Daily Independent Online.
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Monday, June 14, 2004.
N’ Delta ecosystem dislocated, says Okoko
By Emma Gbemudu
Correspondent,
Yenagoa
The
Niger Delta ecosystem has been virtually dislocated by the activities of oil
companies in the region, says Prof. Kimse Okoko of the University of Port
Harcourt.
According
to the Political Science lecturer, who spoke at the 2004 World Environmental
Day in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, oil pollution has caused the
extinction of many aquatic lives.
According
to the National President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), “we must
continue to remind ourselves of the precarious situation in which we found
ourselves. The Ministry of Environment must continue to beat the drums to
remind the Federal Government and oil companies to take appropriate action to reverse
the trend,” warning that if caution was not taken, the yearning for
sustainable development would only be a dream.
Earlier,
in his lecture entitled: “Wanted! Seas and Oceans - Dead or
Alive,” Prof. Cameroun Odu noted that globally, coastal zones were put under
pressure by population growth.
Odu
said population pressure include increased solid waste production, polluted
urban run-off, and loss of green space and wildlife habitat.
“Pollution arises from variety of
sources, the most frequent being waste management facilities, sewage, water and
the oil industry,” he explained.
To
achieve better water environment in the Niger Delta zone, the professor said
the long-term objective should be to ensure a far cleaner and healthy
ecosystem.
“This
would help to ensure that abstractions and discharges would neither damage the
environment nor threaten human health. It would prevent damaging pollution
incidents at source and fully control the causes of water pollution and
acidification,” Odu stated.
