MINERAL AGAINST LAND DEGRADATION IN EAST AFRICA

INTRODUCTION

Mineral resources are defined as homogenous, naturally occurring, inorganic solids each having their own characteristics chemical composition and highly ordered atomic structure. Minerals can be categorized in a variety of ways including by chemical or crystal group, color, streak, hardness and element affiliation.

Population according to Encyclopedia, (2004) population in human biology, it refers to number of inhabitants occupying an area such as a country or the world and continually being modified by increase (births and migrations) and losses (deaths and emigrations) as way of any biological population the size of human population is limited by the supply of food.

The effects of diseases and other environmental factors, human population are further affected by social customs governing reproduction and by the technological developments, especially in medicine and public health that have reduced mortality and extended the life span.

Also population all the persons inhabiting a country, city or other specific place.

All the people of a particular race or class in a specific area according to Dictionary of Collins English (2014).

According to Law Dictionary way population growth his the increase in number of people that reside within a state or country. The formula used to calculate growth is (death rate+ emigration) – (birth rate + immigration).

Population growth is the increase in the number of people that reside in a country, state or city. To determine whether there has been a population growth, the following formula is used: (birth rate + immigration) - (death rate emigration), business and government bodies use this information to make determinations about investing in certain communities or regions.

Environmental the sum total of all surrounding of living organism, including natural forces and other living things, which provide conditions for development and growth as well as of danger and damage.

Environmental degradation may be defined as the deterioration of the environment through depletion of sources such as air water and soil. The destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife. Environmental degradation occurred due to recent activities in field of socio-economic, institutional and technologies. Environmental changes are dependent on many factors including economic growth, population growth, urbanization, intensification of Agriculture, rising of energy use and transportation, poverty still remains a problem at the several environmental problems.

Environment is the surroundings which include all forms of life plants, animals, human beings, air, water, land, building, parks, vehicles etc.

Environmental degradation refers to an unfavorable change of surroundings; it is the deterioration of environment through depletion of resources such as air, water, soil, the destruction of ecosystem and extinction of wildlife.

POPULATION GROWTH

High or population growth can lead or cause the pollutant in both water, air and soil palliation and due increases number of population to lead.

Environmental degradation is a result of the dynamic growth of population that inter play of socio-economic, institutional and technological activities.

Environmental changes may be driven by population growth that lead to following factors: economic growth, urbanization, intensification of agriculture, rising of energy use and transportation.

Population growth is an important source of development yet it is a major source of environmental degradation when it exceeds the threshold limits of the support systems.

Unless the relationship between multiplying population and the role support systems can, development programs, however, innovative are not likely to yield deserved results, population growth in East Africa impacts on the environment primarily through the use of natural resources and production of wastes and associated with environmental stresses like loss of biodiversity, air and water population and increase in pressure on arable land.

In East Africa, its current rate population growth contribute much in environmental degradation so the linkages between population and environment.

Poverty most of population growth in East Africa are poverty and poverty is said to be the both the cause and effect of environmental degradation. The circular link between poverty and environment is an extremely complex phenomenon. Inequality may foster un sustainability because of poor. Most of villagers in East Africa are poor economically so they are rely on natural resources more than rich deplete natural resources faster and more as they have no real protests of gaining access to another types of resources, moreover, degraded environment can accelerate the process of pumpronerishment. Again because the poor depend greatly on natural asserts.

Improper management of solid wastes in most cities of East Africa countries, e.g Kampala, Nairobi, Dar, Kusaluet. Tonne of solid wastes presently form physical and chemical characteristics of wastes is know that the high organic content. After collection they dumping yards situated at different places around the cities. No processing of solid waste are done before disposal hence degrade the environment in the following manner.

Air pollution due to bad oduor of wastes, fugitive dust and windblown little and also air pollution causes the human population through different activities such as small scale industries, motor vehicles and agricultural activities. Also disposal of domestic solid wastes in slum, people use open spaces as their toilet, when the source of water left minimum distance cause of ground water sources are polluted. For example.

Water pollution: the source of water both ground and surface water contamination by the leachiest coming out from the dumping wastes solids in the lakes, pods rivers which result into killing of organisms also are unfit for bathing purposes and rituals as it fails to satisfy the states. For example;

Air pollution: anaerobic decomposition of solid wastes occur inside the dumping of solid wastes which result in the emission of CH₄, CO₂ and other trace gases, these gases contribute to global warming and is one of the main reasons of high temperature in cities. For example

Population growth leads to the manufacturing technology in East Africa cities. The manufacturing technology adopted by most industries has placed a heavy load on environment especially through intensively resource and energy use. Such as minerals (fossil fuel, timber), water, air and land contamination, health hazards and degradation of natural eco-systems with high population demand of fossil fuel as the main source of industrial energy and major air polluting industries such as iron and steel, fertilizers and cement growing industries sources have contributed to a relatively high in air pollution, large quantities of industrial and hazardous wastes brought about by expansion of chemical based in industrial has compounded the wastes  management problem with serious environmental health implications.

Population growth closed to transport activities by transport activities have a wide variety of effect on the environment such as air pollution, noise from road traffic and oil spills from marine shipping and construction of infrastructure lead to deforestation of tree with more impact in the environment. Thus, road transport account for major share or air pollution in cities like Arusha, Dar, Nairobi, Kisumu, Kampala  and Bujumbura in Burundi. Also port and harbor projects mainly impacts on sensitive coastal eco-systems, their construction affects hydrology, seolfar water quality, fisheries, coral reefs and mangroves to varying degrees.

Population growth in East Africa have directly impacts of agricultural development on the environment arise from farming activities which contribute to soil erosion, land salivation and loss of nutrients.

The speed of the Green Revolution has accompanied by the over exploitation of land and water resources, and use of fertilizers and pesticides have increased many fold.

Shifting cultivation has also been an important cause of land degradation. Leaching from extensive use of pesticides and fertilizers is an important source of contamination of water and soil acidic in most parts of East Africa.

Growth of population lead  to urbanization on and this is due to lack of opportunities for gain full employment in villages of most East Africa leading to an over increasing movement of poor families to towns such as Dar, Nairobi, Kampala, Kigali and Bujumbura from rural areas. This lead to result of major cities and urban slums are expanding.

Population growth such rapid and unplanned expansion of East Africa cities has resulted in degradation of urban environment. It has widened the gap between demand and supply of infrastructural services such as energy, housing, transport, communication, education, water supply and sewerage and recreational amenities, thus, depleting the previous environmental resources based of the cities. The result is the growing trend in deterioration of air and water quality, generation of wastes, the proliferation of slums and undesirable land use changes, all of which contribute to urban poverty.

(Baw and others 2008) The CCD defines desertification as land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid area (also referred to as dry lands) (Muchene 2008)- contribute frequent drought and the influx of people from hush potential areas into the dry lands, overgrazing and subdivision of land into uneconomic land parcel sites have further worse need them, estimated 12 million people or a third of the Kenya’s population, depended directly on land that is being degraded.

In Kenya land degradation manifests itself in many forms. Among them are soil erosion, increased sediment loading of water bodies such as lake of bollosat, the Winam Gulf and Lake Baringo.

Loss of soil fertility reduced ground cover and the reduced carrying capacity of pastures as in example Amboseli National Park and in Maasai land Laikipia plateau.

Loss of forests in the area surrounding the lower Tane River.

Environmental impact of mineral resources

Although mining provide a variety of socio-economic benefits; its environmental and social costs, of not well handled, can be massive in term of land conversion and degradation, habitual alteration and water and air pollution. In East Africa the mining sector is generally thought to be the harlot source of pollution either agriculture. The sector is resource in pensive and generates high concentrations of waste and influents. For example Khundt et al (2008) argue that during the extraction process up to smelting, a ton of copper generates about -100-300 tons of residues, 50-250 tones of mineral dressing waste and slag and up to 300 kg of sulphur dioxide.

Mining, from the exploration to the closing stage, has a serious impact on the environment. This impact can be directly through the value chain activities.

Prospecting; exploration site development; one extraction; mineral dressing, smelting; referring/metallurgy;- Transportation; post-mining activities and indirectly through the impact of the degradations on the socio-cultural development of communities.

In general degradation arising from mining includes air pollution; discharge into surface and ground water; land and forest disposal, generation, storage transportation and disposal of toxic substances as well as socio-cultural problems such as health, conflicts alcoholism and inequality, all these have negative implications for sustainable development and various like hoods, details on the environmental impacts follows;-

Air pollution

Various activities in the minerals values chain produce gases that pollute the environment, many mines transport they are to the processing site and use a lot of fossil fuel in the production process, the combustion of fossil fuels general sulfuric, carbonic and nitric acids and other valuable organic compounds and heavy metals that pollute the environment. These gaseous compounds combine with water in the atmosphere and come back to the earth in the form of acid rain which can destroy natural and built –up areas, especially materials made from marble and limestone such as monumerots fossil. Fuels too contain radioactive materials, mainly uranium and thorium that are released into the atmosphere. The underground mining pollutes the atmosphere and the aluminum smelting and refunding process produces effluents such as sulphur dioxide, slugs, and chemicals, they also generate hydrogen fluoride (HF) in the molten electrolyte process.

Through the use of fuel wool in mining has been abandoned in many mines, its use in the past generated a lot of gaseous compounds that polluted the atmosphere. The release of these gases has an immense adverse impact is either localized of national in natural. The most important impact of this gas release is climate change which is the average change in weather experienced by a region over a long period of time. This well-documented impact is enormous and far reaching hence the importance of reducing gaseous pollutants cause by mining.

Water pollution according to the South Africa department of environment and tourism in 2008, the potential impact of mining on the water environment depends on the phases of mining activity namely.

The act of mining itself, see page of contaminated water from mine reduce deposits resulting from mineral processing/beneficiation; Dewatering of active mining operations and flooding of closed wine voids and discharge of untreated mine water.

Many mining companies practice the help the Leah method of gold beneficiation which could contaminate ground water while the use of merely by small-scale miners contaminates surface water also, in underground mines.

Water pollution results from in-sifu teaching due to leakage into aquifers and discharge of waste water. These are serious chemical pollution affecting mining communities. In addition to this run-offs of sodium cyanide from leach pads my contaminate local streams used by mining communities while leakage of cyanide gold-bearing solution through the cheap pollutes ground water.

Accidental burst of tailings dam also tends to pollute local rivers and streams used by mining communities, since the rivers is the main sources of drinking water for community about a thousand many aquatic lives, including fishes and crabs were lost.

Water pollution through influence discharge of mine waste, tailings and the dreading and saucing into surface water is a major environmental concern. This, he attribute mainly to the discharge of mine tailings and pollution resulting from dredging and shucking operations. A study in the Kerio ralley in Kenya revealed the presence of high levels of iron, which is about three times the world-health organization (WHO) he commended values of 0.3ppm, The levels of fluoride and heavy metals emitted into the environmental from fluorspar mining plant in Kerio valley were also high.

Small-scale mining activities pollute rivers and streams by discharging solid suspension and mercury during shucking and amalgamation. This leads to siltation; coloration and chemical pollution of streams and rivers that provide drinking water for mining community (Aryee et al 2002) un fortunately many of the small-scale mines are not well regulated and in some countries, not registered to enable the authorities to monitor their activities Shoko (2002) states that Mozambique and Tanzania gold mining using mercury is a serious threat to water quality.

Acid mine drainage is also a major of on mental problem in mining communities. Acid rain, drainage results from various activation, including the Oxidation of waste rock containing sulphide use in road construction in mining area, Acid mine drainage tends to degrade soils, polluted aquatic habitats and allow heavy metals to seep into the environment. Boocock (2002) highlights the problems of acid. Mine drainage caused by a abandoned coal and gold mines, in most countries of earth surfside, one serious environmental characteristic of acid mine drainage is its stiff resistance which makes it very expensive to clean up.

Land degradation

Evidently, a vast majority of the rural poor in E. Africa earn their live hood directly from the rich natural resources, land and forests- through farming, hunting and related activities-mining both small and large scale-degrades lands and forests are destroys the vegetation including economic timber species and the ability of natural forest to regenerate. It also renders the hand unproductive by removing the top soil and other damage. In terms of land degradation, mining activities corner vast areas through

(a)    Prospecting/exploration activities pits and trenches

(b)   Mine site surface facilities including mine surface excavations and amenity buildings.

(c)    Processing plants, storage sheds, dumps and dams and residential/commercial areas.

(d)   Water and sewage treatment plants

(e)    Refuse disposal sites

(f)    Power line access ways and access roads and railways.

At the exploration stage, removal of vegetation for survey lines; soil erosion resulting from tracks created by vehicles; spillage and leakage of fuels, oils, and drilling fluids which pollutes soils and water bodies, sewage disposal and heavy metal and sediment drainage from waste rock dumps seriously pollute the environment. Surface mining, widely practical today; disfigures the topography and surface drainage leads to deforestation and soil erosion, dust generation, long-term compaction, subsidence and reduced Agricultural productivity. Also underground mining leads to land subsidence caused by the removal of underground material without bade full.

Mineral dressing process produce effluent, tailing dung’s and finds which occupy large land surfaces. This tailing dumps and ponds usually contain heavy metals and other chemicals such as cyanide and this salts highly whey to degradation land and water bodies.

Water dumps and ore stovepipes can also cause land sterilization and the destruction of a serious of ridges, the building up of heaps of mine, dumps and the creation of waste ponds lead to the destruction of beautiful and valueless sceneries in East Africa more tons of salts of salts seep out of tailing dams in the vacel region yearly. This seepage contaminates water, soil and vegetation in these communities, through little information is available on land use in these areas, it is most likely that these lands are unsuitable for food crop cultivation.

Many mining companies construct rail and road ways to mining sites and sometimes through isolated areas. The construction and usage of rail and road ways depending on traffic density and types of users could have considerable effect in wildlife.

Road and rail ways build through isolate and protected areas could drastically affect games animals, in that it expose these animals to hunters and fishers in rivers become more accessible to commercial and sports fish man. In some cases mining in or near acquirer rocks has caused water problems and Earth quakes.

Stagnant and influent tools off behind constitute a damage to wildlife and humans and will remain un productive for vegetation growth for several years and the excavation of open pits causes disfigurement and dereliction of hand, making the spoils very inhospitable to vegetation growth (Tuffour 1997).

Forest Degradation

Almost all mining activities result in the destruction and degradation of forest resources. Land clearance for construction in mine sites leads to forest degradation and soil erosion, causing sediment loading in water bodies and non-protection of water sheds. Deforestation also causes a reduction of Carbon sequestration and the resulting effect of global warming and climate changes. Destruction of entire forests as a result of surface mining and the rule of wood as stantila reduction in fuel wood and charcoal, which many of our rural folk depend on for their energy requirements.

Unplanned and un controlled urbanization in mining areas stimulates unsustainable use of forest and non-forest product and has led to the exploitation of those resources beyond allowable limits.

Chemical pollution

Large-scale mining produces large volumes of waste and chemical pollutants. These may Conner vast tracks of land and can have devastating effects on ecosystems Hazardous chemicals used in the mining sector include heavy metal and mercury. These and chemicals, when not property managed storage and disposal can contaminate water and soils, a very important habits for aquatic life and can inter the human food chain with deadly consequences (UNEP 2006).

Mercury which is mainly used in gold extraction in small –scale gold effects could damage the brain, kindly, lungs and other rural organs. The problem with mercury is its long life of about 30 years from the time of immersion. In general mercury pollution and land degradation are reported in almost all small scale gold mining areas in West Africa. East Africa and Southern Africa.

Mineral extraction is also associated with various toxic chemical that are harmful to health. Toxic substances such as arsenic, cadmium lead and sulphur acids contaminate water and soil and affect human health. The concentration of fluoride and heavy metals in soils, plants and water in the vicinity of fluorspar mining and processing in the Kerio, valley in Kenya has been found to be mainly due to the discharge into the river by the mining company (Redorbit, 2006) A study at the Migori gold belt of Kenya by Ogola et al (2002) found the following high levels of tailings lead -510 mg/kg, Arsenic 76.0 mg/kg and mercury -1920 mg/kg, in stream sediments. The level, of these metals was lead-11,075 mg/kg, Arsenic-1087 mg/kg and mercury 348 mg/kg. These values were above background levels of these metals in the soil system in the areas.

In general mineral extraction does not only directly affect the biolophysical in directly affect the socio-economic and socio-cultural environment of communities as well. Such social, impacts range from health, conflicts, and problems related to drug use and alcoholism and other social vices like robbery and divorce.

 CONCLUSION

Poverty is said to be both the causes and effect of environmental degradation. The circular link between poverty and environment is an extremely a complex phenomena. Inequality may foster un sustainability because the poor who rely on natural resources more than the rich. Deplete natural resources faster as they have no real prospect of gaining access to other types of resources. East African countries are among the developing countries which rely much on natural resources. The linkages between population, poverty and environmental quality have long being the subject of debate and concern.

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