Black soot: Rivers sets up taskforce to tackle menace

… as some residents threaten action

In response to the ongoing black soot that has enveloped the Port Harcourt atmosphere and its environs, the Rivers State government has set up a taskforce to tackle the menace that has been polluting the atmosphere of the Rivers capital.
The taskforce is mandated to investigate and resolve the environmental challenge. This was part of the resolutions of the Rivers State executive council meeting of Wednesday, which was chaired by Governor Nyesom Wike.
The taskforce to investigate the soot has the commissioner of environment, Roseline Konya, a professor, commissioner for special duties, Onowu Emeka Anyasodike, and their information and communications counterpart, Austin Tam-George, as members. The committee would also be backed by technical experts, and would liaise with major stakeholders to resolve the environmental challenges posed by the black soot.
Tam-George told journalists Wednesday evening that the state executive council resolved to raise a taskforce for the soot, after the environment commissioner spoke on preliminary results of her ministerial investigation.
But many residents say the soot is not limited to Port Harcourt alone, as it is noticed in other parts of the state. Sampler: some mentioned Soku, an oil-rich community that has been a bone of ownership contention between Rivers and Bayelsa states; Okrika, Alesa-Eleme; Aleto; Nchia, up to Akpajo, Elelenwo, all of Port Harcourt Municipal Government area.
Residents began raising great concern over the soot, complaining bitterly about the soot, which literally covers up the Port Harcourt atmosphere, especially between 6.00am and 11.00am. Also, at the soot appears at night, making most people feel it is an onset of harmattan.
Residents have been calling into Nigeria Info 92.3 FM, Port Harcourt’s popular talk radio complaining of the soot. Some said the soot has been oozing out around Soku area since two years. Others said the Okrika area, where the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) is located, began experiencing it since late last year. Okrika is strewn by a maze of pipelines that connect the PHRC. Also, there is much of illegal refining by illegal bunkerers in the area, where a great dose of the soot is noticed.
Meanwhile, some concerned residents have raised a twitter hashtag “Stop-The-Soot” #StopTheSoot, which has been trending on the twitter and other social media.
The hashtag reads: “Dear Port Harcourt residents, the time has come for us to compel the government to fish out the perpetrators, and put a stop to this hazard called black soot.
“We can no longer sit back and ignore this menace. Last year, we started a media movement, and the black soot stopped for a while; now it is back, and in greater intensity. The air we breathe is so polluted. You wake up in the morning and wipe your nostrils with a white handkerchief, and it turns black – what then does your lungs look like or that of your toddler?
“If you think you can close your windows and run air conditioners, what about the cost of diesel?
“Let’s ask ourselves how long will it take for PH residents to start lining up at hospitals with respiratory infections or perhaps cancer? Enough is enough.”
Also, the Rivers House of Assembly recently mandated its committee on Environment to check the activities of oil & gas based companies operating in the city, to ascertain if their operations were responsible for the soot.