Saving The Planet One Law At A Time

I remember my childhood days when my mom and I would visit my grandmother in Lagos. Looking back, I really enjoyed those days. Every Christmas, my mom and older brother would visit my grandmother. One thing I noticed about Lagos was the pollution. Pollution coming from different angles. Lagos is the most populated state in Nigeria, so it is expected that there'd be a lot of companies, emitting smoke from different angles and polluting the air. Air pollution was not the only type of pollution disturbing Lagos. The environment was also polluted with refuse here and there. Like, come on, were there no rules? Were people free to do whatever they wanted? Some waterways were also polluted. Lagosians used them as refuse dumps.

Interestingly, I had the opportunity to visit Lagos this week, I grabbed it and was surprised by the things I saw. The Lagos I knew while growing up is totally different from the one I saw this past week. Of course, there are still many companies emitting smoke, but the roads and many areas that used to be really dirty and filled with different kinds of refuse are now sparkling clean. I don’t exactly know the location but it was somewhere around Oyingbo. There's a market there. We all know how Lagos markets can be. I remember those days when my mom and I would go to the market. The market was always filled with cans, vegetables, bones, nylons, papers and other things. But this time, I saw workers in uniform, sweeping the market. With this, it is evident that strategic measures are being taken to keep Lagos clean.

Lagos state is not pollution-free yet, I’m certain there are places where pollution is something, but at least things are better than they used to be. This brings me to this week’s prompt for the Sci-Fi Multiverse community. For this week, the community asks us to discuss pollution and its effects. What are your thoughts on pollution? Is there a way to put an end to pollution?

There are different kinds of pollution, and unfortunately, I have witnessed many first hand. Pollution, especially in over populated countries, is responsible for the death of millions of people. In my school, one kind of pollution that has been there for years now is Land pollution or solid waste pollution. The most painful part is that no one is doing anything about it. But of course, this is Nigeria, there are no rules against those things in certain places, right? No conscious effort is being made to stop it. One thing about humans is that they need rules to guide them. If there are no rules then there is no offence. People keep pouring waste anywhere they want. It is even worse in some streets where they pour waste on the road. There's a hostel close to my friend’s place where they pour the waste on the road, and then you see flies dancing around and smell oozing all over the place.

They keep doing this because there are no rules to stop them. Using Lagos as a case study, I'm pretty sure there are places in Lagos state where you can't just dump refuse without getting fined. Yes, I agree that it would be difficult to completely eradicate pollution. Well, unless we use some kind of magic (which is not possible.), but way to tackle it is to enforce strong laws. Anyone who breaks the law should be required to pay a fine, and anyone who consecutively breaks the law should face more severe punishment.

Now, to answer the final question. What is the worst kind of pollution? In my opinion, the worst kind of pollution is air pollution. I read that air pollution causes heart disease, stroke, and lung disease and it also affects the climate. It is also the most difficult pollution to control because we live in a different world where there are cars, bikes and companies emitting smoke.

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Thanks for reading.