How Poor Waste Disposal Leaves UDUS Students Vulnerable to Disease

Hawau Malami, a 200-level English student of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), found what she described as a nightmare at the private hostel she rented. The heap of refuse beside the entrance of the Benji hostel, where she stays, oozes an offensive smell and leaves flies swarming around the environment.

Ms Malami lamented that the poor environmental hygiene, which worsens during the rainy season, has made life uneasy for residents of the private hostel.

“There are so many flies that it is difficult to stay outside for even a few minutes without them swarming around my face and sometimes almost entering my mouth,” she told Campus Reporter. 

The lack of a designated waste disposal point led to indiscriminate dumping of refuse around the private hostels, said another resident, Jafar Kamiyo. 

“Within and even outside the hostel, no provision has been made for waste disposal, thereby sometimes making the compound an eyesore,” he said. “During the rainy season, the dump becomes waterlogged and impossible to burn.”

Breeding ground for mosquitoes

The unhygienic environment and heaps of refuse could serve as breeding grounds for diseases that could affect students’ health, said Kayode Michael, a 100-level student of Civil Engineering.

“The poor environmental hygiene breeds mosquitoes within the students’ environment and…students, we are exposed to different illnesses,” Mr Michael said.

He is not wrong. Studies indicate that poor waste management contributes to the prevalence of diseases such as malaria, typhoid, and diarrheal diseases. Malaria, a major public health concern in Nigeria, is caused by mosquitoes who found breeding spaces in unhygienic environments and infect humans.

In its 2026 report on the cost of poor waste management, the World Bank found that waste discarded in the environment creates breeding grounds for disease, increasing the spread of illnesses such as dysentery, diarrhoea, malaria, and dengue.

“Open dumping poses significant contamination risks, contributing to air pollution, odour pollution, flooding, and marine contamination through runoff,” the report said. “Open burning releases toxic pollutants, including dioxins, furans, and particulate matter, which can cause respiratory diseases and long-term health effects.”

Not Just Benji

But the unhygienic hostel environment is beyond Benji hostels. At Shama, another private hostel at Gidan Dallo, Yakubu Abdul Rasheed, a 200-Level Mass Communication student, said students drop waste indiscriminately as there are no waste collection points.

“Waste sometimes finds its way back into the compound because there are no waste bins provided in the hostel,” Mr Abdul Rasheed said.

Another Shama hostel resident, Maryam Liman, worries that the poor waste disposal clogs the drainage.

“Poor waste disposal in my hostel environment is a very serious problem. The truth is we don’t even have proper waste bins, so students just dump refuse anyhow around the corridors and common areas. The drainage also gets blocked often, and waste is not evacuated regularly,” she said.

Meanwhile, the condition of the poor environment in private hostels inside UDUS is a reflection of a larger problem in Nigeria. According to the State of the Nigerian Environment Report, about 187.2 million Nigerians still live in unclean environments.

Abdulrasheed Mubarak, the Founder of Mubylin Green Solutions, a youth-led environmental sustainability organisation, explained that poor environmental hygiene is dangerous and poses serious health issues to the students. 

Mr Mubarak also said failure to sanitise the environment will spread diseases such as malaria, typhoid, fever, cholera and diarrhoea. 

“It also creates an unpleasant living environment, affects students’ physical and mental well-being, reduces productivity and concentration,” he said

Complaints to landlords fall on deaf ears.

Students who spoke to Campus Reporter said they have complained to their landlords, but nothing was done. 

Ms Malami, for instance, said she made several complaints to their caretaker because their landlord cannot be reached directly.

“They sometimes acknowledge our complaints verbally, there is usually no action taken afterwards,” she said.

Another student, Ms Liman, said, “The attitude of our landlords towards the situation remains unclear, as they have not made any move to provide facilities such as waste bins in the hostel for the proper disposal and final collection of waste.”

Eventually, they assembled themselves to sanitise the environment.

“The sanitation processes so far—clearing out dump sites or uprooting the grasses—have been an individually led initiative. A few of us take time off on weekends to clean our surroundings. Other than that, there’s been no cooperation,” said Mr Kamiyo.

Ms Liman said the students also asked other residents to pay N200 for waste evacuation, but some students did not pay.

“At one point, we organised and asked everyone to contribute 200 Naira only so we could pay for waste evacuation. But some students did not pay, so we couldn’t clean the dirt. Aside from that, we still do general cleaning,” she said.

Speaking to Campus Reporter, a Caretaker of Benji hostel, Abdullah Mubarak, simply asked students to sanitise the environment themselves and hung up the phone.

“Let them come together to do sanitation of the waste in the environment,” he said.

University reacts

The university’s Dean of Private Hostel III, Abubakar Gumi, a professor, blamed the students and landlords for the poor hygienic environment.

He said the students were using the environment poorly by dumping refuse or waste anywhere they found themselves, because the waste bins weren’t provided by the landlords.

He explained that the university has asked the proprietors of private hostels to provide waste bins for the hostels.

“The unhygienic condition of shama hostels is attributed partly to the landlord and largely to the students residing in the hostels. They don’t clean their rooms and corridors and dump waste indiscriminately around their hostels. They also use toilets inappropriately,” he told Campus Reporter.

“Just last week, I also compelled landlords to provide a larger waste bin for each block for waste disposal and a cleaner to evacuate it to a larger waste bunker at a distant place. In return, the student will provide their own waste bin in their room or corridor. Defaulters will be punished.”