After what seemed like a two-year lull, there now appears to be a slow but steady return of the mysterious black dust and tiny flakes that once descended on homes, offices, schools and open water bodies in and around Port Harcourt.
During its initial manifestation in late 2016, there was so much panic among the city’s residents regarding the health implication of inhaling what came to be known as black soot and following which the Rivers State Government immediately swung into action by raising a committee to investigate the source of the pollutant and recommend a solution.
The fear of a spike in cases of cancer, lung and liver infections, cough, cataarh, asthma and other respiratory ailments was reinforced by medical and environmental experts back then. And pursuant to the urgency required by the moment, the three-man committee quickly halted the operations of about three firms suspected of emitting dark fumes near Port Harcourt while also outlawing the indiscriminate burning of discarded vehicle tyres, at least, in the interim.
There were reports of arrests of defaulters around Oyigbo and a few other places. And even to this day, there is still evidence of efforts to recover any such condemned tyres from wherever they may be found in and around Port Harcourt. In fact, a space still exists somewhere between the Mile One Flyover and Silverbird Cinema on Abonnema Wharf Road which serves as a temporary dump for such recovered tyres.
But despite all this, black soot remained defiant, prompting some residents to consider relocating out of the state capital or moving away their more vulnerable family members until the situation abated. It also renewed the agitation for the multinational oil firms operating in the Niger Delta area to fully relocate their corporate headquarters to Port Harcourt so that their expatriate staff would experience part of what they had, for years, wished for people of the region through continued gas flaring.
As part of its advocacy and public enlightenment campaign, the state government promptly issued an advisory for residents to “refrain from eating foods prepared outdoors, including roasted plantain and suya; avoid drinking rain or exposed water; ensure all foods are covered; keep doors and windows closed; ensure children are kept indoors; and keep away from the floor; and, adopt use of face mask.”
The Federal Government’s attempt to explain the soot in Port Harcourt first came through the Director-General of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Peter Idabor, who blamed the menace on fumes from the illegal oil refining activities in nearby creeks. He also fingered the burning of motor tyres to extract copper wires; burning of tyres to process meat at the over 100 abattoirs in the city; burning of hydrocarbons seized from oil thieves by the security agencies; and heating of asphalt for road construction. According to Idabor, the soot which measures 2.5 micron in size is, indeed, too tiny to be prevented from entering homes and offices even when their windows are shut.
It could be recalled that the period being referred to here also witnessed many cases of kerosene explosion resulting from the use of ill-refined and adulterated petroleum products popularly known as ‘kpo fire’. In fact, it got to a point when dispensing this substandard fuel type became the stock-in-trade of even the major petroleum products retailers in and around Rivers State; thereby giving more impetus to illegal crude oil distillation in the creeks.
For me, the most troubling mystery of the so-called black soot is why it chose Port Harcourt as its mainstay among all the large human settlements in the Niger Delta. This is because the other towns in the region around which illegal oil refining activities equally thrive have remained mostly untainted. They include Yenagoa, Nembe, Ogbia Town, Sagbama, Bori, Degema, Warri, Burutu, etc.
Again, geographers tell us that the North-East trade wind heralds the dry harmattan season in Nigeria, between November and March. And keen observers will agree that this is mainly the worst period of the black soot menace in the Garden City. Since the harmattan wind always dissipates over the Atlantic Ocean, then it follows that the said wind will carry whatever soot that originates from these creeks located mainly south of Port Harcourt toward the high sea; in which case towns like Bonny, Brass and Kula that are located on the Atlantic fringes should be the worst hit. But this is not so.
If Port Harcourt must suffer black soot stemming from oil-mining activities, it ought to be during the rains between April and October when the moist South Westerly from the blue deep picks up the dark carbon particles over the fuming creeks while advancing northward. This makes sense as it explains the acid rain mostly witnessed in the city during this season.
Another worry is that the return of black soot naturally evokes the suspicion of an escalation in illegal oil refining activities along the creeks. And tied to it is the tendency of there being a rise in the incidences of kerosene explosion around town. Oh, not again!
Not again, because nobody deserves to suffer such avoidable fate in our city anymore. Secondly, in the event of any such disaster, the previous situation where fire service engines from the major international oil firms raced to assist victims even before the arrival of the state-owned fire trucks seems not to exist any longer. To be sure, recent fire incidents occasioned by gas explosions in parts of the city were reportedly extinguished by residents themselves without the usual timely response from any of the private fire service outfits in town. But, why so?
Lastly, and also to be treated seriously, is the realisation that COVID-19 is already characterised by some respiratory symptoms of its own and, as such, any further input from black soot is very likely to complicate things for patients. Therefore, just as attention is currently on the former and even as the use of face mask is recommended for both, there should be a deliberate effort by the state to step up its black soot advisory until Port Harcourt is totally rid of this menace.

By: Ibelema Jumbo