See Nigerian city that has the WORST air in the world
Onitsha, Anambra state Nigeria was in 2016 ranked the worst city in the world for the staggering levels of PM10 particulate matter in its air.
Onitsha’s mean annual concentration was recorded at 594 micrograms per cubic metre by the World Health Organization – massively exceeding the WHO’s annual guideline limit for PM10s of 20μg/m3.
This means that Onitsha is the most polluted city in the world, but the people living in it do not even know it.
According to a report by The Guardian, sources of the pollution include dust storms, gases emitted by vehicles, all types of combustion, and industrial activities such as cement manufacturing, construction, mining and smelting.
Other rapidly growing Nigerian cities such as Kaduna, Aba and Umuahia, are featured in the WHO’s 20 worst offenders for PM10s, worst polluted cities.
Many of the people who live in Onitsha do not think it is a major problem, however, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), around 600,000 deaths throughout Africa every year are associated with air pollution, while in October 2016 report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) suggested that polluted air could be killing 712,000 people prematurely every year across the continent.
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These are what some people had to say about the pollution:
One female traffic warden has been working around Okpoko market for two days when asked how copes with the dust, said: “I am just doing my job, dust does not kill people.”
A businessman in the neighbourhood of Nwangene, Ikechukwu Obizue, says residents cannot do much:
“Onitsha is quite dirty, but the government is not doing anything about it. We do environmental sanitation monthly, but then the city returns to being dirty.
“It is the government’s responsibility to keep the city clean, not the work of the residents – people in this city are too busy hustling to make an income.”
At one of the few state-approved dump sites on Creek Road, a man, Ikechuckwu who works at a smelting workshop.
The man who has been smelting iron for about 5 years said: “I know how to take care of myself,” he brags. “I am not wearing a nose mask because I don’t need it. I take medicine to cater for my health.
“The major problem is that we don’t take air pollution seriously in Nigeria,” says medical practitioner Dr Nelson Aluya.
“As the population increases and we become more industrialised, we ought to have active air-monitoring agencies and a federal environmental protection agency. We say they are there – but are they active?”
Source: Legit.ng
