground water (Slack et al., 2005).