My hometown is one of the oil-producing areas in Delta State, Nigeria, and the issue of waste and pollution comes up every now and then. One thing I've come to know is that everybody, I mean absolutely everybody, be it an individual or a high-profile company, faces penalties, but this can only be done through enforcement.
There were different times when a neighbouring community had a drilling plant operating in the community, and the people decided to shut down the company's operation because they had turned a deaf ear to the persistent pollution they were causing to the farms around the area. The company got angry as well and decided to wage war against the youths who confronted them. They said they had been paying for the damages, but meanwhile, the money was only going into the purses of a few people in the community. The heated scenes were later resolved through dialogue, and proper treatment of the waste was put in place, while the people affected also began to receive compensation.
This has always been the situation with penalties for people polluting the area. While it may appear that low-profile individuals or people polluting on a small scale get fined a lot when they pollute the area, big companies usually get away with such things simply because, sometimes, people are scared to approach them, or because some leaders in the area are fully behind them just because they have been tipped.
In the street where I currently live, we have a lounge whose water from the swimming pool is channelled to a gutter on the road. Whenever they discharge this water, the gutter gets full easily and the smelly water flows out of the gutter to pollute the area. Whenever this happens, everyone gets irritated, with many people hurling abusive words at the management of the lounge. While it may appear that no one has dared to meet the management, that's a lie because, on different occasions, environmental agencies have come to the scene to inspect and query the lounge management, but those moments are usually silenced by what the lounge gives them in the form of bribes. This is why, whenever the water starts flowing out and causing a mess, everyone can only lament out of frustration, but nothing could be done.
So, you see where the problem is? If it were an individual with a low profile polluting the area, the rich people in the area would do anything possible to bring the person to persecution.
The lounge I'm talking about, although they have remedied the situation, I know that when it starts happening again, it's going to take a long while before they sluggishly attend to the situation.
So, I'm of the opinion that everyone who is responsible for polluting an environment should be fined. It's just that most of the time, the people around that area are not enforcing the process of fining whoever is responsible, and this also has to do with the government. They take bribes and turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the cries of the people.
I once worked in an eatery, and most of the time, the health and safety management team came to inspect our cooking areas. They met me, and hey, they weren't interested in inspecting the place but rather in asking for food, drinks, and a small amount of money. During those times, I refused to give them anything and insisted that they should inspect the area.
Thanks for reading.
The photo used is mine
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