The concern about the poor state of our water resources should be the focus of a massive education campaign in schools and the general society.
This is because the activities that cause the depletion of this vital resource have become habitual – carried out by reflex – without thoughts of their consequences. The result of our indiscretion is all around us – unsightly environment, clogged drains, and heavily polluted water bodies, to name a few.
But like an iceberg, what we do not know about the consequences of pollution is more than what we know. The International Chemistry Conference that opened at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) on Monday threw light on those things that we do not know about the pollution of our ground and surface water resources.
Prof Oladele Osibanjo, keynote speaker at the event, spoke volumes about all that is wrong with the management of our water resources and the dangers we are exposed to. For instance, he said the level of toxins in rivers in Lagos State make them “unswimable (if the word exists), unfishable, and undrinkable”. He also said over 1.1 million metric tonnes of electronic-waste containing dangerous heavy metals end up in landfills annually and find their way into our water resources.
Osibanjo raised concerns about the negative practice of using refuse to reclaim land (e.g. Dustbin Estate in Ajegunle, Lagos). He said the water in such areas is so polluted that it is not even safe for cooking and washing. This is contrary to the belief of many Nigerians that everything that is cooked is purified. Osibanjo said Micro-organisms may die while cooking but soluble chemicals remain and can cause cancer, birth defects, alter immune system and affect the intelligent quotient.
With pollution from industrial effluence, human waste, refuse and agri-waste getting into our water, he said over 60 per cent of Nigerians are at risk of contracting water-related diseases. Even most of the sachet water we drink is safe is not. Osibanjo said his analyses on most of the packaged water we consume showed they contain harmful contaminants.
Hearing this was life-changing for me because it made me to start viewing waste disposal (that indiscriminate throwing of something out of a car window) in a different light. But how many Nigerians were present at the Julius Berger auditorium of the university to hear it? Perhaps a few hundreds.
I have always been distressed by the poor regard we have for our environment and the failure of the relevant government agencies to create awareness about the evil we do and the need to change. There is no punishment against environmental degradation, which is appalling.
We need a massive educational campaign that should be targeted at all age and socio-economic groups. We need to teach young children that it is wrong to denigrate the environment. With their pester power, young children can serve as good change agents in their families and neighbourhoods.
We particularly need to target those who are illiterate and semi-literate as well. We need to tell them that throwing refuse into the drains during the rains with the hope that they would automatically disappear is very wrong. It is would boomerang in the long run. We also need to tell the educated, those we think should know better, to live up to the expectations of their education. They should respect the environment and teach others to do so.