Benue, Oyo, Ekiti join Lagos, Abia as Nigeria’s dirtiest states   

Despite previous and current efforts by the federal and state governments in Nigeria towards environmental conservation, the five states of Benue, Oyo, Ekiti, Lagos and Abia still remain untidy and now rank as the nation’s dirtiest states.

A recent survey conducted using community-led total sanitation (CLTS), a survey tool deployed and supported in the country by UNICEF and the UK Department of International Development (DFID), ranks Ekiti as the state with the highest number of persons who openly defecate in Nigeria.

It also states that about 1.8 million residents of the state, out of a total population of 2.7 million, are believed to engage in the unhygienic practice that causes epidemics and many deaths.

Some of the sanitary red flags noted are heaps of waste along the New Ilawe Road, just few kilometres from the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Ajilosun, Bank Road, Oja Oba, and other locations in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.

On its part, Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre and one of the most populated states in the country, has overstretched its housing, healthcare, road and waste management system infrastructure to the limits, resulting in the emergence of shanties, slums or ghettos that reflect one of the poorest of all environmental conditions within Nigeria.

Mention is also made of the Dustbin Estate in Awodiora in Ajeromi Ifelodun area, an expansive shack settlement erected on a heap of refuse beside a canal that drains waste, and floodwater out of Ajegunle.

Another state with one of the poorest environmental conditions is Benue, and Makurdi, its capital, lacks the features of a modern day state capital, with 80 percent of the city lacking potable drinking water despite the existence of the River Benue by-passing the city.

Also, in Oyo State, its capital, the ancient city of Ibadan, which is the third most populated city in Nigeria, remains unimpressive in terms of cleanliness.

For Abia State, which is credited with the production of over 70 percent of all locally produced goods in Nigeria, Aba, its state capital, has been ranked among the dirtiest in the state and in Nigeria.

Apart from battling with erosion challenge, which constantly destroys roads leading to loss of lives and properties, Abia is also grappling with how to manage huge volumes of waste generated from these industrial production activities.

In order to address environmental issues like global warming, deforestation and food shortages among many others, the United Nations general assembly and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in 1973, set aside June 5 as World Environment Day (WED).

Also, the World Toilet Day is a UN observance on November 19, which highlights a serious problem that 2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to proper sanitation.

The day also brings to the forefront the health, emotional and psychological consequences the poor endure as a result of inadequate sanitation.

An estimated 34 million Nigerians practice open defecation, according to a joint report by UNICEF and World Health Organization.
The report also puts Nigeria among the top five countries in the world with the largest number of people that defecate in the open.

UNICEF statistics further show that diarrhoea kills about 194,000 children under the age of five annually in Nigeria, while respiratory infections kill another 240,000 more.

However, these are largely preventable with improvements in water, sanitation and hygiene.

Afoke Igwe, environment campaigner for Resource Conservation Development Initiative International (RCDII), a non-governmental organization (NGO), told BusinessDay in an exclusive chat that the NGO is planning to start a N60 million waste recycling system in the cities of Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja, with an option to expand to other places so that other states can emulate.
“Each of the pilot projects will cost N20 million or N60 million in total and create employment and business opportunities for unemployed Nigerians. The project will be executed in partnership with the federal ministry of environment, the Abuja Environmental Protection Agency, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and volunteers”, she said.

Igwe further noted that the NGO had learnt essential economic lessons internationally that Nigerians need to be taught, such as the use of egg shells in Uganda to design floors, as well as plastic bottles to construct fences or make bricks and bottle corks to make barricades.