Filth killing us — Lagos residents, traders lament

By Johnson Matthew

From Mile 12 to Oshodi, and crossed several neighborhoods, Lagos residents are groaning arsenic foul odor, clogged drainages and heaps of festering garbage crook Nigeria’s commercialized hub into a metropolis gasping for breath. The unmistakable stench of decay present hangs heavy successful the air, with discarded piled up successful respective communities. From bustling markets to residential streets, Lagos appears to beryllium drowning successful its own filth, leaving millions of residents battling foul aerial and a metropolis struggling to past its sanitation crisis.

Saturday Vanguard observed that successful parts of Lagos, residents present transmission their faeces straight into unfastened drainage galore of which stay stagnant for weeks. When the rains arrive, the drainage overflows, washing quality discarded crossed the streets and mixing it with floodwater. The effect is simply a nauseating cocktail of filth that forces residents and passersby to wade done barefoot, often unaware they are trudging successful h2o filled with faeces and a breeding crushed for epidemics waiting to erupt.

This disturbing world came to the fore precocious successful Festac Town, Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area, wherever a civic group, Bring Back Festac, staged a protestation implicit what they described arsenic the community’s gradual descent into filth.

In Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government Area , Oshodi, Mile 12, Iyana Ipaja and galore different areas, the stench hits earlier the eyes tin instrumentality successful the scene. Heaps of garbage equine astatine thoroughfare corners, plastics choke the drainage, and floodwater carries with it the stench of rot. For many, foul odour is nary longer a nuisance but a regular torment.

Refuse floods roads

During a sojourn to Akpiri Street successful Olodi Apapa country of the state, residents, hopeless to hole potholes person filled them with refuse, lone for the rains to crook the roadworthy into a flood of garbage.

A resident, who simply identified herself arsenic Doris, said “the stench is unbearable,” covering her chemoreceptor with her wrapper.

Also successful Oshodi Terminal 1, a cleaner Mrs. Boluwatife Iye said the occupation extends beyond refuse. She said, “People urinate anywhere, connected pedestrian bridges and by the roadside adjacent though determination are nationalist toilets wrong the terminal. The drainage is choked with nylon each day. That is wherefore Oshodi ever stinks”.

A load carrier, popularly called ‘alabaru’ accused stateless Nigerians who slumber nether the bridges of being liable for the stench successful Oshodi. He said : “Many wheelbarrow pushers and youths who unrecorded nether the bridges bathe, urinate and defecate there. We don’t person anyplace other to go”, helium confessed.

At Mile 12, the stench has go a landmark. Rotting fruits and vegetables heap up daily, releasing a suffocating odor that envelops the full neighborhood. “Before you scope the market, you are already overwhelmed with foul odour”, said Miss Odebumi, a resident. In Ikeja, a store proprietor who identified himself simply arsenic Kelvin, summed up the city’s frustration: “Clogged drainage, littered roads, mediocre discarded management, that’s the existent problem. The foul odour is lone a reminder that the metropolis is rotting.”

Absence of toilets

The lack of toilets successful galore Lagos markets has worsened the crisis. Traders, with nary different option, urinate oregon defecate successful buckets wrong their stalls and aboriginal dispose of the discarded into the drainage, compounding the stench.

Even successful markets wherever commercialized conveniences exist, immoderate traders debar paying the tiny fee, preferring to defecate wrong their shops. Amid the stench, nutrient vendors inactive hawk meals successful the aforesaid spots, portion patrons, holding their noses, kick of the odour adjacent arsenic they bargain and eat, an irony that underscores the extent of the crisis.

LAWMA Delays

Investigations besides revealed that successful galore markets, heaps of garbage linger for days due to the fact that of delays by the Lagos Waste Management Authority LAWMA. Traders said scavengers raid the discarded successful hunt of recyclables, scattering tied bags and leaving the country buzzing with flies.

Residential areas fare nary better, arsenic overflowing bins stay unattended for weeks. Some residents alleged that LAWMA trucks travel lone erstwhile successful 2 weeks, portion others said non-paying households dump their garbage astatine nighttime connected roadworthy medians and into drainage, worsening the menace.

“LAWMA trucks don’t travel connected time. So radical pil...