For some time now the city of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, had been experiencing a peculiar situation in which soot is noticeable everywhere even as accusation and counter accusation fly back and forth over who or what was responsible. ONYEMA GODWIN reports on how the situation is affecting the residents’ lifestyle and the health implication.
It was first noticed in parts of Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital and some neighbouring local government areas like Eleme, Oyigbo, Ikwere, Obio/akpor, comprising the four local government councils in Ogoni towards the end of 2016. Residents in these areas began to complain of black dust or soot staining their clothes or settling on their packed cars overnight. The more the observations gained currency the more the ‘black dust’ spread to other locations.
Unable to ascertain the cause, the Rivers State government early in 2017 set up a committee led by the state Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Roseline Konya, to look into the issue. It was the committee that later unravelled the likely cause of the ‘soot’ which had continued to increase in intensity as it spreads to other areas.
Likely causes:
However, before the state government committee made known its findings, speculations were rife about the likely cause with some people blaming the Port Harcourt Refinery Company (PHRC) for the it. Others blamed a Chinese bitumen manufacturing company, while some others said it was caused by the indiscriminate burning of used tires by scavengers and the unscrupulous activities of crude oil thieves who employ crude methods, notoriously referred to as ‘kpo fire’ in refining the stolen oil.
Other suggestions made on the probable cause of the soot were the incessant burning of seized products, including the illegal refineries used by the oil thieves by the security agencies. But following further investigations and research by the state committee, the most likely causes were narrowed down to illegal refining by crude oil thieves and the crude act of setting ablaze recovered crude and refining facilities of the illegal refinery operators.
The Konya-led state government committee also revealed as much when she. in another public reaction, stated that the state government had been advising security agencies to devise a better means of dealing with operators of illegal refineries to contain the spread of the soot.
During a meeting recently with a delegation of the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), and officials of the Federal Ministry of Health in Port Harcourt, Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, blamed the continuous spread of the soot on some agencies of the federal government like PHRC. But the refining company was not the only organisation blamed by Wike, the federal government also got the knock for not taking action despite several representations made by the state government.
Wike said: “it is obvious that the problem is not caused by the state. The problem is caused by federal government’s agencies. We do not refine crude oil; we do not owe any company that does that; we do not control the security agencies that carry out a crude way of destroying illegal refineries at various areas.
“We have made attempts to bring the issue before the federal government. We have called the security agencies to adopt a more refined way of destroying illegal refineries so that it does not jeopardise the health of the people. If you go to Port Harcourt refinery now, just practically go and see what is coming out there. I cannot shut down the refinery; if I did, they will say it is economic sabotage.”
Also, the South-South zone of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) had strongly indicted the federal government and its agencies for lack of action on the problem. In a press statement issued in Port Harcourt and signed by Karl Uchegbu, (zonal chairman), and Styvn Obodoekwe, (Director), the CLO said the federal government should be held responsible for environmental degradation and the soot menace in Rivers State.
“We hold the federal government and its agencies, including NEMA, DPR, NOSDRA, NESREA, NNPC, military, civil defence and other security operatives, as well as the Independent Oil Companies (IOCs) and oil joint ventures responsible for the destruction of the environment.
Their actions and/or inaction singularly and or collectively have led to the soot menace which has become a source of nightmare to residents of the state. The soot is believed to emanate from their facilities. We wonder why the federal authorities, whose primary responsibility it is to regulate activities in the hydrocarbon industry, has chosen to carry on as if they are not aware of the soot problem,” the CLO lamented.
Living under a dark blanket…
For the second year running the Port Harcourt metropolis, Obio/Akpor, Eleme and parts of Oyigbo local government areas have had to endure the dangerous effects of the soot with the most affected being the waterfront areas of Port Harcourt and all the adjoining communities, extending even to Woji and beyond.
Residents have had to cope with having a film of soot on anything not properly covered or left in the open. Many residents of the most affected areas had resorted to wearing nose guards to reduce the amount of soot they breathe in.
Being a by-product from the refining of crude oil, medical experts have warned of serious health problems arising for inhaling the soot. Already there have been unconfirmed reports of increasing respiratory infections among children in the state. It is also apparent that the soot can contaminate water and food.
For instance, a health expert, Dr. Ibituromi Ikurubo blamed the persisting soot for increasing cases of respiratory infection in the state. The consultant endocrinologist at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) said many residents of the state are at risk if nothing was done urgently to address the soot challenge.
“In the next 10 to 15 years, we will have an alarming rate of cancers and the cancers will be in form of respiratory cancers, lung cancers, to liver cancers. In 10 to 15 years, we will likely be in trouble. Now the other issues we should remember with the soot is that, this soot goes into the atmosphere, mixes with the air and falls back as rain. So the rain falling down now is poisonous. This will go into the ground, affect the source water we drink, affect the plants that we grow and the food we eat,” he said.
An end in sight…?
Residents of Rivers State should be prepared to live with the environmental problem for some time as government appears not ready to tackle the problem. What the government seems to be interested in is fact-finding, not solution. Both the federal and state governments have been engaged in buck-passing rather than take proactive measures to address the environmental issue. Aside the setting up of the committee by the state government to ascertain the cause of the soot, nothing else has been forthcoming since them from it.
Similarly, House of Representatives through its Committee on Public Account recently mandated the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF) to conduct an environmental audit on the Rivers environment in connection with the soot. So far, nothing has been heard on the issue from the AGF office.
Also Assistant Director in Federal Ministry of Health, Mr Adebayo Durojaiye was part of WHO/UNEP delegation that met with the Rivers State government which said that the mission of the delegation was investigative in nature, so as to determine a lasting solution to the soot challenge in the state.
“We have met with the Rivers State Commissioner of Environment and Commissioner of Health on the soot challenge. They have briefed us on the efforts of the Rivers State Government to address the soot and to checkmate this menace.”
However, one of the leaders of the United Nations delegation to Rivers State, Charles Ekong, said the state government was on course with its intervention in the matter. He commended the steps already taken by the Rivers State government. According to him, “We are here to see how we as an organisation will be able to support the federal government and the local government based on our own mandate to find out a solution to this very problem.”
The delegation is expected to visit key stakeholders including IOCs operating in Rivers State.
Also a coalition of the civil society organisations, had held a protest match demanding the immediate end of the soot. They presented a 14-point agenda demanding among other things, the declaration of state of emergency on the environment of Rivers State, environmental audit of the state, establishment of a functional sanitation enforcement office at the local government area and the arrest and prosecution of environmental offenders.
It is expected that the flurry of activities generated by the soot menace in recent weeks would lead to concrete actions aimed curtailing the problem, leaving aside the ‘political dimension’ it seemed to be taking.
Dr. Ikurubo a health expert seemed to summarise it adequately when he said: “First thing is to remove politics from it. In our country, especially our state, everything is politics. So this is not just the issue for the governor, this is a problem for all of us. I have always advocated that there is a need to form a committee of experts that will look at how to get the job done.”