Durumi: Where man and garbage live together

Investigation carried out recently disclosed that contrary to AMAC’s pledge that there would be a monthly cleaning exercise after the launch of Operation Mop-Up-Waste in early 2008, nothing of such nature is being done in Durumi. Clearing up of refuse has become the responsibility of members of the community who do it willingly when the […]

Investigation carried out recently disclosed that contrary to AMAC’s pledge that there would be a monthly cleaning exercise after the launch of Operation Mop-Up-Waste in early 2008, nothing of such nature is being done in Durumi. Clearing up of refuse has become the responsibility of members of the community who do it willingly when the situation becomes unbearable.

In as much as it is the duty of inhabitants to clean up their immediate environment, the agencies that are responsible have failed to do their bit which is clearing up the pile of refuse gathered from these small clean-up exercises. Rather, residents have shifted from the open place cleared by AMAC to the fences of residential areas. This has worsened the situation contrary to residents’ expectation of a healthy environment after the launch.

They are also gradually building up the pile of rubbish which AMAC supposedly spent huge sums clearing up without providing an alternative dump site or disposal means for residents. As would be expected of such a health-unsafe environment, this has resulted in many ill-health cases as confirmed by pharmacy owners and residents alike. In some cases, illnesses have progressed to critical conditions and sometimes in death before invalids are able to have access to healthcare services in Garki.

Reliable information disclosed that there is a hazard of health. Illnesses worsen before patients reach health centres. Residents said the entire Durumi village lacks toilet facilities. For this reason which was obvious to our reporters, residents said they continually use the dumping grounds as toilets or the public toilets and bathrooms made available by certain individuals.

In a discussion with Alhaji Bello Bakori, the manager of one of such public toilets and bathrooms situated in Durumi II, he told these reporters that he had spent three years in Durumi without adequate toilet facilities. The idea of building public toilets and bathrooms came into the mind of the community when people were defecating everywhere. Alhaji Bakori said before setting up the business, they had to clear a heap of the refuse.

“We started operations about a year ago and people patronise us well. We open the place between 6.00 and 6.30 in the morning and we close at about 10:30pm. The facility is open to all and sundry between these hours. We run on PHCN and our generator when there is need to,” he said. The manager added that people above 80 years that are deemed to be breadwinners of their households are also regulars there.

“From the conduct and manners of their approach, I believe many are educated persons whose lifestyles have been relegated by exorbitant accommodation fees in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),” Bakori said.

Speaking on the cost, the manager said the community spent over N600,000 to put the structure in place. The structure consists of units of bathrooms and toilets to alleviate the problems of Durumi residents. “Defecation fee is N20 and bathing is also N20. Whoever wants to do both simultaneously pays N40,” Bakori informed our correspondents.

He disclosed further that to make the business run smoothly, the community constructed a borehole with a machine, but the Water Board received information from the public and sent some of their staff to investigate their source of water for the survival of the business, because water ran throughout the day at the public toilets. “It is not surprising that the project consumed more than N6,000 because the corrugated roofing sheets are new. Besides, there was labour and a bag of cement is N1,800,” he said.  

Bakori said many civil servants take their bath there every morning, but school children only appear there on Saturdays and Sundays when they have less to do. For the adults who use the bathroom day and night, Bakori said he has the feeling that they have bathrooms and toilets in their homes but are not satisfied with the conditions of these facilities.

In a further interview with Muhammad Abdullahi, a user of the public facilities, he said he prefers the public facilities to the one in their home because they are very neat.

“Not only do people defecate and bath, they equally wash their clothes there because there is no water and pipelines have become mere decorations”, said some other residents found in the area.

Bakori said as Durumi is surrounded by waste, the place is exposed to epidemic and, therefore, the AMAC should clear all gutters near the homes. He like most of the residents complained of the absence of even the most basic healthcare centre, which should serve the community on a small-scale level in Durumi. He suggested that AMAC should make available standard clinics and hospitals that would be capable of serving a community exposed to all kinds of epidemics.

“The closest hospital to us is at Garki. Many people have died on their way to Garki General Hospital,” he said.

Durumi village is a place where food sellers operate their shops near gutters and many bodies of water. Many bamboos erected as palm-wine spots equally share boundaries with accumulated debris. Mr Nasiru, a trader, said eating near a dumping ground is a remarkable feature of Durumi market and its immediate neighbourhood. This was also a visible fact in the course of investigation as restaurant operators like Mama Aisha washed ingredients and crockery by ‘drainage’ behind her restaurant away from unsuspecting customers who may not even have cared less. “Headache is a common symptom in Durumi and we also hear about cases of stomach pain, but that is not too common,” he said.    

Investigation into the number of medicine stores in Durumi revealed that there are less than five haphazardly opened medicine stores that are incapable of administering first-aid to sick residents. When Weekly Trust enquired about the nature of sickness brought to medicine stores, one Chibueke Eze, a sales boy, said he could not provide such information because he had only three days work experience in that field. “In my three days’ experience, residents mostly buy Paracetamol and Flagil syrup.

Another owner of a medicine store situated behind the police station in Durumi II said he would neither disclose his name nor give any information regarding the type of drugs people usually buy. His own shop was concealed by a navy blue door blind and he had outside his shop a show glass with biscuits, fruit juices and similar items stocked up, thereby creating an absolutely different impression of what he sells. He had an underage boy of no more than seven years attending to the customers. When asked whether any one of them had experience in the field, the question met with utter silence.

It is one thing to blow your trumpet and provoke such a stir with slogans like Operation Mop-Up-Waste and the like of it and it is another thing for it to continue the way it started and for that initial desire to bring about changes and an expected positive end. But as is the case with many of such issues in Nigeria, there is an expected end which is always the lack of continuity once the fanfare and hullabaloos are over.