When the Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Mr Tunji Bello, addressed residents of the state on rainfall predictions for 2020 and measures put in place by the state government to combat flooding, he was very definitive about his facts and figures as provided by the Nigerian Meteorological Services as regards the state. The rainfall would be near normal, he assured us. According to him, the outset of rainfall in the state would be March 17 while it is expected to cease by November 22. What was however not part of the projection is the effect of coronavirus (COVID-19) which has not only become a pandemic but has also altered ways and total well-being and the way everyone now relates with the environment.
In an unprecedented move, the administration of Babajide Sanwo-Olu at inception not only ensured that it retained a Ministry of the Environment but added a Water Resources portfolio to it with a specific mandate of overseeing drainage services and water resources. It backed up the move with a very respectable allocation of resources for drainage maintenance and water resources in the 2020 Appropriation Law. Even before the 2020 Appropriation Bill was presented before the state House of Assembly, the state government ensured that funds were provided to clean up major drains and channels which negatively impacted some major roads in the state in terms of flooding whenever it rains.
All machinery has also been put in place including hiring more hands to work on the drains as members of the Emergency Flood Abatement Gangs and moving from one Local Government to other to desilt the primary and secondary drains. It was also ensured that as a mark of departure from what was the tradition, many brand new tipping trucks were acquired by the Office of Drainage Services to ensure that immediately the silts are removed from the drains and allowed to dry for just a couple of days, the tipping trucks come around to pack them away and prevent the silts from getting back to the drains. This is in addition to proposed construction of several new drainage channels.
One major kernel of that press briefing by the environment commissioner on March 10 was to appeal to the conscience of the residents of Lagos to do their part of the bargain by desisting from dumping refuse into the drains. He said refuse unlike silts which is sand can cause a blockade of the channels and would snowball into several dangers including flooding homes and the metropolis and the attendant socio-economic dislocation that comes with it. The average Nigerian finds it very convenient to litter wherever they are without blinking an eyelid. Even the elite who ride the best automobiles in town and have visited some of the most sophisticated locations worldwide are the worst culprits. Even when they pick a ply of tissue that adorns their car to wipe their lips or clean their nostrils, the next thing is to roll down glasses and toss it out unto the main road. They do the same with the pet bottle of soft drink they have just gulped down and are doing this with their children all watching in the ‘film series’. The irony is that the campaign to change this mindset of Nigerians about littering is that it must start from among the young ones who are however being indoctrinated unconsciously the wrong way by the old ones. It is not out of place for parents to ensure that each time we bring home confectionaries for the kids, as it is unwrapped, the emphasis is that ‘Junior’ must not drop the outer covering of that biscuit or chocolate he wants to devour on the floor of the living room but in the waste basket. If everyone especially those with kids inculcate this habit in them at infancy, it would become a way of life for the children and bring about a cleaner society that would be the pride of everyone of us.
Several millions have been pumped into advocacy campaigns both on the print and electronic media and even the new media highlighting the dangers inherent in people littering and clogging the various drainage channels with refuse and solid wastes. This is because the clamour has always been about advocacy and public enlightenment so that people would be aware of the dangers of littering the drainage channels. There have been instances of people who carry their domestic waste from the house and use the cover of night to dump same into canals. Some canals have become major dumping sites that people now take brisk walks on them because of the magnitude of wastes that have accumulated on them. What the residents of such areas refuse to realise is that these same acts will come back and haunt them because water is a natural phenomenon that once you alter its course or you disallow it from flowing through its natural channels, would seek a way of fighting back and when it does that, we are all at the risk of peril.
However, with the surprise arrival of COVID-19 in Nigeria and the various preventive measures designed to put it at bay by the health authorities, more would still need to be done by all to ensure that while we try to obey rules and guidelines such as maintaining social distancing, washing of hands with soap repeatedly, using hand sanitisers and wearing face masks, all must be done with the effect on the environment in mind.
One is not envisaging a situation where the used containers of the different hand sanitisers will find their way into our drains to form another source of blockade. Likewise, this period has brought about the advent of different buckets of several shapes fitted with different taps to serve as a source of flowing water to wash hands. As some of the buckets get worn out due to overuse or the vagaries of weather, we don’t expect them to end up in the drains or on the sideways from where it will find its way to the drainage channels that substantial resources is being committed into to maintain. As everyone makes use of face masks and hand gloves, the emphasis now is about proper disposal of the items. It must be kept in mind that hand gloves and face mask constitute medical wastes which must be properly handled. Unlike before now, when face masks and hand gloves could be seen with medical personnel only, the advent of Coronavirus has changed that reality. Everyone is wearing one type of face mask or the other now. From the sublime to the ridiculous. The emphasis should be on proper disposal by everyone. They are not items to be dumped anywhere indiscriminately because germs and bacteria could actually settle on them and be active for some time.
As all hands are globally on deck to conquer COVID-19, every Nigerian must also be environmentally conscious of the way we dispose our refuse and reorientate ourselves on the need to spike the culture of littering which seemed to have found a place in our psyche. It should not be until an enforcement gang is approaching that we will choose to do what is right at all times. The rains are here in Nigeria just as the pandemic is wreaking havoc on mankind globally. Both will go and mankind will remain, but the state of being that it would leave us in is a choice that is available for me and you to pick from now!
Adeshina is Director, Public Affairs, Lagos State Ministry of The Environment and Water Resources
Punch
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