By Mumini Abdulkareem
Government across all levels has been called upon to regulate uncontrolled dumping of electronic waste and used batteries through necessary legislation for the economic development of the state.
An engineer and lecturer in the University of Ilorin, Prof Yinusa Ademola Adediran made the call on Thursday during the 188th Inaugural Lecture of the University of Ilorin held at the basement of the school auditorium.
Prof Adediran who spoke on the topic ”In the Realms of Telecommunications, Reliability and Quality Engineering”, lamented the lack of a comprehensive plan for holistic approach to solving the problem.
According to him, electronic waste has become been a source of concern in to developing countries because of the health hazards it poses to the environment but no serious efforts are being made to control the situation in the country.
He further noted that the legislation regulating hazardous waste through the establishment of the Federal Ministry of Environment though appears appropriate, it however lack enforcement as attention is focused on toxic waste and discharges.
He therefore suggested that Government should explore a suitable battery recycling plant or battery waste management and better legislations on the issue that can be domesticated from that of other countries.
Manufacturers and importers who supply batteries, he noted, must be made to pay a prepaid disposal fee that can then be used to finance collection, transportation and recycling of batteries adding that compulsory obligation must be put in place for consumers to return all spent lead-acid batteries which the dealers must take back. “Recycling ability should be a leading concern to battery producers and dealers”, he said.
While lamenting the rate of failures of engineering system, the university don said the menace has become a technological embarrassment particularly to engineers whose major professional ethnics is safety.
“There is not law in the country that drives proper disposal of spent lead-acid batteries in Nigeria. Government should, through, all relevant agencies, legislate against uncontrolled dumping of electronic waste in Nigeria”, he submitted.
He also advised that government should provide enabling environment for the Medium and Small Scale Enterprises (MSMES) for them to add value to the abundant raw materials and process them to industry use grade.
