While scrolling through my social media, a peculiar hashtag- #SootInPortHarcourt- caught my interest.

I was intrigued mainly because of two things. Firstly, I know soot to be a deep black powdery or flaky substance made up of amorphous carbon, produced by the incomplete burning of organic matter. In other words, soot is one of the most obvious and deadliest evidence of air pollution.

Secondly, Port Harcourt, the capital and largest city of Rivers State, Nigeria is located in the Niger Delta. For many Nigerians, the region is synonymous with oil spillage and all kinds of environmental pollution.

With this background in mind, I decided to find out more. Unsurprisingly, the emergence of black soot has been a long-time phenomenon experienced by residents of Port Harcourt. It all started around 2016 when residents began to observe that several parts of the city were covered with dark particulate matter.

This sparked off a major public outcry from citizens as protests, petitions and social media campaigns went live. In response, the Rivers State government set up a technical committee to investigate the prevalence of soot in the state as well as provide recommendations that can tackle the problem of soot.

The report revealed soot sources to be oil bunkering, burning of illegally refined petroleum products by the military, gas flaring, fertilizer companies, among other causative factors.

Black soot: health implications on the young

The World Health Organization has it that air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year. In 2020, data shows that air pollution caused the premature death of nearly half a million babies in their first month of life, with most of the infants being in developing countries.

Port Harcourt is easily the most polluted city in Nigeria. Going by the report spearheaded by the Rivers state’s former Commissioner for Environment, Prof. Roseline Konya, about 22,077 persons living in the region have suffered from respiratory-related ailments.

According to one 2018 study carried out in Port Harcourt metropolis, a total of 2,202 children between 1 month and five years were found to be diagnosed with Acute Respiratory Infection. While it is said that smokers are liable to die young; sadly,  it is apparent that one does not necessarily have to smoke to die young.

As it is, Nigerians are already exposed to toxic air pollution, but this becomes alarming when soot is thrown into the mix. As the medical survey shows, study Residents of Port Harcourt are at high risk of coronary heart disease, asthma, flu, bronchitis, and other respiratory tract infections because of the soot.

Because soot particles are microscopic, each just 2.5 micrometers in size, 30 times smaller than human hair, they are able to creep into the nose, lungs, and bloodstream. When inhaled, the soot particles become an irritant causing victims to present symptoms such as coughing. After a persistent cough, a wound begins to form inside the lungs.

The soot is such a public health crisis that doctors in Port Harcourt warn that without action, more than 6 million residents face the risk of cancer in the next few years. Although, many have fled to other parts of the country in safety, others, particularly the poor still remain mainly because they have no place to go.

Years later, is it still business as usual?

Although the soot issue is not as burning as it was five years ago, it cannot be ignored into oblivion.

Per the government, the plague is caused by unrelenting oil bunkering, which is a common practice of oil theft carried out by youths in the Niger Delta region. Others have attributed it to gas flaring and other harmful activities of major oil corporations the likes of Shell, Exxon Mobil, and Chevron

With the status quo being the same and even worse in some cases, residents of the state are infuriated by the laxity of the government. From time to time, some still take to social media to vent their anger while appealing to the government across all levels- local, state, and federal- to act decisively and step up their efforts.

Here are some of the reactions on social media

The way forward

It is safe to say that the pollution crisis in Port Harcourt is a matter of national importance. With its reputation as one of the largest producers of oil in Nigeria and the wealthiest, the government needs to improve the quality of life of people living in the region.

The government needs to initiate swift actions to tackle this ongoing air plague, because like it or not, it won’t dissipate on its own if things don’t change. The government should put up measures that will reduce soot pollution such as the following:

• Provide employment opportunities for youths so as to nip vandalism in the bud.
• Be intentional about holding heavy carbon-emitting companies accountable for their environmental and carbon footprint.
• Promote environmental awareness for people in the communities.