Knowledge on Environmental Degradation and Thoughts for Its Mitigation among University Students

大學生對環境損傷之認識與如何緩和之思考

Irteza Rashid ； Saiful Momen ； Haniyum Maria Khan

《台灣醫學人文學刊》 22卷1&2期 (2021/11) Pp. 25-30

摘要

This cross-sectional study was conducted to find out level of knowledge on environmental degradation and thoughts for its mitigation among undergraduate students of selected private universities. Two hundred one (201) students from different departments (except department of environmental science) of purposively selected 4 private universities of Dhaka city were included in the study. The average age of the students was 21.41 years and 65% were male students. Verbal informed consent was taken from the students before inclusion in the study. Data were collected using semi-structured questionnaire mostly containing questions on air, water & land pollution and biodiversity. Due to COVID-19 pandemic data were collected online through a Google Form developed from the questionnaire. SPSS version 20 was used to analyze collected data. The study revealed that although majority (60.7%) of the students has good knowledge on environmental degradation, however only 4% of them have excellent knowledge. Among the students 24.9% have satisfactory level of knowledge and 10.4% of them have poor level of knowledge. Around 90% of the students agreed to the statement that the Government should do more to promote and encourage a better environment. Among the students 84.6% agreed to the statement that factories should switch to cleaner processes and 85% of them agreed to the statement that recycling programs should be promoted. Approximately 87% of the students agreed that every citizen is responsible for improving the environment. Introduction Environmental degradation may be defined as the deterioration of the environment through exhaustion of natural resources such as air, water and soil; the damage of ecosystems and the destruction of wildlife. In short environmental degradation is any harmful or unwanted change or disturbance to the environment (Swati Tyagi et al., 2014). Environmental degradation is a contemporary issue in Bangladesh like in many other developing countries. The country faces a number of interconnected environmental problems (DOE, 2001). Few research studies and surveys showed that status of environment in Bangladesh is deteriorating. The main environmental constraints of this country are its vulnerability to seasonal flooding, insufficient sanitation and its inadequate infrastructure for wastewater management (Ahmed et al., 1998). Bangladesh -a low-lying deltaic country is also prone to the multidimensional health hazards (Khanom and Salehin, 2012) as environmental contamination influences human fitness and wellbeing in various ways (McMichael, 2003). Although formal environmental education has been introduced in higher education but knowledge on environment among the students has not been well documented (Taiyeb Chowdhury MA, 2014). Literature review revealed that information on level of knowledge on environmental degradation is inadequate. Number of research studies conducted in Bangladesh in this direction is very much limited. Although few studies are reported separately on air or water pollution but no report was found on determination of knowledge level on environmental degradation as a whole focusing undergraduate students of universities. Under these circumstances this research was planned to find out knowledge levels of students of different private universities for environmental degradation covering 4 key areas: water, land & air pollution and bio-diversity. To explore thoughts for mitigation of environmental degradation, responses of students on statements regarding involvement and responsibility of different stakeholders for improvement of environment were identified. Information on knowledge levels of university students on environmental degradation may be helpful to draw future plan to create appropriate awareness among the students on environmental degradation which may ultimately facilitate prevention of environmental pollution.