Public Interest Law Center, PILEX aka The Peoples Advocate with support from Public Interest Lawyers Initiative in West Africa and Advocates for Community Aternatives, ACA, recently held a conference on Black Soot, Pollution and Flooding to draw attention to the grave dangers they are causing to lives in the Niger Delta.
The very interactive session which took place at the Conference Hall of the Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN in Port Harcourt, featured presentations from experts and reactions from participants drawn from the civil society and some government departments.
Convener, Courage Nsirimovu Esq., said the body was concerned about the continued degradation of the environment by both extractive activities and careless individual acts and so, as public advocates, were interested in drawing attention to the looming danger so that policy makers can take necessary action.
In his delivery on soot and its consequences on the people, an expert in environmental health, Dr. Dieye Briggs alerted that continuous unregulated oil activities and gas flaring are slowly killing the people of the Niger Delta.
He said because soot is a minute substance, it easily finds its way into the human lungs causing serious damage to the system further reducing the lifespan in the region. The average life span of people in the Niger Delta has been put as 41 years because of environmental pollution.
According to him, series of researches on the health impact of black soot reveal that male reproductive ability is in danger while respiratory infections and cancer are on the rise.
Dr Briggs, who is a direct victim of black soot said his two year old daughter struggles with breathing challenges, adding that asthma is on the rise as well as cancer as a result of soot in the environment.
Said he, “My daughter is also having recurrent upper respiratory track infections. nostrils. At some point she only breathes from her mouth while sleeping because the respiratory track is blocked by soot particles”.
According to the public health doctor, while asthma is on the increase, treatment is becoming difficult as the infection is now resistant to conventional treatment. ‘In recent times the frequency of asthmatic attacks has increased and it is now unresponsive to conventional treatment. We keep seeing people that have no history of brocnchial asthma before now coming down with bronchial asthma.”
Explaining further, he said all properties in soot are carbon based and the red blood cell has more affinity with carbon, noting that research has revealed serious negative impacts of soot on persons.
“Research finding on long impact of soot on health is exponential”, he said. The rate of respiratory infection per life birth in Port Harcourt is 20.7 per 1000 births, the highest anywhere in the world.
“Under five respiratory birthrate is 20.7 in Port Harcourt per 1000 life birth, five per 1000 in the South West and in China with all the industrial pollution, 3.6 per life birth”.
“To collaborate this, in every 10 patients I see, seven are coming down with respiratory illness,” Dr. Briggs explained highlighting the seriousness of the environmental danger in the zone.
Lamenting that in five years the soot impact will manifest largely in serious health issues like cancer and kidney challenges, the public health activist recommended a comprehensive research on the impact of soot and oil pollution on lives in the Niger Delta.
Dr Briggs called for respect for the environment and an end to gas flaring by the federal government, adding, that until the people begin to reap the benefit of oil in their soil, stopping illegal oil activities would be difficult.
Flooding, an offshoot of environmental pollution and the consequent climate change was another source of worry for participants at the conference. They decried the environmental menace which has become an annual event and lamented the failure of Niger Delta governors to recognize the dangers to the people and the environment.
Courage Nsirimovu who made a presentation on it, expressed worry that despite several advances and advocacies to policy makers, no concrete action has been put in place by all tiers of government, to mitigate or prepare the people for the onslaught which last year alone, claimed over 600 lives in the country, cut off Bayelsa State from the world, destroyed roads, houses and livelihoods.
Narrating their experiences during the 2022 flood, some participants noted that even though Rivers state government announced a N1billion vote for the flood and Bayelsa State raised about N950million including support sums from sister states for flood management, flood victims did not experience any respite nor is any action to mitigate the coming season seen to be taken.
They expressed anger over the failure of the federal government to fix the East-West Road with worry that as the rains advance, the already detororiated road would become impassable. They called on the Niger Delta governors to revamp the BRACE Commission and in unity from that platform, demand urgent action from the federal government on the pressing issues of the unhealthy state of the environment of the region.
They also urged the federal government to revisit ex-president Muhammadu Buhari’s charge while launching oil production ick-off in the north for safer operations and apply same to the Niger Delta region.
Highlight of the conference was the inauguration of the West Afican Public Interest Lawyers Initiative headed by Chima Williams, Esq. and executive director of ERA/FoEN, a frontline community interest advocate, and the induction of five members into the body.
Chima welcomed the new members with a charge to show commitment to issues around the people. He announced Courage Nsirim Esq, the South South coordinator of the West African body which he said is in existence in nine countries with the Nigerian head office domiciled in Benin City, Edo State headed by him as national cordinator and spokesperson.
The newly inducted lawyers include Ernest Nwankwor, a key CSO member in Rivers State.
