Effect of Road Transport Operations on Environmental Quality in Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Roads serve as a most important long-term infrastructure which connects commuters with their destinations, to ease the burden of travel. Road transport operations which include Commuting and freight movement using automobile are mostly carried out along road corridors and such operations contribute to poor quality of the environment in form of air, noise and soil pollution. The study was carried out on some selected roads in Ondo state using survey research and experimental design. Traffic survey involving vehicular counts was carried out to determine the volume and composition of vehicles on selected roads in Ondo State. Altair 5X analyser, noise meter and Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) were used to collect and analyse air pollutants, noise level and soil compound contaminate respectively. Questionnaire was administered to randomly selected respondents for data collection on the effect of transport pollutants on human health. The study revealed that about 882 pcu/hr to 4648 pcu/hr traverse through different road corridors in Ondo state, while about 13.943 ppm to 2.868ppm of Carbon monoxide is produced; about 0.025 ppm to 0.007 ppm of Sulphur dioxide is produced; about 0.070 ppm to 0.017 ppm of Nitrogen dioxide is produced. The research also observed that levels of noise produced ranges from 86.8dBA to 74.6dBA.The order based on the level of increase for soil contaminate in auto mechanic workshop is Fe>Zn>Mn>Cu>Pb>Ni and follows this ranges of production: 1.313 mg/kg to 0.0242 mg/kg of Copper (Cu); 19.222 mg/kg to 8.194mg/kg of Iron (Fe); 1.545 mg/kg to 0.129mg/kg of Manganese (Mn); 0.734mg/kg to 0.129mg/kg of Nickel (Ni); 1.037mg/kg to 0.104mg/kg of lead (Pb) and 2.185mg/kg to 0.385mg/kg of Zinc (Zn) in the study area. The study showed that the average minimum level of acceptable standard for air pollutant SO2, NO2 and PM10 along traffic corridor and noise pollution is exceeded in Ondo state. Sampled opinion of respondents who subsist and do business along the selected corridor in Ondo state showed that 9.73% to 13.43% of them have high levels of cough which suggest a serious sign of danger as 4% is the allowable level for cough in a community, 12.21% have high throat irritation, 12.45% have nasal discharge and 4.11% have Asthma. The effect of noise on respondents are that 14.48% are highly irritated, 23.37% are highly annoyed, 27.81% are stressed, 15.24% have high level of sleeplessness, 17.17% noted that noise causes high level of communication disruption and 19.23% feels high level of headache due to road transport noise in Ondo state. The study recommended that vehicle plying urban road in Ondo state should be checked regularly to meet up with recommended emission standard and that more proactive measures should be taken to reduce the continuous use of fossil fuel in powering automobile. Waste generated in auto mechanic workshop should be properly treated before disposal to reduce harm during automobile maintenance.