Environmental Sanitation Management in Nigeria: An Overview of Its Challenges and Prospect

Environmental Sanitation and Waste Management in Nigeria have become a major issue to be tackled by the government at all levels. Various laws dealing with environmental issues have been enacted over the years by both Federal, State and Local governments, yet the problem of environmental sanitation and waste management persists. There has been established various departments and bodies in a bid to realize the environmental policy of the Nigerian State. Amongst these bodies is the judiciary whose duty it is to interpret and give life to the various environmental legislations even as it grapples with its own challenges. The aim of this article is to examine the legal issues in environmental sanitation and waste management in Nigeria and the challenges of environmental Courts. To achieve this aim the article adopted the doctrinal method, which comprises of primary and secondary sources of law. In the course of the article it was found that lack of public awareness in the law making process, ineffective enforcement of the law by government agencies, inadequate punishment/penalties for environmental offences/offenders, lack of the culture of environmental responsibilities among the citizens, inadequate waste management infrastructure and services, undue adherence to legalism by the Courts, and lack of expertise by those who handle environmental cases are some of the legal issues militating against environmental sanitation and waste management in Nigeria. In view of these observations recommendations that there should be an environmental education to create public awareness on the benefits of environmental sanitation, involvement of the public in formulation of environmental policies, the amendment of the constitution to introduce the setting up of specialised environmental Court, review of environmental punishment for offenders and capacity building for the judicial officers and need for the introduction of environmental procedure rules for the use of the Court. The article also recommends the introduction of cleanliness competition among towns and the provision of incinerators.