THE British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), a while ago, reported that an investigation revealed that tonnes of toxic waste from the municipal dumps in the West were shipped illegally in countries like Nigeria and Ghana.The BBC said hundreds of thousands of broken items like TVs and computers are being sold to dealers on the pretext of re-use, which ordinarily must, under the EU law, 'be dismantled or recycled.' The danger of that action, according to the report, was that 'young people working on such dumps often break apart the electronic items for parts, but in doing so are exposed to poisonous chemicals like mercury, lead and cadmium.'In Zaria State, residents who live in Tudun Wada, Tudun Jukun, Kwarbai and Gaskiya were late last year reported to have been battling with refuse dumps along the town's major streets. Freq-uent users of the Zaria city-Samaru expressroad, which passed through PZ in Sabon Gari local government, always had to contend with the sight of human excreta and rubbish dump that 'has almost taken over the Kadar Kubanni axis of the road.'Some residents and motorists were said to have blamed the situation on the authorities and 'I-don't-care and nonchalant attitude' of some residents.Nigerian Tribune's visit to some areas in Ibadan ' Sango, Bodija, Ojo Oba, Oke Ado, Bode, Ogunpa, on Tuesday, discovered piles of wastes wrapped in different polythene bags and other containers waiting for the state waste management trucks to cart them away. Many of the wastes, which were oozing smell, according to some marketers around, were about a week old.In some neighbourhoods like Eleyele, Ajibade, Beere, Oje, among others, refuse was seen dumped on the highway, while some littered the neighbourhood streets. The drainage system were not left out.For residents of Igboora, Eruwa and Igangan areas of Ibarapa Local government, refuse trucks come only once in a month. This, they said, made them to burn their refuse. Some of them told the Nigerian Tribune that they considered it a waste of money to pay N2,000.00 a month for private refuse collectors' services, when they could easily have the same free from the government. The catch, a resident at Igangan, Mr Kabiru Olaiya, said was that sometimes, "it takes too long before the government's trucks get here. Apart from that, a lot of us here do not have money to pay for private contractors. Therefore, it is easier and cheaper for us to throw away our refuse at the back of our houses.'Faeces were also noticeable among refuse dumped in an uncompleted building behind a house at Sango area of Eruwa. When Nigerian Tribune asked a resident whose bedroom window faced the uncompleted building how he coped, he responded that he had grown accustomed to.Mr Idowu Olawale said nobody could 'actually say who the culprits are, but there is no justification for anyone to have excreted in the building or dumped refuse there.'Improperly managed waste, especially excreta, alongside other liquid and solid wastes from households and the community, is a serious health hazard that leads to the spread of infectious diseases, health experts have cautioned.Some residents at Eruwa blamed the government on the lack of provision for their refuse.The responsibilities toward waste collection, transport and disposal of those wastes in tenement, commercial premises and industrial premises in a given state, belong to the waste management authority and the citizens, the Chairman of Oyo State Solid Waste Management Authority, Mr Debisi Adeshina said. The chairman added that it behoves the authority to manage the state's dump sites, 'because presently state in Nigeria has sanitary landfill site.'Environment health service providers described what constitute as solid wastes as any discarded materials. Solid wastes, according to them could be solid, liquid, semi-solid or containerised gaseous material.In a layman terms, solid wastes are food-related waste that can decompose; glass and metals, which do not decompose; dead animals and sewage; ashes from manufacturing companies; and chemicals from industrial, mining and agricultural ventures. Others are tires, latex paints, discarded appliances and vehicles, construction and demolition debris, asbestos, furniture and toys, among several others.Any of these materials, if they are dumped, spilled, leaked, or buried into the ground or deposited into water, constitute indecent exposure or indecent waste disposal, Adesina said.Proper waste disposal, according to Adesina, is the management of tons of waste from the society. In an organised country, he said, different methods are employed to collect and decompose wastes. But management of these posed a serious challenge to the authority in that, according to Adesina, there is a major lack of equipment to cart off wastes from homes, offices and markets to the dumpsite.'I want to tell you that we are lacking in the equipment to do the job. Imagine a state like Oyo State not having a single plant, a single equipment to manage our dump site.'Rather, we are hiring from day to day which I don't think augurs well with the management of waste and management of dump site in the state. And we do not even have trucks that are enough to do this job,' he said. He was quick to add that the authority, in collaboration with the state government, was working on buying more trucks, plants and to 'make our dump site accessible, educate our people on the need to keep their environment clean and of course, where they are not heeding to our enlightenment campaign, we enforce.'As part of challenges confronting the authority in managing the state's wastes, the chairman added that 'unfortunately when we were coming here, the arrangement on ground didn't allow for effective waste management. The arrangement on ground has the contractors themselves negotiating with clients. At the end of the day, they are at loggerheads with each other; they are not able to match the money they are collecting to the volume of waste they are to cart away."Amendment, he said was on going to ensure that the "agency now regulate squarely. We'll determine what the volume of waste in each area of waste generation would be, e.g tenement ' domestic waste; commercial waste ' markets, hospital and schools. We'll now know that this is the amount they are going to charge.So when they are paying they know that they are paying for the amount of exact volume of waste being generated,' he also said.Adesina, who said lack of professional arrangement that could bring about good wastes management in the state was a source of concern to him, counselled that 'an authority like this should have a directorate, a management that oversees landfill sites, which we don't have, operations vis--vis the management of waste in the state and of course the environmental health services.'Explaining what occurs on the dump site, Mr Adesina said "in Nigeria, we have not captured the issue of turning into recycling yet. Most of the wastes are being buried except for where you have scavengers who come to pick bottles and the rest. Basically, the bulk of what we collect is being buried.'The problem with that, he said has an adverse effect on the soil, water and the environment. 'Ideally, it will. If it is a sanitary landfill site, they would have built a sieve so that the refuse doesn't affect ground water around the location. And that is why, usually, dump site should not be close to where people are living. But today, a lot of people have built houses toward most of the dump site. And this is happening because we don't have effective physical planning arrangement.'But that is not the only challenge facing waste management in the state. There are health implications for inappropriate waste disposal on the people in the state too. Medical researches have shown that if wastes are left in unsanitary conditions without proper disposal management, they cause diseases, infections, even epidemic outbreaks such as skin diseases, eye problems, diarrhoea, typhoid, scabies, cholera, intestinal parasites, among other deadly outbreaks.A paediatrician, Dr Kemi Awosiyan, said many cases of children's illness that she had attended to were from cases of infections from exposure to waste mismanagement. She said often, refuse left unattended to become breeding grounds for insects, pests, snakes and rats which often infect children who play near these areas or carry them into their homes.In most cases, the group at risk from the improper waste disposal are pre-school children; waste workers; and workers who work with and around toxic and infectious material, Dr Awosiyan explained.Others who stand at a higher risk of waste related diseases are those living close to a waste dump and those, whose water supply has become contaminated either due to waste dumping or leakage from dump sites, just as uncollected solid waste increases risks of injury and infection.Apart from the fact that waste is unhealthy, it is unsightly too. Aside that, it constitutes economic, social and cultural threat to the country too.Characteristics of wastes, according to slideshare.net included corrosiveness, ignitability, reactivity, toxicity, chemical poisoning, among others.Solid waste, experts also say, is responsible for change in climate and destruction of ozone layer due to waste biodegradable, chemical poisoning through chemical inhalation; while uncollected waste can obstruct the rainwater runoff, resulting in flood. Refuse collectors have also said they are faced with health hazards as part of occupational challenge in their job. Mr Taju Akin, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune, said he had been hospitalised several times over a case of intestinal infection. Dr Hassan Omololu, the Chief Medical Director of His Alive Medical Centre, Ibadan, said people living close to or those who work on dump site areas are most often exposed to eyes, respiratory and skin infections.
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