How Waste Dumping Is Turning Nigerian Streets Into Death Traps

If you live in Nigeria, you already know the drill. Sad results of wrong waste dumping!

Rainy season arrives, and everywhere floods. Water enters homes, shops, schools. People struggle to navigate the roads. Children miss school. Market women lose their goods. And in some communities, people die.

But what many people don’t realize is that this flooding crisis isn’t a natural disaster. We’re causing it with our own hands.

The issue is simple but deadly—when we throw rubbish into gutters, we’re setting death traps for ourselves.

Mr. Yohanna Moses, CEO of Environmental Care Foundation and Principal Special Assistant to the Governor of Adamawa State on CSO and NGO Coordination, breaks down the whole situation. And honestly, it’s shocking.

“Indiscriminate waste dumping by citizens is one of the key problems we have in Nigeria,” Mr. Moses said. “It is very hazardous because it blocks water channels and increases flooding.”

You might think it’s a small thing to throw a pure water sachet into the gutter or to dump your rubbish near a drainage channel. But that seemingly small action is gradually killing people.

According to the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), over 3.2 million Nigerians suffered from flooding in 2023 alone. More than 600 people died. And you know what caused most of these floods? Blocked gutters filled with our rubbish.

From Gutter to Grave: How Small Actions Create Big Disasters

Let me explain how this works.

Those big drainages and gutters built in your area weren’t constructed for decoration. They have a specific job—to carry rainwater away from roads and houses so water doesn’t overflow and cause havoc everywhere.

But when we start throwing rubbish inside—plastic bags, nylon, food waste, even old clothes—the gutters become blocked. Water can’t flow anymore.

“When the water channel is blocked,” Mr. Moses explained, “the water can flow everywhere and anywhere it likes. It increases the chances of that community getting flooded.”

And Nigerian rain doesn’t play. When it falls, it comes heavy. Within minutes, entire neighborhoods can turn into swimming pools.

For places like Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri, Ibadan, and numerous communities in Adamawa, this has become an annual nightmare. Rain falls, everywhere floods, people manage somehow, then next year the cycle repeats.

But the real problem isn’t the floodwater you can see. It’s what you can’t see—the diseases and sickness that follow.

When water becomes trapped in gutters filled with rubbish ir became our waste dumping ground, it doesn’t just sit there harmlessly. The water mixes with everything inside—rotten food, dead rodents, feces, chemicals, everything. That mixture becomes toxic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that Nigeria accounts for 20% of all cholera cases worldwide. One-fifth of all cholera on planet Earth happens in Nigeria. And flooding is one of the main transmission routes.

Mosquitoes breed in that dirty stagnant water. Bacteria multiply rapidly. Before long, the entire area becomes disease headquarters.

“When the water is blocked and mixed up with waste, all kinds of things will happen,” Mr. Moses warned. “There’s going to be a spread of diseases and this could even lead to death.”

It might sound like an exaggeration, but the numbers tell the truth.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported that in 2024, over 67,000 suspected cholera cases were recorded. The death rate was 3.4%. That means if 100 people contract cholera, at least 3 will die. Most of these cases are linked to flooding and contaminated water.

Typhoid fever compounds the problem. Research published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases shows that approximately 400 out of every 100,000 Nigerians contract typhoid annually. And malaria? The WHO states that Nigeria alone accounts for 27% of all malaria cases worldwide. Stagnant rainwater in blocked gutters creates perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

The most heartbreaking aspect involves children.

“Diarrhea makes people stool and vomit,” Mr. Moses said. “You lose a lot of water in your system, you get dehydrated, and some of these diseases can kill easily.”

UNICEF estimates that over 150,000 Nigerian children under five die every year from diarrhea. This is the second-leading cause of child death in Nigeria. And what causes most of this diarrhea? Contaminated water that children drink after floods wash rubbish into wells or boreholes.

Take this as an example, your beloved child drinks water from the well, unaware that floodwater has carried waste into that water source. Within hours, the child develops severe diarrhea. Without quick treatment, death can follow. Just like that.

This happens daily in Nigerian communities. And we’re causing it ourselves.

Who Suffers Most? Those Without Options

Let’s be honest. This flooding and disease crisis doesn’t affect everyone equally. Some people suffer more than others.

“The people living in that area suffer the most,” Mr. Moses noted. “Their houses get flooded, and there is infestation of all kinds of diseases, especially cholera.”

Who are these people? They’re low-income residents living in flood-prone, low-lying areas. Those whose homes sit near drainage channels. Those who can’t afford to build houses on higher ground.

The World Bank reports that poor households in Nigerian cities are three times more likely to experience flooding than wealthier neighborhoods. You’ve probably noticed this yourself. When rain falls, it’s the poor communities that flood most severely. Their homes get inundated and destroyed. Wealthier areas might experience minor puddles.

Children, pregnant women, and the elderly bear the heaviest burden. Children playing in floodwater contract skin infections and respiratory diseases. Pregnant women exposed to contaminated water develop complications that affect their pregnancies. Elderly people, already physically vulnerable, succumb faster to cholera or typhoid.

The worst part? After floods destroy everything, poor families lack resources to recover which hase affected many communities in nigeria till date; like Adamawa State. They lose property, miss work, spend money on medical treatment, then sink deeper into poverty. It’s a trap with no escape.

For many communities, this cycle has become generational. Every year, the same tragedy repeats.

But if everyone knows blocked gutters are problematic, why does the problem persist?

Mr. Moses identifies three reasons: poor public awareness from government, inadequate government response, and lack of effective systems to monitor waste disposal.

“There has to be a system in place that can check this indiscriminate dumping of waste, especially in water channels,” he emphasized.

Yes, Nigeria has environmental laws on paper. The NESREA Act of 2007 states that improper waste disposal is punishable by law. But honestly, who has been punished? When was the last time you heard of someone arrested for throwing rubbish into a gutter?

“In Nigeria, most policy implementation is weak,” Mr. Moses observed. “Except if the government has a high level of interest in that.”

That’s the honest truth. We have policies but don’t implement them. We have agencies but don’t fund them adequately. We have laws but don’t enforce them. Na so we dey do for this country.

Climate change is making matters worse. The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) predicts increasingly irregular rainfall patterns. Sometimes rainfall exceeds normal levels significantly. Sometimes it pours like a deluge. Research in Environmental Research Letters shows that climate change has increased flood risk in Nigeria by 40% over the past two decades.

“Climate change is dynamic, everybody is feeling the impact, pregnant women, young children, old people,” Mr. Moses said.

So we face a double crisis—blocked gutters plus extreme weather. The two work together to create disasters.

What Can We Do? Government and Communities Must Collaborate

Mr. Moses offers practical solutions. He argues that government can’t simply wake up one day and implement programs without consulting communities about their actual needs.

“The government cannot just come out blindly and start doing something. They need a policy,” Mr. Moses said. “And this policy should not be developed by the government alone. Communities should be part of it.”

It’s straightforward. If you want to help someone, you should first visit their home to understand how they live before deciding how to assist them.

“If you want to help me, you have to come to my house and look at how I live before you decide how to help. You cannot help blindly.”

In Adamawa State where Mr. Moses works, progress is being made. In 2021, the Governor signed legislation establishing the Adamawa Environmental Protection Agency (AEPA). This agency is mandated to handle all environmental matters.

“This agency is supposed to be responsible for everything, but it is not enough to create them but rather the government needs to support them.”

The state has also created a monthly platform where NGOs and environmental groups discuss problems and develop solutions together.

“If you don’t know what is affecting you, you won’t be able to know the solution,” Mr. Moses added.

Government must also change how it views civil society organizations. Too often, government treats NGOs as opposition or troublemakers. This is counterproductive.

“A non-governmental organization is formed to supplement what the government is doing, they are coming to work with you, not to check you,” Mr. Moses stressed.

For environmental challenges like waste management and climate change, government needs partnerships. They can’t handle it alone.

“The act of doing things alone as technocrats cannot work,” he said. “Government needs to change its approach.”

Ultimately, this issue isn’t about gutters or drainage systems. It’s about human lives.

“It is not making our community safer, but rather making our community more dangerous,” Mr. Moses concluded.

Every time rain falls and flooding occurs, people lose their belongings. They lose their health. Some lose their lives. The tragic reality is that most of these deaths are preventable. If we simply stopped dumping rubbish into gutters, many people would still be alive today.

Solving this problem requires more than radio or television sanitation campaigns. It demands real action. Political will. Proper funding. Community involvement. Strong enforcement. Sustained public education.

Because ultimately, when we protect our drainage systems, by not waste dumping, we protect ourselves and our children.

The choice is in our hands. We can change the story, or we’ll continue suffering.