Tunde Akingbade
17 August 2008
SIXTY four-year old Mrs. O.F. Olayinka, a retired businesswoman, has been suffering from arthritis on her legs in the last few years at her high brow area of Babs Animashaun Street in Surulere, Lagos. Because of this affliction, her movement is restricted and she therefore stays at home all day. The same is true of many senior citizens.
Alhaji Babs Animashaun, the renowned businessman and Lagos socialite, who Ebenezer Obey, Nigeria's juju music maestro, sang his praise in 1972 in the hit song, "Board Members", lives in the area. Many of those who live in the area were the movers and shakers in Lagos.
Some of them live close to a freshly dumped suspected internally generated toxic wastes. Unlike the over 8,000 drums of hazardous materials brought into Koko Port by an Italian waste merchant in the late 80s, these were brought by Nigerians allegedly working under the banner of the Lagos Ministry of the Environment.
Regrettably, some of those who reside in the area including children are now being affected. Extensive investigations conducted in the past two weeks revealed that the health of the senior citizens in the area and no fewer than 60,000, other residents and foreigners who inhabit three major communities namely: Chief Natufe Street, Adeonitimirin/Akinbola Street, and Babs Animashaun, is under threat by truck loads of substances believed to be toxic sludge and wastes excavated from canals around Idi Araba/University of Lagos Teaching Hospital (LUTH).
The alleged hazardous materials were dumped under the cover of darkness by the contractors (names withheld). The contractors dumped the alleged toxic sludge which not only blocked the public drains, but broke pipes which carry water to Orile-Iganmu. The entire neighbourhood's landscape has changed and some strange insects have invaded homes biting people at night. The insects invasion is believed by many residents to be as a result of the wastes.
For Mrs. Olayinka, her condition has worsened. She has on several occasion visited Igbobi Orthopedic Hospital, Ikorodu Road for treatment. The surgeon recommended that she needed to travel to India for further treatment of her arthritis pain and the cost was put at N1.8 million, about $30,000. However, the night that the woman returned home, she found that some strange insects were biting her on the bed. She bought insecticides, closed the windows and sprayed the whole house, causing noxious fumes to blow over the entire house.
But the pungent odour persisted. While she struggled to sleep, her son, 30-year old Sola, was battling the insects in the other room. Mother and son could not sleep till day break. The following morning, they procured another set of insecticides. None of the insecticides could combat the rampaging insects.
Within few days, Mrs. Olayinka purchased 30 assorted insecticide cans available on the market shelves in Nigeria. The cost is over N60, 000 ($450). It was a whopping sum for a woman desperate to survive. She suffered constant headache and could no longer sleep. Realising her purse being drained and health worsening, she sought the advice of friends outside the neighbourhood. "Why don't you use Gamalin 20", one of the friends suggested to her.
Mrs. Olayinka went to the market again and bought Gamalin 20, known in environment and science circles as Lindane. Lindane is regarded as one of the most hazardous chemicals in the world. It is toxic and banned or severely restricted and is no longer in use in the developed world. Unfortunately, this was what Mrs. Olayinka found useful and handy. Yet, her tummy, hands and legs were not spared by the strange insects. She showed the scars left on her body to Sunday Vanguard in the course of the investigation. She was then warned to discontinue the use of Lindane but she retorted, "I have no choice, I could not sleep. I agree if you say this thing is no longer safe but these insects eating me and my son won't go!"
The case of Master Ayo Feyiji, a seven-year old pupil of Christ the King Nursery and Primary School, Surulere, is poignant and pathetic. The little boy lives directly opposite the dump with Mr. Simon Feyiji, his father. This boy, whose mother does not live with them, has been coughing seriously since two weeks after the dumping of the sludge.
His father, who is a guard in charge of one of the properties facing the dump, lives with the boy in the gate house. The wind blows across the house from the dump and any visitor can feel the itching effects within few minutes of entering the vicinity. Master Ayo Feyiji was urinating every five minutes and looked very sick when Sunday Vanguard visited last Wednesday. His father had already taken him to a chemist's shop and purchased drugs worth N2,500 but the cough refused to stop.
Following the persistence of the cough and the emotional statement by the little boy, Sunday Vanguard had to offer financial assistance to push the father to take the boy to a medical doctor at Randle Hospital, Surulere. "I have been coughing. I was coughing. But I don't know why o!", said the little boy emphatically as he coughed repeatedly and spat with water running out of his eyes down his cheeks.
The case of Prince Anyanwu, a 30-year old engineer, is not different. While Mrs. Olayinka is not finding it difficult to explain the unfolding scenario to her son, her son Sola who is a stammerer muttered incoherently his anger and the strange insects he had picked for Sunday Vanguard to see in a plastic container. Anyanwu was utterly confused and dumbfounded in his case. He found no words to explain to his wife-Juan - a Chinese national, who barely spoke English about the sudden transformation taking place on the pristine wetland across the road - facing their house.
"What you have there on the wetland over there facing our house is a bunch of death!", Anyanwu explained. From investigation, the landscape where the contractors dumped the alleged wastes is a fragile ecosystem (wetland). The contractors had dumped the sludge without taking into cognizance of any scientific test, ecological or health consideration to the living things in the area. The Ministry of the Environment is also not helping matters with their alleged backing. With almost permanent power outage from the national electricity company, Anyanwu and other residents found it difficult to switch the air-conditioners on.
The windows across the entire neighbourhood are also permanently locked to prevent both the invading insects and smoke emanating from the dump from entering. The odour from the site was nauseating. When Sunday Vanguard visited the site the first time, the peppering effects on the eyes were obvious. Sunday Vanguard had to run away from the place after spending about two hours. Walking along the streets linking Orile with Babs Animashaun can be traumatizing. Passersby have to either block their nostrils or run across to avoid the pungent odour oozing out.
For the residents, it has become a permanent feature and they may have to contend with it for a while. A representative of the contractors was once accosted and queried on the site by Dr. Pat Akinbobola, an epidemiologist who resides in the neighbourhood. The representative told Akinbola that they were working for the Ministry of the Environment and that their aim was to transform the wetland and make it a terminus for the BRT buses.
On further questioning, he bolted away and never returned. Few days after, the signpost of the contractors which bore their name, telephone numbers and insignia and the Ministry of the Environment was removed under the cover of darkness.
On one of the numerous visits to the site to capture the grim picture facing the inhabitants, Sola Olayinka, who is deformed and stammers, uttered some words obviously in anger. He again showed some things inside a plastic bottle. He thought this was evidence. When Sunday Vanguard asked what he was talking about, his mother retorted: "He is showing you the strange insects that invaded his bed.
I am always having constant headache since they brought these toxic materials," said Aminat Adeola, a resident in one of the streets. Mrs. Olayinka corroborated this when she confirmed to Sunday Vanguard that she had been having headache and unable to sleep at night.
"You do not see the insects when they are biting you but when you wake up in the morning, you see the effects and their bites all over your body", said Anyanwu. Akinbobola, an epidemiologist who trained in the United States of America, warned that unless Lagos State government stops this dumping, there could be an outbreak of epidemic in the area very soon.
Mr. Dayo Oshin, chairman of one of the associations in the community, said that they were disgusted that the government did not take the health of the people into consideration before embarking on the dumping. Oshin wondered if the Ministry of the Environment realized the damage the project of filling the wetland with the alleged toxic wastes had done to the health of the people.
Mr. Moses Ajao, the president of Chief Natufe Street Neighbourhood Association, confirmed that he too had been having sleepless nights since the waste materials were brought into their backyard. Already, the entire neighbourhood has been having meetings "to possibly seek a court injunction to stop those responsible from killing them slowly through the unsolicited waste materials dumped in the area." They have written a Community Alert to warn everybody of the dangers looming ahead.
Dele Adelusi, an environmental biologist who has worked in the Niger Delta and a resident of the area, is equally disgusted about the flagrant disregard for the inhabitants and the ecosystem. Adelusi observed that the problem may have arisen because new micro organisms had been brought into the area through the dumping. He feared that the effect of the dumping could become more worrisome in about two years time but added that there was need by government and the neighbourhood to determine the level of contamination.
"Dredged sludge does not have to be where people reside. There is likelihood that mercury will be in the dump. The Ministry of the Environment cannot defend this," Adelusi added. He expressed the fear that the alleged toxic metals could percolate the water table in the area where people depend on boreholes and wells.
When Sunday Vanguard contacted the phone lines indicated on the signpost of those who claimed responsibility for the project, a high ranking official of the Ministry of the Environment confirmed the phone belonged to the ministry. The official who claimed he was just coming out of the Executive Council meeting last Monday requested Sunday Vanguard to forward his questions and fears through the SMS to his phone.
This was done and a reminder was sent the following day with an indication that there was deadline for the story. But, as at last Thursday, there was no response from the Ministry of the Environment. The ministry, however, removed the bulldozer from the place under the cover of darkness by Tuesday night and began spreading the sludge like a sheet over the land that afternoon under the watchful eyes of a ministry official.
Investigations by Sunday Vanguard revealed that those responsible for the dumping excavated and scooped the alleged hazardous materials from the canals that stretch from Ijesha on Apapa/Oshodi Expressway down to Itire/Lawanson and Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Idi-Araba area. A lot of slaughtering of animals and dumping of animal wastes take place along some areas along the bank of the canal.
Besides, household and medical wastes, industrial effluents all combine to form the characteristics of this sludge being scooped and dumped at Babs Animashaun and Chief Natufe wetland. Studies by experts who have worked on some canals in Lagos indicated that the stinking canals have traces of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the type that was among the ones dumped at Koko. Professor Oladele Osibanjo, head, Basel Linkage Centre on Hazardous Waste, University of Ibadan, had carried out extensive studies on the sediments, marine organisms and fishes picked in some canals and estuary in Lagos and found traces of PCBs.
The professor also found traces of chemicals such as hexachlor benzene, heptachlor and aldrin. Dr. Victor Fodeke and Dr. Mrs. M.T. Odubela, experts at the Federal Ministry of Environment, also carried out studies of some areas of the Lagos lagoon (estuary) and canals and found heavy pollution from several industries. Sunday Vanguard monitored the studies of a British Environmental Consultant sent through the British ODA to study the Lagos' horrible canals and lagoon in order to proffer solutions towards the decontamination. The results of the study have never been used and are kept in the cabinets of government officials.
The newly created Surulere alleged toxic dump at Babs Animashaun has now become a "restaurant" for all kinds of pigs, cattle egrets, sheep and goats some of which daily returned to where they reside amongst the residents. "These animals and birds are feeding on the heavy metals and other things picked on the dump," said Adelusi. Last week, Dr. Muiz Banire, the state commissioner for the environment carried out a tour of some canals and pipelines used by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in Lagos.
It was gathered that the commissioner also visited the controversial Surulere dump site. However, he scolded the NNPC for violating environmental and physical planning rules in the state as well as the careless use of fragile wetlands by some land speculators. Investigations revealed that the environment commissioner may not have been properly briefed on the inherent danger on the careless disposal at the Surulere dump.
Medical doctors who preferred anonymity confirmed that there had been increase in cases of patients who complained of skin diseases and breathing problems. They, however, added that they initially did not think of linking the cases to the pungent odour and environmental nuisance in the neighbourhood. When Sunday Vanguard asked questions from the high ranking Ministry of the Environment official on phone, and also requested to visit the ministry for clarification, the official insisted on having the questions through his mobile phone.
The request went thus: "I am working on the dumping of alleged toxic materials at Babs Animashaun Street, Surulere. I have seen a lot of inhuman developments in the area. I need to know the position of your ministry. What is the government planning to do in the area? Why is there no Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) before dumping of the alleged hazardous waste on the wetland? Who is responsible for the scooping of toxic sludge from one place to fill a pristine ecosystem? Many people are sick in the area and I have documented this. Are you continuing with the project there?" Sunday Vanguard did not get any reply to the questions through SMS, phone call or stipulated email address given to the ministry.
The questions remained unanswered at press time. There are several primary and secondary schools in the area. There is also a market, a police station, banks and supermarkets. The danger, according to some experts, is the migration of the pollutants by air. Professor Klaus Topfer, former executive director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), once told Sunday Vanguard in The Hague, Netherlands the dangers which toxic chemicals can do when they are carried by wind. There is no boundary in the air and these chemicals, Professor Topfer noted, "are travellers without passports."
Environmental experts at the defunct Federal Environmental Protection Agency listed quite a number of toxic chemicals in Nigeria. Amongst the toxic chemicals are, Aldrin (Aldrex 40), Dieldrin (Dieldrex 20) used in tsetse fly eradication, Lindane (Gamalin 20) used extensively in Nigeria's cocoa and cotton plantation, DDT, Gramozone (a weed killer) found on market shelves in Nigeria, 2, 4, 5-T (a tree killer) used to defoliate forests in Vietnam and which caused birth-defects and cancers and Perenox (used in Nigeria ignorantly as a worm expeller/treatment of sores.
In one of his works, Professor Olu Odeyemi of Department of Microbiology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife discussed misuse of pesticides in developing countries. Odeyemi said Gamalin 20 or Lindane is used to kill fish which were later consumed by people.
The chemical poisons the fish, the water as well as the people who later consume them. The professor noted that in many parts of West Africa, Carbary / (Vetox and Trestan) (Tripheny/Tin acetate) are used for the preservation of kola nut and could be consumed with unwashed kola nut. Economic crops like cocoa and coffee are sprayed with DDT.
Unfortunately, in what is referred to as "circle of poison", the contaminated 'cocoa and coffee beans are exported back to advanced countries (where the chemicals have been banned) as beverages. According to Odeyemi, the careless use of pesticides is further highlighted by the extensive use of DDT at Nigeria's federal capital, Abuja for twenty years (1956-1976) to dose rivers and streams in an attempt to control black fly (simulium), the sector of Onchocerca Volulus. Relatively high concentrations of DDT were reportedly 'found in samples of soil and water in the area as well as blood samples of people living there.'
In northern Nigeria where livestock farming is important, a sizeable percentage of cattle were said to have died as a result of poisoning from fumigated grass they grazed on. On a regular basis, newspapers carry reports of food poisoning resulting from ignorant use of 'rat poison' hawked freely on the streets. For example, two brothers died in Ejire, Ondo State after taking a meal of 'amala lafun' believed to have been contaminated with rat killing poison.
Most of these toxic chemicals which are allowed to get into the food chain contain lethal reagents like Carcinogenic (cancer causing substances), Mutagen (causes transmissible change in generic make-up) and Tetratogen (which produces physical defects in developing embryo.' Professor Oladele Osibanjo of Chemistry Department, University of Ibadan and Dr. Bozimo of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria looked into the problems of pesticides in some parts of Nigeria. Their study showed that chemicals can be stored in the fatty tissues and thus become dangerous to man.
In the early sixties were recorded many 'cases of human poisoning by Gamalin 20 at the University College Hospital Ibadan from the cocoa producing areas of the old Western Nigeria.' Incredibly, in 1982, in Akure, Ondo State, 20 public health officers were poisoned by Malathion.
The dangerous Gamalin 20 or Lindane is what some people are now desperately using to kill or ward off the invading strange insects at Babs Animashaun Street, Surulere, Lagos where the sludge was dumped. On the creation of a habitat or the use of a refilled toxic dump for human use, Sunday Vanguard can authoritatively say this is dangerous and similar to what happened at a place called Love Canal in the United States many years ago. The story goes thus: America's Hooker Chemical and Plastic Companies acquired seven hectares of land near a canal in New York between 1942 and 1953.
Less than two decades after the contamination of this site, residents were found to have high cases of miscarriages, cancers, and low birth weight in babies, etc. Experts, all over the world now say living beside or upon old dump sites of any type is a health hazard. The effects of the dump at Surulere are vivid. When Sunday Vanguard and other visitors to the scene again got there last Thursday for assessment, they quickly excused themselves from the scene because of the noxious effect of the suspected toxic dump. The effect is no fairly tale.
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