Passing through some overhead bridges in the Ibadan metropolis like one bridge at the New Gbagi market, one will definitely meet one or two persons dumping refuse. You’ll see them carry heavy bags or bowls with which they brought the wastes and the audacity with which they empty the contents right on the bridge with no remorse needs to be studied. In the past, the practice was to dump the contents during the night. Nowadays, they do it in broad daylight. Another case study is Oje and Oja’ba markets. There is always a heavy heap of rotten fruits in the middle of the road and heavy sacks filled with wastes. This is apart from baskets or sacks containing wastes thrown nonchalantly or made to stand beside streetlight poles. The market men and women go about their duties unperturbed. Some of the food vendors put their items right beside the stinking, littered, open drainages. There is no way you will visit these two markets without losing your appetite if you are particular about cleanliness. However, Bodija market, the major food market in the city, is better as there are refuse drums around which is a plus to the effort of the government in making the market cleaner than before.
The airwaves have been agog recently with warnings from the Oyo State government telling citizens to restrain from littering the state, especially Ibadan metropolis, with refuse dumps everywhere. Taking a trip around the city will make obvious why the government is so consistent about such warnings. Polluted air from these wastes could be perceived in some parts of the capital city, for example. Refuses fly all over. After any rainfall, a lot of people come out to pour their refuses inside the gutter, which explains why there are refuses all over the roads, especially after rainfalls. Used diapers, bottles, nylons and the likes litter the streets and you begin to wonder why people are so quick to forget calamities.
It is also worthy of note that the Federal Ministry of Environment, the Nigeria Meteorological Services and the National Hydrological Services have been issuing regular forecasts of heavy rainfall and flash floods. The indications are that the rains have been heavier this year and, according to NiMET, more is forecast for September all through December. Oyo State was marked as one of the highly probable flood risk states alongside 32 other states like Adamawa, Osun, Abia, Delta, Taraba, Kogi, to mention a few, including the Federal Capital Territory.
This year, on August 31 precisely, made it 43 years that the flood disaster popularly tagged ‘Omiyale’ happened in Ibadan. It resulted from the flowing of the Ogunpa river into the Odo-Ona river. Both rivers jointly overflooded to their banks, leading to flood. Streams like Odo-Ona, Ogbere, Kudeti and Ogunpa were poorly planned as at then. They lacked good drainages. Many built houses around the rivers. People weren’t following building rules and regulations while they dumped refuses inside these rivers. It began drizzling till the heavy rains started. The Onipepeye stream at Agodi was also flooded. It was as if all the rivers joined forces to revolt against the city on that fateful day. Many lives and properties were lost. Ibadan city, in the same vein, also recorded flooding in 1960, 1963, 1978, 1980 and 2011. The 1980 flood was heavier than all the rest as it rained nonstop for 10 hours which put it on record that it rained four times heavier than that of 1978 which was equally very heavy. That of 2011, according to reports, was said to have even affected the University of Ibadan, as many animals in the zoo and fishery perished. It seems the people forget things easily as the aftermath of the floods aforementioned should have been enough to make them refrain from doing anything that can cause a recurrence of such a calamity.
There is no gainsaying that many government administrations have tried to curb this problem of indiscriminate waste dumping. There have been many policies, public outcries, arrests and even the prosecution of offenders. It has been working with the state media channels and with ministries and agencies in charge of water resources, sanitation and waste management to curb this menace. Over the years, there have been drama, music, pictorial adverts and representations and even jingles, all in a bid to sensitise the public about the need to stop indiscriminate dumping of refuse, all to no avail.
There should be stricter ways by which the government can actually see to making people get their refuses and dirt disposed of properly. The government should put some measures in place from its own end. In order to address the menace of improper waste disposal in the metropolis, there should be provision of refuse drums to all households with the agreement of compulsory payment to a certain account which the government can create specifically for this purpose. There should be proper measures in place on how to provide where people will drop their refuses. It is not enough to tell people to stop dumping refuses indiscriminately but how do such wastes be taken care of is the main issue. Not every house in the state has refuse bins. Many do not also have refuse drums. Despite the verification of about 169 waste collectors in the state as of September 2022, the situation is still the same. There should be more efforts in recruiting more hands that will see to intensive door-to-door waste evacuation operation. It is obvious that the private organisations being given the contract to distribute refuse drums are not enough as far as the population of the state is concerned.
Another way is giving orientation to people living around areas like Beere, Foko, Oja’ba, some parts of Monatan, Oke Ado and Oje, on the need to dispose their refuses properly rather than pouring them inside gutters or putting them on the highways. It seems many of them are ignorant of what environmental pollution means and the effects it can have on their health. Employing more hands as per the sweeping of the cities and making sure the workers are taken care of and their salaries paid as and when due is important. People sweeping the highways have reduced drastically. There was a period you wake up seeing them almost everywhere.
There is the need to employ more hands in taking care of the highways and packing the wastes both from the highways and from individual homes. There should also be strict regulations on ground to make people adhere to the proper ways of disposal of refuses as laid down. One or two scapegoats should be paraded while punishments should be attached to being caught if anyone flouts these warnings so as to serve as deterrents to others. Citizens should be made to know another disaster such as flood should not be encouraged by these nonchalant attitudes. Apart from causing floods, dumping of refuses can cause much other havoc like environmental pollution, spread of diseases and contamination of water sources and general degradation of the ecosystems. There should be proper housing structures and any house built along river banks should be demolished. Gutters should be kept wastefree. The city of Ibadan needs the facelift.
- Ishola is a journalist with the Nigerian Tribune.
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