Waste Management in Makurdi: Enhancing less GHG emission

By Damian Daga
Published in The Voice, Wednesday 23rd May, 2012.

Waste management is usually said to be big business but it is also a climate threatening business, if not properly carried out. In the developed world and big cities, more advanced means of disposing and treating waste is employed but the scenario is a little different in small towns such as the Benue State capital – Makurdi in Nigeria.
Makurdi, created in 1970 became a state capital in 1976 when Benue State was created. It is predominantly made up of civil servants and the population is roughly pegged at 300,317, according to the 2006 National Population Census. However, the population of this town according to other indicators which include the increase in new layouts, schools and sprouting businesses, as well as establishments is rapidly rising. In tandem with the rising population is the rising waste disposal and need to rightly create waste, dispose it and of course, properly manage the disposal.

Activities of the Benue State Environmental Sanitation Agency (BENSESA) in line with refuse or waste disposal is commendable on the premise of their effort, especially within the last one year in ensuring that their waste disposal trucks comb the nooks and crannies of Makurdi metropolis on a regular basis. The agency has also made available, waste dump sites at strategic spots for resident’s convenience in depositing waste which is removed at short intervals.

However, the good work of BENSESA and the so called resident’s new awareness on disposing waste would come to nought, if the side effect of the practiced form of waste disposal and management is not corrected. So to say, the act of dumping refuse at open dump sites at Agboughul has dire consequence on the earth’s atmosphere and by extension, climate change.

So to say, better management of waste in Makurdi can reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases and, if high rates of recycling and possibly incineration with energy recovery are attained, the net greenhouse gas emissions may even become negative.

By implication, this could be interpreted in a way that the waste management in the Benue State capital would contribute to meeting the targets of the Kyoto Protocol. One may erroneous say Makurdi’s waste management scheme is on a low side therefore, there is no cause for alarm; however, there is every need to start off her waste management on a firm and environmental friendly track in order to mitigate climate change effects in her own little way; after all, charity begins at home.

For avoidance of doubt, greenhouse gas which is usually abbreviated GHG is a gas in the atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Greenhouse gases greatly affect the temperature of the earth; without them, earth’s surface would be on average about 33 °C (59 °F) colder than what obtains now.

It could be recalled that since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the burning of fossil fuels has contributed to the increase of GHG’s in the atmosphere from 280 ppm to 390 ppm, however, much of it too are put into the atmosphere via waste management practices.

Apart from some greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide which occur naturally and are emitted into the atmosphere through natural processes and human activities; others, are solely created and emitted through human activities. They include:
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) occurs through the burning of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal), ‘solid waste’, trees and wood products etc.
Methane (CH4) is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane emissions also result from livestock and other agricultural practices and by the ‘decay of organic waste in urban solid waste landfills.’
Nitrous Oxide (N2O) is emitted during agricultural and industrial activities, as well as during combustion of fossil fuels and ‘solid waste.’

As earlier stated, it may seem to the carefree reader that the impact of these greenhouse gases on the atmosphere in Makurdi may be infinitesimal but the long run effect is potent and greatly responsible for global warming potential and hence, climate change.

It is in this regard that the Benue State government should encourage BENSESA to improve on sustainable use and management of wastes. Furthermore, the intervention would ensure the emergence of significant and overall reduction in the volumes of waste generated through waste prevention initiatives with new awareness by the populace in aspects of sustainable production and consumption patterns. Needless to emphasis, a considerable lessening in the quantity of waste disposal will ultimately lead to less volumes of hazardous waste produced.
Suffice to add that the populace being encouraged to re-use of several items would drastically reduce the risk of GHG’s emission and climate change dangers.

On the other hand, the state needs to embrace and give focus to recovery processes such as recycling. This process greatly keeps many difficult to degrade materials in use for a longer period. More so, the process of disposing or recycling waste should be located in proximity to waste generating source. This arrangement no doubt, would reduce the tedious process of conveying waste across far distance thereby concomitantly increasing GHG emission via gasoline fumes of dispatch trucks. If this is done, the extent of efficiency in the state would be increased and she could become a model just like Lagos State has become through the aid of her Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA).

Another worrisome aspect of waste disposal in the state is the practice of some private waste disposal companies who have miscellaneous illegal means of dumping waste by deserted roadside or other in other un-approved sites. Although, the General Manager BENSESA, Ediga Akpa recently said these private waste disposal companies licences have been withdrawn because of their obnoxious practices, some of this private waste management companies still operate.
Residents too do not help the situation as many burn their waste, drop their waste indiscriminately etc, whereas, this waste could be channelled into energy at landfills where the gas is captured and converted to better use thereby making it bug business.
A resident of New GRA, an area in Makurdi who pleaded anonymity told TheVoiceEnvironment that the state environmental and sanitation agency doesn’t come their way so they result to disposing their refuse by burning. According to the interviewee, she would not mind if the agency could sell to them disposable polythene and waste bins and charge them a fee for disposing the waste therein. “This arrangement among others would help the agency generate revenue and also place it in a better position to treat and manage waste to conform to global carbon footprint reduction and environmental friendliness,” she advised.

In other words, waste management in the state ought to be upgraded, preparatory to the rapid rate of urbanization and population growth so as to mitigate the emission of green house gases such as methane. There is no better time to embark on this worthy and globally accepted standard in order to truly ensure a cleaner, healthier environment in not just Makurdi, but the world at large.