ENVIRONMENT-NIGERIA:
As E-Waste Dump, Lagos Imperils People
Sam Olukoya
LAGOS, Jan 23 (IPS) - Nigeria’s commercial capital is arguably one of the largest dumps for obsolete
electronic items otherwise called e-wastes.
According to the Basel Action Network (BAN), a Seattle-based environmental
group, an estimated 500 shipping containers with a load equal in volume to
400,000 computer monitors or 175,000 large TV sets enter Lagos each
month. As much as 75 percent of some shipments are classified as e-waste.
"The reasons for this huge influx of e-waste into Lagos are not far fetched,"
Peter Ejiofor, a Lagos dealer in second hand computers told IPS. "Lagos has a
large sea port where the items easily slip through, also there is a huge
appetite for cheap second hand imported electronics items in the city," he
says.
But Lagos is paying a huge environmental cost for these cheap items. Most of
the imported items get discarded almost as soon as they are shipped into
Lagos.
"E-waste is a major problem, it’s a major challenge, we have a pile up of
them," Ola Oresanya, managing director of the Lagos Waste Management
Authority (LAWMA), told IPS.
With no facilities to recycle e-wastes, they are indiscriminately discarded
around the city. Some of them end up in dumpsites where they are burnt.
Environmentalists have expressed concern about this. "It is a very worrisome
situation because components from these electronic items are very
hazardous," Leslie Adogame of the Nigerian Environmental Society told IPS.
He is particularly concerned about the health implication. "There is open
burning. Some components produce a lot of particulate matters," he says.
"People around the areas where the wastes are being burnt have to be
suffering from chest-related diseases because they inhale a lot of noxious
substances," he added.
Oresanya says LAWMA is concerned about the dangers posed by e-waste.
Education has been one of the main actions taken by the authorities to curb
the menace. "We have been educating people against burning e-wastes. We
believe they would change," he says.
But Adogame believes combating e-waste should go beyond education. He
says the way out is for the establishment of "an integrated system to manage
the waste."
To combat the enormous task, Lagos authorities are looking to the private
sector for assistance. "We have been talking with the organised private sector
who have the wherewithal to manage the disposal of these e-wastes to come
in and assist us," says Oresanya.
Lagos has a huge waste disposal problem. The streets are littered with little
plastic sachets used for selling water. In the hot tropical weather, hundreds of
thousands of plastic sachets of water are purchased monthly.
"The sachets are partly responsible for the severe flooding that some parts of
Lagos have faced in recent years," Lagos resident Femi Oluwole told IPS.
"When it rains the plastic sachets block the drains and the water overflows,
flooding the street and our houses," says Oluwole whose residence in Agege,
a Lagos suburb is often flooded.
Lagos is one of the most populous cities in the world. According to U.N.
projections, Lagos’ population will reach 20 million by 2010. Many concede
that the city’s high population poses a challenge to waste disposal.
"Population could be an even bigger problem if waste disposal is poorly
managed," says Oresanya.
Lagos generates about 9,000 metric tonnes of wastes daily. As much as 80
percent of this waste can be recycled. Oresanya believes the huge waste
generated in the city can be harnessed to positive use through recycling.
Under the city’s recycling initiative called ‘zero waste programme’, organic
waste which makes up 60 percent of the city’s waste is being recycled into
compost. This is being utilised for a green programme aimed at beautifying
the city with trees and flowers.
Waste is also being utilised for other positive purposes. "We are looking at
wastes as a tool of job creation and poverty reduction," says Oresanya. He
added that waste management has created direct jobs for 350 people. Some
of them are employed in recycling plants, including one that converts organic
wastes into compost and another that converts plastic sachets into pellets.
Oresanya says about 3,000 other people make an indirect living from the
city’s waste. At dumpsites in the city, hundreds of unemployed youths can be
seen scavenging to recover paper, metals, plastics and other useful wastes. "I
can tell you that waste is a way of keeping some people busy," says Oresanya.
LAWMA says it has an ambitious project for 2008. A priority is to double the
quantity of waste recycled. "Before the end of this year we want to expand the
intake of our recycling plants," he says. "We have a lot of jobless youths
around here and we need to create jobs for people. Recycling will create jobs
for our people."
He is confident that LAWMA will achieve its objective for 2008. "We have the
political mindset, we have the commitment, and the government is investing
and partnering with investors in that direction."
(END/2008)
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