A Sociological Investigation to Periodic Street Markets and Environmental Pollution in Yenagoa City, Bayelsa State Nigeria

Abstract

The human harmful impact on the environment has been made to focus on the release of chemical substances to the environment from industries with little or no recognition to the procedures of resources distribution via market situations. The study seeks to examine sociological factors associated with periodic street markets as predictive of environmental pollution in Yenagoa. The study was anchored on Weberian Social Action Theory. A survey research design was adopted to sample 372 sellers in a simple random technique in seven market locations. Structured questionnaire was utilized to collect quantitative data from the respondents. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regressions were used to analyze data using SPSS version 20.0. The hypotheses were tested at p-value<0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that the mean age of the respondents was 34.4±9.21, while majority of the respondents (51.3% food stuff and 11.3% fruit items) in the markets sell food related items. Findings also showed that among other predictive factors of environmental pollution, the medium of waste disposal (99.4%) was the most significant factor predicting the occurrence of environmental pollution in the city. In view of the findings, it was concluded that effort to exert compliance to environmental sanitation especially among sellers in the periodic street markets in the city should be made by the government in collaboration with the market association in order that indiscriminate dumping of refuse around market areas can be brought to control.