Rainy season: Lagos and the scourge of ‘plastic bottles’

Lagos State has always been a beehive for activities.
Aside its status as one of the states with high
economic rating which encourages the influx of a
large number of people to it daily, the state has been
plagued with accompanying effects of urban
migration. Its burgeoning population has tasked on
available resources, thus making the provision and
maintenance of basic amenities a grueling imposition
on successive governments.
With a population of over 20 million people, producing
thousands of tonnes of waste each day, waste
disposal in Lagos has remained a big issue to deal
with, especially when it piles up on the streets and
residential areas.
Though successive governments had tried to embark
on various waste disposal techniques, the problem
has remained a headache, especially in the interior
parts of the city. The surge in population made
housing a top priority, and in many situations,
structures were built closely together, without proper
consideration for drainage and other means of waste
disposal.
Drainages were made mandatory by the Lagos
government, but they had, over time, become quick
waste disposal opportunities for many residents.
Though the high-class areas are better planned and
serviced by waste disposers for a fee, the interior
parts, especially the mainland remain hard to
cleanse. Thus, whenever it rains, filth is often littered
on the streets.
This situation is made worse by the use of plastics
to package water and other beverages and the
attitude of residents, who indiscriminately dispose
them along the streets and in drainages. And so,
whenever it rains, the streets wherein drainages are
clogged become an eyesore and health hazard.
In the past, officials of the Lagos State Waste
Management Authority (LAWMA) and the Emergency
Flood Abatement Gang (EFAG), under the Lagos
Ministry of the Environment, had expressed concern
over the indiscriminate dumping of objects, including
used plastic bottles, into canals and drainages.
According to reports, the concern was borne out of
the large number of used plastic bottles, which they
had to remove from the drainages around the
metropolis where flooding was reported. Such areas
included Lagos Island, Agege, Abule Egba, Bariga,
Fadeyi, Ketu, Ilasa, Mushin, Isolo, Oshodi and Okota
to mention a few.
The situation was, however, brought under control by
the government through a number of initiatives,
which included an incentive to recycle plastic bottles,
bags and tins. In this initiative, tricycles known as
“We-cyclers” would go door to door to collect plastic
waste.
People in return earn points that could be turned into
gifts. The ‘We-cyclers’ then take the waste to
factories that transform them to small plastic balls,
which could be used in producing objects like basins
and buckets.
However, Lagosians are worried about the efficiency
of this effort as the scenario is apparently getting
worse. They are apprehensive over the resurgence of
heaps of used plastic bottles on the roadsides and
verges, particularly in Mushin, Oshodi, Lagos Island,
Agege, Abule Egba and other parts of the metropolis.
Recently, after a downpour around Lagos, Ajegunle
and Yaba residents woke up to a somewhat ‘wonder
sight’. Some streets had been entirely covered with
plastic bottles. A picture of the affected area soon
surfaced online and went viral, which evoked
comments from around the world.
According to Ayobami Adeyemi, a resident of Yaba,
the rainy season was always a time of caution. He
said, “Many times, we would go to sleep with one
eye open especially whenever it rained overnight.
Before now, it was a normal sight to see most of the
neighborhood’s wastes on the street which posed a
serious health problem. Though the waste disposal
management authorities have been clearing
drainages of plastic bottles and debris, ‘Lagosians’
must also try to curb the behaviour of throwing
bottles and other seemingly small objects into
drainage channels and sewers.”
Besides the nuisance which used plastic bottles
constitute to the environment, it has been discovered
that hazardous plastic wastes pose far-reaching
ecological danger on both land and marine
environments.
Marine experts have also warned on the dangers of
ecological imbalance caused by illegal dumping of
plastics and other wastes. According to Abah John
Abah, a sailor/geologist and public interest
commentator on energy and environment, who
resides in Lagos, some fishes swallow plastic
materials mistaking them for food.
He said, “The marine world is a complex ecosystem.
As on land, marine animals feed on themselves and
other smaller fauna and flora. These lower lives all
face the dangers from plastics. The harmful
chemicals slowly seeping into waters affects their
health and puts them at risk of extinction thereby
creating ecological imbalance.”
A resident of Egbeda, Tobechuwkwu Eze, lamented
the nonchalant attitude of some residents who dump
their waste in the drainages at night, stressing that it
was the major cause of flooding in many flood prone
areas.
He solicited government’s support to clear the
drainages within the metropolis before the rainy
season fully sets in.
Floating debris has also been linked to the breeding
of mosquitoes that spread malaria and other related
diseases.
According to an online source with reference to
LAWMA, waste management or waste disposal has
been a challenge for the Lagos state government for
decades. The government has tried several strategies
to manage the volume of waste generated in Lagos.
However, only limited success has been achieved.
The huge amount of waste generated in Lagos
coupled with the waste disposal challenge has given
birth to a means of livelihood for some. The most
common among those who make a living from
disposing waste are cart pushers.
Many people in Lagos have adopted waste disposal
through cart pushers because they are handy and it
costs little to engage their services. These cart
pushers move from street to street looking for people
who want to dispose waste. And they don’t have to
search for long.
In fact, people stand outside their homes waiting for
cart pushers to pass by so they can transfer the
waste they have generated over the last couple of
days into the cart of these waste disposing medium
for onward transfer to waste sites.
It is generally believed that with continued efforts
embarked upon by LAWMA through clearing all
drainages, stricter sanctions on areas with improper
waste disposal and the continued individual
patronage of independent cart pushers, Lagos State
will remain the pride of all as the centre of
excellence.