Solid Waste or Solid Money

Solid Waste or Solid Money

Joachim Ibeziako Ezeji

It pleases me to talk about refuse generation in our cities these days. Taking up this issue is critical to me at this time when the central discussion everywhere now is politics with very little time devoted to governance. Filth and refuse is now a common problem all over the entire place in Nigeria. Whatever little effort made increasingly end-up futile with no corresponding result. I firmly believe that politics will never get us far when the basics of our living are regularly being insouciantly treated.

In the midst of mounting refuse generation is also the bourgeoning growth of unemployment. Many of our graduates are busy updating their curriculum vitae without any iota of thinking that out of these heaps of refuse could emerge moulds of business opportunities. This is very true especially when critically examined beyond the common thinking that refuse is meant to be collected and disposed by that truck that comes once in a while from the local council office.

Yes, municipal solid waste management at the council level involves the storage, collection, transportation and disposal or recycling of waste generated in the home, commercial premises and institutions. As such, it comprises a complex set of operations that take place on an enormous scale.

Improved solid waste management is an important element in improving the urban environment. Apart from the aesthetic problems created by solid waste, uncollected or non-disposed or recycled wastes often give rise to noxious smells as well as providing breeding grounds for vermin, flies and mosquitoes. Poor waste management often contaminates water supplies, causing environmental health risks and infrastructure deficiencies.

Worried by the state of environmental cleanliness of Rivers State, particularly Port Harcourt, the state capital, the Rivers State government, two and half years ago reintroduced the monthly environmental sanitation exercise in the state, this was with a view to returning Port Harcourt to its garden city status and improving environmental standards across the state.

There is no doubt that this step is laudable but it still lacks creativity or innovation to be meaningful and have great impact. A glaring missing gap which needs innovativeness here are the issues of media use to critically sensitize people towards effective management of waste. I opine that the Government should be able to spend about 5-15% of the annual budget for waste management on media and publicity; another 25% could be reserved for capacity building in this regard.

The service of media is a very important policy instrument for change in waste management because media publicizes acceptable norms and need for change. This is a major social engineering instrument that can engender change in the area, encourage participation and set a platform for both formal and informal regulation of people’s behavior within the cultural setting.

Government should create more awareness to the public by investing on publicity in the media and more importantly using billboards as is currently being used in a town such as Calabar, where plenty of billboards sponsored by the state government have greatly improved sanitary habits. The advert or message should be on environmental discipline.

In the past, we used to have some jingles on radio, government need to go back to these jingles to create more awareness in order to keep the environment clean as a way to improve on our health condition. The sanitation exercise could be more effective if government can utilize other instruments of voluntary participation like using the media, public education, mobilizing the people through communal platforms and secondly utilizing public health officers more effectively.

The interest and capacity of young people should be whetted and built early enough as a means to grooming environmental safeguards. Apart from preventing or minimizing waste generation, these trained people could easily take up careers in waste sorting, collection and recycling for common good.

The efficiency of waste collection easily comes to naught if management is not properly stepped up. It is such achievement that will enable a move up to the next level which is looking at how resources can be recovered from waste.

Government responsibility in this regard is all inclusive. By this I mean that a collaborative synergy is desired between the state and the local councils as well as the private sector. The tendency for the involvement of Non-governmental organizations is also high. There is also need to recognize private solid waste collectors or cart pushers because they constitute a vital link in environmental cleanliness, public health protection and private enterprise.

All generators of waste must be made to procure or supply receptacles for their own waste. These should be made to be replicated beyond the city centers but also the urban fringes and small towns. There should also be a stipulated place where these waste should be deposited by small scale solid waste operators for evacuation by refuse contractors using trucks.

Solid wastes often come classified as either degradable or bio-degradable. Both classes of solid waste are money. In some places the degradable wastes are often used as organic fertilizers in agriculture. The non-degradable classes which mostly include nylon bags, pieces of metal scraps, used tyres /rubbers and bottles etc. can be a great source of income to all those engaged on it as business. These materials can easily be recycled and be reused for prosperity. What is required to achieve this is creativity leveraged with adequate finance. It behooves the government, the banks and the multi-nationals to make this happen.

Other Nigerian cities such as Onitsha, Owerri, Aba and Lagos easily came to my mind in the course of writing this article. Onitsha, Anambra State is today a huge mountain of refuse because both the Anambra State Government and her people have over the years not really appropriated the gains of waste recycling. Aba, another Commercial City has become another mound of refuse because the Abia State Government and her people seem preoccupied with other pressing issues. The solid waste matter is still left within the confines of private waste sorters who visit dump sites to rummage for what is ‘good’.

In Owerri , the neglect of solid waste has turned the city into a junkyard. The situation was being better managed when the Mbakwe administration was on. Throughout the period Mbakwe was in power, Owerri was transformed into a beautiful clean city. Since 1983, when the Mbakwe administration came to an abrupt end, urban waste management has ceased to receive priority attention. Today, Owerri has become a dunghill.

Writing in the Guardian Newspaper recently, Mr. Luke Onyekakeya explained that a typical city like Lagos generates tons of refuse on a daily basis. According to him “ Lagos has an estimated population of over 12 million people. If on average every inhabitant generates just 1 kg of refuse per day that means in a day we have 12 million kg (10,800 tons). In a week, we have 75,600 tons; and in a month we have 302,400 tons of refuse. To evacuate this at once using the standard 7-ton tipper Lorries, we need 43,200 of such lorries. If ten lorries are engaged to do the work, each will do 4,320 rounds. All this is just for one month. Multiply this by 12 and we have 3,628,800 tons of refuse.”

I wonder if you can see any great business opportunity in the Lagos scenario. I see a lot of them, I mean very many of them. Seeing and turning these business opportunities into investment havens must not be delayed any further. It rather needs consolidation. Beyond the health concerns of solid waste management is the reality of creating sustainable enterprises. Young graduates, retired but able retirees and other free citizens can explore this virgin business opportunities with a view at reaping happily the economic gains as well as those of public health.