The Coronavirus that was unleashed on the peoples of the world at the beginning of the year has, as at October 22, 2020, infected 41,104,946 people and killed 1,128,325 according to World Health Organization (WHO) data. In the ten months or so since its ferocious rampage, COVID-19 has undoubtedly re-configured the world’s social dynamics, demystified perceived invincibility of superpowers and humbled arrogant world leaders. The arsenals of the world’s mightiest militaries were rendered useless as generals watched helplessly unable to protect citizens. The brightest of experts and scientists were left groping in the dark not knowing what to call or make of the new disease; guessing and second-guessing potentially effective treatment regimes, mitigation measures and practices.
The experts’ predictions were grim and brutal, instilling fear and panic. Peoples across the globe were faced with calamitous outcomes on the scale of the Spanish plague of the early 20th century that infected about a third of the world’s population and killed 50 million people.
In those early months, the health infrastructures of developed nations were overwhelmed. Oxygen and ventilators became the most prized and sought-after commodities around the world. President Donald Trump reportedly commandeered planeloads of ventilators meant for Germany, France and Brazil to the United States. Automobile factories were redesigned to manufacture ventilators while beer factories were re-modelled to produce hand sanitizers. India banned the exportation of chloroquine. It was a perilous and harrowing time for people around the globe.
It is yet unclear if government at local, state or federal level is doing or plans to do anything to scientifically investigate and calibrate the environmental pollution problem in Port Harcourt and environs let alone prescribe measures to mitigate its impact on the health of residents.
―Sepribo Lawson-Jack
To have a handle on the spread of COVID-19, the experts eventually settled on the non-pharmaceutical preventive measures of social distancing, wearing of face masks and frequent washing of hands while the race for effective treatments and vaccines goes on at break-neck pace.
Then, Africa with her parlous health infrastructures, congested urban slumps, poor and ignorant populations and largely unresponsive governments was told to expect the worst devastation from COVID-19. And the West cannot leave their own raging fires to come and assist Africa. But it appears Africa has got away lightly. So far, the low rates of COVID-19 infections and fatalities across Africa have confounded medical experts and scientists. Whilst it may be true that the positivity rates could have been much higher if sufficiently large proportions of the populations were tested, the fatality figures seem to indicate that the COVID-19 burden on African nations has been nothing close to what was predicted. The scientific basis for this apparent ‘good luck’ must be thoroughly investigated and unraveled, hopefully by African scientists, for the benefit of Africa and the world.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation of about two hundred million people has reported 61,805 COVID-19 infections and 1,127 deaths as of October 22, 2020 according to the Nigerian Centers for Disease Control (NCDC). What did Nigeria do differently? Some claim that the early ban on international flights, imposition of curfews and lockdowns, shutting down of schools, government offices and markets, ban on large gatherings, etc. might have substantially mitigated the spread of COVID-19 in the country. However, my observation is that Nigerians did not strictly adhere to the non-pharmaceutical preventive measures of social distancing, wearing of face masks and frequent washing of hands in order to have prevented wide-scale community spread. Large sections of the population particularly the youth and rural dwellers simply went about their normal daily lives; many believed COVID-19 was a hoax, others believed it exists but they are immune to it.
Here in Port Harcourt, where I reside, the state Governor’s initial draconian measures of restrictions and containment were largely rebuffed by the people. Social distancing did not work effectively and wearing of masks was sparingly adhered to. With the NCDC reporting under 200 new daily COVID infections across the country in the past two weeks or so, the general attitude of residents of the city (and Nigerians in other parts of the country) is that COVID has finally been consigned to the dustbin of history as a bad dream.
Now, many studies have shown that the city of Port Harcourt, the oil hub of Nigeria located in the Niger Delta region occupies one of the most polluted lands on the Earth’s surface. Established in 1912 by the British colonial government and named after then secretary Lewis Harcourt, for the primary purpose of gaining access to the sea for exportation of coal from the Enugu mines, Port Harcourt has since become the operational base of multi-national oil and gas companies. Host to the two largest petroleum refineries in Nigeria, a fertilizer company and a gas fired Afam power plant, its environs are dotted with oil and gas wells and flow stations and criss-crossed by thousands of kilometers of pipelines. For 50 years or so over 300 million standard cubic feet of natural and associated petroleum gas, by-products of oil exploitation, have been flared annually into the skies over the city saturating the atmosphere with carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons. For many years the rains that fall on Port Harcourt, and the Niger Delta in general, have been characterized by high contents of sulfuric and nitric acids that corrode everything it falls on including the asphalt and concrete on the roads.
For many years the rains that fall on Port Harcourt, and the Niger Delta in general, have been characterized by high contents of sulfuric and nitric acids
In the last three decades or so, the business of ‘cooking’ stolen crude oil in open space around the creeks of the city by jobless and frustrated youths, locally known as ‘Kpom fire’, has severely worsened the pollution problem. Adding to these sources are the ubiquitous petrol generators hanging beside every building cranking away much of 24 hours of the day and, hordes of smoke gushing rickety vehicles on the roads all spewing carbon exhausts into the atmosphere.
Then comes the phenomenon of black soot falling from the skies of Port Harcourt. Anything and everything left outside overnight gets covered in black soot the next morning. Air-conditioning units are clogged up; furniture, bare floors and even clothes in wardrobes are stained black. The phenomenon is so alarming that the perplexed residents cried out for help.
In the height of it all, the Rivers State government constituted a technical committee chaired by the Commissioner for Environment to investigate the causes. Some Federal agencies got involved as well. Several years on, residents of Port Harcourt remain in the dark as to why black soot falls from the skies.
However, it is generally believed that the Nigerian military’s practice of burning down tens if not hundreds of so-called illegal refineries and boatloads of bunkered crude oil has been the major cause of the black soot. As we know, whatever goes up must come down.
Now, the implications of this magnitude of environmental pollution on the health of residents of Port Harcourt must be grave. Some uncoordinated public health studies have strongly indicated unusually high incidences of respiratory diseases such as bronchitis, asthma, and pneumonia as well as an increasing rate of cancer occurrences in the population. Gas flaring has been linked to cancer and lung damage as well as neurological and reproductive problems which have become pronounced among pregnant women and newborns in the region.
However, it is yet unclear if government at local, state or federal level is doing or plans to do anything to scientifically investigate and calibrate the environmental pollution problem in Port Harcourt and environs let alone prescribe measures to mitigate its impact on the health of residents.
Since COVID I have tried my utmost to wear my face mask as recommended and mandated believing that it does protect me from inhaling microscopic COVID droplets and aerosols. I have reasoned that the same face mask may very well protect me against airborne pollutants in the Port Harcourt environment. I have, therefore, decided to keep on wearing my face mask even after the COVID pandemic for as long as necessary while living in Port Harcourt.
♦ Sepribo Lawson-Jack, Ph.D writes from Nigeria, West Africa.
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