…As CYFI calls govt to action
Underground water level in parts of Rivers State and the Niger Delta is said to be so low that contact with chemical waste from heavy industrial pollution is now getting out of hand.
On this score, an expert, Ephraim Ikechukwu, a professor the department of Environmental Management in the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), has warned that even doctors in the city were getting tired of strange cases.
Ikechukwu spoke in a lecture at the Waste Innovation and Pollution Eradication (W.I.P.E) Conference 2024 organised by the Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative (CYFI).
Speaking at the event that took place at the American Corner of the university library, the don said industrialisation boosts wastes such as chemical, plastic, and other forms. He said waste redistribution is now a big industry with huge infection potentials.
The greatest of the many health hazards in Port Harcourt at the moment, he noted, include underwater pollution which he said is going on massively to the extent that the state must move fast to standard waste management. He reminded the government that there is big wealth in the waste management industry.
He gave the major cause for environmental degradation to be landfills. “It is not true that landfills curb waste. It rather contributes to soil and water pollution.”
He said research shows that disaster is coming. “Household and industrial wastes have joined hands to pose greater disaster ahead. There is low water depth in the riverine areas of the Niger Delta and Rivers State in particular. The quality of soil has been affected, harvests are poorer, pesticides and other agric chemicals remain in the soil for a very long time.”
On this, he called on the government to intervene as a must especially in providing standard waste sorting centres. For now, he regretted, waste ends in rivers because government seems to have abandoned the waste management responsibility to amateurs and mercantilist practitioners who he said have no basic understanding of the cycle of waste and dangers of mismanaged waste.
“The fish stock in the waters is poisoned and humans end up eating them. Natural balance is destroyed. Animals now eat plastic waste. Cancer is being groomed and spread. The habitat is being destroyed badly. Proper waste disposal is needed, now.”
He noted that bio-accumulation in tissues of animals is going on, and that climate change and global warming are high and now cause excessive heat, etc. “The Europeans and Americans are now very much aware and are thus more careful about greenhouse effects and emissions.
“But Nigeria is rather a dumping ground for e-waste such as air conditioners, computers, phones, etc. There are regulations and conditions on their use and longevity in most advanced countries where they return them to the factories after a year or two. Africa especially Nigeria rather welcomes them as fairly used.
“There is no recommendation on how to dispose of these old computers which we find at refuse dumps.
“Doctors are quietly complaining of surge in cancer and respiratory cases in the area. In fact, they are tired. The dumpsites are breeding grounds for diseases. Even what they call company water in Port Harcourt is a danger zone because the boreholes are not treated according to regulation. Multiple interventions are urgently needed.”
He encouraged the many prongs of war against waste to continue and get encouraged. Ikechukwu insisted that the war against waste has gone beyond the 3Rs, to 5Rs, and now to 7Rs.
Explaining some of them, he urged the populace to consider the ‘Reduce’ option so as to curb waste by going for products with minimal packaging requirements. He however noted that what is waste for one individual may be needed by another.
“Re-Use: It is advised that people use most of the packaging from one item for use next time and reduce procurement of the next cycle of packaging. Recycle: This is an important practice to reduce waste by recycling the waste for another life. Recover: This is where extraction plays a role by extracting what is good to produce it again.”
He went on to talk about ‘Rethink’ which he said was about creating a fundamental shift in how people viewed waste, while ‘Repropose looks at the idea of transforming objects into new forms. In ‘Refuse’, he talked about the concept of rejecting bad practices that cause waste.
Speaking to declare the conference open, Helen Emaeseabu, a professor and university librarian, who sat in for Uwunari Georgewill, the Vice Chancellor, harped on the 3Rs but said innovations were needed to tackle environmental issues especially deforestation. She said respect for nature must be at the heart of any activity or work, and that humans must take action such as planting of trees.”
In an interview, Ngozi Sam-Orji, Rivers State Coordinator of the Carrington Youth Fellowship International (CYFI), said the organization was founded by Walter Carrington, onetime ambassador of the US in Nigeria.
She said it is a leadership and innovation programme where officials get young people to carry out various social responsibility activities in their areas.
“They look out for environmental issues around them and try to tackle them with innovation to make impact. We agree that in a country of over 200 million people, it would require a large number of people to make impact, but we also know that little drops of water make a mighty ocean.
“The government cannot do everything, so that big change we expect can start with us one step at a time in our own areas. This way, we create that big change we hope to see.
With CYFI, it is better because the target is the younger generation, to catch them young. They will grow up getting it right. Then, we can say the future is better.”
On whether CYFI was wasting its time doing so little too late, she said it was not the way to view it. “We are not wasting our time fighting for the environment. Over the years, the awareness will grow. This is the third CYFI cohort in Rivers State and I was a fellow of the first cohort. We trained the kids at the Port Harcourt Remand Home. People were discouraging us that the inmates in the remand home were bad. Today, I have testimonies about children there who are now responsible individuals in the society today, working and doing well.
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“We are alarmed the way people handle waste, especially scavengers. There is need to train people on the right way to handle waste. We had planned to carry advocacy to the government on some things that can be one but there are hitches everywhere. The Rivers State Waste management Agency (RIWAMA) is our target but it has been no headway yet because of leadership issues. We intended to work with them to encourage people to bag their waste, to make laws and policies that would help environment waste management, make laws about scavenging, etc.”
The state coordinator said they want the government to train scavengers and show them the appropriate way to dress. “The ones we see do not wear coverall. They are even a threat instead of a solution. Government should create restrictions on where they should do sorting centres.
“We intend to partner with more groups to carry out our programmes. We believe we will move ahead.”
On what CYFI would consider as success point, Sam-Orji said: “Success to CYFI is when there is enough awareness about waste and we find that people can know what is environmentally wrong and when people can make informed decisions.”
Students came from different schools and exhibited what they created from waste. Activists said these would teach others and the young that waste could be turned to wealth and that everybody had a duty to apply any of the Rs when face to face with waste.
