Scavenging: Trekking on the heap of 'madness'

In the course of getting means of livelihood, people of different ages always pursue a direction which they felt would give them better living condition in terms of financing their needs without necessarily depending on someone. Considering the economic situation in Nigeria, which does not augur well for graduates and other able people seeking employment, many jobs are being created individually just to be empowered financially. 

Scavenging is one of the jobs that Nigerians, especially the youths (most importantly less-educated ones) usually sought after in order to have standard of living within their economic status. 

This job falls within the informal sector of the nation’s economy. The major works of scavengers include collection of used domestic and industrial materials such as plastic bags, bottles, papers, metals, cardboards, cans and so on, and sell them to salvage-dealers, who also redistribute to recycling firms. According to Dr Mustapha Muktar, a sociologist, scavenging is a reality in almost all cities of developing countries and in many wealthy nations as well. Those who venture into this job are known by different names in Nigeria. The nomenclature depends on the nature and culture of the cities and towns where they are. Among the development experts and sociologists, scavenging person is called waste-picker, rag picker just to avoid social stigmatization. In Ajegunle, a semi-urban in Lagos, this category of workers is known as Kongis, in Kano as Baba Bolas, in Ibadan as…. The dirtiness nature of Ibadan, however gives the workers opportunity of having numerous dumping sites, especially along the roadsides and market-hinterlands in the city.

Pointing out various hazards scavengers are likely to encounter on dumping sites, Mr Daniju Yusuf, an Environmental Engineer, noted that despite the fact that the job is lucrative to the scavengers, they are usually expose to identifiable and non-identifiable hazards. According to him, scavengers have the tendency of being predispose to organism induced disease. His words: “refuse dumps usually contain biodegradable item which are not treated. 

The scavengers inhale and have physical contact with such organisms which may cause diseases such as typhoid, cholera, tetanus and so on. Most scavengers do not change their clothes when they wanted to eat during the day. With this, they are likely to ingest micro-organism which may attack their gastro-intestinal tracts (GTT)”. 

Speaking further, the environmental engineer, added that scavengers could bury themselves as a result of heavy dump that could overturn them in the process of digging into the deepest part of a dumping site. “Scavengers frequently suffer from eye irritation; respiratory diseases, with coughing, sneezing, and so on; skin diseases, especially scabies; minor injuries from stepping on broken bottles or sharp objects in the refuse; headaches from working in the sun; and backaches from bending down most of the time”, said Dr Muktar in a report of his study on The Youth and Waste Scavenging in Nigeria: Implications For Socio-economic.