A Bitter Story of Poor Sanitation in Ojo LGA, Lagos
By Samson Asolo
Alert Officer for Ojo LGA
Healthy living is the desire of almost everyone, but a lot of people are not doing enough to stay healthy. Much of the focus has been on diet, exercise, with less attention to environment which is pivotal in the quest to live healthy.
Individual and collective negligence from both government and the people have been key factors in exacerbating the situation.
Keeping the environment clean requires both individual and collective commitment. While households, traders, industries, institutions et cetera have the responsibility to keep their immediate environment clean, the role of the government is to create a system that allows proper bagging, collection and disposal of waste.
These responsibilities of the key players have been lacking in Ojo LGA. Heap of refuse can be seen around houses, markets, motor parks, in between roads and even health facilities. Drainage systems are blocked with littered wastes while the ambience is heavily polluted with disgusting smell of decaying materials.
A visit to places like, Kemberi around the health center, Volks inward Iyanna-Iba market, new Mebamu, and Okoko bustop tells a bitter story of poor sanitation. Community members are seen: preparing foods less than 5 inches away from an open sewage system; fetching water from a shallow well. This precarious situation poses a great risk to the health of the people living in this LGA.
Disease outbreaks thrive in dirty environments. This could be worse should nothing be done by the start of the raining season. The Cleaner Lagos Initiative which was introduced by the current administration has not lived to its expectation in Ojo LGA. Despite several assurances by the Governor, Commissioner for Environment on the availability of the Cleaner Lagos waste containers, visit to most part of the LGA has shown otherwise.
Now is the time the Government and other relevant stakeholders come up with workable plans to rid the community of wastes in order to prevent the possible outbreak of diseases.
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