CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the study

Waste management is a national and worldwide issue. Numerous studies have shown a link
between garbage generation and the capacity of governments, people, and waste management
companies to keep up with their responsibilities for environmental management and waste
disposal. People’s health, quality of life, and standard of living are all negatively impacted by a
polluted environment. The dangers of incorrect disposal or storage of this waste include
contamination of the air, land, and most importantly, the water supply. Waste management can be
seen as the process of collecting, transporting, treating and disposing of waste material.

The environment in many developing countries particularly Nigeria, is unhygienic. The

factors responsible for this can be attributed to rapid urbanization, rural – urban migration, decades
of steady economic downturn, decay of urban infrastructure and negligence of urban
housekeeping.1 Urbanization process in many developing countries particularly Nigeria, has not
been accompanied with a corresponding supply of adequate amenities, such as modern houses,
drainages and other infrastructures.2 These have created demands on housing stocks leading to
high rents, overcrowding and development of slums and squatter settlements which have serious
impacts on the sanitation of the urban environment and enormous consequences on the health of
the city residents. The relationship between the physical environment and human health has been
on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) focus since its inception. In its original constitution
of 1946, the WHO’s core functions included the promotion of improved housing, sanitation,
recreation, economic and working conditions and other aspects of environmental hygiene.

Over the decades, the environment and health nexus have remained much the same but
many man-made factors have risen in prominence and impact. Such factors include air, water and
soil pollution and the influence of industrially produced chemicals in consumer products. The

1
Rosemary Ndidiamaka Ene.” Environment Hygiene in the Nigerian Urban Cities (A Case Study of Enugu Urban)”:
International Journal of Environmental Science and Development, Vol. 5, No. 4, August 2014:336-339
2
S. O. Osuide and Kingsley Okechukwu Dimuna, “None compliance with building bye-laws and regulations in Nigeria
– the dangers ahead,” The Built Environment Journal of International Institute for Building Research (IIBR), vol. 1, no.
1, 2005: 62 68.

1
physical environment which refers to the buildings and spaces between them, is considered the
most important component of the environment because it is that with which the organisms,
individuals, community or population is in direct contact and whose effect are mostly directly
visible and tangible. The major elements of the physical environment as identified by Arthur
Essaghah include home, its structural stability, amenity, architecture, and location characteristics,
relative to the home.3

The present state of our environment is of growing concern, particularly as it affects the
urban settings. This concern is attaining alarming proportions because of the rapid urban
population growth. In Nigeria the rate of rural urban migration has increased over the years in spite
of urban unemployment. This suggests that socio-economic conditions in the rural areas of the
country have contributed significantly to the urbanization process in the country. 4 Since 1980
human related activities, especially development projects have led to the acceleration of
environmental degradation in the country.5 This has resulted in the deterioration of Nigeria’s urban
and rural environmental quality.

The effect of waste management to global warming is becoming alarming. The

irresponsible burning of wastes contributes directly to global warming by adding carbon-based
particles into the air resulting to warmer air and creating a disastrous greenhouse effect. 6 One of
the solutions to waste disposal is landfill, which has a negative effect on our environment due to
the gases created in this open rubbish tip.7All over the world, measures have been put in place to
checkmate the illegal or inappropriate disposal of wastes because of its hazard to health and
environment. Right from the earliest times, man has always disposed of his wastes in one way or
another either through burning, dumping or reusing of these wastes. All living beings generate by-

3
Arthur Essaghah, Urban Planning Concepts Standards and Symbols, (Lagos: Amfitop Book Nig. Ltd., 1997), 17-19.
4
Paulina Kofo Makinwa, Internal Migration and Development in Nigeria. (Ibadan. Heineman, 1986), 112.
5
James C. Nwafor, Environmental Impact Assessment for Sustainable Development. (Enugu. EDPCA Publications,
2006). 223-224.
6
Barbora, ‘’How Does Poor Waste Management Affect Climate Change Crisis,’’ Green Sail, 12 September 2019,
https://www.green-sail.com/blog/how-does-poor-wastemanagement-affect-the-climate-change-crisis.
7
Barbora, ‘’Climate Change Crisis.’’

2
products through their activities.8 These by-products therefore need to be disposed to maintain a
healthy environment.

However, from the late twentieth century to the present, multiple factors have contributed
to a significant shift. Rapid urbanization, unchecked population growth, and infrastructural decay
have disrupted these time-honored practices (Ibeh 215). Moreover, policy interventions have often
been reactive rather than proactive. Governmental agencies such as the Federal Capital
Development Authority (FCDA) and the Abuja Environmental Protection Agency (AEP), along
with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and the Federal Ministry of Environment, have been
assigned the task of managing these challenges (Omidiji 60). Despite their efforts, overlapping
mandates and limited resources have resulted in fragmented strategies. This study examines the
evolution of water scarcity and waste disposal practices in Gwagwalada from 1997 to 2024,
situating these challenges within a historical context and evaluating the roles and effectiveness of
both traditional practices and modern governmental interventions (Balogun 80; Olabisi 47).
Furthermore, in recent time, there has been a rising volume of wastes seen littering most
of the streets within the area. Thus, is more pronounced in certain areas often characterized by
high population density. Also, some areas that surround major markets in the council such as Zuba,
Gwako, Dobi, Paiko etc generate massive wastes and develop disposal problems resulting in a
threat to the quality of air and water around. In some parts of the high-density areas, inhabitants
tend to dispose of their solid wastes into running water, these wastes block drainage systems
creating problems in the area. The Management of Gwagwalada area council responsible for
management of the wastes seems to be having challenges in handling the situation. The
implications of the above situation to our residential environment are numerous and pose enormous
problems.

Water is universally acknowledged as an essential resource for human survival and for the
economic, social, and political development of any nation. In Nigeria, despite the country’s
abundant water resources, chronic water scarcity has emerged as a persistent problem—especially
in rapidly urbanizing regions such as the Gwagwalada Area Council.

8
I. Abdullahi et al., ‘’Environmental Impacts of Indiscriminate Waste Disposal: A Case study of Nigerian Air force
Base Kaduna’’ International Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences 1, issue.1 (October 2014): 25-33

3
 The existence and growth of urban communities are largely dependent in part upon
continuously and plentiful water supply. This realization has recently awakened the interest of
scholars in the field to the study of water produced and supplied by the urban water supply
authorities in relation to demand by the municipal and industrial users. Since after the Nigerian
civil war of 1967 – 1970, water supply in Nigerian cities has continued to decrease in quantities
relative to demand. However, among all the urban sectors, the residential sector seems to be worst
hit by this shortage. It is in this regard that Raymond N.C Anyadike and Ibeziako M.N and other
several researchers in the field undertook the study of residential water demand and supply in
several urban areas of Nigeria and found that this shortage is indeed widening.9 The reasons given
by some of them for these shortages apart from the well-known increases in urban population
include: inability of many urban water works to source enough water from their urban areas,
leading to the often recourse to the transfer of water from distant sources, persistent breakdown of
old and dilapidated water supply infrastructure, great water losses as a result of broken-down and
leaking water transmission and distribution lines, and inability of the nation’s public electricity
supply company to provide enough power for the operation of the water works.

The consequences of lack of adequate water supply to the urban residential areas as a result
of the above reasons are grave. For example, residents living in many urban areas obtain water
supply from supplemental sources of doubtful quality which usually include shallow wells, ponds,
lakes, rivers or rainwater often collected from dust infested corrugated iron or asbestos coated
roofs or some combinations of these. The result of water consumption by residents from these
unwholesome sources is the spread of water-borne and water-based diseases such as diarrhea,
cholera, typhoid, and paratyphoid fever, hepatitis amoebiasis etc.

Gwagwalada, which is one amongs the six area council in FCT, is one of the major areas
of FCT, in spite of this rich historical heritage and organized urban structure possessed by a major
part of Gwagwalada, she continues to witness a deficiency in one of the most critical food items
necessary for the perpetuation of human existence in the world. There are six main classes of
essential micronutrients and macronutrients- water is the most important of them all. There is
hardly any other kind of food nutrient that is prepared for human nourishment without the use of

9
Raymond N.C. Anyadike and Ibeziakor, M. N. “The Spatial Structure of Residential Water Demand in Enugu,
Nigeria”. The Nigerian Journal of Social Studies, Vol. 14, 1987: 1-8.

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water; yet water is the only specific food nutrient that can assuage the human appetite of thirst. It
can therefore be argued that man is nothing without water; hence the Latin adage ‘Aqua vita est’
(water is life). Science substantiates this viewpoint with the discovery that man can survive for
only three days or less without water, but he can survive for as long as three weeks without other
sources of food. All these point to the fact that water is very essential to human subsistence in the
world.

In Gwagwalada, water supply from the Federal capital territory water board is delivered
to residents in a most intermittent manner.10 This intermittent service is not as a result of the fact
that the construction of the water scheme was originally deficient but rather due to lack of proper
maintenance of the equipment at the head works, sitting of water sources and channels, as well as,
heavy water losses from the water transmission and distribution lines. These inefficiencies have
resulted in the following problems among residents. First, are the absolute and relative water
shortages in the residential sector between the amounts demanded and supplied most especially as
a result of poor funding and damaged infrastructure. Second, the parlous water supply situation
found in many parts of the town has forced residents to rely more on polluted water supply
source.11 Third, is the often-reported case of broken pipes, due to the illegal water connection.
Fourth, children and women who form a high percentage of the group that fetch water spend
enormous amount of time and energy searching for it in the urban area.12

This is the ugly trend of Gwagwalada after almost 45 years of her existence in Nigeria.
Water scarcity, an anomaly imposed by a few advantaged folks in the state on the disadvantaged
majority, has become the trademark by which Gwagwalada is known by peoples of other cities in
Nigeria. Proponents of this ugly trend have postulated that nature, by this Gwagwalada climate
change , is not the reason for the age-long scarcity of water in the area. The ultimate cause of this
crisis is government’s ineptitude and the failure of the people of Gwagwalada to hold the
government accountable. The above are results of high-water scarcity in the in the rural area of

10
Emeka Emmanuel Ezenwaji, Eduputa M Bade, & Okoye C.O. “Investigations into the Residential Water Demand
and Supply in Enugu Metropolitan Area, Nigeria”: American Journal of Water Resources, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2016: 22-29.
11
, A.O. Udeze. “River Water Pollution in Enugu Urban Area”. Unpublished M.Sc. Thesis, University of Nigeria Nsukka:
1998.
12
O.C. Ani, “Urban Water Supply and Demand: The case of Enugu”. Unpublished B.Sc. Thesis, University of Nigeria,
Nsukka: 1980.

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Gwagwalada . water scarcity still raises its ugly head.13 The summary of the reasons for the water
scarcity could be stated as the growing disparity between decreasing effective supply and
increasing demand for water. A necessary first step towards realizing the degree of this disparity
is the knowledge of total amount of water demanded and supplied in the sector and an assessment
of the factors involved, management practices as well as application of indigenous technology.

Significance of the Study

This study is important because it helps us understand how poor waste disposal and water
scarcity have affected the lives of people in Gwagwalada between 2014 and 2024. It shows the
impact on public health, such as the spread of diseases, and how these environmental problems
have affected people’s jobs, income, and living conditions.

The study will also help the government and local authorities see the need to improve waste
management and water supply systems. It can guide better planning and policies that will make
the area safer, cleaner, and more sustainable for everyone.

Aim and Objectives

The main aim of this study is to explore the socioeconomic impact of poor waste disposal and
water scarcity in Gwagwalada Area Council between 2014 and 2024. Specifically, the study seeks
to:

1. Identify the major causes of poor waste management and water scarcity in the area.

2. Examine how these issues have affected public health and hygiene.

3. Analyze the economic consequences for residents, including effects on income, productivity,
and livelihood.

4. Assess the government’s response and policy efforts in addressing these challenges.

13
Emeka Emmanuel Ezenwaji, Eduputa M Bade, & Okoye C.O. “Investigations into the Residential Water Demand
and Supply in Enugu Metropolitan Area, Nigeria”: American Journal of Water Resources, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2016: 22-29.

6
Research Method

This study employs a historical research method to examine the socioeconomic impact of poor
waste disposal and water scarcity in Gwagwalada Area Council between 2014 and 2024. The
historical method is appropriate for this work as it enables a critical understanding of how past
events, policies, and environmental practices have influenced present socioeconomic conditions
in the area. The research utilizes both primary and secondary sources;

Primary sources include oral interviews with selected residents, elders, traders, local officials,
health workers, and traditional leaders who have witnessed or experienced the challenges related
to waste and water in the area. These interviews help capture personal experiences and local
perspectives, which are crucial in historical reconstruction.

Secondary sources include a review of relevant government documents, reports, newspapers,

environmental assessments, academic publications, and NGO reports. Sources were drawn from
institutions such as the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), Federal Capital Territory
Administration (FCTA), and the National Archives.

Scope of the Study

Gwagwalada Area Council is one of the six Area Councils within the Federal Capital
Territory of Nigeria. Established in 1984. The study covers Poor refuse disposal and Water
Scarcity in Gwagwalada area council from 2012-2024. This area has been chosen due to its unique
challenges with rapid urbanization, population growth, and the consequent strain on waste
management and water resources. The study will cover the period from 2012 to 2024. This
timeframe allows for an in-depth analysis of the evolution of waste disposal practices and water
scarcity issues over a significant period, enabling the identification of trends, challenges.

Limitations of the Study

While this study aims to provide a thorough understanding of the socioeconomic effects of
poor waste disposal and water scarcity in Gwagwalada, several limitations were encountered:

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1. Limited Access to Records: Some government documents, health statistics, and environmental
reports were either unavailable or incomplete, which affected the depth of historical analysis.

2. Reliability of Oral Sources: Much of the primary data was gathered through oral interviews.
Some respondents provided inconsistent or vague recollections due to memory lapses, especially
concerning events that occurred earlier in the decade.

3. Time and Financial Constraints: The scope of fieldwork and the number of communities
visited were limited by time and budget, reducing the ability to gather broader data across the
entire Gwagwalada Area Council.

4. Bureaucratic Challenges: Delays in securing interviews with local government officials and
accessing council archives slowed the data collection process.

5. Generalizability: Since the study is focused specifically on Gwagwalada, its findings may not
be directly applicable to other parts of the FCT or Nigeria with different demographic, economic,
or environmental conditions.

Statements of the problem

Solid Waste Management and water scarcity has become an area of major concern in FCT
Abuja today. It appears to be a losing battle against the harmful consequences of unguided waste
and the attainment of a clean healthy environment for all indigenes of the state. It is common sight
in Gwagwalada today to see heaps / accumulation of festering waste dumps in parts of the state.
All sides of residential apartments, the drains, the highways, corners of major or and minor streets,
undeveloped plots of land have all become waste dumps for many households. Waste increases in
a geometrical progression while collection and disposal increases at an arithmetical progression
(Akinwale, 2005).

The problem associated with the management of solid waste in most urban cities in Nigeria,
like Gwagwalada, does not completely appear to be a problem of absence of legislative framework
for solid waste management owing to the fact that at Federal, States, and Local governments levels,
there exist some form of sanitation legislations or the other, but some other factors have come to
play with the crises experienced in the management of wastes in the Nigerian urban centre‟s. From

8
the background of this study, it appears that the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB)
has not done well in the direction of tackling the menace of solid wastes in the state. This is even
in the face of advanced management strategies existing today for solid waste management which
have been adopted in many places. Thus, considering the efforts made by stakeholders in waste
management, one would be wondering why heaps of refuses are still seen all over the state on daily
basis. Absence of an effective monitoring/control mechanism can bring about in discriminatory
refuse generation and disposal. This is true because no force is coordinating all the parts to
guarantee order and conformity.

Literature Review

Literature on Waste disposal and water scarcity abound expressively being a social
necessity and of global concern, the concept has attracted the attention of many scholars who
deemed it fit to contribute to learning with their research works. In the quest to carry out worthy
research on the waste disposal and water scarcity in Gwagwalada area council, various literature
on the area of interest were reviewed.
Tochukwu Chibueze Ogwueleka in his article, Municipal Solid Waste Characteristics and
Management in Nigeria examines as the title aptly suggests the current solid waste management
practices and problems in Nigeria. He addresses the common constraints faced by environmental
agencies. He states that poor funding is one of the main reasons for poor collection and disposal
of refuse.14 He points out that most developing countries, Nigeria inclusive have solid waste
management problems different from those found in developed countries in areas of composition,
density, political, and economic framework. The interest of his work focused on Waste
Characteristics and its Management in Nigeria; thus, it serves as a reference material in
understanding the management of Waste in Nigeria. This interest abounds in the provision of
veritable strategies that would be employed to ensure the easy discharge of duties. The limitation
of this study is the attitude of people living in these urban areas, as their behaviors often make
managing solid waste very difficult.

14
Tochukwu Chibueze Ogwueleka, ‘’Municipal Solid Waste Characteristics and Management in Nigeria,’’ Iranian
Journal of Environmental Health Science and Engineering vol. 6 no. (3), 2009: 173-180

9
 Proper waste management is a precursor to proper living standard devoid of health hazards.
This connotes that the absence of proper facilities and sites for waste disposal is hazardous to
human life, limiting the presence of development. On this note, Adewole A. Taiwo in Waste
management towards sustainable development in Nigeria: A case study of Lagos state, discusses
on waste management and the issue of Sustainable development in Nigeria. His work also
discusses on the fact that domestic waste management, collection and disposal have always been
a universal problem.15 His work further adds the major effects of waste management on the quality
of life which are, the environmental effects and health effects which includes parasite infection,
infected cuts and other health hazards. This work is indeed instrumental to this research as it looks
at challenges of Waste Management and its effect on the quality of life and Sustainable
Development in Lagos through the various roles enunciated. Despite having its focal point in
Lagos state, the work had limitations in terms of addressing the role of government and individuals
in maintaining adequate waste management practices. Also, effective policy implementation and
regulations also serve as effective tools which are necessary in sustainable development.

Urban waste management has long been a challenge in Nigerian cities. In his work
Municipal Solid Waste Characteristics and Management in Nigeria (2009), T.C. Ogwueleka
highlights that poor planning, insufficient funding, and lack of public cooperation are major
obstacles. He notes that open dumping remains widespread, particularly in satellite towns.

Similarly, Bola Lawal and R.A. Sule, in Urban Waste Management in Abuja: Problems
and Prospects (2016), argue that irregular waste collection and weak institutional enforcement
continue to threaten environmental sustainability in the Federal Capital Territory, including
Gwagwalada.

Environmental challenges have direct effects on livelihoods, income, and health. In Urban
Environmental Problems in Nigeria (2007), A.G. Onibokun and A. Faniran reveal how poor
sanitation leads to frequent disease outbreaks and rising health costs in urban areas. James
Olorunfemi, in Health Impacts of Poor Urban Sanitation in Nigeria (2014), discusses the
connection between poor waste disposal and diseases like cholera and malaria. His study

15
Adewole A. Taiwo, ‘’Waste management towards sustainable development in Nigeria: A case study of Lagos
state,’’ International NGO Journal, 4, no.4 (2009): 11-17.

10
emphasizes the economic burden placed on households, especially those in semi-urban
communities.

From the research survey, it was observed that adequate attention is presently not paid to solid
waste collection in most Nigerian towns including Gwagwalada area council .16 The results are
deteriorated public health which can lead to outbreak of epidemics and environmental degradation.
The study also noted through analysis carried out that solid waste collection in Gwagwalada area
differs from places to places with respect to cost and efficiency. Despite the fact that there are in
some places a few numbers of public collection dust bins for dumping solid waste for appropriate
collection by the waste collection agency, the collection agency at the approved collection centers
is not regular in the collection of the waste resulting to overflowing sites. These inadequacies were
traced to poor funding of the agency by the government, non-availability of sanitary Engineers in
the work force, non-payment of sanitation dues by residents, and attitude to work by the waste
collection workers. The relevance of this work becomes necessary as it contributes to the
understanding of waste management and the roles of government agencies Abuja Environmental
protection Board (AEPB) in the maintenance of solid wastes.

Emmanuel Akpabio, in Water Meanings, Sanitation Practices and Hygiene Behaviours in

the Cultural Mirror: A Perspective from Nigeria (2012), explores how poor water infrastructure
and population growth have led to water scarcity, especially in peri-urban communities.

Ina Eguavoen, in her article "Diverting the Flow: Gender Equity and Water in South-
Eastern Nigeria" (2015), explains that beyond infrastructure, the governance of water access
remains a barrier to water security. The situation is made worse in semi-urban areas like
Gwagwalada where residents rely on expensive or unsafe sources such as boreholes and water
vendors.

Olufemi Adeniyi, in Water Crisis in Nigeria: A Case Study of Abuja Municipal Area
(2019), provides evidence that water scarcity increases household expenditure, weakens sanitation,
and exacerbates urban poverty.

16
Chukwuemeka Jonah Agunwamba et al. “Comparative Analysis of Solid Waste Collection in Enugu-Urban Nigeria”:
Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, vol. II, Issue 3, Ver. I, 2014: 54-62.

11
 Perennial water crises are a monster that threatens the very essence of human existence
globally. Efforts have been made to stamp out water crises by the provision of pipe borne water,
artisanal well, etc. but to no avail. Notwithstanding these efforts, Gwagwalada have been
earmarked by excruciating hardship faced by the people as a result of scarcity of portable water.
Nnajiofor Philips Egbo, Anih Stephen Chibuike and Nnamani Collins Obinna in their work
Sustainable Strategies for Solving Perennial Water Crisis in Enugu Using Infiltration/Sump
Technology concluded that the perennial water crisis in Enugu has thrown up lots of questions:
especially, as most of the agencies saddled with provision of this essential commodity to the
populace has failed resulting in absolute and relative water shortages between amounts demanded
and supplied. Nigeria is beset with perennial water crises as a result of poor funding, damaged
infrastructure, lack of maintenance culture, distance of water sources to the points of need, losses
from transmission and distribution lines, white elephant projects as well as lack of indigenous
technology.17 The study recommends that government at all levels, corporate bodies and
individuals should embrace the sump/infiltration technology for sustainable water supply. Also,
white elephant water project(s) should be jettisoned and sump/infiltration smart technology
adopted to mitigate the perennial water crisis. Conservation of all rivers and streams in the state
should be properly pursued to reduce contamination, pollution and wastage of the fresh water
resources. The study also recommends that all the perennial rivers and streams, with high water
yield, in the State should be studied and their suitability or otherwise for Water Harvesting
evaluated. This will go a long way in solving the perennial water crises bedeviling Gwagwalada
and the country at large. The work becomes relevant in solving perennial water that have bedeviled
Gwagwalada provision of adequate means of provision of essential water supply. Meanwhile, the
work neglected to adequately provide means to which government should employ and strategically
project these technological advancements to further make for the availability of water amidst its
scarcity.

17
Nnajiofor Philips Egbo, Anih Stephen Chibuike and Nnamani Collins Obinna. “Sustainable Strategies for Solving
Perennial Water Crisis in Enugu Using Infiltration/Sump Technology”: American Journal of Environment Studies,
Vol.5, Issue 1, 2022: 27 – 47.

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