Black soot: Rights group wants FG, RSG to set up air monitoring stations

The Environmental Rights Action and Friends of the Earth, ERA, has warned that if urgent steps were not taken to stop the black soot menace currently experienced in Rivers State since late last year, lives of the citizens would be endangered.

The group, therefore, called on the Federal and Rivers State governments to establish air quality monitoring stations to evaluate the quality of air particles that descend as black soot for laboratory research, analysis and possible solutions to curb the rising effects.

The Programme Manager of ERA, Barrister Mike Karikpo, said in Port Harcourt on Thursday, that the black soot has contaminated particles and toxic substances that caused health related hazards, such as Benzen, Tuoline and cancer causing toxins.

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He said that the toxic substance that could cause respiratory illness, including birth defects babies in the womb.

Mr. Karikpo stated that the sources of the black soot could be combined from gas flaring operators, including the Petro-chemical and refineries, and artisanal oil bunkering activities which together saturated the atmosphere to cause the descending soot at every passing day.

The Programme Manager said that “the descending black soot has cancer causing agents; it also causes cancer of the lungs. This is because of the illegal bunkering activities in the environment , including the hydrocarbon from Petrochemical industries and refineries released to the atmosphere, allow the dangerous toxins to be exposed, such as combustion activities. The Rivers State Government and the Federal Government need to do more as major players in the oil and gas industries.”

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The Environmental Rights Action, a non-profit organization, said that in order to contain the consistent impact of black soot before it escalated, there was need for the Rivers State Government and the Federal government to set up Air Quality Monitoring Stations at strategic areas to properly monitor and evaluate the extent of the harmfulness of the black soot.

“In South Africa, in Durban where you have the refineries and the Petro-chemical companies are sited, and because of the impact of the hydrocarbon emissions, the government has the responsibility to install Air Quality Monitoring Stations to ascertain where a particular emission was coming from, its health consequences and the atmospheric effects, including the calculation of air sample reading.

“Young men and women around Eleme, Okrika, Elelenwo, Onne, Borokiri in Port Harcourt need to be engaged by government, and trained on the job to handle Monitoring stations by regularly collecting samples. Government can partner with the Institute of Pollution Studies at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology to measure the air samples from the communities, before allowing the consequences of the black soot to affect residents,” he said.

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He also said that as a means of ensuring Economic and Environmental Justice, ERA the National Environmental Safety and Regulatory Agency, NESREA and other environmental groups should rise to the occasion and compel companies and oil and gas industries, including other defaulters to obey environmental laws and regulations.

According to him: “The Directors of companies, individuals and groups responsible for the suspected black soot polluting the state, should be held responsible for the suspected black soot polluting the state, and should be held liable under the principles and practice of environmental regulations.

Companies and activities of individuals leading to the emission of black soot should be stopped and nipped in the bud. Those sponsoring and directing these illegal activities should be fished out and held accountable.”

Mr. Karikpo also called on the Rivers State Government Ministry of Health to open a register to record the health history of persons affected by the black soot in order to be Pro-active in curbing the effects as he urged the Rivers State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice to partner with NGO’S and Civil society groups to take statistics and identify those who suffered disability as a result of the activities of companies and individuals, and to ensure compensations were paid to victims.

He continued: “There is need for the Rivers state government and relevant NGO’S and civil society groups to hold companies and people embarking on illegal refineries and other gas flaring activities to be accountable, and be held responsible for their actions.”