Horror inside the Abuja dumpsite

The scavengers get sick often because of their kind of business but sometimes they become immune to germs – Sale of disposable plastics rakes in money for the scavengers – These group of people have an association coordinated by
Mohammed Abubakar, chairman of scavengers in Abuja Awalu Abdulsalam, ‎30, is a scavenger, he lives his life inside the 90 hectares Abuja Central dump site situated in Gosa village, off airport road. Like every other scavenger, he is loathed and despised in the city centre, but he and his ilk, earn more money than an average director in the Federal Civil Service, a teller in the bank and over 80 percent more than a civil servant whose minimum wage is just N18,000. Scavengers are despised and often chased away from the city centre: with a sack hanging behind their backs, a hook like iron rod in their hands, they rummage through waste bins and refuse dumps in the neighbourhood in search of waste items.

Kaduna-state-born Awalu is a dealer of disposed plastics especially bottled water containers. He makes an average of N357,500 every month  for sorting out waste for recycling ‎in either Kano or Lagos where there are factories making use of recyclable items. On a daily basis, ‎buyers besiege the dump site with trucks looking for various recyclable items such as tins, aluminium, rubber, plastics, metals, as well as iron. According to Awalu, buyers must first discuss their needs with the chairman of scavengers, Mohammed Abubakar, who directs them to the dealers of such items. This is the untold story of Gosa dump site and a scavengers’ colony inside it. Tucked away from the ambience and aesthetics of the federal capital city, Abuja with no basic facilities to support survival in a 21st century, Gosa dump site is home to about 3,000 men making a living from waste. They come in droves from Kaduna, Kano and Katsina, to the massive dump site in search of livelihood despite the associated health risks. Nothing can be said to be a pleasant experience for a visitor to the site where flies of different species roam the space freely and a putrid odour capture every motion and breeze. But then a community of scavengers popularly called Mai-bolla live with waste while dogs keep their company as birds hover  the dump site. The other side of Abuja After one hour of lurking in a bush 30 kilometres off the popular Jabi- Airport road, our reporter, trailing a compacting truck going to dump it’s content finally arrived at Gosa dump site – a place better described as the other side of Abuja.

Gosa is not known to most residents of Abuja yet most solid waste from the city end up at the dump site without being sorted or processed thereby adding significantly to environmental hazards such as air, and underground pollution. Many residents would probably argue against a possible existence of such a waste site in the FCT, for it is a direct opposite of what the city centre represents. The poor management of waste in the city in recent times has raised questions on the seriousness of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) to carry out its statutory responsibility of protecting and maintaining the city’s environmental allures. Though Abuja is touted as the fastest growing city in Africa, but it is way behind Kigali, the capital of Rwanda which was said to be the cleanest place in Africa in a report by Foreign Policy Group in 2011 because of the measures – including laws – put in place to help with waste management. Sadly, Abuja is not the only culprit – It is more like a national indictment. According to Waste Atlas, a crowd-sourcing free access map that visualizes municipal solid waste management data across the world, Nigeria generates 25 million tonnes of municipal solid waste yearly. This is more than times three of what Ghana generates. But in waste collection, Nigeria only collects 60 percent of its own waste while Ghana collects 85 percent of waste generated. Incredible size of Gosa dump site Covering about 90 hectares of land, Gosa dump site is the size of about 130 football pitches and more than two times the size of the popular Olushosun dump site in Lagos. Although full of opportunities, the mountain of grime in Gosa pose some health and environment threats to residents of the city.

“Every kind of waste is being disposed here; hospital waste, industrial waste, chemical waste and the unfortunate thing for the residents of Abuja is the chemical waste it releases to the water table, which is a very dangerous chemical which is capable of eliminating everybody if taken in,” she said. Not only does the chemical pollution of the underground water poses  a serious threat to residents of the city, the attendant production of greenhouse gases due to the burning of the refuse thereby aiding climate change also calls for concern. An expert in waste management and the FCT councillor of the Waste Management Society of Nigeria (WAMASON), Mrs Kitan Oluwagbuyi relates her experience about Gosa dumpsite. Her organization had tried to see to the issues arising from the dump site especially as it affect visibility during flights take off at the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport but there were hitches. “I was at the Gosa dump site three years ago 2013. I had issues with it. The way the site was managed…the burning. Because when you are taking first flight out of Abuja you will always see the emissions layer because of the inversion with the way Abuja is with the hills. “So there is always a heavy inversion so I took it up and thought we could do something. But we could not as a society take the issues up. Then I took it up rather with the National Environmental Standard and Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA) at that time. But again there is a whole lot,” Mrs Oluwagbuyi said.

The gains of living with waste But for Abubakar, the chairman, Kabiru Mohammed and Awalu Abdulsalam, waste is wealth. They may be living in the midst of filth but they are far richer than many who live in the city centre and work in cozier environment. ‎ Awalu Abdulsalam deals in recyclable plastic bottles. He is a father of one, and goes to visit his family in Kaduna two weeks after he must have spent a month at the dump site. “I make about N5, 500 daily dealing in plastic swan bottles. I have been on this site for about seven years. I go to see my family in Kaduna  for two weeks after spending one month here.” As for him, he has boys who go into the dump site every day to look for plastic bottle for him. Abdulsalam has eight boys who work under him, and they are paid daily according to their output ranging between N1000 to N2000. The profit can even be more depending on what is been traded, says the chairman of the scavengers, Abubakar Muhammed. “Rubber goes for N25 per kilo, iron or tin goes for N20 per kilo while aluminium is the costliest; it goes for N70 per kilo.” When our reporter got to the dump site, a truck was being loaded with recyclable aluminium bottles. According to the chairman, a truck at the site conveys 85 bags of waste each weighing not less than 100 kilos translating to about N637, 500 profit (in the case of plastics) without deducting the N25, 000 paid to loaders of the truck. Meanwhile, a kilo of plastic bottles goes for about N45 to N50. He also disclosed that loading a truck with recyclable plastics cost N25, 000 and even more if it is iron.

“It takes about a month for a team of scavengers to produce recyclable materials that can fill a truck,” he said ‎. The cheery news for the scavengers and their buyers however is that, the resources or what they are looking for are readily available as compacting trucks keep bringing waste almost on hourly basis to the site. It means they can never run out of stocks. They may not be recognized or commended for what they are doing, but their activities go a long way in fighting environmental problems that lead to global warming and climate change. Virtually all the items they sort out are non-biodegradable. A potential energy source Gosa dump site can also be used for energy generation. A report by the Centre for People and Environment in 2010 suggested that the Gosa dump site has the potential for ‘landfill gas to energy’ scheme if upgraded. In 2010, the report indicated that AEPB was discussing with a foreign company on recommendation that the dump site be developed into staged filing operations.
Six years after, a visit to the dump site can only highlight the insensitivity and care-free attitude of the federal government and the federal capital territory administration (FCTA) in harnessing the potentials of these waste. The energy potential of the site, our reporter observed, can be used to power Idu Industrial estate which is about five miles away from the dump site.

“Nigeria has 6 of the 50 biggest dump sites in the world” Of the three stages of waste management, Nigeria practice the worst form, FCT councillor of WAMASON, Mrs Kitan Oluwagbuyi disclosed to our reporter. Expressing her displeasure over the lack of landfills in Nigeria, Oluwagbuyi, said Nigeria has six of the 50 biggest dump sites in the world. “I have been to Gosa and I know what is going on there but I have not been there in the last three years. I know AEPB is doing a lot of work we are trying to partner with them.  I know they have PSP, some of them are our members. It is one thing to collect waste and throw there (Gosa). That is what I have seen happening. “You know it is an open dump site? What we are trying to do is try to control the dump site.  There are stages in management of waste, if all you do is collect and dump or dispose which is what is going on……….” “The best you could have is three options, either you have everybody come from everywhere and dumps it wherever available which is was happening in 2013. That is open dump site which is prone to spontaneous fire and burnings and then they do their burning by themselves…the scavenger do a lot of burning there. So that is the worst level. “The second level is the controlled dumping. Meaning that they bring it in and then we demarcate the site where people can take the waste to and then they manage to a level and do a cover. The best of it all which everybody wants when you are in this profession is to have a landfill. Nigeria has no landfill. “We are just going from open dumpsite to control dumpsite across the country. As at 2013, I remember saying to NESREA that don’t let  Abuja join the league of cities with big dump sites….ehhh….because Nigeria has six biggest dumpsite in the world. Gosa, the way it is going I just told them in NESREA that they should enforce and push out because Abuja is the FCT and should not go in that direction,” she said.

Will AEPB accept WAMASON’s help? Provided the AEPB can wake up from its slumber Abuja can get to compete with leading capitals in the world in terms of cleanliness and sanitation. The WAMASON has offered a hand of fellowship adding that there is no rocket science in achieving the United Nations target on the eradication of open dump sites by 2020. “AEPB is still operating waste management on the level of collection and disposing. Recently I understand they are trying to get the city into sorting and recycle.” “This is where we want to partner with them. We have a project in Life Camp even though it has been on for years now, nonetheless our council wants to partner with them to see how we can initiate in communities.” “WAMASON did that in Kano and I as a person worked as a consultant in Kano and it worked in Turai in Kano. We did as well in Ekiti state. So we know it can work and community bought into it.” “And Abuja residents and estates are more of enlightened people, so if it worked in Kano and in Ekiti why can’t it work in Abuja? This is the way we want to partner with them. We have been teaching a lot of our members about waste to wealth.”

“They want to key into it but there have to been an enabling platform this where WAMASON wants to support. We don’t really want the likes of Gosa to continue. In the best of scenarios is to take it from that open dumpsite to control dump site. It is not rocket science.” “If we can partner with them and if they don’t even have the money we can help them push for projects from donors to do it. This is what we have done in this other states even in Anambra, Akwa. These are some of the things we want to bring on board. That is what I want to say about Gosa. “We are not happy about Gosa and the current management of the dumpsite is not what we want. Climate change now….the goal that Nigeria signed is that by 2020, open dump site will be a thing of the past and that is just four years to come. “ “That is a tall order and Nigeria signed it and I am happy Nigeria signed it. So we need to work together. To achieve that in four years the minimum we can do is to have a controlled dump site. If we can achieve that one, it can be ticked off from records that Nigeria has no open dump site,” the FCT WAMASON councillor reiterated. Efforts to get AEPB officials to comment on the issue proved abortive. Naij.com also called the public relations officer of the agency, Mr Joe Ukairo on Monday, March 28 but he didn’t pick up and never returned the call. The question now is will the Abuja Environment Protection Board step up its game?