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By Joel Anekwe
About 260 kilometers or 26% of the Niger Delta mangroves has been lost in the past 50 years to mining activities in the region, experts have said.
The region, hitherto one of the world’s richest Deltas, boasts of extensive mangroves being home to rich aquatic life, but is now seriously endangered by irresponsible mining activities and pollution.
Environmentalists are concerned that mining activities, especially sand dredging, exploration and production of crude oil has resulted in the loss of extensive portion of the mangroves stretching up to 260 kilometers.
Speaking at the Sustainability Academy Extractives, Oceans and Fisheries organised by Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) in partnership with Centre for Conflict and Gender Studies, University of Port Harcourt, Dr. Babatunde Bolaji identified pollution as the worst culprit in the destruction of the mangroves.
Dr. Bolaji who was the guest lecturer at the event listed the various forms of pollution to include; dredging, dumping of solid waste and sewage, crude oil spill, effluent discharge increased acidic levels of the ocean.
Addressing the audience on the ‘Impact of Pollution in the Niger Delta, the Impact on Fisheries,’ he lamented that: “20-25 years down the line of oil production in the Niger Delta, fishermen who depended heavily on sea foods now eat ice fish”.
“We are responsible for all that is happening to our environment, whatever you do to the earth you are simply biting the finger that feeds you,” he added, warning that man has quickened the speed of changes of the earth, but that the consequences will return to him.
He recommended that as solution there must be a sincere desire to change the status quo. “Everyone is a stakeholder, everyone is involved. We are all part of the environment and must come together to take care of the environment. Government, oil companies, communities and individuals have a role to play.”
In his address, Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, director of Ecological Think Tank, Health of Mother Earth (HOMEF) noted that the activities of miners and oil companies present special threats to the health of our creeks, rivers, lakes and oceans.
“The efforts to keep up profits have triggered a rush to mine the seabed in ways that should attract serious attention,” he stated.
Dr. Bassey went on: “Water pollution from oil spills and mine trailing is source of great concern about the quality of our waters and the overall health of the Marine ecosystem. The same can be said of factories and industrial installations along our coastlines, including oil refineries that use the ocean as their rubbish dump, pumping toxic loads into them and deeply compromising the health of aquatic lives in the process.” On the effects of the pollution on fisheries he said: “The double jeopardy for our fishers is that with polluted coastlines, the option they have to secure good catches is to go into the deep offshore, but most of them do not have boats that can venture far off the coastlines.
This is the tragic economic predicament of our fishers: disrupted by pollution, blocked by the military and blocked by economics. These will remain and self-reinforce until, and unless fishers unite and declare that fish is more valuable than oil, coal or gold. The Fishnet Alliance presents a strong platform to push for water bodies devoid of extractives.”
