Calabar channel turns to plastic disposal site

Calabar used to be one of the cleanest cities in Nigeria but its situation today is a far cry of what it used to be.

Atimbo area of Calabar is part of the city that hardly gets flooded despite being close to swampy lowland.

This is not unconnected to the huge concrete water channel constructed in the area to move large amounts of water from Atimbo junction into the swamp.

However, this channel that was constructed to ensure that parts of Calabar remain dry despite the torrential rainfall that is associated with the city has sadly become a channel of waste disposal.

A visit to this massive drainage system few metres from the Edim Otop junction, and which runs through the East Odamba Community in Atimbo, shows huge refuse, mostly plastic bags and bottles in the drainage.

Mounds of human waste are also visible as residents take turns in the early hours to defecate openly in the drainages, thus undermining the state government's efforts against open defecation.

Consequently, this gives birth to a fetid stench that greets the nostrils of residents and passers-by, leaving no one in doubt that shielding the nose from this assault is not only necessary but compelling.

The flies are not left out of the unchecked frivolities as hundreds are seen dancing in ecstasy on mounds of human and all sorts of wastes standing like commissioned sentries in the drainage.

According to a little girl, who just stood few metres away and expertly flung her bag of refuse into the drainage, "na here everybody dey trowey dia dirty."

Mr Sammy Okon, whose church is beside the huge waste-filled drainage, disclosed that as an organisation, they had reported the constant waste disposal and defecation to the Calabar Urban Development Authority (CUDA) but the problem had continued.

"As you can perceive in the compound, the stench is everywhere.

"Most of the houses around here have no toilets and the tenants also say that the government approved waste disposal point is too far for them, so all their wastes are disposed in the drainage.

Going deeper into the community to see other sections of the long concrete drainage which now serves several purposes, the discovery was shocking for two reasons.

Firstly, the fact that the huge concrete drainage which was supposed to empty into the river after the East Odamba community, only went half way and was abandoned.

Secondly, few metres from the point where the concrete drainage ends was a sickening sight of a monstrous heap of plastic waste, mostly bottles and sachets.

Mr Edem Johnson, Youth Leader of the East Odamba Community, said the area gets flooded whenever it rained because the drainage constructed by government was abandoned halfway.

Johnson maintained that whenever it rains, large amounts of waste were transported through the huge drainage and end-up in the community, including the ones created by residents of the community.

"There is no refuse disposal point in the community, that is why everybody dumps their refuse in the gutter and that is why the gutter is blocked with mostly plastic products and water cannot pass through. This blockage is responsible for the flooding here," he said.

When contacted on the matter, Mr Joemary Ita, Director-General of CUDA, declined to comment but directed the correspondent to the state Ministry of Environment.

An official of the Cross River Ministry of Environment, who preferred to be anonymous, said the drainage, which was constructed by the administration prior to 2015, was not completed and so, whenever it rains, water and waste materials end up in the East Odamba Community.

According to him, Cross River has an Environmental Monitoring Team and an Environmental Court that work round the clock to ensure that illegal dumping of refuse was checked but when the present administration took over power, these bodies that made Calabar the cleanest city in Nigeria died.

"As a ministry, some time ago, we went round Calabar, especially around the Watt Market area, moved the traders away to clear silt in the drainages but that didn't go down well with the governor.

"Our hands are tied, as I think the state lacks the political will to reestablish a functional monitoring taskforce with powers to arrest and prosecute offenders of indiscriminate waste disposal.

Although, there is an immediate concern of constant flooding of the East Odamba Community, another major problem is the massive amount of plastic wastes that has found its way to the community.

According to Dr Adeniyi Sanyaolu, an Environmental Biotechnologist with the University of Uyo in Akwa Ibom, plastics, by virtue of their constituents, contain polyethylene which is a recalcitrant compound due to its inability to degrade easily.

Sanyaolu, who is also a Plant Pathologist, said the beauty of nature, according to thermodynamics, is that everything will ultimately succumb to decay.

"But because plastics are creation of man containing chemicals that are not degradable by the natural ecosystem engineers, such as fungi, bacteria, earthworms, caterpillar and other organisms, they remained.

"Imagine a leaf falling to the ground and not decaying, the whole world would have been one huge pile of leaves but the nature's ecosystem engineers take care of these things and incorporate their nutrients back to the soil.

"Apart from their inability to decay, plastics are persistent organic pollutants and have some constituents that are known carcinogens and can induce cancer.

"They release these chemicals gradually into the soil and water bodies thereby gradually causing mutation in the cells of organisms, including man when they are ingested.

"We have seen some aquatic animals like crocodiles and turtles whose appendages were cut because they got entangled in these plastics; so, littering land or water with plastics indiscriminately, both ways, we are losers," Sanyaolu said.

The don explained that with the prevalence of cancer in the 21st century, it was time to look back at what was happening in the food chain, are we unconsciously ingesting plastics?

"While still trying to wrap my head around the gloomy pictures of the effects of plastic waste, Dr Betta Edu, Cross River's Commissioner for Health, stated that when water gets stagnated in drainages due to dumping of waste, it simply means the breeding of mosquitoes and malaria which the state was trying hard to reduce.

"Also, there is the likelihood of diarrhea, an outbreak of cholera and even lassa fever caused by the Mastomys rats because wherever there was stagnant water and refuse, all sorts of rodents are attracted," he said.

Though daunting, the challenge of waste in the Atimbo area of Calabar can be solved with concerted efforts by the government and residents of the area.

Sanyaolu, while recommending ways to solve the problem said indiscriminate dumping of refuse was a habit and should be tackled from the primary and secondary schools.

"Children should be taught the dangers of littering the environment," he said,

He said punitive measures for non-compliance with environmental laws, especially when it concerns plastic wastes, should also be introduced with a standing task force that goes around to ensure that indiscriminate dumping of refuse is curbed.

Sanyaolu said there was also a serious need for constant enlightenment of the people on the dangers of improper waste disposal to the environment and their health.

He added that while state governments should start establishing recycling plants to convert waste to wealth, institutions like the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) must be supported as their responsibilities were huge and may overwhelm them without effective support.

According to Edu, cleaning of the environment should not rest on the shoulders of the government alone but in partnership with individuals in an area.

"People can mobilise themselves to clear their drainages so that the state government team that goes around to evacuate refuse would dispose them properly," she said.

There is hope that the lost glory of Calabar can still be restored if only there is a collective effort by residents of the city and the government to achieve this goal.

Agencies like CUDA that is comatose, must be revived to carryout its statutory function of ensuring that the environment is not only clean but habitable for residents.

And the future generation who may not understand what had befeallen them when the negative impacts of plastic wastes start being aggressively felt.

A stitch in time, they say, saves nine.