2.2 Context:
The World Bank 2012 Urban Development Series publication stated that waste generation is approximately 62 million tons a year with each person generating an average of 0.65 kg/day. By 2025, the report projected that urban waste generation in sub Saharan Africa will be 161.27 million tons annually. Going by this report and Nigeria’s population, the country generates 43.2 million tons of waste annually and by 2025 with a population of 233.5 million (according to population pyramid.net figure), Nigeria will be generating an estimated 72.46 million tons of waste annually at a projected rate of 0.85 kg of waste/capita/day. This means that Nigeria’s annual waste generation will almost equal her crude oil production which currently stands at approximately 89.63 million tons per year. Also, at an estimated annual waste generation figure of 72.46 million tons, Nigeria will be generating about one-fourth of the total waste that will be produced in the whole of Africa. This is scary and if proper attention is not paid to this enormous challenge, Nigeria might become the “waste capital of Africa.”
From the forgoing and with the rising urbanization and the demand for environmental sustainability, one of the many current difficulties is ensuring efficient Waste management. In light of this, new waste management solutions entail a paradigm shift from large-scale, centralized facilities toward a more decentralized, smaller facility that are supported by innovative information technology. It's also critical to reduce waste and shift operations toward more efficient and exciting services, with an emphasis on increasing the amount of re-used, recycled, and ultimately reduced waste materials. The creation and maintenance of sustainable business models is a critical prerequisite for this type of solution. In Nigeria, little emphasis is channeled towards waste management; the federal government has tried her own best by putting in place an agency for waste disposal and an un-holistic waste management model which is seen in the different states of the country. The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and other sister agencies for example, are in charge of trash management in Abuja despite their low capacity to address solid waste management issues in their cities; this is because, even in the different states, their reach is limited. A perfect example to buttress the problem of their reach in the different states, is seen in the stratification of people into classes (the rich and the poor society), the State Environmental Protection Boards for example, are effective in the rich society, while in the poor zones, their impact is hardly felt. More so, the agency does not have trained staff who manages waste disposal in the state, as they move waste from one location and constitute in another location in an incinerator where they burn to pollute the environment, or they burry both degradable and non-bio degradable waste materials alike, and by this we fall into a vicious circle of repeating the issues that we try to resolve.
Ecolife Conservation Initiative is an NGO that has been at the fore front of winning the war against indiscriminate waste disposal and unhealthy and uninhabitable environment caused by poor waste management. The NGO has been in existence for…..years and has carried out chains of program in different states of the country. In one of our needs analysis in some states of Nigeria (Niger, FCT, Nassarawa and Kogi), we observed that despite the limited provisions of waste disposal sites in these states, there were still indiscriminate waste disposal in the states. This is the reason why we are proposing a project for human rehabilitation and finally human empowerment so as to win the fight against indiscriminate waste dumping, promoting a clean and ecofriendly environment, and finally job security for youth through the conversion of waste to wealth or as we put it, TRASH TO CASH.
