Status of Environmental Degradation: Problems and Prospects for Economic Development in South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

The Nigerian environment today is faced with many problems of degradation arising from the impacts of human activities and natural phenomena with less prospect for economic development. Some of the problems include gully erosion; coastal erosion; flooding; drought and desertification; oil spillage and pollution; urban decay and increase in squatter settlement; industrial pollution and improper waste management in rural and urban centres; loss of flora and fauna; climate change and a host of other problems. These problems are wide spread in the south eastern zone of Nigeria; and they are rapidly obliterating the ecological and economic development in the area