Western Samoa : land-based pollution sources and their effects on the marine environment

Abstract

Over the last twenty years the South Pacific region has seen numerous changes in its physical environment due to human-related activities such as increased industrialisation and rapid urbanization. While increased industrialisation has led to the production of large volumes of waste products/water requiring subsequent disposal (usually into surrounding marine environments), the rapid urbanisation has resulted in increased discharge of large volumes of human wastes and domestic rubbish usually into surrounding aquatic environments due to inadequate waste disposal facilities. One likely consequence of such activities is the degradation or destabilisation of the surrounding ecosystems to the point where it has become impossible to maintain the limited natural resources on which most of the island communities depend (S. Naidu et al., 1991).