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| Masese waste dumpsite: Walukuba Area NILE BASIN MEDIA NETWORK |
The Soil Beneath Our Feet Is Asking a Question, are we paying attention?
Every day, without thinking twice, we throw something away. A pure water sachet. A takeaway pack. A broken slipper. It leaves our hands and, as far as we're concerned, it leaves our lives.
But it doesn't disappear. It goes somewhere. It goes Into a drainage channel. a river. an empty plot down the street. The soil we grow food on and the ground that feeds our boreholes. In cities across Nigeria, from Ibadan to Lagos to Lokoja, scientists have been quietly tracking exactly where "away" actually is.
What Research has found
Recent studies at dumpsites and landfills across the country tell a consistent story. At Ajakanga landfill in Ibadan, researchers found that leachate, a toxic liquid that forms when rainwater passes through waste had seeped more than 10 metres into the ground.
In Lagos, a study at the Ewu-Elepe dumpsite in Ikorodu found contamination affecting both soil and groundwater. Elsewhere, researchers found that groundwater within 100 metres of landfill sites showed the worst contamination, with health risks stretching out to 500 metres away.
The pattern is clear: when waste is dumped carelessly, it doesn't just sit there looking untidy. It moves through soil, through rock, into the water we drink and the food we grow. A 2026 review of Nigeria's waste crisis described it plainly: this is not just a litter problem. It's a governance problem, an infrastructure problem, and a behavioural problem, all tangled together.
The Real Problem is that we are slowly and painfully disconnecting from the soil. Most of us were never taught to be conscious about where waste goes after it leaves our hands. We buy, we consume, we discard. The moment something is out of sight, we assume the problem is solved. The truth is, It isn't, It has just moved somewhere less visible.
This disconnection between people and the land beneath them is at the heart of Nigeria's waste crisis. Soil has quietly kept giving food, water, shelter, livelihood while receiving very little care in return. The question soil seems to be asking us is simple: why should I keep giving, if no one is protecting me?
Recent studies at dumpsites and landfills across the country tell a consistent story. At Ajakanga landfill in Ibadan, researchers found that leachate, a toxic liquid that forms when rainwater passes through waste had seeped more than 10 metres into the ground.
In Lagos, a study at the Ewu-Elepe dumpsite in Ikorodu found contamination affecting both soil and groundwater. Elsewhere, researchers found that groundwater within 100 metres of landfill sites showed the worst contamination, with health risks stretching out to 500 metres away.
The pattern is clear: when waste is dumped carelessly, it doesn't just sit there looking untidy. It moves through soil, through rock, into the water we drink and the food we grow. A 2026 review of Nigeria's waste crisis described it plainly: this is not just a litter problem. It's a governance problem, an infrastructure problem, and a behavioural problem, all tangled together.
The Real Problem is that we are slowly and painfully disconnecting from the soil. Most of us were never taught to be conscious about where waste goes after it leaves our hands. We buy, we consume, we discard. The moment something is out of sight, we assume the problem is solved. The truth is, It isn't, It has just moved somewhere less visible.
This disconnection between people and the land beneath them is at the heart of Nigeria's waste crisis. Soil has quietly kept giving food, water, shelter, livelihood while receiving very little care in return. The question soil seems to be asking us is simple: why should I keep giving, if no one is protecting me?
Introducing SoilMates: A Framework for Reconnection with the soil
This is where the idea of SoilMates comes in. it is a way of thinking about ourselves not just as users of soil, but as its protectors.
The framework recognizes that humans play four roles at once: we use soil resources, we benefit from what soil provides, we contribute to its degradation, and crucially, we have the power to become its custodians instead.
SoilMates proposes a simple shift, from a one-way relationship:
Take → Consume → Dispose to a circular one: Reduce → Reuse → Recover → Recycle → Restore
This adoption insists that no single group can do this alone. It calls on households, informal recyclers, government, industry, researchers, schools, and community organizations to each play a defined role. Households separating waste at source, recyclers collecting and sorting it, industry remanufacturing it, government regulating and enforcing, researchers monitoring the land and water, and communities educating and reporting.
Picture a household recycler partnership, where families separate their recyclables and local recyclers collect them on a schedule in exchange for direct payment, service discounts, or community rewards. Small, structured, and repeatable. Exactly the kind of system that turns good intentions into daily habit
This is where plogging comes in. Every time we pick litter off a road, a beach, or a drainage channel, we're not just tidying a space. We're interrupting a journey. We're stopping a sachet before it reaches a gutter, a river, a soil layer, a borehole.
But picking up litter is only half the story…
The other half is what happens before the litter hits the ground. This is effective by reducing what we buy unnecessarily, separating our waste at home, supporting recyclers instead of dumping, and demanding better waste infrastructure from those in charge.
The entire idea is to: Protect soil. Protect water. Protect life.
The soil has been giving for a long time. It's our turn to give something back and it starts with how we handle the waste in our own hands, today.
AUTHOR SECTION
Green Switch Academy (GSA) (Cohort xxxiv) – (Soilmates)
Green Switch Academy Group GSAG: The protectors
Green Switch Academy Master (GSAM): Baliqeez Adebisi
GSAG MEMBERS:
1. Akinlade Opeyemi
2. Bukar Fatima
3. Mirembe Martha
4. Charity Simon
5. Abdur-Rafiu Abdur-Rahman
6. Yoade Ayomiku
7. Odunfa Ayomide
8. Wafiyat Isah
9. Adeyeye Rasheed Ademola
10. Anuoluwapo Akande
This is where the idea of SoilMates comes in. it is a way of thinking about ourselves not just as users of soil, but as its protectors.
The framework recognizes that humans play four roles at once: we use soil resources, we benefit from what soil provides, we contribute to its degradation, and crucially, we have the power to become its custodians instead.
SoilMates proposes a simple shift, from a one-way relationship:
Take → Consume → Dispose to a circular one: Reduce → Reuse → Recover → Recycle → Restore
This adoption insists that no single group can do this alone. It calls on households, informal recyclers, government, industry, researchers, schools, and community organizations to each play a defined role. Households separating waste at source, recyclers collecting and sorting it, industry remanufacturing it, government regulating and enforcing, researchers monitoring the land and water, and communities educating and reporting.
Picture a household recycler partnership, where families separate their recyclables and local recyclers collect them on a schedule in exchange for direct payment, service discounts, or community rewards. Small, structured, and repeatable. Exactly the kind of system that turns good intentions into daily habit
This is where plogging comes in. Every time we pick litter off a road, a beach, or a drainage channel, we're not just tidying a space. We're interrupting a journey. We're stopping a sachet before it reaches a gutter, a river, a soil layer, a borehole.
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| Website:TheCable Photo from Plogging Nigeria, youth led group, clean up Lagos market |
But picking up litter is only half the story…
The other half is what happens before the litter hits the ground. This is effective by reducing what we buy unnecessarily, separating our waste at home, supporting recyclers instead of dumping, and demanding better waste infrastructure from those in charge.
The entire idea is to: Protect soil. Protect water. Protect life.
The soil has been giving for a long time. It's our turn to give something back and it starts with how we handle the waste in our own hands, today.
AUTHOR SECTION
Green Switch Academy (GSA) (Cohort xxxiv) – (Soilmates)
Green Switch Academy Group GSAG: The protectors
Green Switch Academy Master (GSAM): Baliqeez Adebisi
GSAG MEMBERS:
1. Akinlade Opeyemi
2. Bukar Fatima
3. Mirembe Martha
4. Charity Simon
5. Abdur-Rafiu Abdur-Rahman
6. Yoade Ayomiku
7. Odunfa Ayomide
8. Wafiyat Isah
9. Adeyeye Rasheed Ademola
10. Anuoluwapo Akande
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