Statistics by state
How many open dumpsites are on the map in each state, by source. These are mapped sites, not a full count: the numbers grow as the satellite scan is reviewed and people report sites. Select a state to see its sites on the map.
Sites mapped per state
Table
Confirmed hectares are measured from the satellite outline of each confirmed site. OpenStreetMap counts update live from the community map.
Satellite scan
A machine-learning model scans Sentinel-2 images of every state for patches that look like open dumps. A screening bot then ranks each candidate as likely, possible or unlikely. Candidates are not confirmed: they appear on the main map only after a person has checked them.
What the screening bot checks
How strongly the Sentinel-2 model thinks the patch is a dump.
Did the same spot also look like a dump in the 2020/21 dry season? Dumps persist; building sites change.
NASA fire detections within 500 m from 2019 to 2025. Open burning is common at dumps.
Compact patches score higher; long thin strips are usually road verges.
Why it matters
You cannot manage what you have not measured. Most of Nigeria's waste ends up in open dumps that no official map records, so their size, growth and harm stay invisible to planning and budgets.
Health
Open dumps breed flies, mosquitoes and rats and are linked to cholera, typhoid, dysentery and malaria in nearby communities. Nigeria recorded 1,528 suspected cholera cases and 53 deaths in 30 states between January and 24 June 2024 (NCDC, cited in Isimah et al. 2026).
Water
Rain washes leachate from dumps into soil and groundwater. Studies around dumps in Lagos (Igando) and the FCT satellite towns found contamination in nearby wells and soils (Ige et al. 2022; Sawyerr et al. 2017).
Climate
Waste after use produces about 3% of global man-made greenhouse gases and 18% of man-made methane (Sun et al. 2023). Burning dumps add smoke and soot.
Flooding
Dumps in drains, riverbanks and wetlands block water flow and spread waste during floods, which the Water Atlas flood watch tracks for Nigeria's rivers.
What the atlas makes possible
- Counting and measuring: the number and area of open dumpsites in each state, updated as sites are confirmed.
- Prioritising: sites near rivers, wells and homes can be ranked for clean-up or closure (see How it works).
- Tracking change: satellite history shows when a site started and whether it is growing.
- Evidence for policy: state waste agencies, researchers and NGOs can download the data and cite it.
Sources: Isimah et al. (2026) Research Square preprint, doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-8260552/v1; Ige et al. (2022) Applied Water Science 12:79; Sawyerr et al. (2017) J Health Pollut 7(14); Sun et al. (2023) Nature Communications 14:1444, doi:10.1038/s41467-023-37136-1.
Report a dumpsite
Satellites miss small dumps. Reports from people who live and work near them fill that gap. Every report is checked before it appears on the map; approved reports are added within a day.
Or pin it on the map
- Open the Map, switch the basemap to High-res (Esri) and zoom to the site.
- Click ＋ Pin a site, click on the dump, and fill in the short form: name, whether it is still used, size and notes.
- Click Export my pins below to save a file, and send it through the contact details on the main website.
Stay safe
- Stand at the edge of the site; do not walk on waste or near burning heaps.
- Do not photograph people without their permission, including waste pickers.
- Report what you see: the type of waste, signs of burning, and nearby water or homes. Describe the site, not the people: don't name or blame anyone for the dumping. See the contribution rules.
How it works
Four sources feed one map. Every site carries a verification level, so you always know how sure we are.
- Published studies and field surveys. Dumpsites with coordinates from peer-reviewed papers and GPS surveys, each linked to its source.
- Satellite scan. A Random Forest model in Google Earth Engine reads a cloud-free Sentinel-2 composite (10 m) of the 2024/25 dry season, with texture, land cover (Dynamic World) and built-up density (GHSL), and finds dump-like patches of at least 0.5 ha in every state.
- Screening bot. Each candidate gets a 0–100 score from model confidence, persistence since 2020/21, nearby fire detections, shape and size, and is labelled likely, possible or unlikely.
- Human review. Reviewers check candidates and public reports on high-resolution imagery in QGIS. Only sites with clear visual evidence plus a second piece of evidence are marked confirmed and published.
- Community data. Landfills mapped on OpenStreetMap load live, and anyone can pin or report a site.
Verification levels
Limits
- Satellite detection misses sites smaller than about 0.5 ha; reports fill that gap.
- A site on the map may since have been closed or cleared; dates are given where known.
- Approximate locations come from a study area or a coarse coordinate and need checking on the ground.
Data & sources
Download what is on the map for your own analysis, report or class. Please cite the atlas and the original sources.
Sources
How to cite
Archived on Zenodo with a DOI; the DOI always resolves to the latest archived version. Live atlas: https://shagbaor.com/waste-atlas/
Records from OpenStreetMap are © OpenStreetMap contributors and available under the Open Database Licence (ODbL). Sentinel-2 cloudless mosaics © EOX IT Services GmbH, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, contain modified Copernicus Sentinel data.