Urbanization & Pollution

Introduction
When thinking about urbanization, many of us usually think about the
technological growth, the easiness that it brought, the achievements
and ever growing opportunities but very few consider the
environmental pollution which it brought with itself, the polluted air,
contaminated water and natural disasters.

Analysis
There is no denying the fact that urbanization have left an impact on
the human capital profoundly increasing the chance of getting better
jobs and incomes for urban people, portraying a very bright image but
there is another side to this that is still not discussed and worked upon
as much as it should have been which is the long termed affects it is
leaving on our surroundings as the living habits of people in urban areas
affect the environment surrounding them resulting in poor health
conditions because of the pollution. Such affects will be brought to light
in this essay.
The developing or under developed countries have very limited
resources that aren’t suitable to deal with pollution problem or to
minimize its effects. (Torres, Haroldo, 2008)

Land & Soil Pollution

With the population growth and urbanization is associated a wish of a
better lifestyle for which comes the need of a piece of land to build
houses, offices and other infrastructures which results in deforestations
and fragmentation of earth and heavy metal consistency in soil and that
proper steps are to taken to stop the soil pollution due to heavy metals
because of rapid urbanization resulting in conditions such as wildfires,
habitat loss and ultimately extinction of many species and disruption in
food chain . (Hu, Liu, Bai, 2013) (Palin, 1997).

Water Pollution
Also with rise in industrialization comes the issue of managing and
disposing untreated non-biodegradable wastes which haven’t been
handled properly and resulted in large piles of thrash ending up in the
water bodies well as on lands, ending lives of animals and in some cases
human too because of the contamination. Condition such as oil spills
are also a measure reason of the marine pollution, the oil stops the
oxygen from dissolving in water working as a barrier and thus
suffocating the aquatic animals and contaminating water. (Bandara,
Yapa, Xie, 2011):
The people that are most affected by this are people with low or middle
incomes and are more prone to the climatic changes that occur due to
the pollution. The scarcity of water supply in homes in areas that are
unprivileged result in its habitants using water that is contaminated.
This practice results in high water borne disease rate in such areas as
well as increased chances of water poisoning. (Bartlett, Sheridan &
Dodman, David & Hardoy, Jorgelina & Satterthwaite, David & Tacoli,
Cecilia, 2020)
Apart from this, this practice has also disturbed the ecosystem resulting
in the scarcity of aquatic animals due to deformed births (Kelishadi,
Poursafa, 2010) or untimely or mass deaths in animals which are a
major source of food and an important part of the food chain and
source of income for people earning from livestock and fishing industry
resulting in increase in the cost as well as unemployment rate and a rift
between supply and demand.

Air pollution
High rate of urbanization has also given birth to industrial growth which
is a major factor in air pollution as well as the large amount of
greenhouse gases created in urban areas eventually affect the ozone
layer causing drastic changes in temperatures globally succeeding
extreme weather conditions such as droughts, floods, hurricanes etc
and resulting in a series of more chaotic situations leaving massive
destructive effects on the environment because of the emergency
immigration, property destruction, the amount of scrap left behind and
biohazard due to remains left to decay for days underneath the
surfaces of such scrape before the condition is handled completely.
Acid rain is also a weather condition resulted by air contamination, it
can affect humans, animals and plants most effectively as it can get
mixed with drinking water as well as absorb in soil and get in food chain
killing trees, aquatic animals and creating severe food poisoning in
some cases. (Harendra, 2012)

Pollution & Diseases

Though urbanization played a role in increasing pollution but it also
helped develop a new medical technologies that is why the people in
the urban areas have better access to health care services and food
resources. But the spectrum of the disease in urban areas are totally
different from those in the rural areas where there is still a lack of
medicine as well medicinal knowledge and technology due to the high
concentration of people in small area which increase the risk of
catching diseases. (Jo Lines, Trudy Harpham, Colin Leake, Chris
Schofield, 1994)

Conclusion
The environment has been greatly affected by the process of
urbanization and it about time that we start taking prevention and
restoration steps. By taking measures like reducing the non-
biodegradable industrial waste, properly handling and disposing this
waste rather than dumping it in open land and seas, using means to
create energy from this kind of waste, creating more environment
friendly products which can help maintain the balance in ecosystem.
Utilizing lands that are barren and not inhabited by other species for
development purposes can also prevent deforestation. Developing
devices to precisely study the quality of air and water will help keep in
check the progress we will make by implementing changes in our
surroundings. Ways to prevent waste on domestic level can also be
taught to people as public service messages or workshops. A joint
collaboration program should be launched globally, sharing
technologies, ideas and knowledge to reduce population. Such
measures will not only restore our environment to its former state but
also help us keep tracks of the progress.
Reference
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