Affordable Waste Disposal Fees will Reduce Illegal dumping of Refuse-Prof. Olagoke

The Nigerian environment is confronted with a myriad of challenges including urban decay, squatter settlements, stack fumes, unregulated and grossly excessive automotive and related exhausts, and poor environmental sanitation habits.
The attitude of the government on issues of poor waste management and land-use practices, the use of obsolete and environmentally unfriendly technology and equipment, poor and non-functional waste management equipment, and deteriorating services by decaying infrastructure have contributed greatly to the worrisome situation at hand. In several communities in Nigeria, such as the  Olorunsogo, Molete area of Ibadan, Oyo state, residents dump refuse in private residences. Sadly, the interest of Government in consultants by some State Governments for the purpose of waste disposal has not helped matters.
In this interview, the Founder, Spiritual Head, and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof Sabitu Olagoke says that when the Government makes waste disposal fees affordable, cases of illegal dumping of refuse would reduce.

In what ways do you think the Government at all levels can secure a quality environment adequate for good health and well being?
In Nigeria the enlightenment on best environmental practices is absent. The Government intervention in the areas of waste management needs to make use of sanitary inspectors to compulsorily go out with other members of the task force, not only to enforce the law but to regulate and control the exercises on a daily routine basis. It is natural for man to generate waste in his activities to survive through the natural experience of his physiological activities vis-a-vis food from raw materials processed into products to the consumption end. The production of every ware such as clothes, hides, and skin for shoes and other packaging materials as well as all the materials that constitute construction processes for human habitation, transportation. Pollution, therefore, can be experienced in three forms, air pollution which has to do with the respiratory system of humans, water pollution which happens to be the essentials of life for humans, and land pollution on which all human activities are carried out.
The Government must be sensitive to the challenges confronting the environment. Most often Nigerians are seen on the mountain heap of refuse and debris looking for spent materials to sell to those who may recycle, reuse, or those who will want to process them into waste minimization without using any safety or security protocols, such people may eventually become victims of pollution which if not treated may lead to a dire state.
At the domestic front, the government needs to make the reduction of indoor air pollution with house plants compulsory most especially at the grassroots level.
The Government through its agencies must discourage the absence of regulation and control by ensuring that the undermentioned industries outside residential areas, so as not to endanger people's lives-lead acid battery recycling, industrial mining, lead smelting, industrial/municipal dumpsites, industrial estates, chemical manufacturing and dye industry among several others.
Generally, we must all agree that the illegal dumping of refuse can cause beatification damage to the environment, hence the government must work on population growth, ignorance of the people, high level of waste production, fees for waste disposal, appropriate technology for waste disposal management and waste control.
The negative effects of the illegal dumping of refuse deserve attention.
States and Local Governments, therefore, need to collectively consider the health implications on the people to do the needful in combating the menace of the illegal dumping of refuse and poor waste management strategy.  Thye needs to involve members of the public in waste management, by counseling them to make reports of cases of the illegal dumping of refuse as well as ensuring that the law is enforced.
The Government must make waste disposal fees affordable, this would go a long way in eradicating illegal dumping of refuse.  The State and Local Governments must role model for ease of domestic practices, the three concepts of Reduction, Recycling, and Reuse.
Nigerian have to move from conservative and dirty habits to an environmentally friendly attitude.