Our roads and water very bad, the air we breathe poisonous –Residents living around Lagos dumpsites

Segun Jemibewon, his wife and their four children had lived in a well-furnished two-bedroomed apartment at Abule Egba, a suburb of Lagos for about six years.

But the serenity this family had enjoyed for years in the neighbourhood was shattered one morning when pandemonium suddenly broke out on their street.

Jemibewon hurried out of his apartment and stepped out to find out what was amiss. The shocking sight that greeted him was of dozens of soldiers and other uniform men, who he would later find out were members of the NNPC task force.

He found out that they were in his neighbourhood to enforce federal government-ordered removal of illegal structures on a land meant for petroleum pipelines.

This day, the status of Jemibewon’s family changed for the worse.

The house in which his family had lived in the last six years was one of those affected by the eviction order.

Tenants like him were given no other choice but to pack out of the apartment within a short time frame.

Jemibewon told our correspondent that he was forced to obtain an emergency loan from his place of work due to the urgency of seeking a decent accommodation for his family.

For him, worrying about the sort of neighbourhood he was moving to was not an immediate concern. He had to urgently restore his family’s dignity.

They moved into a new abode at Igando New Town, a gated community in Alimosho area of Lagos, six weeks after they were ejected by soldiers.

Just after settling down in their new home, Jemibewon started to notice the sanitary and environmental pollution of the area. Though, the house has a functional borehole, the water was far from being fit for drinking, bathing and washing clothes.

In this community, three landfill sites located close to his neighbourhood have rendered underground water unusable in the area.

Unfortunately, the Jemibewons are the only tenants in the four 3-bedroomed storey building. It then dawned on the family that they were in for a tough time, a development they were not used to in the past.

Both water and air pollution brought about by the landfills around the area has continued to put lives of residents at risk, making life unbearable for them.

However, the likes of the Jemibewons abound in Igando community where three massive landfills are located.

According to a recent study by The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, one in six deaths nationwide was caused by pollution of air, water, soil, or workplace environment.

In a recent report by the World Health Organisation, 1.7 million children worldwide die from the effects of pollution.

Soulos, a subsidiary of West African Energy, manages the landfills that are named after the company. Soulos 1 and 2 are adjacent to each other at Lanre Bus Stop along Isheri – LASU Road while Soulos 3, which is the largest of them all, is about 300 metres away.

Soulos 3 is separated from the Igando General Hospital by just the perimeter fencing even though a linear settlement (Raimi Ajibowo Sreet) veiled them.

For residents around these landfill sites, clean groundwater or safe natural air are luxuries that are inaccessible in their neighbourhood.

Igando New Town also contends with the problem of air  and water pollution.

To the right of the community from the entrance is the perennial problem of water contamination, while stench is like an unwanted gift from the gods to all residents around and beyond the estate.

A veterinary doctor, Oluwole, who runs an office in the neighbourhood, shares his experience.

He said, “Landfills here have been a curse to the people, their location here has caused loss of lives. The water table around here has been damaged. It is not good for drinking; it is reddish and smelly particularly when it rains; the whole area is filled with odour.

“Many people have left this area. The place (landfill) is filled up; the height is more than a storey building and it ought to have been closed two years ago.

“The health risk is high. The water is causing sickness to residents who can’t afford to buy water for everything that requires water.”

Our correspondent asked how he had been able to adapt to the environment despite the odds and he said all he could do was manage.

He said, “We buy water. In my house, our well became bad, so we sank a borehole. We had to fix it so many times, yet the water from the borehole is not drinkable.

“Nobody wants to die. This area is supposed to be pleasant. But it is not because of the air pollution. You know they say ‘water is life’ but this one is terrible. A friend of mine that attempted to rent a place here couldn’t cope with the odour because she is asthmatic and felt she would not survive it if she eventually lived here, so she had to look elsewhere.”

In his neighbourhood, many landlords and tenants continue to abandon their houses due to the pollution.

Many houses along Shekoni Way and Oshindairo Street have been abandoned by their landlords.

“Many landlords left this neighbourhood due to the stench and water contamination. The government should close the landfills and do better things with the spaces,” he said.”

Living in and out of hospital

In her late 60s, a landlady, Mrs. Omotosho, a resident of Shekoni Way, said she had hoped to live the rest of her days in joy and serenity.

But the pollution in the area has continued to make her life unbearable.

She said, “I moved in here in 2004; then that place used to be a space where laterite was excavated. It was later turned to a waste dump (landfill). Now, because of it, many houses have been deserted. You know how scarce and expensive accommodation is now. Yet, no one is ready to live here. Who would like to rent a house behind a landfill?

“Stagnant water sips out from the landfill and smells badly. I am always in and out of hospital, including the children.

“In fact, recently God just saved me from losing one of my children who fell terribly ill. Doctors told us we need to change environment because of the pollution. But where would we go?

“If you come to my house now, you see a lot of flies, mosquitoes and houseflies. My brother gave me a part of the parcel of land to build my own house, he also constructed water for us to drink but the water is like poison. No one dares to drink it.”

This old woman took our correspondent to a neighbour’s well, which used to serve people in the neighbourhood until the area became a landfill in 2007.

Now, the well has been abandoned because it has become unusable.

A retiree in his late 50s, Emmanuel Osawe, said he had been living in the community before the landfill was situated on that spot.

Moving out has become hard for him due to his financial status.

“If I knew the situation would be like this, maybe I wouldn’t have moved in here because when we came in here early 2001, we were drinking water from the well and many neighbours came here to fetch water. But gradually, the water became salty, then it turned red and smelly.

“I have used chemicals to treat and improve the quality but to no avail. We again constructed a borehole but no good results. If you wash clothes with the water, such fabrics become rags.

“Of course, the landfill was not in operation at the time and we enjoyed good supply of water. Now, when it rains, you cannot stand here with me because of the unpleasant smell in the air. The height of the waste is like a two-storey building, it’s just coming down gradually and it’s been God who has been keeping us.

“As long as they still dump waste there, we can’t have good health. We can’t use the well or the borehole as the hazard to our health is unquantifiable.

“I have nowhere to go. As you can see, I’m a retiree. The state government is responsible for this landfill. No one can fight the government because they hold the gun and the bullet. We can only pray to God for them to come to our aid as we have no resources to do as we wish.”

Another resident of Bintu Bolajoko Street who owns a two-storey house said he plans to sink another borehole in a bid to woo tenants to his property. He had earlier dug a well and a borehole which have become useless.

He said, “My neighbour has two wells and a borehole that are useless. They only use the water to flush toilet while the other is like a sludge. In the entire street, only two people have good water and we buy from them.

“I still have four units of two-bedroom apartments that are vacant all because previous and prospective occupants want water. It is so painful but I hope to try and sink another borehole in front. Maybe with a depth of 220-250 feet, I could be lucky.”

The Acting Chairman, Igando New Town Community Development Association, Abiodun Adetunji, told Saturday Punch all the efforts the community had made in the past to mitigate the suffering of the residents.

He said, “Pertaining to LAWMA, we have written letters to the Ministry of the Environment and even we wrote another about three weeks ago. We went there and one of the officials told us the governor was having sleepless nights over the waste dumps and that we should calm down.

“If anybody says Soulos 1 or 2 had been there before the residents, it is a pure misinformation. I have been living here since 1998. Soulos 1 closed down early 1999,  Soulos 2 took over later and was taken over from Alhaji Anfani. We learnt he had an agreement with the state government because he once told us he was digging that place for fish pond. At the end, there was no pond but government’s action of dumping waste was what ended it.

“We spoke out but the government didn’t bulge. When our water got contaminated, we wrote to the Lagos State Waste Management Authority and they came to check it. We were told the water was not being polluted by the waste. We insisted it was as a result of the landfill because our groundwater was good before the landfill started eight years earlier.

“Those behind the landfill site presently cannot use water from their wells and boreholes for anything. Majority of the residents behind the landfill do not have water presently. We called on the last administration in the state to help us, nothing happened. We hope that the present government would find solution to it and come to our rescue soon.”

Unfortunately, public pipe-borne water that could have saved the residents of these areas is non-existent.

Adetunji said,“Recently, the Lagos State Water Corporation said they intended to extend pipe-borne water to this neighbourhood. The corporation called a meeting of affected residents but up till now, we have yet to reach an agreement because they gave out forms for expression of interest and  proposed a fee of N10,000.

“It is like we are not part of Lagos. Our water is bad, the road is bad and the air we breathe in is bad. Many tenants are packing out daily.

“Wastes from all over Lagos State are brought here for us to consume. We call on LAWMA to do the needful. We do not want to fight anybody because we are law abiding citizens. I am sure many people have died because of this pollution.”

A hospital battling pollution of landfill

Residents are not the only ones suffering from the proximity of landfill sites in Igando.

Our correspondent noticed that the Igando General Hospital also battles with the inescapable air pollution from the landfill site close to it.

An official, who craved anonymity, said the entire hospital was always filled with pungent smell that wafts from the heaps upon heaps of wastes from across the wall.

“Whenever rain falls, the air gets saturated with gases that are hazardous to one’s health. How can one come to the hospital to get well but get more problems through pollution?

“Passengers of moving vehicles too cover their noses whilst passing through this road. So you can understand how bad it is for patients and those of us working here permanently.”

On one street in the neighbourhood, the situation is so bad that some houses have been submerged by waste water seeping from the landfill.

A female attendant at a medicine store visited by our correspondent said most common drugs that residents come for were antibiotics and anti-malaria drugs.

An Environmental Health Officer, Mr. Suleiman Balogun, who heads the Environmental Department of Igando General Hospital, confirmed that the areas bordering the landfill sites were disease prone locations.

He said ‘’Even to a layman, it is not advisable to live by a waste dump let alone a landfill. It is a potential exposure to epidemic outbreak among the residents and could come in varying degree. I am newly posted here, so we are yet to do any advocacy but when I settle down, we should be able to do something.”

Security risks

Despite the hazardous nature of the landfill sites, miscreants and area boys have made homes around them.

For them, a landfill site is “protected” territory where authorities do not come to. Residents are easily robbed around the locations, while the shacks they live in the sites provide places to use drugs.

To make ends meet, they scavenge for recyclable materials to sell. This is the life of youths popularly known as ’Bowler’.

A resident, Shittu, told our correspondent that in the past, as early as 5am each morning when residents set out for work, ‘bowler boys’  hiding out in waste trucks rob pedestrians.

“Early morning they hide behind the waste trucks before coming out to rob people and run back to the landfill area,” he said.

Many of the waste trucks are parked indiscriminately on the road with wastes hanging precariously on them.

The trucks have also caused a few accidents.

A resident told our correspondent how a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly lost his life when his vehicle rammed into a stationary waste truck.

“When he hit the stationary truck, another vehicle hit his car again from the rear and he died. Many people have died this way,” he said.

Government response 

Saturday WORLD NEWS reached out to the General Manager of the Lagos State Waste Management Agency, Mr. Segun Adeniji, who explained the challenges and the plan for landfill sites in the state.

He said “The government has plans to seal the Soulos landfill site in Igando. We plan to put in place a better landfill site which would take 18 to 24 months to be ready. The Epe landfill site preparation is already in top gear, the access road has been done, the weighbridge is also being done and other preparations are under way. There is also going to be another landfill in Badagry.

“On the short term plan, we fumigate the sites from time to time to eradicate the rodents and minimise the smell in the area. But, the main remediation plan starts when it is closed down and it’s going to be a massive action.

“Residents there would have a new lease of life and would also know that government has them in mind.”

He explained that a mini-waterworks which is undergoing expansion in Igando would solve the water problem.

What experts have to say

The founder, Earthshield International Foundation, Ms. Jumoke Kassim, is of the opinion that the practice of open landfill system is a health risk created by ignorance.

Kassim, who is a landscape architect, said everything is wrong with the mode of waste management adopted by the Lagos State Government.

She said, “There is a better and more sustainable solution the government could adopt and that should pay for the future.

“There is organic waste composting machine, this converts all food organic waste to compost in 24hours. It comes in different sizes suitable for homes, restaurants, offices, houses, hotels, big schools.

“It can process up to 1,500kg of organic waste daily and the compost that comes out can be used for gardening or landscaping needs and that helps to complete the food cycle. So that you don’t throw the waste to the landfill and it’s gone forever because it is mixed with other waste.

“It can also be used as biogas if it is not mixed up.  Essentially, we need to adopt what is operating for the future and not do things that are behind. We can create green jobs for school leavers who can be paper collectors, bottle collectors, which is neat and not something to be ashamed of as long as the organic waste part is not mixed with the inorganic, because the organic is the smelly part due to decomposition.”

 “Tax payers’ money should be used to make life convenient for people,” Kassim said.

According to her, the system of waste management in the country that does not include recycling is not sustainable.

Kassim said the waste management system in Lagos is a huge health risk which would not help climate adaptation.

According to her, a city aiming to be a mega city cannot continue to depend on landfill sites.

In Nigeria, the culture of recycling is still largely unpopular.

In fact, few states like Lagos have recycling centres. But in many cities in the country, there are no public containers dedicated to recyclable materials.

Experts say the recycling potential in Nigeria is a multibillion-naira enterprise that has remained largely untapped.

In China for instance, the industry has grown so large that the country has resorted to importing wastes from Europe, Japan and USA. In fact, available figures show that the country imports 27 million tonnes of waste paper.

For countries such as the US, the export of wastes continues to be a job creator.

The US-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries said that more than 155,000 direct jobs are supported by the US industry’s waste export activities.

According to BioEnergy Consult, Nigeria is estimated to generate 3.2 million tonnes of solid waste annually. More than 13,000 metric tonnes of this is generated in Lagos, according to the state’s waste management agency.

Kassim said Nigeria can generate over N6.5trn annually from sustainable management of waste across the country.