Several clusters of thick black soot clasp to the lungs of a 24-year-old man in a photo taken while he was being operated on by Iboroma Aku Shed in the oil-rich Nigerian city of Port Harcourt.
“When you wake up in the morning, if you don’t mop your floor, the soles of your feet become black,” Shed said. “When you go to your car, you have to wash the soot from your windshield. When you pick your nose, your children’s nose, when you breathe. We live with it every day and we’re seeing the effects becoming worse.”
Deaths suspected to be linked to air pollution also appear to have risen, doctors said, though cause of death is rarely possible to determine with absolute certainty as autopsies are not commonly carried out. Samuel Nwanosike, the local government chairman in Ikwerre, points at a vehicle filled with sacks of diesel confiscated from illegal oil refiners.“The frightening thing about the soot is it’s been going on for years,” said Bieye Briggs, a doctor and environmental activist in Port Harcourt. “It was invisible before but now it has become visible. We’ve lived with environmental destruction, we know the air is polluted but we’re seeing its effects in a more alarming way.
Extravagant government offices and luxury property housing political, traditional and business elites in Port Harcourt are the product of Rivers State’s oil wealth, which is scarcely felt elsewhere. “The issues are in fact much deeper than the government suggests. They are focused on the boys, but who polices the rivers? Who polices the creeks and the pipelines? Who controls the ports? It’s the security agencies. Who buys the fuel? Everyone does because it is cheaper and people are struggling. So the boys are only a small part of a much bigger issue.
Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)
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