People’s attempts to adjust their endless wants and desires for food,
shelter, recreation, infrastructural facilities and others to the land and
other resources available to them has resulted in the deterioration of
urban and rural environmental quality in Nigeria, which is
characterized by water shortages and floods that play a major role in
the transmission of communicable diseases. The review is an attempt
to x-rays some of the resultant impacts of man’s interaction with his
environment with a view to outlining their contribution to
environmental problems and how far the environmental policies have
been implemented to control the negative impacts by man on the
environment. Suggestions are made for re-designing the objectives and
strategies of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA).
Environmental protection techniques need to be cultured, home-grown
and the framework should be “bottom-up”. A number of communities
should be grouped together from the (political) ward level to local
government level. Environmental protection agencies at the local
government level should be empowered to punish offenders.