How environmental pollution hurts Nigerian families

It was 8pm in Ajao Estate in Lagos. This used to be a high-brow estate in Lagos for its proximity to two airports—one local and another international.

Four years before, there had been regular power supply such that many families didn’t need generators. But the glory days were over.
It was getting dark on Wednesday, May 20, 2015, and many people were hurrying home to join their families after the hard day’s work.
But many were only returning home to face darkness. Each flat, shop, whether kiosk or supermarket, hypermarket or hotel, motel or make-shift shop, had at least one generator, either a mid-sized one or what is often called ‘I Pass My Neigbour’, which is the smallest type with highest capacity to emit carbon.
By 10pm, everywhere in the estate was abuzz with generator sound, coupled with blaring horns of vehicles and tricycles.
“I lived at this estate for three years but developed an ear problem from noise pollution. One of my friends nearly died when he exhaled the carbon monoxide from these generators,” said Edozie Akaraka, who lived close to a place called ‘Okada Park’ at the estate.
“I don’t know why the government is allowing high-sounding generators to come into this country. There is scarcely regular electricity here and people make do with generators but it should not be these types of generators,” Akaraka said.
Generator fumes have done more harm than good to Nigerians and the environment.
In 2008, 17 people died at a prayer meeting in Abia State after inhaling fumes from their power generator while asleep, Reuters reported.
On May 22 this year, occupants of an apartment at Agherase Adu Street, Benin City, died after inhaling smoke from the generator set kept in the kitchen.
In fact, reports show that at least 100 Nigerians die each year from inhaling generator fumes.
Away from generator fumes to industrial pollution. In 2013 in India, Manju Sharma and Smita Chaudhry carried out a research on impact of industrial pollution on the health of people living in Yamuna, Nagar and Haryana industrial clusters. The research showed that people living close to paper mill plants suffered from general respiratory problems while those in thermal power plant and sugar mill zone faced asthma and fever respectively.
“Air pollution problems were found to be more in thermal power plant. However, water problems were more prevalent in sugar and paper mill zones,” the researchers said.
K.O. Olayinka and B.I. Alo carried out a research in 2004 to examine the impact of pollution from textile mills in Lagos, Nigeria, on the environment.
The report showed that effluents discharged from two textile industries in Lagos contained dangerous chemicals and were highly coloured.
“These values were higher than the effluent limits stipulated by the Federal Ministry of Environment for textile industries,” the researchers said.
At this year’s World Water Day held in March, Adebola Shabi, general manager/CEO of the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, said waste water coming out of manufacturing companies, especially pharmaceuticals in Lagos, contained heavy metals and other obnoxious substances.
“Waste water from most of the manufacturing companies in Lagos contains heavy metals which are dangerous to the environment and causes cancer. I appeal to industries to make sure that their waste water is treated,” he said.
The LASEPA boss said this practice was not peculiar to drug makers, but also extended to food and beverages, cosmetics, textiles, plastics, mines and quarrying, iron and steel as well as chemical sub-sectors.
Yet another research by Tolulope Jerumeh, Cyril Ogunnubi and Sulaiman Yusuf of the Department of Agricultural Economics of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, found that that carbon dioxide emission had the greatest impact on life expectancy in Nigeria.
“Therefore efforts aimed at improving public health should focus on observing the Kyoto Protocol (KP) agreement to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases responsible for climate change of which carbon dioxide is the most significant factor. As C02 emerges as the main pollutant in the industrial sector, greater carbon dioxide emissions mean that more of a country’s air is polluted, which translates into serious health challenges with an overarching effect on life expectancy,” the researchers stated.
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which commits its Parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets, says the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
In Nigeria, many industries are using energy sources such as diesel, gas and coal which emit Co2 to the environment.
Apart from the cement maker Lafarge Africa which uses biomass, which is a renewable energy, other manufacturers have turned to non-renewable energy sources that have harmful effects on humans and the environment.
Carbon emissions contribute to global warming, raise global temperatures by trapping solar energy in the atmosphere. This alters water supplies and weather patterns, changes the growing season for food crops and threatens coastal communities with increasing sea levels, says Hearst Seattle Media.
Moreover, Lagos State, with 23 million population, currently generates three billion litres of waste water annually as against 1.9 billion litres in 2006.
This is even as 85 percent of residents in the mega city either defecate openly, or in canals or open latrines.
In some places in Nigeria, landlords do not construct good toilet systems, thereby pushing out tenants to defecate openly, especially at nights. It was discovered two years ago in Aba, Abia State, that some tenants had no toilets. This exposes the residents of such areas to diarrhoea, intestinal worm, typhoid, cholera, hepatitis, polio, trachoma and death, according to Osita Igwemba, a medical doctor in Enugu State.
About 28.5 per cent of the Nigerian population (51.3 million persons) have no access to sanitary toilet facilities, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that one in four Nigerians defecate openly creating a medium for potential transmission of the wild polio virus, cholera, hepatitis and other infectious diseases due to lack of toilet access.
On solutions to these challenges, Shabi, earlier cited, said it was compulsory for manufacturing companies in Lagos to have effluent treatment plants, stressing that businesses should not allow their activities to harm people and the environment.
“The water you have used can be re-used to wash vehicles. When you treat waste water, it becomes raw materials. There are no more wastes now,” he said.
Babatunde Hunpe, special adviser to Akinwumi Ambode, Lagos State governor on environment, called on landlords to construct toilets in line with the state’s standard stipulations.
“Don’t locate your soak-away close to your septic tank, because there is a minimum distance of 15 feet in the state. Don’t put chemicals in your septic tank or construct a waste water treatment without an approval,” Abdul Adeniyi, coordinator of the Lagos State Wastewater Management.
Ike Ibeabuchi, CEO of Klopp Water Cure, advised Nigerians to locate their generators at a distance from their homes to reduce casualty level resulting from generation fumes.