EXCITING NEWS: TNG WhatsApp Channel is LIVE…
Subscribe for FREE to get LIVE NEWS UPDATE. Click here to subscribe!
The recent fire outbreaks at Olusosun dumpsite in Ojota area of Lagos State is a disaster waiting to happen if the appropriate authorities and agencies do not act fast.
A visit to the site on Tuesday by TheNewsGuru.com team when another fire broke out showed that apart from the health hazards, industries and corporate organisations within the axis risk folding up if the state government keep looking the other way.
Aside from the emission of thick smokes from the site whenever there was fire outbreak, the offensive stench that permeates the air on a daily basis is also a cause for worry especially to those resident in that axis.
Speaking with TheNewsGuru.com on the implications of the fire outbreaks and the site in general, an environmentalist, Emmanuel Onasanya, who has understudied the site for years said the site has outstayed its usefulness and should have been relocated as soon as the area was getting developed. He said what was initially marked out as outskirts is now an integral part of the city and adequate measures must be taken by the government to protect those residing there.
According to him, the incessant fire outbreaks could be as a result of methane gas, which could be harnessed for domestic uses.
The Earth’s atmospheric methane concentration has increased by about 150 percent since 1750, and it accounts for 20 per cent of the total radiative forcing from all of the long-lived and globally mixed greenhouse gases
What is required, he said, is for the Lagos State Government to provide data of waste, which has been buried for a long time at the dumpsite in order to determine the quantity of methane gas present in the soil.
According to Onasanya, this could be positively harvested as done in Korea and other advanced countries for domestic uses.
Findings by TheNewsGuru.com reveal that some residents around the axis suffer from water borne diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, fatigue and cholera. Moreover, some residents have long moved out of the area for fear of contacting these diseases.
When TheNewsGuru.com visited the site on Tuesday while the inferno was raving, several people were seen covering their nostrils to avoid choking.
A visibly enraged passer-by, who managed to speak with TheNewsGuru.com team said: ‘I can’t imagine we have a government in this state and country. All they care for is elections and looting the treasury dry. Look at what we are going through here? Who will save us from this insensitive government? This is not the first time this site has been engulfed in fire. However, the response from government is rather slow and insensitive. Someone had collapsed earlier. Our lives are seriously at risk with this kind of smoke taking over the entire atmosphere,’ he said.
According to a report by the Indian Journal of Innovations and Development, groundwater quality was investigated around the dumpsite, by collecting nineteen representative water samples from sixteen wells and three boreholes, the result obtained reveals pollution of groundwater in the area.
Nnimmo Bassey, one of Africa’s leading advocates and campaigners for environment and board chairman Friends of the Earth Nigeria reveals that “leachates in the groundwater is bound to occur in such environ. What we have in our cities are not dumpsites, they are just holes where refuse are dumped.
“A dumpsite has to be properly engineered and constructed with waterproof linen. These dumpsites constitute a serious threat to our groundwater. Dumpsites are very heavy polluting sources to the groundwater, soil and air.”
Uloma Okoro, an environmental advocate said scavengers shouldn’t even be allowed on the site insisting that only government owned agencies should be fully in charge of such activities.
“To the best of my knowledge the activities of the scavengers are illegal, and it needs to be curtailed. You don’t even know where they are taking the wastes gotten from the site to, they don’t even know the conditions of the items. The fact that they don’t even use protective poses a big threat to their health,” he said.
Another public health expert who does not want to be named said government must be proactive in protecting residents by moving the dumpsite from Ojota. He also said scavengers should not be allowed access to the site pending final relocation.
“When wastes degrade, gasses are emitted, as a result of bacteria that are degenerating which emit heat and this, in turn, produce offensive odour”
“People excrete viruses and theses scavengers are exposed to it. They are exposed to several harmful stuffs including blood products, and medical wastes. Something can prick them and they wouldn’t even know what it is, and where it is coming from,” he said.
He added that the health hazard isn’t limited to the scavengers who have direct activities on the site alone, but they could also be carriers of diseases which they could spread to others in their environment.
“Some of the scavengers can contact diseases and transmit it to people living in the environment. Those living in the environment inhale these gases and because the odour is offensive, many of them are left with no option but to close their windows cutting off ventilation which in turn endangers their lives. Don’t even forget that some of these scavengers in crowded rooms, making it easy for them to spread diseases.”
In all of their submissions, experts recommended that the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode led Lagos State Government should urgently provide an alternative source of water supply towards meeting the immediate water needs of inhabitants of the area, while adopting a pragmatic approach to remediate the problem. This will go a long way in reducing the prevalence of waterborne diseases around area.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Government has directed residents within the community to relocate temporarily for health safety purposes and prevention of environmental hazards.