Tackling pollution of our rivers

Nigerians, especially those in the rural areas, live with the ever-present pollution of their only sources of potable water – springs, streams and small rivers. This is mostly due to lack of government diligent attention to the welfare of the people and outright lawlessness by citizens, including corporate citizens.

The people of Amankwo of Agbada Inyi Autonomous Community in Oji River Local Government Area of Enugu State woke up recently to discover that their only source of water sustenance, the Odu River, had become contaminated and undrinkable. Indeed, the fish resources of the river have died en masse because of the activities of a coal mining company which refuses to abide by its commitments to environmental safety practices. Also, Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, has been embroiled in a campaign to stop fetish cults from using streams, rivers and lakes in the state for sacrifices. He personally leads the crusade to hunt them down and bring them to book for endangering public safety. 

River pollution in Nigeria manifests chiefly through open defecation, careless dumping of industrial effluents, agricultural run-offs containing pesticides, domestic sewage and poisonous heavy metals like lead and cadmium. Flooding exacerbates contamination by carrying these man-made, urban and industrial wastes into our rivers, especially during floods. While a certain degree of pollution of large rivers like the Niger, Benue, Imo, Osun, Cross River and Kaduna cannot be helped, that of streams that sustain lives at the grass roots must be tackled with the crusading gusto that Gov. Soludo is championing in Anambra State.

We call on state governments to synergise with the local governments and the communities to fight this menace. Every state supposedly has a Ministry of Environment. Those who do not have should do so immediately. We must create a vehicle that drives environmental safety to ensure that private and public toilets with water facilities are established in rural communities to end open defecation and river pollution. Industries operating within communal localities must be held to their environmental obligations. No industry or mining facility should operate without environmental impact assessment and routine compliance clearances.

Mining, in particular, has increasingly become a major source of pollution, danger to the miners and insecurity to surrounding communities. Rogue government officials and businessmen/women collude with their expatriate partners to exploit our minerals with zero concern for the safety of the people. Their activities pollute rivers as witnessed in Inyi Community of Enugu State. The security and well-being of the people is the first obligation of all governments. We call on all governors to adopt direct hot-lines where these threats to the lives of the common people can be brought directly to their notice. Religious activities around our rivers must be tightly regulated for public safety.

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