Health and environmental problems associated with water pollution In Gokana Local Government Area Of Rivers State

Abstract

This study identifies the health and environmental problems associated with water pollution in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State. The area of the study was Gokana which is one the Local Government Areas in Rivers State, Nigeria. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study with the population of 435,682 persons used for the study. A sample size of 250 individuals was used for the study. A two-stage sampling procedure was adopted to select the sample of this study. The questionnaire was designed by the researcher titled “Health and Environmental Problems Associated with Water Pollution Questionnaire (HEPWPQ)”. The reliability of the validated instrument was obtained using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and the coefficient value of 0.78. Collected data was analyze using SPSS version 25. The result showed that physical health problems such as bacteria and viral parasitic were associated with water pollution (X=3.54, SD =0.73) in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State. The result also depicted that mental health problems such as brain malfunction, depression, aresenicosis (X=2.97, SD=0.84) were associated with exposure to water pollution in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State. The result illustrated that social health problems such as discrimination, self-isolation, sociopathic (X=2.57, SD=0.96) form arsenicosis were associated with water pollution in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State. The result also indicated that environmental problems such as burning of toxic waste, indiscriminate dumping of waste, excessive cultivation, flooding, and urbanization (X=3.29, SD=0.83) were associated with water pollution in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State. Considering the findings of this study, it was concluded that health and environmental problems are strongly associated with water pollution leading to physical, social and mental health problems. Hence, the need to control indiscriminate disposition of solid waste and other particulates in the water bodies