OCEANIFICATION/COASTAL EROSION:MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL/ECOLOGICAL THREAT TO COMMUNITIES IN BAYELSA STATE.
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| Abandoned NDDC shoreline protection project at Sangana community,Brass local government area. |
Oceanification or Coastal erosion: Major threat to
communities in Bayelsa State,in the Niger Delta.
When Environmental
challenges of Niger Delta Region of Nigeria is mentioned, the mind of most
folks, including Nigerians, would race first of all to the much talked about oil
industry-induced pollution and related environmental degradation; especially
those caused by routine gas flaring, gas leaks/eruptions and oil spills.
However, there are other environmental challenges peculiar to the area;
especially the most deltaic State like Bayelsa which has the longest share of
the Atlantic Coastline running through three local government areas of :Brass,
Southern Ijaw and Ekeremor. Bayelsa
State has no physical features like hills, valley or mountain; it is just a
low-lying geographical expression with several Rivers, Creeks and rivulets
which empties the water received from the River Niger into the Atlantic Ocean.
As some would say, Bayelsa State is more riverine than Rivers State and more
deltaic than Delta State. This is a fact.
Communities around the fringes of the Atlantic ocean are
threatened by what is now referred to as Oceanification [as coined by Chief
Nengi James], the opposite of desertification sailing in the Northern part of
Nigeria. Unfortunately, even though these communities are watching how crude
oil is taken away from their land daily, the authorities at the State and
Federal levels have done little or nothing to show concern about their plight.
Communities such as Odioama, Sangana,Twon-Brass,Okpoama, Koluama, Ekeni, and Ezetu,
are just few to mention; along the coastline experiencing this ecological
threat. The Nigerian Agip Oil Company
[NAOC] had tried in the past to protect the Shoreline at Twon-Brass, but that
effort has not be good enough as everything has been washed off and the threat
has returned to stare the people. Some efforts started by the Niger Delta
Development Commission at Sangana community has been abandoned since; without
completion.
Properties lost to this phenomenon include houses, electric
polls/wire, community roads and graveyards and vast expanse of land. Every now
and then the government would talk about how much funds that has been released
to tackle ecological problems in states. But, it is difficult to ascertain
where the ecological funds are being directed in the state. It is indeed a
great puzzle that where a nation/state is deriving the bulk of it revenue is so
neglected, alienated and abandoned.
This is not only unjust, unfair…it smacks of dereliction of
duty by those in authority.
Photos shows efforts made at Sangana community some years ago by the Niger Delta Development Commission [NDDC],but abandoned since.
Alagoa Morris
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