No Man's Land By Mutiu Animashawun
Riddled with
adjustment to every man-made constraint known under the sky, it is where
ignorance is bliss. Where is that truer than cosmopolitan
"No man's land"
spawns habitual uncleanliness-- not necessarily personal hygiene but
lack of pride in communal one-- so much that it qualifies as a sort of
deranged mentality, feeding on no one cares about how individual actions
directly shorten the overall quality of life for everyone.
Surprisingly, that mentality has followers from new arrival to those who
are yet to find suitable footing in the ebbs and flows of this
money-hungry and fun-loving state.
Trash dunes demand
attention through natural feedback, which is certainly wired into almost
everything to checkmate humans. In rain season, dunes erode in size
just as the wind whips sand dunes about. Trash chokes the drainage
system, causing massive flood in surroundings to impede commerce and
comfortable living. Still water-- in gutters, open cans, used tires,
and others-- is heaven for breeding mosquitoes and hell for nearby
residents because of high demand for blood. The ensuing malaria fever
turns them into sparring partners-- through repeated uses of
anti-malaria drugs-- on its way to becoming drug-resistant form, the
so-called super bug.
Either your olfactory
organs agree with the lingering smell or not, the stench from dunes is
one sign of ongoing industrial activities by micro-organisms, insects,
rodents, and others. These workers may not build chimneys to vent gases
and other by-products. But odorless gas like methane (cooking gas)
builds up and rises to the top: a good explanation of why old dunes burn
when smoldering cigarette butts or flints land at their highest points.
If such should threatening properties or lives or both, passers-by and
residents organize them into emergency fire brigade before the long
arrival of the Lagos State Fire Brigade with a question mark-- proper
equipments Otherwise, who cares?
Dunes are factories of biological decaying as well as bio-hazard outsize petri-dishes. And they are also outsize chemical test-tubes as the baking heat works through. The resulting concoction of chemicals weakens the tarmac. As for the top-soil, the effects are dual. On one hand, it may improve nitrogen content and other factors of non-farmland. Depleted top-soil is a precursor to dusty wind, muddy rain-wash, and sinkhole.
Rain washes disease causing micro-organisms and toxic soup into the rivers, streams, and much-abused Lagoon. The same will seep into underground water tables, which have been serving as sources of portable water since demise of Lagos State Water Authority-- in charge of water-borne pipes-- via deep-bored holes. Whatever can go wrong will surely go wrong according to Murphy's Law: wells do dry up or become toxic soup so that no known state-of-the-art water treatment machine can effectively purify such.
To complete the puzzle of deranged mentality, traders-- some are two or more generations deep in the state-- loathe federal aids to help Lagos State in dealing with problems of waste disposal. Amazing Nigerians!
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