Hazards Of Living Near Dumpsites

RECENTLY, some students of a nursing school 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.