Asian Journal of Environment & Ecology

The generation of biomedical waste has increased many times after the SARS Cov2 commencement. The biomedical waste generated from COVID-19 Patients is very infectious and contaminated. Thus, it is a big challenge with all stakeholders to avoid spreading of COVID-19 through it. This requires monitoring the complete cycle to the grave to be monitored from the cradle, if the spreading needs to be controlled. The COVID-19 waste generation, collection, storage, transportation and disposal is a big challenge withall stakeholders including isolation wards, quarantine centres, sample collection centres, laboratories, urban local bodies, and the Common Bio-medical Waste Treatment Facility (CBWTF) respectively. As its a novel virus and WHO has instructed that proper guidelines need to be followed with regards to COVID-19biomedical waste generation and its safe disposal. The Government of India has separately developed the Guidelines for the handling of COVID-19 biomedical waste, which needs to be followed besides BiomedicalRules, 2016 so that Corona spread through this can be controlled. Owing to its novel origin and least information about its behaviour, thus it is extremely important to take all precautions possible till we get some medical treatment.

Microplastics have permeated most, if not all, ecosystems including the terrestrial ones. The presence of microplastics in soil poses concerns on plants and agriculture. Microplastics alter soil biophysical properties including bulk density, water holding capacity and soil microbial interactions with water stable aggregates. The effects of microplastics on soil and plants frequently depend on the types and sizes of microplastics. This mini review presents a concise illustration of the impacts of microplastics on plants and crops. From the review, microplastics alter soil biophysical and chemical characteristics either positively or negatively depending on their types, concentrations, sizes and shapes. It reveals the ability of microplastics to affect enzymatic activities of plants which could lead to genotoxicity and oxidative damage. It unveils endocytosis of microplastics by specific plant cells as well as the uptake of microplastics via root and their accumulation and transport in plants facilitated by transpiration. This review also shows microplastics reduce root growth and seed germination at least transiently while do not seem to alter chlorophyll content. Microplastics were found to not interfere with phytoremediation of metals by the common reeds. This review highlights the need of more studies to confirm the effects of microplastics on crops and plants as the existing studies in this area are limited.

Aims: This study investigated the physicochemical assessment of Rivers Kaa and Bodo in Ogoniland, as well as the proximate profile of selected fin and shell fish from these Rivers.

Study Design: Random sampling.

Place and Duration of Study: Kaa and Bodo communities of Ogoniland, between August and November 2014.

Methodology: The physicochemical analysis; pH, temperature (T), biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved oxygen (DO), total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), conductivity (C), salinity (S) and total hydrocarbon content (THC), were done. The results were compared to FEPA and APHA permissible limits. Proximate composition was determined using Association of Official Analytical Chemist standard analytical methods.

Results: Physicochemical analysis results showed that T (26.5±.010), (26.8±.006) and TSS (8.68±.006), (12.5±.006) for Kaa were lower than Bodo (sp≤0.05), S (7.20±.021), (8.40±.010) and THC (0.25±.015), (3.00±.040) were both lower for Kaa than Bodo, at (p≤0.05), BOD was higher for samples collected from Bodo than samples collected from Kaa (188±.234), (259±.690). The TDS and Conductivity were both higher for samples from Bodo than those from Kaa, while pH and DO were higher for samples collected from Kaa than samples collected from Bodo. The moisture content for all samples collected from Kaa (63.7±.289), (72.5±.488), (75.1±.973), (67.4±.455), were significantly lower at p≤0.05 than the moisture content for samples from Bodo (68.7±.514), (80.6±.476), (86.2±.790), (74.5±.514) indicating that the samples from Kaa are better sources of protein, lipid, and energy than samples from Bodo. The protein, lipid, crude fibre, ash and dry matter content of all samples from Kaa were significantly higher (p≤0.05) than those for samples from Bodo.

Conclusion: These findings suggest a contamination of the study sites particularly Bodo with petroleum products. Furthermore, it shows that the protein contents in all samples from Bodo were below the recommended standards, suggesting that the consumption of fishes from the study area particularly Bodo, is unhealthy.

The purpose of this study is to extract lineaments from satellite images in order to contribute to the understanding of the structural geology of parts of Boki and its environs. Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) and Landsat 7 ETM images of path 187 and row 056 were used for the analysis which is processed for automated extraction, validated through ground-truthing of planar and linear geological features displaying altitude of about 233 for Bansara sheet 304. Lineament extraction processing was done using PCI Geomatica version 2016 for Landsat imagery and ArcGIS 10.5 used to generate Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and Slope Map for SRTM imagery. Statistically a total of 3191 count of highly dense lineament were generated ranging between 0.86 to 4.33 km in length with the mean of 1.22 and a standard deviation of 0.83 intersecting at low percentage of 3-6%. The DEM display a range of 1335 to -1335 m sloping in the range of 0-2.81 and 61.224-89.725 m for topographic analysis. The lineament extracted were trending majorly in NW/SE and other minor ones in NE/SW directions some which were agreement with the altitude of the ground-truth data. The variation is possibly as a result of influence from regional process such as deformation, metamorphism, magmatism and method of data acquisition and analysis. Lineament analysis are profound index parameters for engineering of dams, economic mineral and water resources exploration, exploitation, planning and development. It is also useful in geohazard studies and its mitigation as the areas are prone to rockfalls, rockslides, landslides, mudslides and flooding due to high rainfall and human activities at the foot of the highlands.

The purpose of this study was to determine peoples’ participation in flood coping mechanism, to explore the relationships between selected characteristics of the respondents and their flood coping mechanism and to assess the contribution of selected personal and socio-economic characteristics to their participation in flood coping mechanism. Data were collected from a sample of 298 flood affected peoples selected by multistage random sampling procedure from Sirajganj district of Bangladesh during the period from 20 August, 2014 to 20 November, 2014. The flood coping mechanism was determined initially on five aspects namely food collection and management, agricultural products protection, household assets protection, health and sanitation and some social context. Ten statements were identified under each aspect making a total of 50 statements considered as dependent variable of the study. Finally a flood coping mechanism index (CMI) was computed. Among the 50 statements of flood coping mechanism the highest coping mechanism in each aspects was observed where ‘dry food preparation and preservation’, ‘rapid growth short duration crop cultivation’, ‘cooperate with abled relatives’, ‘transportation of all houses to the safe place due to over flood’ and ‘use small boat or vella for defecation purpose etc.  More than two-thirds (68.1 percent) of the respondents had medium, whereas nearly one-fifth (19.1 percent) had low and 12.8 percent had high concentration on flood copping mechanism. Among 15 individual characteristics of the respondents, nine of them had positive and significant relationship with flood coping mechanism while six of them had no significant relationship with flood coping mechanism.