Hazards Of Living Near Dumpsites By Gbenga Salau on October 18, 2015 6:56 am
located close to one of the dumpsites along the
Igando-Egbeda Road lost consciousness,
probably, when their body system could no
longer accept the stench coming out of the site.
Strangely, it is not only the nursing school that is
located by one of the three dumpsites on the
Igando-Egbeda Road. Before now, these
dumpsites used to be in the outskirts of the city,
but with the population expansion, the sites are
now bordered by commercial and residential
buildings, including a General Hospital and a
nursing school.
The three dumpsites are separated by some
metres, with two facing each other. Two of the
three dumpsites are active, though the degree of
activities going on there vary.
Narrating her experience, Mrs. Celestina Okafor,
who lives in the neighbourhood, said after
moving into their new accommodation from
Egbeda, she thought of abandoning the place,
because of the stinky smell oozing from the
dumpsites.
“Sometimes, if you have a visitor, the person will
surely ask what is smelling in your house
Sometimes, it used to be very tough, especially
when the weather is hot or when it rains. There
will be smoke going up into the air, as if
something is on fire. And the odour is very bad,
though, I do not know the impact it would have
on human beings. So, due to the smell, I do not
like this area at all, but I am helpless for now.”
While lamenting her experience, Okafor said
sometimes in the middle of the night, when there
is power outage, and she tries to open the
window for fresh air to come in, instead, foul-
smell will be everywhere, all the way from
general hospital to Governor’s road, where her
apartment is.
According to her, initially, she complained, but
“when you see other people facing the same
situation not complaining, you feel no reason to
complain. And some people do not know who to
complain to when they are pushed to the wall on
the issue. The dumpsite should not be located
within residential area,” she said.
“They should move it out, see that General
Hospital, the dumpsite is too close to hospital, a
place for treatment, you are treating a disease,
but inhaling another.”
Adeyinka Adeoye, a student, who lives in the
community pleaded with the state government to
move the dumpsite away, because the smell is not
palatable, especially, during rainy season. A
feeling re-echoed by Omowunmi Akinwale, who
also said that the thick smell from the site close to
the shop where she works, as a sales girl is
usually unbearable.
Paul Abbah who is on a visit from one of the
South-South states, said he had just spent two
weeks, and doubted, if he could still spend
another two weeks, because the smell is very
offensive and unhealthy for him.
By one of the dumpsites are Bayo Adebayo Street
and Alhaji Sekoni Way, food is cooked for sale
and foodstuffs are sold by the occupiers of the
shops along these streets with flies everywhere.
On each of the three dumpsites, scanvengers and
cart pushers are having a filled-day separating
the garbage and picking what seems valuable to
them. These sites serve as homes to some persons,
as makeshift tents, well covered, are seen on the
dumpsites.
A resident of Samson Dada, one of the streets
adjacent to one of the dumpsites, speaking on his
experience, said: “It has been appalling, but we
have no option, we are already resident here.”
According to him, if he knew the stench coming
out of the dumpsite was that terrible, he would
not have rented an apartment in the community.
He said that the case is usually made worse
during raining season, when the smell is usually
all day round.
“In the middle of the night, the odour goes right
into the room. I am happy that there are plans to
recycle the wastes. Hopefully, when the project
kicks off, things would get better, but for now, it
is not easy, the challenges are too many.”
On what measures he takes to prevent the family
from being negatively affected by the smell, he
said that when it rains, the windows and doors
are firmly shut to prevent the smell from coming
into their apartment.
“We have no place to complain, but I am
pleading that whatever government wants to do
with the dumpsite, to ensure healthy living
around here, it should hasten the programme.
We have teenagers and babies here, and it is not
good for them, even adults are complaining, let
alone babies, but since we have moved in and
have paid, we cannot leave for now,” he said.
He also revealed that when there is no electricity,
the family still has to close the windows and the
doors, which compounds the problem.
“You can understand when you have to close the
doors and windows when the stench is getting
out of hand, but when there is no light it is
double trouble, because we cannot open the
window for air to come in and there is usually no
public electricity here. It could be suffocating.”
Another respondent, who has a shop on Alhaji
Sekoni Way, and lives within the community, said
the experience of trading and living near a
dumpsite has not been good at all for her.
“Sometimes, the heap of waste in the dumpsites
would be emitting something like smoke with
very foul odour with flies roving around here,
which is another matter. The water from the
dump comes into the street. The water is usually
very black and dirty. It is bad. And we get water
through borehole.
“At night, the menace of mosquitoes is terrible.
Health-wise, it has been on the high side,
spending on drugs everyday because of
mosquitoes. If I fail to take drugs within two
days, I will get sick,” she claimed.
Another resident, Bimpe said access to good
water has been a huge challenge because of
heavy iron content, which probably makes the
water smells awfully. The colour is terrible. The
stench is foul and irritating.” She revealed that
after rainfall, the odour becomes heavier and
very unbearable for residents.
“We cannot use the water to cook, let alone
drink. We cannot imagine what we are inhaling.
We cannot get good water no matter how deep
you go, some people have gone as deep as 200
feet, yet unable to get good water. You can
imagine what that means. And you can imagine
that the impact has gone so deep to contaminate
the water underground. To prevent any major
health issue in the family, we regularly visit the
hospital, but I learnt some residents not only use
it to cook, they drink the water.”
The dumpsite at Abulegba, located in Alimosho
Local Council according to information from the
state government, occupies a land area of about
10.2 hectares.
Officially, the dumpsite has been closed, but it is
still being used by cart pushers, many of whom
have makeshift accommodation on the site. There
are also scavengers who sort the refuse,
removing the metals, plastics and other things
they feel could be useful to them.
Though the dumpsite is fenced, there are
pathways into the place, especially through the
back. An easily noticeable sign that the dumpsite
is not completely inactive is the smoke bellowing
out of the place, which is a regular feature,
according to some traders.
This, it was learnt, is a product of consistent
burning of some of the waste brought into the
place by cart pushers, who have probably taken
over the management of the place.
The site is also a toilet to some persons and
possibly traders operating within the area. Fresh
human waste dot the top of the dumpsite. This
further compounds the foul smell coming out of
the place. Dirty coloured water ceaselessly drips
out of the place.
A trader in the vicinity said when he started
operating a shop close to the dumpsites, he had
trouble coping with the smell, but overtime he
adapted. He disclosed that before he got familiar
with the odour, he fell sick twice.
Olushosun Dumpsite situated within Ikeja Local
Government, is said to be the largest dumpsite in
Nigeria and receives the highest waste also.
Many heading towards Abeokuta and Ibadan who
pass through Ojota area would have a taste of the
stinky smell oozing out of this dumpsite, which is
usually all year round.
Like other dumpsites, as trucks with waste drives
in, scavengers scrambled to take charge and sort
out valuables from the heap, unmindful of the
risk of their trade and the world around them.
They appear satisfied as smoke belches into the
immediate surrounding, worsening an already
poor environment.
Commenting, an Associate Professor of
Environmental Health and Planning, Department
of Urban and Regional Planning, the University
of Lagos, Immaculata Ifunanya Nwokoro said
that in most developing countries, the high cost of
sanitary landfill affects its use, as the cheaper
open dumpsites are more prevalent, noting that
location of dumpsites near residential buildings
come with a mirage of problems and associated
health risks.
“Though, many researches have been able to
associate closeness to dumpsites to wellbeing of
residents, there has been no evidence of
causality. It is difficult to quantify risks to health
from landfills, because of lack of direct exposure
measurements, there have however, been
evidences of infections from water, land and air
pollution. The most risky is the pollution of urban
drinking wells by leachates (product of solution
formed by landfills – toxic chemicals, industrial
solvents, pesticide wastes etc).
“However, the following diseases have been
associated with persons living very close to
dumpsites: low birth weight, birth defects, certain
types of cancers, fatigue, sleepiness, and
headaches, as well as, liver malfunction and renal
diseases.”
According to her, it is often suggested that
dumpsites should be located at least 200 metres
away from residential developments. “There
should be laws and policies guiding the location
of dumpsites, which must be enforced and will
prevent the issue of development catching up
with dumpsite locations. These sites should be
properly managed, fenced and away from
residential areas. As much as possible, it should
be sanitary landfill with a combination of liners,
leak detection, leachate collection systems and gas
collection treatment.”
Nwokoro suggested that health education and
creation of awareness on effects of dumpsites on
health should also be encouraged.
Although findings from LAWMA revealed that not
all the dumpsites within Lagos were officially set
up by government, the management of those set
up by government seem not better than the
illegal dumpsites.
This also implies that many living or doing
business around one or more of these dumpsites,
whether approved or not approved by the state
would be going through very discomforting time
daily.
A management staff of LAWMA who spoke under
anonymity, said though managing waste in the
city is a huge challenge, the dumpsites were
established when their locations were not yet
developed.
He also said that the state had envisaged that
development would catch up with the dumpsites
some day, therefore all the landfills had lifespan
attached to them. However, Lagos State has
witnessed very rapid development, which
negatively affected the projections of the
government.
He also argued that many who built houses close
to the dumpsites did so without approval, because
the state government could not have allowed
houses to be built very close to the dumpsites,
considering the negative implications.
According to him, there are plans to close the
dumpsites that development has caught up with.
To ensure that the stench oozing out of the
dumpsites is minimized, the source said that
LAWMA is providing odourizers at the dumpsites,
besides deploying capping process in managing
the waste on the sites.
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