Kenneth Ehigiator
26 October 2009
For weeks now, workers in the presidential lounge and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) fire department have performed their jobs with fears of epidemic outbreak, following the effluence discharged from the new domestic terminal of the airport, otherwise known as MMA2.
The effluence which fouls the air around both blocks each time it is discharged, Vanguard learnt, is a combination of human waste and other waste generated at the new terminal.
At the presidential lounge, doors and other openings to offices are hurriedly shut, while the foul smell has sacked FAAN aviation security staff attached to the fire department, located by the drainage channel into which the waste is discharged.
The aviation security personnel now stay far away from their duty posts to avoid inhaling the pungent smell oozing out of the channel through the waste flow.
"We have been suffering here, functioning inside this smell, which constitutes a hazard to our health. The smell comes stronger at night. Please help us beg the authorities to save us from epidemic," pleaded one of the operatives who craved anonymity.
Visitors to both blocks and arriving passengers through the terminal could be seen covering their nostrils.
FAAN and Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited have traded blames over who is responsible for the problem since the terminal was opened to operations about two years ago.
FAAN's General Manager, Public Affairs, Mr. Akin Olukunle, yesterday held Bi-Courtney accountable for the problem, saying the agency's department of environmental services had written letters to the company over the matter, adding that none was replied.
He said the problem resulted because Bi-Courtney was not properly maintaining its sewage system.
Olukunle wondered why Bi-Courtney diverted to the presidential lounge and FAAN's fire department the manifold through which the effluence flows to the affected areas.
"We are not responsible for the problem, Bi-Courtney is responsible for it. Our Department of Environmental Services has written the company about this problem, but we have had no response.
"I don't know why they directed the flow of the waste to the areas we are in charge. Their sewage is not properly maintained, and that is what is responsible for the problem. We will still talk to them and then take all necessary measures to stop it," he said.
Spokesman for Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, Mr. Gbenga Adegbesan, told Vanguard that the company had already mobilised its engineers to check the situation.
"Our engineers are working on it because we don't want this buck-passing. The situation is under control," Adegbesan said.
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