Our Earth is considered an ecosystem on a large scale. When we introduce external factors such as carbon dioxide, it upsets the balance of this ecosystem and affects the inhabitants. One of the consequences of such upsets is global warming, water shortage, extinction of species, etc. These have tremendous negative impacts on humans, threatening their very existence.
Nigeria is a country faced with upsets arising from such external factors, which have caused a number of national environmental crises such as soil degradation, urban air and water pollution, rapid deforestation, oil pollution and loss of arable land. The crises have manifested in various forms in different parts of the country, some of which we explore in the following paragraphs.
Pollution in the Niger Delta: living with death
After more than fifty years of negligence by the oil industry, the Niger Delta has been rendered the 9th most toxic environments in the world as a result of oil spills and pollutants from continuous gas flaring, according to Pure Earth, an organisation that focuses on identifying and cleaning up the poorest communities in developing countries with health-threatening concentrations of toxins.
As a country that generates over 90 per cent of its revenue from the sale of crude oil, Nigeria constantly witnessed activities ranging from oil prospecting to exploration, which often lead to negative environmental impacts such as oil spillages, land degradation, and air quality degradation due to gas flaring and drilling rig explosion.
Combined with the industrial waste discharged into the atmosphere, the pollution has had damaging impacts on host communities, evidenced by polluted water bodies (eliminating aquatic life) and ubiquitous health hazards.
Ogoniland: Blessed with oil, cursed with spillage
An assessment carried out by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), showed that pollution from over 50 years of oil operations in the Niger Delta region has permeated through the entire environment. In at least 10 Ogoni communities where drinking water is contaminated with high levels of hydrocarbons, public health has been immensely battered.
In Nisisioken Ogale, a community in the west of Ogoniland, families drink water from wells contaminated with benzene at levels over 900 times above WHO guidelines. In this community that is close to a Nigerian National Petroleum Company pipeline, an 8 cm layer of refined oil, a product of an oil spill which occurred more than six years ago, could be seen floating on the groundwater serving the wells.
While experts agree that some attempts to clean-up the environmental mess could yield immediate results, the report estimates that countering and cleaning up the pollution and catalysing an ecological recovery of Ogoniland could take 25 to 30 years. In 2016, Hilary Inyang, a professor of environmental engineering and science, stated that Nigeria had 3,920 contaminated sites that would cost the government about $520 billion over the next 30 to 35 years to clean up.
Onitsha air pollution: delivering debilitating doses
WHO estimates that up to 7 million people die every year from exposure to fine particles in the polluted air as these particles mostly lead to diseases such as stroke, heart ailments, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and respiratory infections.
According to the 2018 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) report, air quality is the leading environmental threat to public health. This is corroborated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). In 2016, IHME estimated that diseases related to airborne pollutants contributed to two-thirds of all life-years lost to environmentally-related deaths and disabilities.
Similarly, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that about 600,000 yearly recorded deaths in Africa are related to air pollution. In 2016, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) noted that annually, close to 712,000 people are at risk of being killed prematurely by polluted air across Africa.
According to WHO, Onitsha, Nigeria, has the highest levels of Particulate Matter (PM)10 in the world followed by Peshawar in Pakistan and Zabol in Iran. The WHO uses the PM measure to gauge the level of concentration of particles in the air. Other cities which were ranked by WHO for high PM10 levels are Kaduna, Abia, and Umuahia; these ranked fifth, sixth and sixteenth on the WHO PM 10 scale, indicating that these cities are grossly polluted, not just in terms of air quality but also in terms of solid wastes that litter the streets and block the drainage system.
Lagos automobiles fumes and their hydrocarbon discharge
Vehicular exhaust emissions are the greatest single source of urban air pollution in Nigeria since most of the automobiles plying Nigerian roads are run with worn out combustion engines that emit over-bearing quantities of fumes.
Diesel fumes contain about 10 times the amount of soot particles contained in petrol exhaust fumes, with the potential to cause cancer. In the short term, high level and/or persistent exposure to diesel fumes can irritate the eyes and increase the risk of lung cancer.
Port Harcourt: A Sooty garden
Soot is a mass of impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete burning of hydrocarbons. When inhaled, the soot particle becomes an irritant and cause a cough. Persistent cough leads to an injury to the lungs. Soot, currently experienced by Port Harcourt residents was triggered by incessant activities of illegal oil refining and bunkering as the burning of tyres compound the malaise.
Environmental Protection Projects
In the face of the numerous onslaughts on the various aspect of the Nigerian environment, it is marginally comforting to observe that a number of projects targeted at environmental restoration and protection. One of such projects is the Clean Lagos Initiative (CLI) of the Lagos State Government.
Clean Lagos Initiative
The CLI was launched by the Lagos State Government in 2016 through its Ministry of Environment. Its mandate is to ensure a clean (Lagos) city through a viable waste management framework. As the name indicates, this initiative is expected to eliminate indiscriminate waste disposal by enthroning effective waste management and recovery systems.
Environmental analysts say that this measure should substantially contain, and eventually eliminate, the health hazards that often arise from wanton waste disposal practices. The reform is a type of public-private partnership model, involving the engagement of private contractors in the waste management process. The CLI is backed by an enabling act, the Environmental Management and Protection Law recently passed by the Lagos State House of Assembly.
Call for Action: the role of Impact Investing
According to a 2016 World Bank report, the average life expectancy of Nigerians was 53 years, a far cry from that of average for low and middle-income countries, which the organization put at a little above 70 years. A major cause of the short life expectancy is environmental pollution, with more than 9 million people are killed annually.
From the foregoing, it is fairly obvious that any serious attempt to enhance the quality of life of Nigerians through a clean-up of the environment will need huge funding. This is an opportunity that impact investors should embrace as it has the potential of delivering good returns while offering portfolio diversification alternatives. With impact investing, it is possible to shrink the negative impacts on the environment and also generate positive returns on investments.
Impact Investing in environmental intervention tools
A critical situation analysis shows that Impact investing for the protection of the environment is possible. It can be achieved through investments in organizations, bonds, funds and other instruments whose primary objective is to improve social and environmental conditions.
An example of such instruments is the green bond, which was initially introduced in Nigeria in December 2017. Green Bonds are typically debt instruments issued to raise capital for specific clean power projects or projects aimed at reducing the threat of climate change.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
