By Maduka Nweke,
[email protected] 08034207864
Environmental pollution will continue to torment Nigeria for years to come if drastic measures to checkmate gas flaring, reckless dumping of refuse and building on waterways by citizens are not given urgent attention. Many among the rich have decided to use of waterways as the best fallow lands to build property. This attitude seems to have become the norm especially among the rich because government laws appear not to be made for everybody as some have been known to be above the law either by their position in government or affluence in the society.
The basis of environmental policy in Nigeria is contained in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Pursuant to Section 20 of the Constitution, the State is empowered to protect and improve the environment and safeguard the water, air and land, forest and wildlife of Nigeria. In addition to this, Section 2 of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act of 1992 (EIA Act) provides that the public or private sector of the economy shall not undertake or embark on or authorise projects or activities without prior consideration of the effect on the environment.
Several environmental laws have been enacted by both federal and state governments but implementation has been a challenge either because there has not been the will to enforce the laws or those who made the laws are the culprits themselves. Aside pollution, dumping of refuse and building on waterways, abandoned projects in majority of situations have also become environmental pollution as most hooligans in the society use the abandoned property as hideouts to perpetrate illicit activities.
The Federal Government has promulgated various laws and regulations to safeguard the Nigerian environment, including the Federal Environmental Protection Agency Act of 1988 (FEPA Act). The following regulations were made pursuant to the FEPA Act:
•National environmental protection (effluent limitation) regulations:
•National environmental protection (pollution abatement in industries and facilities generating wastes) regulations; and
•National environmental protection (management of solid and hazardous wastes) regulations.
•Environmental Impact Assessment Act of 1992 (EIA Act).
•Harmful wastes (special criminal provisions, etc.) Act of 1988 (Harmful Wastes Act).
The Federal Ministry of Environment (FME) administers and enforces environmental laws in Nigeria. It took over this function in 1999 from the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA), which was created under the FEPA Act. FEPA was absorbed and its functions taken over by the FME in 1999. The Federal Ministry of Environment has published several guidelines for the administration of the FEPA and EIA Acts and procedures for evaluating Environmental Impact Assessment Reports (EIA Reports). Other regulatory agencies with oversight over specific industries have also issued guidelines to regulate the impact of such industries on the environment such as the Environmental Guidelines and Standards for the Petroleum Industry in Nigeria (EGASPIN) 2002, published by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
There were also laws regulating waste disposal in the country but those laws were not obeyed by those connected to senior government officials or security officers and so they become obsolete to the detriment of the entire society. The relevant legislation defines “waste” and refers to categories of waste. Waste management in Lagos has continued to be a great challenge despite several efforts put in place by successive governments in the state. World over, waste has remained a threat to healthy living. The fact that wastes are unavoidable also means that method of their disposal ought to be constant to avoid epidemics. This is why every sensitive government is expected to take waste management/disposal seriously as negligence could be more damaging or disastrous.
Waste management entails all the activities and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes, among other things, collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of waste together with monitoring and regulation. It also encompasses the legal and regulatory framework that relates to waste management and guidance on recycling.
In the past, Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) had attempted managing waste methods through characterisation, improved technology and partnering with other nations. However, only limited success has been recorded. Health hazards due to the activities of the Private Sector Players (PSPs), the ageing equipment they deploy, sharp practices by cart pushers, and the sorry state of the waste dump sites have all combined to put the situation in a state of desperation. The need for an urgent action to turn around the conditions cannot therefore be overemphasised as delay in declaring emergency in the sector will be better imagined.
In fact, there is need for an elaborate and standardised regulation of the environment in Lagos State, in line with international best practices, while taking cue from locations such as the United Arab Emirates, Tanzania, Kenya, Namibia and New York City in the United States.
Lagos and New York City, for instance, are two mega cities that mean the same in terms of entertainment, commerce and global trends. While Lagos has a population of 21 million with an estimated population density of 13,405/sq.km, New York City has a population of 23 million with a population density of 10,833/sq.km.
While New York with its huge population has been able to successfully handle the massive amount of waste generated daily, Lagos, on the other hand, is struggling with storage, collection and disposal of its waste. New York has about 120 landfill sites while Lagos has only six landfills, with only three of the six functioning. This is grossly inadequate for a mega city like Lagos, considering that she generates approximately the same amount of waste as New York does, even though a huge percentage of this is solid waste.
Asides struggling with disposal of the enormous amount of waste generated daily, Lagos has not been able to effectively collect its waste. This is invariably taking it back to the days when it was judged the dirtiest city in the world. This is exemplified as waste is littering roadsides, waste being disposed into drainages, and overflowing public bins, among several others.
There is a huge gap in collection and the PSPs are obviously struggling with the huge amount of waste they have to collect. New York has successfully been able to collect its waste through several methods including government-regulated commercial waste systems in which they have over 250 commercial waste haulers, as well as disposal through recycling methods and landfills. In that part of the world, waste is wealth. In Nigeria, and Lagos to be precise, waste is a curse rather than a blessing. It’s simply a disaster waiting to happen.
It has been shown that only 60 per cent of the daily waste collected in New York go to the landfills compared to about 95 per cent in Lagos. Lagos must, as a matter of urgency, look for a better waste management firm that would use modern machinery. The city therefore needs to start recycling as an alternative to land filling. It has been seen that the heavy reliance on landfills has brought about environmental pollution and several health hazards to residents around the sites as seen in the Olusosun landfill, Lagos’ biggest landfill site. Newer methods of waste collection should be explored to help effectively handle the waste generated. Other collection agencies need to be employed as it is obvious that the PSP operators alone cannot handle the massive amount of waste in the state.
Greater attention has been paid in the last two years by the administration of Governor Willie Obiano in Anambra State towards achieving a cleaner environment. Conscious of the fact that the state is a densely populated commercial hub where great amounts of industrial trash, scrap metals, out-door litter, medical and solid waste abound, the state government has, within the period under review, created a long term functional strategy to manage, recycle, evacuate and maintain a viable integrated solid waste management system that will effectively check death-prone environmental hazards.
Also, Benue State called the “Food basket of the nation,” is one of the states with the poorest environmental condition. Makurdi lacks the features of a modern day state capital. Despite the existence of the popular River Benue, 80 per cent of the city lack potable water. From North Bank, Wurukum, Wadata residents dump waste in drainages, uncompleted buildings and roads.
Another major environmental issue shown in a recent study is how more than 51 per cent of the wetlands area in Lagos has been lost to urbanisation in the past decades. In 1965, wetlands covered about 53 per cent of Lagos State but in 2003 it was reduced to 2 per cent.
The massive loss of wetlands is due to uncontrolled urbanisation. The United Nations estimates that at Lagos present growth rate, it will be the world’s third largest city by 2015, after Tokyo and Mumbai. The immediate demand for land for residential, commercial, religious and educational reasons has reduced the wetlands.
As a result, the state government is cooperating with non-governmental organisations to manage and conserve the remaining wetlands through creating the Lagos State Climate Change Adaptation Strategy document. It is the first document of its kind in Nigeria to provide a foundation for building effective responses to climate change.
Some permits are industry specific, e.g. in the oil and gas industry, the DPR also regulates environment issues, and operators in the industry are required to obtain the necessary permits.
The EGASPIN 2002, published by the DPR, provides that the DPR shall issue permits for all aspects of oil-related effluent discharges from point sources (gaseous, liquid and solid) and oil-related project development.
The EGASPIN also provides that environmental permits shall be issued for existing and new sources of effluent emission. All projects in the oil and gas industry must be issued with the requisite environmental permits, and failure to procure the same may lead to penalties.
Relevant state permits are also required i.e. pursuant to the Abuja Environmental Protection Board Act (Solid Waste Control/Environmental Monitoring Regulations 2005), all sponsors of major development projects in Abuja must submit to the Abuja Environmental Protection Board “the Board” details of the project i.e. its nature and scope, the site and area of the project, the activities to be carried out and any other relevant information. Upon submission, the sponsor is issued an Impact Clearance Permit by the board. In Lagos State, the LASEPA law requires any person manufacturing or storing chemicals, lubricants, petroleum products, cement and other materials used in building, radioactive materials or gases in residential or commercial areas to obtain a permit.
The Akinwunmi Ambode administration should tackle this hydra-headed problem without minding whose ox is gored. The speed and enthusiasm with which the present administration tackled the “Light-up Lagos” initiative should be deployed to combat this age long problem that has now grown to become a monster. The recent clean up exercise embarked upon in highbrow areas of Lagos like Victoria Island, Lekki and Ikoyi should be extended to the waste management sector. Government must, as a matter of urgency, seek help from those who have managed waste in mega cities around the world, while bearing in mind the nations’ and states’ peculiar solid waste generation status. The call has become urgent as the current waste disposal and management regime in Lagos is ineffective to the extent that residents of the state are susceptible to outbreak of diseases as the state gets flooded and opened to environmental disasters.
Lagos State is increasingly becoming dirty, which is a return to its former status as the dirtiest city in the world, according to the UN. This is evident on its streets and roads, as well as the existing waste management tactic – waste dumping. To reverse this trend, it is important that the state government bring in experts that would redirect the methods and strategy using the latest machinery to address waste maintenance challenges in the state.