Attempting a marriage between heaven and hell would seem the equivalent of squaring a circle. Similarly, to juxtapose a clean and healthy environment with a filthy and unhealthy one stands to be a noticeable error of a given generation which posterity may never forgive.
The collective existence of Rivers’ people rests on its environment and the sustenance of the environment depends largely on its inhabitants.
The term “environment” refers to the natural landscape together with all of its non-human features, characteristics and processes. This environment encompasses the interaction of all living species, climate, weather, and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activities.
The deplorable condition of the environment, particularly in sub-urban Port Harcourt leaves so much to be desired. Instead of an improvement, it is depreciating into what appears more clearly now to be a certain catastrophe.
In his short piece titled “As it was in the Titanic…” published on page 36 of the Vanguard Newspaper of March 18, 2018, Osa Amadi, Arts Editor and a columnist wrote as regards our ailing environment: “There are close affinities between the warnings relayed to the sunken RMS Titanic and the warnings scientists are sending to us today about the danger our planet faces as a result of gross environmental pollutions. As it was in the Titanic, that night of April 1912, so shall it be on the day planet earth will lose balance as a result of decades of environmental sins committed against it by man”.
Environment does not only include the landscape which accommodates about 1.9 million Rivers people but also refers to the atmosphere from which we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbondioxide. People have recently cried out in parts of the State about a black powdery substance being seen in their index fingers whenever it is used to clean up their nostrils. This leads to the currently trending subject of climate change.
Climate change or rather global warming refers to a change in global or regional climate patterns attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbondioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.
Aquaculture industry, agro-allied products, socio-economic and human lives are being affected by climate change. It is no longer safe to drink rain water because it is carbonized, contaminated and turns black when it falls on zincs. Changes of weather patterns in some wet areas can become drier. Unexpected drought may lead to the loss of plant species, as well as the fishes.
Despite the tireless effort of the Rivers State Government to attach drainages to constructed roads, people still push a large bulk of garbage into these drainages, thus stopping free flow of water whenever it rains. If rain water cannot find an easy passage through these drainages, it could result in flooding, which posses danger to human lives. Besides, mosquito breeds lavishly on stagnant waters in designated places.
It is disheartening to note that passengers, through the windows of vehicles, throw down pure water sachets, empty cans of drink, tied polythene bags and a host of other dirt particles. The same unwholesome act goes on in tri-cycles (keke). Similarly, our waterways are littered with floating garbage at different locations which tends to interfere with propellers of speed boats. Roads and street passages have turned dump sites for wastes as they are generated daily.
Planet earth is getting smaller by the day and wastes are increasing steadily and it finds it cumbersome to absorb these wastes in the pace at which they are generated.
Typhoid fever is an acute illness associated with fever caused by the Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi bacteria. Typhoid fever is contracted by drinking or eating the bacteria in contaminated food or water.
If wastes are not properly disposed of, they attract flies, cockroaches, rodents which interact with foods and water. An individual becomes a patient in a hospital when he eats infected food or drink infected water. A patient parts with between five to seven thousand naira before getting a good medication of the parasitic duo of typhoid and malaria. Yet, people will never learn their lesson.
The environment is our heritage and we do not have another Rivers .State that would warrant us trivialising its enormous values which are indeed the envy of other states in Nigeria.
No amount of fund is too much to be expended to realise the lofty dreams of the government on the environment. The Rivers State Government has begun moves aimed at setting up a university that specialises in environment in the state. This is a step in the right direction.
Members of the public should adhere strictly to policies and programmes of the various departments of the Ministry of Environment; the media has its role to play in sensitising and educating the public on the hazards inherent in a grimy environment; stakeholders including corporate entities should be as responsive as possible to eliminate heaps of dirt in different spots and be committed to free planting of trees, flowers along major roads in Port Harcourt city and economic trees in the neighbourhoods.
We should be determined not to be part of the problems but part of the solution. The antidote or solution to the problem lies in our collective resolve to desist from all unwholesome practices that are inimical to a healthy, cleaner, fresher and greener environment which the Rivers State Government strives to achieve.
Asokun wrote in from Port Harcourt.

Charles Asokun