NOVEMBER 2, 2013
One thing is not strange to people doing business around Iddo in Ebute-Meta area of Lagos; the number of tankers loaded with human wastes moving through the area on regular basis. Their destination: the Lagoon.
Hidden from view by a number of wooden shelters is a small park that has been designated by the Lagos State Wastewater Management Office as the Accredited Septage Discharge Point.
A sign post placed in the park proclaims this status.
When Saturday PUNCH visited, there were eleven tankers that had discharged their wastes in the park, with their operators hanging around for more business opportunities.
Some of the operators were washing their tankers and suction pipes in another section of the park. Looking across the lagoon to the south, one could see the Lagos Marina.
Saturday PUNCH noticed that within a space of 30 minutes, at least five tankers arrived to discharge their loads.
The discovery prompted our correspondent to strike a conversation with one of a number of young men who mill around the discharge park.
Immediately a strange face approaches the park, the young men will quickly accost such person with, ‘Brother, do you need someone for your soak-away? I will give you a discount.’
Before one can give a reply, someone else will say, “Where is your house? Do you require a small tanker or a big one? My price is cheap, brother.”
One of the men, who identified himself simply as Isiaka, said he would collect N17,000 to go as far as Ikeja to evacuate a soak-away.
After being prodded about the number of tankers that visit the park to discharge waste everyday, he said on some days, the number could be more than 18.
Isiaka said, “You can see the number of tankers that have come here within the space of time you arrived here. This is where tankers in Lagos mainland discharge their loads.
“Our people evacuate wastes from Lagos Island and every part of the mainland and discharge here.”
Investigation at another discharge point at Maza Maza in Mile 2 area of Lagos revealed also that on an average day, 10 tankers discharge wastes into the lagoon.
Saturday PUNCH spoke with an operator, Julius Abibi, at Mile 2, who said because of the discharge of the wastes in the lagoon, he would never eat any fish bought from local fishermen.
He said, “Most of the local fishermen fish in the lagoon. Based on what I know about the discharge of wastes, I will never buy fish from those fishermen who fish on the lagoon. You can find some of the fishermen along the communities bordering the lagoon.
“But don’t get me wrong. What we dump in the lagoon is not the raw human wastes. We treat it before we discharge it. The wastewater management agency also gives us chemical which we use to treat the faeces before dumping. We also use kerosene sometimes.
“By the time we discharge the faeces, it would have turned liquid and can no longer contain germs. This is why it does not smell as some people think it does. The chemical would have neutralised the terrible odour.”
Abibi said there is a discharge point in Ajah, Lagos, where he discharges his load anytime he gets a call to come and evacuate soak-away in the area.
“I know that at least 10 tankers evacuate in Ajah everyday,” he said.
By these operators’ words, it is clear that not less than 30 tankers discharge human waste in the lagoon in the three discharge points in the state on an average day.
This is not surprising considering that Lagos has a population of about 20 million.
A discharge tanker operator, Angbosome Anthony, explained that he had been doing the business since the 80s.
When he spoke with our correspondent at the Alausa park of the operators, he said those who discharge wastes like himself do not usually worry about how it affects the lagoon.
Anthony said, “The lagoon has always been where we discharge human wastes in Lagos; so far as it is approved by the government, I don’t think we have anything to worry about.
“I don’t think the fish that are taken out of this lagoon become poisonous because of this waste. Do you know how many people eat the fish from lagoon in Lagos? Many people would have died in Lagos if this waste has poisoned the fish.”
The lagoon has always been a source of livelihood for many local fishermen in the fishing communities in Lagos.
For these communities, fish and crayfish are two major commodities they will always be thankful to the lagoon for.
Two biologists, Dr. Blessing Oribhabor and B. Ezenwa, identified 115 species of fish in the Lagos Lagoon in a 2005 article published in the African Journals Online, titled, Inventory of Fisheries and Fishes in the Lagos Lagoon.
They explained that water quality among other things had led to the gradual decline of fishes in the lagoon ecosystem.
Saturday PUNCH visited one of the major fishing communities in Lagos, Makoko, which is partly situated on the lagoon with a sizeable population of fishermen.
A young fisherman, Boyo Aji, told Saturday PUNCH that fishing in Makoko is usually done late in the night or very early in the morning.
“That is when you have chances of getting more fishes,” he said.
He did not seem to be surprised when asked if he knew that human wastes are dumped in the same lagoon where the fishermen in the village fish.
Of course, all of the fishermen knew that, Aji said.
He said, “This is not an issue. We are not talking about a small river now. The lagoon is very big. Because they dump ‘shit’ in a part of it does not mean all the fishes in the lagoon are not good.
“The fishes we catch are not usually caught close to the land. We fish in the middle of the lagoon because we get more varieties in those parts.
“Before, it was possible to get fish worth N50,000 in one night in the lagoon. Now, that is not possible. You can hardly get fish worth N15,000 sometimes. I really don’t know whether the bad things they dump in the lagoon have anything to do with it.”
In August, the state environmental protection agency sealed 13 buildings in Idumota area of the Lagos Island because they were discharging human wastes into drainage channels which in turn wash into the lagoon.
The General Manager of LASEPA, Mr. Rasheed Shabi, said at the time that the human wastes discharged from the houses “has been causing water pollution and contaminating aquatic life.”
“When the fish are eaten, it could lead to outbreak of diseases,” he added.
General Manager of LASMWO, Mr. Olatunde Sodeinde, told Saturday PUNCH that the human waste discharged in the lagoon does not constitute health hazard because it is treated prior to its discharge.
He said, “There are different categories of wastes generated in Lagos everyday; agricultural wastes, industrial wastes, domestic wastes and commercial wastes.
“The problem is that over the years, little attention has been paid to the management of wastewater in the state, which is why there is little or no infrastructure.
“The wastewater as we call the human wastes goes through a lime stabilisation process at the septage point. The septage are discharged by the tankers and is treated with lime to kill the harmful bacteria and organic materials in it.”
Shodeinde said chemicals are distributed to each of the septage points, whose managers are in franchise with government. He added that chemicals are dispensed to each point for the treatment of the human wastes discharged.
Saturday PUNCH asked if the tanker operators who are allowed to treat the wastes themselves are monitored to ensure they actually treat the wastes and not dump raw faeces in the lagoon, he said his office has monitors who keep an eye on the activities of the operators.
But a nutrition specialist at Mart-Life Detox Clinic, Lagos, Mrs. Idowu Ashiru, said treating the human wastes might not be enough to make the fish taken out of the lagoon fit for consumption.
She said, “Human waste is just one of the many contaminants in the Lagoon. It is not just the human wastes that are the problem. There are also factory wastes. You find out that many people, who eat fish from contaminated water such as the lagoon, also ingest the contaminants that the fish consume in the water.
“You find out that when people who eat fish a lot come to our clinic, they have a lot of mercury and a lot of other heavy metals in their system. This creates health problems for them.
“I won’t say human wastes in the lagoon are the least of the problems of those who consume fish from the water. When we eat food, our digestive system eliminates all the things that are bad for the human body. That means whatever is eliminated is not good to be re-ingested.”
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