Journal of Applied Sciences and Environmental Management World Bank assisted National Agricultural Research Project (NARP) - University of Port Harcourt ISSN: 1119-8362 Vol. 12, Num. 1, 2008, pp. 23-26

The Ecological effect of conveyance pipeline from Gurara reservoir to lower Usman dam in Abuja, Nigeria.

Abdullahi Edicha Jibril, Panse Dakyes Samuel

Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Science & University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria PMB 117 Garki. E-mail: edijib@yahoo.com and E-mail: Samuel Panse@yahoo.co.uk

Code Number: ja08003

ABSTRACT

The study focuses on the public awareness of the effect of conveyance pipeline from Gurara reservoir to lower Usman Dam on Ecological degradation in Abuja, using data from questionnaire survey of about 150 households as well as field observation. The data from the survey reveals that over 30% ecological degradations are associated with the pipe-line conveyance. Loses due to land, habitats, biodiversity and degradation of the riparian vegetation were also assessed. Inspite of the high degree of disadvantages notices by the respondents, some beneficial aspects of the project was also evaluated and discussed. @JASEM

Daniel and Edward (1997), reveal that dams and their accompanying reservoir generally are to be designed to be multifunctional structures. People who propose the construction of dams and reservoirs point out that reservoir may be used for recreational activities as well as to provide flood control and ensure a more stable water supply. Several recent studies have revealed that in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, land use, particularly faming practices are triggering a cyclical environmental deterioration resulting in declined yields and reduced capacity to support livestock (Amanor, 1994). Chokor (1988) reveals that environmental awareness of the people is remarkably low. He argued that there are two schools of thoughts on the issue. A school of thought argues that environmental awareness among people seems to be higher within those whose income level and educational level are very high while the second school of thought contends that research survey shows that environmental awareness is pronounced among most people.

Perception is often interchangeably used in environmental research with cognition. Cognition is the activity of knowing, encompassing the acquisition, organization and use of knowledge; it is participatory in nature. A cognitive structure or schemata prepares the person to accept certain kinds of information from the environment (Meisser, 1976). Perception on the other hand, though more frequently used, is operationally less attractive in environmental research as it connotes immediacy of experience stimulus and then response in the psychological sense. Thus, French (1963) concludes that as “experience becomes less immediate and the amount of inference by organism increases, process of cognition have become involved”. By extension, environmental cognition reflects the way people understand structure, learn and use mental maps to negotiate the environment (Rapoport, 1977). Environmental cognition, therefore, may involve an individual’s past, present and future anticipations or first hand knowledge (Potter, 1985; Pocock and Hudson, 1978). Environmental sensitive policies are increasingly becoming beneficial to the business community. However, it is public perception of these policies, not their actual implementation, which is important (Carrey and Loeks, 1995). In general, the range of techniques in environmental cognition research (Chokor 1987a) embracing psychometric methods, questionnaire surveys and discursive approaches are most suitable to the appraisal of current landscape values and attitude, while the past may be fruitfully explored using interpretive methods that entail historical reconstruction, landscape representation and symbolization (Cosgrove and Daniel, 1987; Lowenthal, 1975). Environmental cognition research which is peoplecentered and place-related thus provides a humane, democratic context to elicit information pertaining to public values, and attitudes towards landscapes. By discovering those values inherent in the ordering of landscape, an appropriate, less conflict-ridden context is also provided to debate landscape quality construction and modifications. The preferences of professional landscape architects often differ from public judgments (Buhyoff, et al, 1978).

Abuja is currently undergoing rapid development that impact significantly on the environment. However not much of environmental research is done in the course of these development. The present study examines the environmental impact assessment of the Gurara water transfer in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria using essentially questionnaire survey.

Study Area

This study was carried out in Bwari area of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. It is an area with hilly and dissected terrains and undulating plains and much of the area is characterized by varying degree of ruggedness (Balogun, 2000). The area is located within the Guinea Savanna region but the common vegetation in the study area is shrub savanna. It occurs extensively on interfluves and ridges, and in a number of localities. The vegetation is made up shrubs, tree and grasses. The shrub, provide the foliage layer and the grassy element in the shrubs are definitely more in number that trees or shrubs.

Conceptual Frame Work and Methodology

More than any other part of the world sub-Saharan Africa relies on its environmental resource base, from both an economics and a social perspective. Its environment, however, is at risk for a number of inter-dependent reasons.

Heavy reliance of natural capital: most economies in sub-Saharan Africa depend heavily on their natural capital. About two-thirds of the population live in rural area and derive its main income from agriculture. African countries consistently identify land degradation, deforestation, lack of access to safe water, and loss of biodiversity compounded by climatic variability as their major environmental concerns.

Extreme poverty along with very population growth: poverty is both a cause and a result of environmental degradation of the thirty poorest countries of the world; twenty-one are in Africa. The entire region had an average income level of about $520 per capital in 1993 and a negative (-0.8 percent) per capital income growth rate from 1980 to 1993 (World Bank, 1995). The extreme poverty is exacerbated by a demographic explosion unprecedented in human history, with a current annual rate of about 3 percent.

Urbanization and migration: In the sub-Saharan Africa these twin processes are fasters in the world. Thirty years ago only one city had more than a million inhabitants: by 1990, eighteen cities had attained that size. Although cities provide many economic opportunities, they also confront a range of environmental problems: these include inadequacy of physical infrastructure and services, the health consequences of crowding and increased exposure to concentrate wastes, unsustainable consumption of resources, and increasing settlement on ecologically sensitive area. Much of the continents urban population already lives in coastal cities, and African coasts are attracting increasing numbers of people. As a result, coastal zones are often affected by a wide range of interdependent fisheries and water management at the interface between marine and fresh water ecosystems, as well as infrastructure, urban and industrial development. Sub-Saharan Africa contains about 35 million transnational migrants, including some 4 million refugees. These population movements which are likely to grow, put tremendous strain on traditional social fabrics and concentrate the environmental pressure in certain hot spots. The research methods used in this study include indepth interview, questionnaire administration and field observation. In-depth interviews were conducted with respondents who were randomly selected in order to gathering data from them using as guide, a series of questions. The interview was conducted physically by the interviewer. Also, the survey involved the administration of questionnaires to 150 residents of Bwari. The questionnaires administered were aimed at eliciting what the inhabitants considered to be ecologically linked to the construction of the conveyance pipe-line tunnel. Systematic random sampling technique was adopted in distributing the questionnaires. To this effect, apart from information on social and demographic characteristics of respondents, questions were framed to address the following:-

(i) Is there ecological consciousness on the prevailing conveyance pipe-line tunnel construction?
(ii) What are the environmental effects on the conveyance pipe-line tunnel construction?
(iii) Where they properly educated on the possible benefit of the conveyance pipe-line tunnel construction?

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Ecological Consciousness

When asked about the ecological consciousness of the conveyance pipe-line tunnel construction, 33.3% of the respondents were ecologically conscious, 58% were not ecologically conscious while 8.6% of the respondents never responded.

Table 1

Table 2

Responses to the question: What are the environmental effect(s) on the conveyance pipe-line tunnel construction were very varied. Only 26.7% of the respondent claimed loss of land as the environmental effect. This may due to the fact that land loss through conveyance pipe-line is remarkable and some of the land owners were compensated. Also, 20% of the respondents agreed that depletion of soil nutrient is one of the environmental effects of the construction. Furthermore, 15.3% of the respondents equally claimed that the loss of riparian vegetation as the environmental effect. While 13.3%, 10%, (.3% and 1.4% claimed that change of soil structure, impact on plants, habitat loss and impacts on animal as constituting environmental effect respectively. The smallest percentage of the sample population claimed that its impact on animals is minimal. This is not unconnected to the fact that animals are generally mobile hence its impact cannot be readily, easily, and rapidly observed. The change in the soil structure may be due to the impact of the machinery used in the excavation of the tunnel.

From the Table 3 above, about 74.7% of the respondents agreed that they would benefit from the conveyance pipeline as continuous supply of water would be ensured while only 6.6% claimed the project would enhance agricultural produce. The reason for this percentage (6.6%) is connected to the fact that the potential irrigable area is not contiguous to the study area. And 18.7% of the sample population was uncertain of the possible benefit of the conveyance pipeline. Generally, from field observation, the most remarkable ecological degradation that is associated with the pipe-line is loss of land, habitat loss and course destruction of riparian vegetation with its attendant consequences.

Socio-Demographic Characteristics of the Respondents and Their Ecological Consciousness

Of the 150 respondents interviewed, 120 (80%) were males while the remaining 30 (20%) were females.

Table 4

Analysis of the relationship between male and female ecological consciousness in Bwari town collaborated the assertion by Hawthorne and Alabaster (1999). They stated that men tend to have more theoretical environmental knowledge than women particularly about global issues. About 80% of male respondents were ecologically conscious while 20% of the female respondents were ecologically conscious.

Educational Level and Ecological Consciousness

Of all the socio-economic parameters of the respondents considered in the study, education is the most remarkable factor influencing ecological consciousness issues. Educational level of the respondents played a crucial role in their ecological consciousness.

Table 5

Of the sampled population 8.7% explained that their ecological consciousness is nil while 8.7% and 11.3% agreed that their ecological consciousness is low. And 25.3% as well as 46% claimed that their ecological consciousness is high and very high respectively. The result shows that with increase in the level of education there is also increase in the ecological awareness.

Conclusion: This study has attempted to assess the effect(s) of conveyance pipe-line from Gurara reservoir to lower Usman dam on ecological degradation of a part of Abuja, Nigeria, using basically questionnaire survey. The results presented in this study are exploratory since robust methodologies such as focus discussion (FGD) and laboratory analysis have not been employed. However, the results show that the sample population believed that the ecological degradation associated with the pipe-line conveyance includes loss of land, loss of habitat, and changes in soil structure, loss of biodiversity and degradation of the riparian vegetation among others.

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