While southwest Lagos tries the best it can to get a grip on spiralling cases of cholera, it won’t be leaving breathing room for any market whose business is likely to trigger even wider spread due to uncontrolled dirtiness. The city is entering the heat of long stretches of rainfall that characterises every July, so all hands are on deck to quickly check any freak event. 

Although the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention’s week 27 data showing the latest cholera incidents revealed that things are easing up, it won’t necessarily calm nerves in terms of infection rates. The megacity of Lagos being the hardest hit sub-national has had up to 1,560 cases during the ongoing outbreak, making 56 percent of all reported examples, says the NCDC on its website.

ALSO READ: 10 states including Lagos with the most cholera infections this week

With a new week focusing on sanitary living and a return to the suspended monthly state-wide cleaning exercise, the Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Tokunbo Wahab has identified a hotspot for cholera and other diseases, and that is the Oja Oba Market at Ile Epo. This particular location has been marked as a serial rule-breaker simply because of a lack of business place etiquette and cleanliness on the part of the traders.

All over the local government areas of Lagos on Sunday 14 July, there was a convergence at a forum of state officials and environment departments who were meeting to discuss the means to keeping a closer eye on how residents treat their surroundings. Commissioner Wahab, keeping with the mood in the past couple of days, has sent new warnings to communities who will not play their part like those in Oja Oba.

According to the commissioner’s tweet on Sunday, this market has become notorious for very poor sanitary conditions and failure to comply with set waste management regulations.

Explaining more, Mr Wahab said that this action is taken to protect members of the public from food-borne and water-borne diseases like cholera, typhoid, dysentery etc.

Following complaints from concerned members of the public, particularly @Freestuv1, Oja Oba market at Ile Epo was sealed this morning by a combined #ZeroToleranceLagos Task Force consisting of @Lawma_gov Monitoring and Compliance Team and men and women of @LAGESCOfficial. This… pic.twitter.com/hIFmtrHX9f

— Tokunbo Wahab (@tokunbo_wahab) July 14, 2024

Some Lagosians have been assisting city officials in their duties by reporting to the appropriate agency whenever they witness someone putting the environment at risk. The government is urging them to continue on this path.

When Lagos experienced a dramatic rain downpour on Wednesday 3 July that caused coastal communities and highways to be flooded, it mirrored an existential threat that has got nature or karma in the driving wheels. The government maintains that the residents are to blame and wants them to stop their acts of sabotage.

ALSO READ: Rainy Wednesday exposes the ugliness of living in upscale Lagos

Two days ago, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu reiterated this while pushing a message about environmental activism at the Campus Square and Lagos House, Marina, Lagos Island.

The highest cholera cases recorded in his state have been in the Lagos Island local government with 295 patients, so sharing this particular concern at the venue was apt.

While speaking to the audience, Mr Sanwo-Olu asked those removing manholes and public infrastructures that control floods, what could be the commercial benefit that you’d waste and destroy such investments?