A Comparative Analysis of Environmental Justice Between Urban Neighbourhoods

Abstract

Inequality and spatial disparities in the provision of amenities and services is a serious problem that often expressed itself in the realms of social and environmental justice. This study investigated the level of environmental justice or otherwise in the provision of amenities and services in selected Northern and Southern neighbourhoods of Minna. Qualitative and quantitative data were acquired through physical surveys and direct observations of amenities and facilities to aid identification of salient features while a checklist was used to guide the research and converting field data to a digital tool using the Open Data Kit (ODK) tool. With purposive sampling technique, descriptive statistic, spatial data analysis and the Gini coefficient; it was shown that injustice in the provision of environmental amenities is both a cause and effect of distributive and procedural inequities across space. Although there is a moderate level of environmental justice (GC=0.33) on the aggregate in the study area, this is not even across sampled amenities, as there is a low level of equality in the provision of schools (GC=0.51). However, the provision of facilities like water boreholes (GC=0.37) and waste dumpsites (GC=0.28) performed fairly with moderate environmental justice; it is, worrisome to note that access roads recorded a high level of inequality (GC=0.19) – particularly as Bosso town with 40% of the residents of the metropolis only has 20% of access roads, while, Tudun Wada South is having 22% of the road for just 7% of the population. The study, therefore, recommended equitable construction of more access roads across the neighbourhoods; imbibing equity and justice in the provision of more water boreholes and waste dumpsites to help institute more sustainable development and management in Minna and similar cities.