Rethinking the Clean-up Exercise in Nigeria
August 14, 2008 by 
Guest Writer
The practice of designating one day in a month as a general clean – up day has assumed the status of a culture in this country. It is the day we try to do all the cleaning we failed to do in the past one month. On such a day all the rubbish that was dumped inside the drains are scooped out to make room for the ones we plan to deposit there right after the clean-up exercise. All the obscure corners of markets and open places that have served as dump sites are emptied out. On such clean-up days, the roads and streets are blocked with refuse from all nooks and crannies of the city. The original concept is that pay-loaders and refuse trucks will be handy to cart away the refuse as they are being generated. What is on ground however, owing to the endemic corruption in the system is that adequate arrangement for the carting away of refuse is not made before announcing a clean-up day. The result is that the state of the city on clean-up days and many days and even weeks after is indeed a sorry sight.
The problem of rapid generation of refuse is one of the evils of urbanization. The rural communities manage their refuse much better than the urban areas. The reason is simply that the population in such places grows naturally, mainly through birth. They can afford to manage refuse in the same way their forebears managed theirs because the population is stable. Urbanization is characterized by the massive influx of people into an area that is already saturated with inhabitants. This astronomical and abnormal increase in the number of people living in a place affects every aspect of life. Advanced nations of the world are so called because they factor these evils of urbanization into their plans for their cities. They plan these cities to make them truly habitable.
Urbanization takes people out of their natural habitats and forces too many people to complete for too little space. Without adequate planning a lot of catastrophe could result from such an arrangement. This is why the so-called third world countries are grappling with all kinds of man-made catastrophes. Hardly anything is actually planned in these countries. There is no effort made to regulate the number of people that troop into the towns on a daily basis, and yet every public utility sector is in crisis. Power supply, water supply, accommodation, transport sector and road maintenance agencies are all problematic.
One of the worst effects of urbanization is environmental degradation, which directly affects the health status and life expectancy of urban dwellers. Poor management of solid waste, unhealthy disposal of human waste, improper disposal and channeling of liquid waste, misuse and abuse of drains that encourages the breeding of mosquitoes and harbouring of rodents and vermin, all contribute to make urban areas in the third work uninhabitable.
I am strongly of the opinion that governments that are not yet ready to tackle the solid waste problem should stop escalating the environmental degradation problem by conducting baseless, plan less and aimless clean-up exercises. It is obvious that the only people that benefit from the half-hearted fire-brigade approach we call sanitation exercises are those who use such shams to make money from the public treasury.
Nigeria has produced quite a substantial number of experts in the field of environmental health sciences and other related fields. We do not need to hire expatriates to help us manage our environment when we are sincerely ready to undertake this all-important task. In essence, any sincere administration within this nation has at its disposal all the human and material resources required to provide a lasting solution to the menace of solid, liquid and even gaseous waste. What is lacking is the will-power and the sincerity of purpose to do what ought to be done.
It is high time we rethink the way and manner this exercise is carried out. Rethinking it will help toward enthroning a culture of cleanliness rather that the routine exercise which it has become. What do you think?
Guest Writer: Perpetua Ihebom
| 3.2 |
Mis priority is our problem, a land that is flowing of milk and horney, 95% of the populace are struggling for food and other essential commodities to live on. Then waste management is not an important issue. From Europe to America, I have find that that the only difference between them and our country Nigeria, is the availabity of these essential to their citizen which is lacking on our part. People in these countries pay for their waste, they pay for their polyethelene or containers for waste desposal. when you can not feed your family in Nigeria, it will be difficult to pay for such. Even on sanitation day in NIgeria, people are forced to stay at home for cleaning, it is not becouse they are willing. Many things are wrong in the Nigeria system.
The quota system, Management of resources by the federal government, federal allocation, the Nigeria value systems, federalism, many things, time will not permit me. In deed, we never had a government, but thieves.