Pollution to me is simply when an environment is too dirty to be healthy, It could be the air, the land, the water once it is filled with things that should not be there, that is what pollution is, And the sad part is, we see it every single day.
See let’s be honest here, pollution is everywhere these days, sometimes I feel like we have all gotten so used to it that we don’t even notice it anymore, frrom the air we breathe to the water we see on the road, it is just like everything is just carrying dirt and we have somehow adapted to it like it is normal,but somehow deep down, we know it is not.
Nowlet’s talk about my area, I live somewhere down in the city Lagos, and if you have been here, you will know what I mean, you see everywhere you turn, there is trash, the gutters are always filled, and when it rains it becomes worst, the whole place smells like something died and refused to decay in peace,and people still drop dirt on the road like it is their personal dustbin,like what the heck! ,and If you try to complain, someone will even look at you like you are doing too much.
So just the other day , I was walking out and passed a shop where the owner just casually swept all her dirt into the gutter like it was normal , and so me I asked myself, is this not the same gutter that is going to overflow during rain and cause flooding? But nobody seems to care, you understand this kind of thing? It is now like everybody just wants to manage and move on.
And talk about the burning? Don’t even get me started on that one ,People will gather dirt and set it on fire like they are doing barbecues ,you see the smoke that comes from it can choke someone to death I swear, You will see little kids coughing or rubbing their eyes and we will all just keep going like it is nothing at all . Omo ehn...
See In my opinion o , I think the worst type of pollution is air pollution, because we cannot even see most of it, but we are just breathing it in every single day. Between the smoke from generators, the one from burning trash, and all the fumes from traffic how are we supposed to have clean lungs in this kind of environment ehn?....
But land pollution too is also terrible, because it makes everywhere just look and feel dirty, When you cannot even walk freely without sidestepping water, trash, or mud, it just also affects your mood , and let’s not forget the sickness, People do get rashes, infections, cough, and they dont even know that it is from the environment that they are in.
Sometimes I wonder how we even got here, Like how did we go from being clean to just coping with filth?Omo... And to be fair, it is not just the government, Yes,.... they may have their own blame, but we too sef , the everyday people we don’t try at all, everybody wants a cleaner place, but nobody wants to carry their dirt home imagine ....
I think the change has to start from awareness, We need to talk about it more, even in schools, we need teach kids from small how to dispose dirt properly, so let them grow up knowing the importance of a clean environment, and also as adults, we need to stop acting like it is not our concern ,If your frontage is clean and your neighbour’s own is a mess, then your own is still a mess too, you get that thing?
If I had my way, I would love to see more dustbins around, more regular clearing of gutters, and big heavy punishment for people who dump waste anyhow, Maybe then people will stop treating public spaces like refuse dumps.
Pollution might not be killing loudly, but it is killing slowly too, and we cannot keep pretending that it does not matter, because it so much does , For our health, for our kids too.
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