Defusing the diesel time-bomb in Lagos Nigeria
By Henry Okeke
There can be no better time for the Nigerian and Lagos State governments to conduct a study on the cumulative environmental impact of diesel consumption in Lagos. Fortunately, the required study is not expensive and can be quite expository as Nigeria designs the socio-economic infrastructure of the future. Paradoxically, the prognosis for success has been greatly improved by the fact that Nigeria is still a lightly industrialized nation. This is so because the intensity of pollution is more with heavier industries than with light ones. Currently, the greatest sources of diesel pollution in Lagos are: diesel powered electricity generating sets; container trucks and trailers; regional and local buses; private and public automobiles; ships and boats; and railway sources. Lagos is especially vulnerable due to its location and the role it plays in the life of the Nigerian nation. It is a city defined by huge demographic, land use and transportation characteristics. It is the transportation hub of the entire West African sub region. The city forms the primary nexus of business and employment in the Nigerian economy. A study of this nature is especially auspicious now that the Lagos State government is designing a 10 lane transportation corridor along the Badagry expressway which integrates BRT and rail metro lines. The city of Lagos in the past did not show much serious interest in sound environmental design and management. The situation seems to be gradually improving since the advent of the Governor Babatunde Fashola administration. The disposition of the current Governor to the institutions of best practices of urban planning in Lagos has become the lynchpin for immediate action on the cumulative impact of diesel pollution. Lagos’ case is however compounded by the non-existence of publicly supplied electricity leading to proliferation of private electricity generating sets, most of which run on diesel fuel. Again, from an urban planning perspective, Lagos maintains a relatively high population density which only leverages the cumulative impacts of diesel fumes for more potentially devastating consequences. For a developing country like Nigeria, the urgency of this situation may not seem clear until some facts are examined.
To effectively investigate the level of threats posed by a diesel economy to the health of inhabitants, it is necessary to review the opinions of experts. 
In the 2006 report titled “The Harmful Effects of Vehicle Exhaust: A Case for Policy Change”, J. Wargo and L. Alderman stated:
Diesel particulate matter-PM (particulate matter equal to or less than 2.5 and 10 microns) is made up of tiny particles most of which are smaller than the width of human hair and it is especially dangerous to human health.
Diesel exhaust emitted from all the earlier mentioned sources are major contributors to toxic air contaminants in Lagos and similar places around the world. According to a report by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) of the Department of Environmental Protection, diesel exhaust contains a mixture of around 450 different chemicals and can include nitrous oxides, sulfur oxides, reactive organic gases, and carbon monoxide. Forty of these 450 chemicals are listed as toxic air contaminants by CARB. Some specifically listed by-products of diesel fumes in CARB’s inventory are:
Acetaldehyde, acrolein, aniline, antimony compounds, arsenic, benzene, beryllium compounds, biphenyl, bis[2-ethylhexyl]phthalate, 1,3-butadiene, cadmium. chlorine, chlorobenzene, chromium compounds, cobalt compounds, cresol isomers, cyanide compounds, dioxins and dibenzofurans, dibutylphthalate, ethyl benzene, formaldehyde, hexane, inorganic lead, manganese compounds, mercury compounds, methanol, methyl ethyl ketone, nickel, 4-nitobiphenyl, phenol, phosphorous, propionaldehyde, selenium compounds, styrene, toluene, xylene isomers and mixtures, o-xylenes, m-xylenes and p-xylenes and a few others.
Diesel particulates are amongst the most toxic air pollutants; it can be deeply inhaled into the lungs and can trigger or aggravate health and allergic symptoms. The small sizes of diesel particulates makes them efficient vehicles for transporting chemicals into the body. Up to 85% of the particulates remain in the lungs 24 hours after inhalation. Children are at particular risk because their lungs are still developing and they tend to play outside more. The impacts of air pollution from all the sources carry life long risks of cancer.
Some of the disease conditions are lung cancer, weakened immune system, emphysema, asthma, neurological effects, cardiovascular disease, premature death, and premature birth. The resultant costs could be trillions of naira in missed productivity and school days. The seriousness of these threats is very real and constitutes a ticking time bomb. These types of information need to be brought to the attention of the Federal and State governments in Nigeria since the problem is not limited to Lagos alone. It is also not peculiar to Nigeria, though Nigeria’s has been aggravated by years of negligence or failures of Nigeria’s environmental management institutions to provide leadership, information and expertise. The same failure of leadership and provision of expertise is evident in some of the current infrastructure plans of Lagos State government.
Take the light rail metro lines for instance; there have not been enough emphasis on or consideration for the cumulative environmental impact of the new diesel powered rolling stocks on the already polluted city. This is significant because the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) seems not to see the conflict of the stated objectives of the project with the facts of the cumulative impact originating from the implementation of the project. LAMATA’s stated objectives for the RED and BLUE rail lines are:
Reduce road congestion
Improve road traffic safety
Increase travel efficiency and worker productivity
Improve the quality of the environment
Improve the quality of life and social standard
Increase and spread economic activity throughout the city
Enhance to ultimate objective of multi modal passenger transport
While the trains will no doubt achieve the first and second objectives, the diesel powered rolling stocks would defeat two core objectives as stated; but it does more. Due to the centrality of the human health in the socio-economic activity of a nation, any project which undermines human health in a substantial way automatically triggers chain reactions which negatively affect the whole economy. A sick and dying population cannot drive the economy of the 21st century.
Grave as the situation may be, there are alternatives and solutions to these pollution problems. In seeking a sustainable solution, it is advisable to take a cue from other nations which have developed workable action plans to rein in pollution from diesel sources.
Solutions such as the setting of diesel engine emission specifications and benchmarks as the first strategy for reducing pollution has been initiated by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The standards were designed to run between 2007 -2010. The phasing-in of new standards for non-road sources (such as gen-sets) was initiated in 2008. All these standards target engines as small as 75 Horsepower and up to 750 Horsepower for non-road engines.
These are actions which Nigeria’s Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) should be leading in Lagos and similar places in Nigeria. There are more innovative alternatives (such as retrofitting of engines to reduce emissions) of controlling pollution from diesel sources, but those will not be discussed here. Details can be found here.
What the Lagos state government can do for now, is to be aware of the problem and then start making changes to projects still on the drawing board and in blue prints. One of such projects is the diesel powered rolling stocks of the metro lines. Metro lines in most industrialized countries run on electricity, a fact which the Lagos government must know by now. There is really an evolutionary difference in concept between transit and transportation in contemporary urban planning paradigm. The difference is mainly the energy source, in the sense that while the bus rapid transit (BRT) qualifies as a transit, the electric train is a more desirable transit system for the 21st century. As Lagos develops and evolves into a modern economy, critical land use and transportation elements must be modernized as part of the overall environmental sustainability plan for the city. In light of this desirable goal, it is counterintuitive for Lagos to plan a modern economy with an old transit infrastructure. Lagos should be planning a short term retrofit of buses under the BRT system with natural gas conversion systems to help reduce pollution from diesel sources. The longer term energy sources for these buses might be a combination of fuel cells and solar power.
Therefore, for the sake of long term environmental sustainability, the current metro line trains should be replaced now with electric rolling stocks. Lagos should further invest in electric power supply infrastructure. One fully functional electric power plant owned and operated by investors backed by the Lagos state government can cut diesel pollution in half in no time. Lagos should not try to cut corners by rolling out a diesel powered rail infrastructure. There is too much at stake and this critical infrastructure should be built on a solid foundation, ready to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Okeke is an Urban Planner and GIS analyst
Tags: Lagos is Nigeria's largest city with a population of over 18 million
Nice post, thanks.