Owaza soot menace: Abia on verge of environmental disaster, groups warn * Accuse security agents of aiding oil bunkering

Owaza soot menace: Abia on verge of environmental disaster, groups warn

* Accuse security agents of aiding oil bunkering

By Steve Oko

Foundation for Environmental Rights Advocacy and Development, FENRAD; as well Centre for Human Rights Advocacy and Wholesome Society (CEHRAWS), has raised alarm over the sooty particles “overwhelming communities” in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State.

This, the rights groups warned, foreshadows a looming danger with grave health and environmental implications.

According to the groups, the soot is as a result of illegal refineries in the area which now endangers human lives.

The environmental rights groups in a joint release signed by Comrade Nnanna Nwafor, Executive Director, FENRAD; and Peter Okoye, Executive Director, CEHRWAS, urged for urgent action to stop the environmental pollution.

“After a visit to some communities in the said LGA, FENRAD and CEHRAWS are of the view that there is a need now for both mitigative and restorative measure that avert this potential environmental threat”, the statement read.

The groups called on the Federal Government, the State Government, Ministry of Environment, and other relevant agencies to intervene.

The statement further read:”While there exist, within petroleum informal sector, Indigenous and illegal refineries, regrettably, this illegal industry is being aided in no small measure by security agencies for which clashes between host communities and the security agencies have broken out countless times.

“It is to be understood that, as is the case with Rivers State, many locals and other interest groups are racketeering in the shady deal now becoming a norm in Ukwa West.

“The outcome of such environmental recklessness, all available records show, has always remained largely unsustainable and insufferable for the most part.

“In Rivers State and elsewhere, governments have begun implementation of stiff penalties and severe punishments against offenders with many of such local refineries torn down.

“With this current trend, lifespan of people in the affected communities including that of the unborn and pregnant women is already endangered.

” Soot is not a domestic waste particle but suspended impure carbon with high toxicity, dangerous to biodiversity and the entire ecosystem.

“It is shocking that in a world where everyone is moving towards alternative and clean source of energy with the talk of biodiversity as the plank of state and non-state actors’ commitment towards sustainable development, Abia could be going in a reverse direction in the name of Kpo Fire and illegal bunkering.”

The groups also called on traditional rulers and village heads of the affected communities and towns to rise to the occasion.