Pollution at hand

To a good extent, my city is not heavily polluted, except for the endless noise that comes from the roadside due to the constant movement of motorbikes and vehicles. However, residents living deep inside the city do not experience this. I live close to the road and have grown used to it, so I do not consider it a big issue.

But in my immediate environment, there is an issue—environmental pollution that we experience very often. Although it is on pause for now because some measures were taken, it has been a persistent problem.

The lounge on our street has a swimming pool, and they channeled the discharge pipe into the drainage system (gutter) along the main road. This drainage system is a long one, spanning across the road to the discharge center, which is a stream.

However, due to neglect, the gutter has been blocked by sand. So, whenever the discharged water from the swimming pool reaches the gutter, it fills up quickly, overflows, and begins to flood the surroundings. The worst part is that the water sometimes gets smelly, and I hate the inconvenience of bad odor. It sucks.

The owner of the lounge is wealthy, so we could only talk and lament, but nothing would change in the end. Most of us, especially those of us directly affected by the smell, are tenants in the surrounding buildings. This means that no matter how much we complain, our voices are unlikely to be taken seriously.

Like I said, it is not just the smell. Each time they pump out water from the swimming pool, everywhere gets wet and flooded because the gutter cannot contain the excess water.

As God would have it, an elderly mama who lived in the compound where the excess water usually settled passed away. When the time for her burial came, her children visited and saw how water was gathering in the compound. They took it upon themselves to trace the pipe from the swimming pool and disconnected it in such a way that once the water was discharged, it flowed back into the lounge area. The odor made them uncomfortable, and that was when the management of the lounge finally decided to take action.

They worked on the gutter to ensure that whenever water was discharged from the swimming pool, it would flow away properly. Clearing the gutter took a lot of resources because it was very long, but we did not care. Normally, we would have been expected to contribute money to clear the gutters, but since the lounge had been the one causing the problem, and because it was absolutely necessary for their business, they had to handle it themselves. Oh yes, they had the money—after all, the swimming pool from which the water was discharged was a commercial one.

The situation has been fine, especially because the rainy season has not fully returned. However, I know that once the rains start, floods of sand will fill the gutter again. By then, the management will likely turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the outpouring of discharged water from the swimming pool, meaning we will return to the same living conditions as before—unless a higher authority, such as the government, intervenes.

But hey, we have seen government officials come to inspect the place before, and in the end, nothing was done.

Thanks for reading.

Image used is mine