Statement of the Problem
Environmental pollution is reaching worrying proportions worldwide. Urbanization and
industrialization along with economic development have led to increase in energy consumption
and waste discharges. The global environmental pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions
and acid deposition, as well as water pollution and waste management is considered as
international public health problems, which should be investigated from multiple perspectives
including social, economic, legislation, and environmental engineering systems, as well as lifestyle habits helping health promotion and strengthening environmental systems to resist
contamination (Abbasi, 2011).
Exposures to environmental pollution remain a major source of health risk throughout the world,
though risks are generally higher in developing countries, where poverty, lack of investment in
modern technology and weak environmental legislation combine to cause high pollution levels.
Associations between environmental pollution and health outcome are, however, complex and
often poorly characterized. In recent decades, too, a wide range of modern pollutants have
emerged—not least, those associated with road traffic and the use of modern chemicals in the
home, in food, for water treatment and for pest control. Most of these pollutants are rarely
present in excessively large concentrations, so effects on health are usually far from immediate
or obvious (Abbasi, 2011).
Pollution reaches its most serious proportions in the densely settled urban-industrial centers of
the more developed countries. In poor countries of the world more than 80% polluted water have
been used for irrigation with only seventy to eighty percent food and living security in industrial
urban and semi urban areas. Industry, clustered in urban and semi-urban areas surrounded by
densely populated, low-income localities, continues to pollute the environment with impunity.
Environment pollution is a worldwide problem and its potential to influence the health of human
populations is great (Fereidoun, Nourddin, Rreza, Mohsen, Ahmad, & Pouria, (2007). The air we
breathe is an essential ingredient for our wellbeing and a healthy life. Unfortunately polluted air
is common throughout the world (EPHA, 2009) especially in developed countries from 1960s.
Polluted air contains one, or more, hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant that creates a
hazard to general health. The WHO states that one sixth of the world’s population;
approximately 1.1 billion people do not have access to safe water and 2.4 billion lacks have no
availability of basic sanitation (Ashraf, Maah, Yusoff, & Mehmood, 2010).
This research tries to investigate the effect of environmental pollution on the psychological
wellbeing of hosanna town dwellers raising the following as leading questions for investigation:
i. What are the major air pollutants that prevail in Hosanna Town?
ii. What are the psychological impacts of pollution?
iii. How the pollutants affect the quality of life of the dwellers?
iv. What are the possible strategies and techniques to curb the problem?