Gutters of Garbage, Skies of Smog: Nigeria’s Invisible Battle

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When it comes to pollution, it is actually a big issue in this part of the world and it is kind of painful when people are just ignorant of it, it feels like people don't care about the harmful effect, I first heard of the word back in secondary school and that was when I realized it is something we see or face every day, in my area back then, the common one was soil pollution, there was nowhere you will look without seeing waste and the worst part is when it is raining, you will just see people emptied their trash bins inside gutters because they believe the heavy rain will take the dirt away but I don't know if they thought of how it will complicate things for others. The funniest part was that, in some areas, they have iron bars which serve as blockers in their gutters, and this waste got stuck at that point and the more it accumulates, the more it block the drainage and the road will start filling up.

After I left that area and moved to Lagos, it became worse, that was when I actually witnessed air pollution. I left my house that day and was around Ojota, I smelled something awful and later saw the huge dumping site, I was just imagine how they can locate such site in a residential area, I don't even know how they can cope with such situation, the air there need an extra filtering system. Other part of Lagos are like that also and I don't know if the government is doing anything or their efforts aren't enough, just that smell alone can make humans suffer from various illnesses, according to W.H.O. air pollution causes millions of deaths annually.

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When it comes to picking which one is the worst pollution, I will surely go with Air Pollution because we breathe every second and air is also important to humans but just imagine you are in an area where the air get polluted regularly, the smoke, toxins, dangerous gases travels faster than we can imagine, it reach everywhere and everyone and imagine people with weak immune system, right now I don't think there are ways they can stop this pollutions, Government officials don't leave their offices to regulate these things, and even those they appointed to the jobs aren't doing their work, they don't care as long as they will be paid at the end of the month. It would be a good idea to enforce strict laws but last I checked, laws don't work in Nigeria especially if you have money to bypass such law. They once announced they ban plastics and styrofoam just to regulate soil pollution and people dumping it anywhere they see, I think they just enforced the law for like two months, the officials appointed were just scattering everywhere and before we know it, the whole law stuff die down, even though pollution may seem inevitable, to stop it, we all have to work together because it is not one man job but everyone duty.