In the following blogs I will be
discussing the Water and Sanitation Crisis in Africa’s biggest Megacities:
Lagos and Cairo.
Lagos is on the South West coast
of Nigeria and is home to one of the busiest and largest ports in Africa. The
port and its exponential population growth has allowed it to prosper into one
of the wealthiest African cities, in terms of GDP.
In 2006, the Nigerian Census (National
Population Commission, Nigeria 2006) measured population at 9,113,605.
However, it must be noted that the Nigerian Census is not highly regarded as
population is closely related to the allocation of central government resources
so states tend to exaggerate (Potts,
2012). The same is the case for the National
Bureau of Statistics, who estimate Lagos’ 2015 population at 21,324,000,
giving an estimated population density of 18,205/km2. However, the
UN estimated the population to be at over 17 million in 2015 (Gandy, 2006).
Nonetheless, this population growth puts an immense strain on basic resources
such as water and sanitation.
Whilst Lagos is a very wealthy
African city, the wealth is distributed between millions of people, approximating per capita GDP at $5,573 (Canback Global Income
Distribution Database, 2008). GDP figures also do not account for inequalities.
Due to the sheer population size, many people are pushed into lower living
standards, such as slums. Whilst the wealthy parts of Lagos have some water and
sanitation systems implemented, the slums of Lagos are not so fortunate. Achebe (1960) describes Lagos as a twin city: one of electric lights, smartly dressed women and high-life music, the other of gloomy slums.
Upon reviewing some of the data from
previous posts, I have found some examples of the inequality within Lagos.
Domestic waste management was found to be treated by ineffective plants and
disposed of in coastal lagoons. This has led to water pollution concerns in
coastal lagoons and groundwater sources which are still contaminated with
untreated effluents (including industrial waste). In particular, there has been
a noted increase in levels of nitrates and other contaminants in groundwater (Showers,
2002). It has also been shown that a majority of the water supply in
Lagos comes from groundwater and the Ogun River, a waterway which discharges
into the Lagos Lagoon.
Why are industries not taken to task by the government for the pollution they cause?
ReplyDeleteThe government and authorities are simply too corrupt and in a country so prone to poverty in certain regions, too many citizens will take unethical bribes. Dumping and pollution regulations are not enforce and dumping actually occurs in slum areas, in which residents have little say in any pollution processes. This gives rise to slums such as Manshiyat Naser in Cairo
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