Concerned stakeholders in Rivers State have called on the Federal government to stop playing politics with the lives of over five million residents of the state by turning deaf ears to the danger posed by the black soot, a black substance which is adjudged to be very dangerous to human health, particularly in the city of Port Harcourt, the state capital.

Black soot can best be described as a product of the incomplete combustion of fueled carbon.

A report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) states that outdoor air pollution causes 4.2 million deaths each year across the world. Additionally, 99 per cent of the global population is exposed to a high level of air pollution which puts them at risk for heart disease, stroke, cancer, and other life-threatening medical conditions. Black soot, in particular, can be linked to a wide range of severe health effects, including acute bronchitis (an inflammation that causes coughing) and an aggravated breathing situation for asthma patients.

Studies also show that around 40,000 people die in the U.S every year as a result of exposure to soot among other air pollutants. In addition, soot exposure is also said to cause around 300,000 asthma attacks every year.

A reviewed report of a technical team set up by the Rivers State government and headed by the state’s former Commissioner for Environment, Prof. Roseline Konya, revealed that about 22,077 persons have suffered from respiratory related ailments in the last five years.

Meanwhile, the predictions by many health professionals are that if nothing is done urgently to stop the soot, many residents might experience chronic respiratory diseases, heart problems and increase in mortality rate. This is becoming real as some persons, who have found it very difficult breathing while in Port Harcourt, have relocated to other places.

Experts have said that the major source of the soot is traceable to the bunkering activities by some unscrupulous people who make a living by engaging in crude oil theft through a primitive way of cooking the product in the bush thereby endangering the lives of residents and the environment.

Speaking on grounds of anonymity, a medical doctor from a popular hospital in Port Harcourt said in the next five or 10 years, there would be an escalated health issue in the state such as prostate cancer, cancer of the lungs and birth deformities.

He blamed the Federal government for not creating enough employment for the teeming youths, which has now pushed them into engaging in illegal bunkering just to make a living. “Bunkering business is very lucrative yet very dangerous to human health. These youths went into it because they cannot get a well-paid job.

“We are playing politics with human life in this country. In the next five or 10 years, Nigerians will understand the danger posed by this black soot because by then you will notice an increase in cases of lung and prostate cancer. Women may even give birth to babies with one deformity or the other,” he said.

The medical doctor, however, called on the Federal government to complement the effort of the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike by taking a very tough stand against those who engage in the business. “I appreciate the capacity the Rivers State Governor has shown in recent times. He traced the oil thieves to the forest and ensured that nobody engages in bunkering in the state again.”

He explained that though illegal bunkering, which is popularly called Kpofire in the Niger Delta region, may be a major contributor of the black soot in the state, “gas flaring cannot be overlooked.” He maintained that for residents of the state to enjoy healthy and unpolluted air, the oil companies must be brought to task to urgently end gas flaring in Nigeria.

On his part, Dr. Gbenekanu Ledornubari Mpigi, Executive Director of Sustainable Ogoni People Initiative (SOPI), accuses the Federal government of abandoning Rivers people and the entire Niger Delta region to their fate in the fight against the soot.

“From all indications, it’s glaring that the Federal government is more interested in the revenue accrued to it from whatever source than saving our health. It’s rightly said that he who wears the shoes knows where it pinches and as a result, we live here, breathe in soot and drink them in our water,” he said.

Illegal refineries (Kpo-fire), which everyone has condemned and the Rivers State governor is spearheading its total eradication currently is a contributing factor to the soot situation in the region. But before this came along, “we’ve been complaining of gas flaring and the role of the Federal government in curbing it but the government will come and go and the situation will keep getting worse.”

Dr. Ledomubari recalled that paragraph 35 (b)(i) of the First Schedule to the Petroleum Act empowers the Minister of Petroleum Resources (The President) to impose special terms and conditions on any lease or license with respect to the right of the Federal Government to take Flare Gas. As such, it empowers the minister to fine oil companies that flare gas depending on the volume of crude oil they produce daily. A company that produces 10,000 barrels of crude oil per day is fined $2 (two American Dollars) per thousand cubic feet of gas flared. In the case of production of less than that, the company pays $0.50.

The law went further to say, notwithstanding the prescribed payments for gas flaring, a producer will be required to pay an additional sum of $2.50 per mscf of gas flared upon certain breaches including failure to prepare, maintain and submit logs or records of flared gas within the time specified; Failure to provide accurate gas flared data upon request by the DPR; and Failure to install metering equipment within the time specified by the DPR.

In the event of a continued breach, the Minister may suspend the operations or revoke any OML or marginal field awarded to the producer.

On July 31, 2018, the Federal Government accused oil companies of not paying stipulated gas flaring penalties, amounting to a loss of revenue in billions of dollars into government coffers.

“This is making us in the Niger Delta to ask if the Federal government is more interested in the revenue or their primary responsibility which is protecting lives and properties in the country,” Dr. Ledomubaris wondered.

“It’s high time the Federal government joined hands with the Rivers State government to fight this soot situation or we will be thinking that they are benefitting from it the way they benefitted from the gas flaring. We commend the efforts of the Rivers State government and the local government councils for the synergy in the fight against this life-threatening situation. We also expect more from the Federal government who manages the oil installations that falls within the exclusive lists.”

In his opinion, a rights activist, Comrade Solomon Lenu commended the courage of the Rivers State Governor, in the fight against illegal oil bunkering in the state. Considering the enormity of the situation and the need for a bailout solution, Lenu said a very critical aspect and action that the state government must undertake to ensure that the fight is genuinely borne out of the need for the safety of Rivers people rather than the need to score a political point.

He called on the government to open a comprehensive health registry for Rivers people to check the current health status of every citizen. Given the fact that this situation has escalated for the past five years, and citizens have been inhaling and living with this toxicity, “I believe that a lot of damage had been done already, and the only real solution after stopping this illicit and criminal activity is to know our current health status and provide prevention measures before the time bomb goes off in no distant future.

“Let this health registry be set up in every ward across the Local Government Areas in the state, and let people go there for free to check the status of their tracheal system as at now, and those at risk be given suitable treatment to mitigate the health dangers that lurks around Rivers people today”.

To further prove his level of seriousness to end the soot, Governor Wike last week issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the 23 Local Government Chairmen to provide a comprehensive list of illegal refineries and their operators within their jurisdiction. He challenged the council chairmen to prove that they are not complicit in the noxious business that has continued to threaten the health of Rivers people and the national economy.

He stated that as a responsible government, it would be unwise for them to fold their hands and do nothing to safeguard residents of the state from the death that is forced upon them by criminal-minded operators of artisanal refineries.

“Now, every council chairman must go and identify where illegal refineries are taking place. If you identify one, you get N2m. So, go and identify as many as you can. I will pay N2m for each one. And I am going to fight against this. Our people are dying and we owe our people the responsibility to protect them, to save them from death they never caused.”

The Rivers State governor further frowned at the security agencies for the role some of their personnel have played in aiding and providing cover to the operators of the illegal refineries in the State. He urged the State Police Commissioner, Eboka Friday, to redeploy out of the state a particular DPO in Emohua Local Government Area who operates an illegal refinery in the area.

It will be recalled that last year, the Federal Government said it was working to establish three modular refineries in each of the oil-producing states, particularly in the Niger Delta region. Going by the plan, the government would have to establish about 18 refineries in the country’s six major oil-producing states in the Niger Delta including Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Edo and Cross River. It said the objective was to halt the illegal artisanal refining activities going on in oil-producing areas and their impact on residents in the affected locations.

The Minister of State for Environment, Chief Sharon Ikeazor, disclosed this much. “In a bid to find alternative sources of livelihood for artisanal refiners and to encourage them to disengage completely from their illegal activities, the Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with the Office of the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and other critical stakeholders is working on the establishment of three modular refineries per state in the oil-producing areas as a pilot scheme to engage them (artisanal refiners).

“These modular refineries are intended to be 100 percent designed and manufactured in Nigeria using the expertise of government institutions such as the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Federal University of Petroleum Effurun and Ahmadu Bello University Zaria,” she stressed.

No serious action has been taken so far yet and the soot continues to affect residents of Rivers State especially in the early hours of the morning with no end at sight. (Saturday Independent)

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