The Pollution Pandemic: How Lack Of Waste Management Is Affecting My Environment

Pollution is a major problem that affects us all, whether it's noise pollution, water pollution, or air pollution; it can be a threat to our health. Currently, I'm a university student. Before I gained admission to the university, I'd been hearing stories about school hostels from my older siblings and friends. Basically, school hostels are located on campus and are owned by the school. One reason why students choose them is that they are more affordable and secure since they are on campus. However, I'd heard many stories about the poor sanitation in many school hostels. When living with people from different backgrounds, you're certain to meet both the clean and considerate individuals who ensure every place is neat and tidy, as well as the careless and dirty people who neglect their environment. These were the factors I considered when I gained admission to the university. So, I decided to rent an off-campus hostel.

Compared to most school hostels, hostels off campus suffer less from poor sanitation. I mean, instead of sharing a big room, including toilet and bathroom with eight to ten other people, it is way better to rent a hostel outside. However, hostels off campus also suffer from different kinds of pollution. For today’s edition of Hive learners prompts, we are asked to discuss the major causes of pollution in our environment. How bad is it affecting you and how are you coping with it?

Here in my school, most of the buildings are student hostels, and one thing about these hostels is that they lack a proper place to dispose of refuse. It is ideal that students live in a safe, clean and secure environment as it facilitates effective and efficient learning. How do you expect a student to read and assimilate well when the area stenches due to improper disposal of refuse. Sometimes, I wish I could just lock all the landlords in my school in a tiny cell for two days so they’d know how it feels to make people suffer. Because tell me why you’d build a hostel- spend millions on a hostel without making plans for where to dispose of refuse. Do they expect that students would magically dispose of their waste?

The fact that after these hostel owners complete their projects and collect their rents, they go AWOL, is actually concerning. When you message them to complain, they either yell at you, not reply or tell you to leave the hostel. I have been staying in my hostel for more than 2 years now and I have seen my landlord just twice, and the two times was when he came to collect his rents. Because of the lack of proper places to dispose of refuse, students resort to alternatives like dumping refuse at the back of their hostels, some even go as far as dumping their refuse in front of the main gate.

It was worse when I first moved into this hostel a year ago. Students in this hostel would dump refuse literally everywhere. There were different spots where heaps of refuse would accumulate. Those who lived close to the fence often complained because of the stench that breezed in from time to time. I was lucky that my room was in the middle, so the stench from the refuse didn't reach my place. There are 68 rooms in my hostel, with more than 120 students. So, we all came together to burn the refuse and clean the environment. Compared to a year ago, our hostel is better now, although there are still heaps of refuse around.

Imagine walking to school every morning and seeing litters scattered everywhere- plastic bottles, food wrappers, food waste and discarded papers in front of many hostels. Before I get to school, I come across at least 3 hostels where they dump refuse in front of their gates.

Unfortunately, no one is doing anything about this problem. I have been enduring it for about four years now, with just a few months to go before I graduate and leave this place.

Thanks for reading.