Keep Environment Clean
Litter
Litter is ugly and it can harm people and wildlife. Picking up litter
can be costly for cities and highway departments.
Dog fouling in public places (another form of litter) is a serious
health risk, particularly for young children.
Cigarette butts are another unpleasant form of litter. They may seem
small, but with several trillion butts littered every year they are the
number one source of litter in this county. Cigarette butts make up a
large part of much urban litter and they can take up to 12 years to
break down.
So how do we keep litter off our public places and keep the environment
clean?
The answer is, of course, firstly educate the public to take their
litter home, and when they do not, it is necessary to ensure that
efficient street cleaning is provided.
Street cleaning is controlled by the Department of Public Works in all
towns and cities and is usually removed by appointed contractors or the
Council's own direct labor force. When it works well you will usually
find that the local businesses take an active interest in assisting in
streamlining the process with also making further regular consultation
with the community. Street cleaning is often, but not always, carried
out for extended hours, and these hours may range from 8 am until 12 or
2 pm in our big cities. Street cleaning is an absolute necessity in all
modern well run cities.
Street cleansing is a manual task and labor is a significant cost.
Satisfaction with the cleanliness of streets and commercial areas has
improved in the UK since privatization. One reason likely for this is
that previously the Council's staff had to be the policemen ensuring the
efficiency of their own work. Human nature is such that to be on both
sides of such a role seldom works efficiently.
Street cleansing is only a part of city housekeeping which in this
article is just a part of how to keep the environment clean. The council
(municipal) health department's business is to see that all the people
have pure air, pure water, pure food, and are protected from contagious
diseases.
Street cleaning is an important element of city housekeeping and is
provided more and more by highly mechanized equipment such as through
the use of street sweepers and flushers. Most streets are scheduled for
cleaning at least five times per year, and paved alleys are cleaned
once.
Street cleaning must always be strictly enforced, and react to events
when litter will build up more quickly, but without clean water in the
rivers and streams throughout the city the municipal authorities could
hardly be said to be keeping the environment clean.
River Pollution
The avoidance of river pollution is if anything more essential than
street cleansing, especially where the poorer population must rely on
the river water for domestic and even drinking water use.
If asked how to keep the environment clean from river pollution we would
have to say by collecting all sewage and treating it before allowing it
to discharge back into the river downstream.
River pollution is the most devastative phenomena to health in the poor
and developing. Pollution is occurring when the water shows an
alteration of physical and chemical parameters such as odor, taste,
colour, turbidity.
If polluted water is tested in a water quality analysis laboratory there
are a number of tell-tale changes you will notice. These are exemplified
by changes in total hardness, pH, chlorides etc. Expect to see BOD, and
COD in increased quantities as well, among others.
River pollution is a serious problem. In recent years there has been a
growing awareness of the issues involved but, at the same time,
continued urbanization and industrialization and the continued growth of
population produce ever-increasing amounts of waste for disposal.
Dangerously, River pollution is concentrated around urban areas. River
Pollution is a major environmental problem today, but we don't seem to
be making as much progress as we should. Perhaps the reason is
ideological?
Where sewage treatment plants have been installed the levels of
indicator bacteria and nitrogen in the discharge should be tracked to
measure management performance. If a failure in discharge quality occurs
the municipal authorities must act to determine changes needed in
monitoring protocol to avoid any further occurrences. It is important to
also report progress and recommendations to inform planning and
management decision-makers. Levels of any pollutant can be measured by
water quality testing methods, and once the analysis has been provided
it is always important to check the data carefully against the legal
standards. For example, the State of Florida sets the safe health
standard for bacteria as less than 1000 faecal coliform bacteria per 100
milliliters.
The most common sources of pollution are domestic water discharges from
the houses in the catchment area, and uncontrolled dumps of solid
domestic wastes along tributary banks and in dry ravines. Industrial
discharge can be a major cause of pollution. Each industrial discharge
usually contains chemicals and organic compounds which can enter the
bodies of many aquatic animals. Even ground water can be polluted from
the soakage pits, septic tanks, manure, garbage, etc. and that
eventually discharges to the rivers still worsening the problem.
Industrial pollutants from smaller units continue to be a problem. While
most of the large and medium industrial units have put up treatment
plants and are using them. 40 per cent of the industrial waste seen in
one example - a whopping 4000 mld - is from small scale industries in
cities and residential colonies.
About the author
Steve Evans has written for the Wasters blog since 2006. It recently received nearly 50,000 hits in a month, and continues to grow. If you have any interest in free waste settlement ebook - download-ready - shouldn't you take a look.