Pollution is everywhere around us. The air is polluted, the water is polluted, the environment is polluted. In Nigeria it’s hard to come across a place that isn’t polluted. I remember some time ago when I wrote about pollution in another community, I shared how I come back from work and realize that anytime I choose to take a walk from my street junction to my house I would automatically hold my breath in certain places. It’s as though my body already knows that place stinks and does not want to perceive the bad odor.
Photo by Antoine GIRET on Unsplash
In my state of residency, it’s common to see open and dirty drinages with stagnant water which of course stinks. It’s also normal to see people throwing all sorts of things into the drinages and when it’s blocked, they find a way to clean the gutter only to transfer it to another bigger one and the circle continues. Sometimes I wonder how we have become so used to the pollution around us that people can eat near the gutters and even sell food without considering that a gutter or refuse dump is close by.Around here there is a popular saying in pidgin “White man disease no dey kill African man”. Unfortunately this proverb has killed a lot of people who die from illnesses as common as malaria and typhoid.
Nowadays you hear doctors advising people to treat malaria every three months, it’s become so bad that 90% of illnesses today are pollution related. If it’s not malaria, it’s typhoid, if it’s not typhoid, it is an infection from only God knows where. I remember how I contracted an infection from a camp toilet some years back, no one would believe that it wasn’t sextually transmitted. Even the doctor that treated me was continually asking me how many sexual partners I had while in reality I wasn’t even sextually active. Pollution in our environment today will never stop until people learn that the gutters aren’t dustbins, the roads aren’t dustbins, and a bad smell is not normal.
It's Another new month and I must admit I am proud of achiving my power up day goal by powering up every day of the month of June. For the month of July I will be continuing in the same way and I started by powering up my HP with 10 hive today taking my HP from 798 to 808. I will strive to make up to 1000 HP by August first.
THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO SCIFI CONTEST PROMPT FOR WEEK 22
