Introduction:
Aside other serious damages from multiple oil spills that the oil industries have done to the Rivers state Environment, which through their industrial activities has greatly destroyed the planet and causes lots of Environmental problems that have damaged livelihoods, farmlands and put the residents on the high level of health risk and the bad economy. The people of Rivers-state are currently facing a new kind of danger: rising black soot particles in the air.
According to the report, while residents have become used to multiple oil spills which have damaged livelihoods and farmlands, they are currently facing a new kind of danger which it refers to as soot, black particles in the air. Since November 2017, residents of oil industry hub city Port Harcourt are complaining about increasing soot residue on surfaces in and out of their homes and more than 5.2 million people living in Rivers-state are suffering from the highest exposures of this air pollution.
We condemn the care-free attitude of the responsible multinational industries in the region for not taking a quick response to mitigate this environmental challenge.
The Federal Ministry of Environment should also do whatever is required to help the state overcome this problem. Pollution of such degree should be properly attended to and stopped before more harm is done to the environment and the people in the affected areas.
Effects of Soot Pollution:
Air pollution is a major environmental hazard in developed and developing countries like Nigeria. Air pollutants such as dust and smoke have a serious impact on human health, poses a major threat to health and climate. According to WHO, the combined effects of ambient (outdoor) and household air pollution caused about 6.5 million premature deaths every year, largely as a result of increased mortality from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections. Soot is a poisonous sub-micron particulate matter emanated from the activities of the oil and gas industry in the state.
There have been series of the campaign in some countries against the unfriendly environment activities by some industries and the need for environmental protection, most especially in an oil-producing region like Rivers-state. This soot occurs as a result of lack of respect/passion for the healthy living of human beings and pollution free society but maintain joy in profit-making, and left the mass majority people most especially the workers who are the wealth creator to their own fate, and hold on to hunger, left with polluted environment and polluted water, polluted air and expose workers, youth, students and children to a respiratory and airborne infection as a result of environmental degradation. To complement the poor and the worker’s misery, the government and the private international oil companies left the public hospital in a total mess.
The public hospital has been left underfunded, while money realized from the pit of the death of the mass majority to travel abroad and also to pay for medical bills in the international hospitals.
Soot a huge problem to humanity:
Despite huge oil revenues at the government and the responsible explorations international oil companies disposal, the successive governments, both at the federal and in States within the Niger Delta region, which have refused to provide infrastructural development and basic social facilities like standard hospitals and schools in the area, are naturally in cahoots with the oil multinationals to operate without regards to the environment and well-being of the people. The elements in government are there so that a huge part of the revenue from oil, the mainstay of the economy, flows into their private bank accounts.
The fact is that most parts of the oil-producing areas have been rendered unsuitable for any economic activity except oil exploration and exploitation. Infrastructure is virtually non-existent in most parts of the region which accounts for 90 per cent of the country’s incomes. Farmlands and water are polluted by oil exploration and thus rendered farming and fishing, the traditional occupation of the local people, useless. Worse still, there are no alternative jobs to engage the people. Therefore, most young people are unemployed and thus a rich source of militants who have engaged the Nigerian state and oil multinationals in armed struggle.
Needs for collective intervention on soot pollution (Anti-Soot Advocacy):
As Environmentalists, we have always warned against continuing neglect of the oil-rich area by the ruling class and the billionaire oil companies in that area, last year the Federal Government lunch a huge amount of money for the “clean-up Ogoni land” after many years of struggles by the civilian and armed militant.
But practically, nothing has been done over the year and with that, we call on the government and the oil exploration companies in that region to be more environmentally conscious and put in place measures in order to mitigate the environmental pollution.
The soot crisis and other environmental pollution problems in the Niger Delta are caused by the crazy drive for super profit at the gross expense of the environment and working people, and therefore are crises of soot. With that, we need a serious campaign in order to mitigate the effects of this pollution on the human’s health and the environment at large.
Furthermore, all oil multinationals have to be called to action and to start implementing policies that are environmentally friendly. Only in this way can the destruction of the environment be tackled and the resources of nature used for the benefits of people and society. But this will not happen without beginning the process of serious advocacy within the rank and file of the students, youth, market men and women in that region; this is a step towards having a sustainable environmental etc.
Therefore, the situation calls for immediate action and we need to organize a serious campaign, to involve the youth, students, market men and women in order to end shoot pollution in Niger Delta; all together we can better save and protect our environment, hence, if the soot is not addressed quickly, it could cause the people to suffer health hazards, which would lead to their untimely deaths.
By: Akande Daniel Babatunde
