Some experts in Kogi State on Tuesday expressed concern over the massive heaps of refuse currently littering the highways and streets of Lokoja, the state capital.
They disclosed this in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lokoja.
NAN reports that refuse heaps continued to litter the streets of the capital in the past few weeks.
An Environmentalist, Victor Ajayi, said the filthy situation of the state had become a cause for concern due to the danger it posed to human health and the environment.
Ajayi said the refuse dumps were so much that residents had started burning them right there on the streets.
He, therefore, urged the management of Kogi State Sanitation and Waste Management Board to ensure immediate and regular evacuation of refuse across the state.
The expert, who specialises in Environmental Chemistry, said burning of household solid wastes would contaminate the atmosphere, thereby polluting the air that we breathe.
He said: “Burning of solid wastes produces thick smoke of Sulphur (iv) oxide, Carbon (ii) oxide and other dangerous gases that could damage the ozone layer.
“The smoke also creates unpleasant odour that increases general background level of air pollution.
“Refuse burning not only poses health hazard to man alone but also affects the environment in general via the emission of various pollutants.”
In his reaction, Dr. Samuel Olateju, a family health Consultant at Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, said reduction of visibility by burning particulate matters, especially during periods of air stagnation, could cause some respiratory diseases.
Olateju told NAN that oxides of sulphur and nitrogen emitted from refuse burning were hazardous gases that cause respiratory disorders and irritant, respectively.
He said: “These include crises for asthmatic patients, and other patients with trachea-related diseases.
“Besides, heaping and burning of refuse in the environment could lead to the outbreak of various communicable diseases.
“People, especially children, could be exposed to deadly diseases like cholera, dysentery and malaria fever.”
Olateju, therefore, called on residents to avoid indiscriminate dumping and burning of refuse in public places.
“We are all stakeholders in keeping and maintaining sanitised surroundings for a healthy living, and the preservation of our environment,” he said.
Florence Joseph, the General Manager of Kogi Sanitation and Waste Management Board, however, told NAN that the refuse littering the major streets of Lokoja was as a result of workers’ strike.
Joseph said: “We are all aware that Kogi State workers are on strike and our official vehicles cannot go out to evacuate refuse.
“Even before now, there was never a time workers were on strike that the Board would join; our vehicles were always on the road for evacuation.
“But the labour leaders had ensured that this strike was effective across all the state ministries and agencies.
“I cannot singly do the waste evacuation alone on my own, neither can I force the workers to come to work.”
NAN.
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