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Overpopulation In Nigeria Essay

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Murky, brown water littered with heaping piles of floating rubbish fill Lake Lagos in Makoko, Nigeria. Over one hundred thousand Africans call the Makoko slums home and fight for survival upon a sea of disease and extreme filth. Shabby wooden shacks are built upon unsteady stilts and dilapidated canoes are paddled through the lagoon’s oily water as both means of transportation and mobile homes. The very same urine and fecal contaminated water is utilized for bathing, cooking, and drinking. Expanding from what had once been a scant village in the early eighteenth century, Makoko has now become one of the largest cities in Nigeria. As the demand for housing continued to rapidly increase urbanized areas could no longer supply enough for the boom in population, thus also increasing the number of slums and shanty towns within its borders. In 2012, over 30,000 Nigerians had been rendered homeless and an estimated 2,000 people continue to enter Lagos every day, creating an entire population of poorly nourished, unemployed, and homeless individuals. (Inside Makoko) These living conditions are not only common in third world countries, the United States and nations all over the world have been struggling with extreme levels of overpopulation. “Each year, the United States adds another 3.1 million people to its population, net gain.” (Overpopulation in America) Thanks to growing advances in technology, the continuous improving ability to save lives, and the bettering of medical

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