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By Joel Anekwe
A coalition of civil society organizations campaigning for an end to the generation of soot in the Rivers State atmosphere has warned that the over 5 million people living in the state are on death row.
This follows reports that there is a link between the soot pollution and increasing cases of reproductive, skin and respiratory cancers as well as other cardiovascular diseases in the last two years since the pollution began in the state.
Speaking to journalists in Port Harcourt, after the campaigners sent a petition against the soot to the United Nations and the international community, Ken Henshaw, director of ‘We The People Campaign Against Soot’ called on governments at all levels to address the hydrocarbon pollution.
He emphasized that the soot menace has far reaching negative health implications on the people of the state, and called on “not just the federal, state and local governments but also the international community to take actions against this hydrocarbon soot situation we are being exposed to.”
He added: “we liken the soot situation in Rivers State to the situation in Rwanda in the 1990s when basically the world kept quiet and allowed 800,000 – 1 million people to get slaughtered because the world took no action.
“We are telling the international community, we are telling the United Nations that Rivers citizens are on death row right now, that we are being killed by installments due to the effects of hydrocarbon pollution and that the world needs to take action right now. We are afraid, very afraid for ourselves and our children.”
On his part, Eugene Abel’s of the Rivers Civil Society Organizations blamed the soot on the inability of the Federal Government to make available petroleum products to residents of Rivers State.
Abel’s said: “we have left soot as a matter and we are dealing with it in all ramifications. It is a failure of governance at all tiers, particularly the Federal Government of Nigeria. They manage 60% of what we have. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company NNPC, the primary importer of kerosene has made kerosene unavailable to Rivers State, particularly in the rural areas thereby conspiratorially fueling effective demand, creating a market for illegally refined kerosene and daily you have outbreak of fire incidents”.
In its position, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Rivers State called for the immediate stop to the soot because of its hazardous health implications on the people.
Making NMA’s position known, Dr. Omasive Maduka who represented the chairman of NMA Rivers State, Dr. Datonye Alasia said the soot was affecting the health of Rivers people in a great way.
“It’s affecting our respiratory condition, it’s affecting cardiovascular condition, it’s affecting our position to lead healthy lives and our position as NMA is that the soot must be stopped,” she stated.
She stressed that a link has been established between the production of volatile organic compounds, production of particulate matter into the atmosphere and an increase in reproductive cancers, respiratory cancers, skin cancers and other cardiovascular diseases.
