The Provost, College of Medical Science Rivers State University (RSU) Prof Kenneth Ordu, says report on state of environmental degradation that by  the year 2070, some villages and comminutes in Niger Delta may be submerged in water as a result of worsening environmental degradation and ravaging pollution in the region.
 Prof. Kenneth Ordu made this revelation in a chat with newsmen during the West African Society of Pharmacologists (WASP) conference, with theme: “The Scourge of Environmental Pollution and Climate Change in the West African Sub Region,”  organized by the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Medical Sciences of the University.
 According to Prof. Ordu, the scourge of environmental degradation poses a dangerous risk to various villages and communities that reside in the creeks and river banks in the Niger Delta adding that the situation in the region has been worsened by the impacts of climate change occasioned by increased water levels and ravaging coastal erosions.
“There is a report that says that almost all the villages around the creeks in the Niger Delta may be submerged in water by 2070. So that’s what the scourge looks like,” the Professor stated.
He therefore charged the government, individuals and organizations to take preventive measures to ensure that such projections does not occure adding that research conferences like that organised by the Department of Pharmacology of the institution are organized to provide solutions towards averting impending dangers and disasters that may happen.
The Provost stated that recommendations of the conference will be forwarded to the government to seek for more actions on ways of mitigating the scourge of environmental degradation and climate change.
 “There is no natural disasters that does not have solutions. That is why warnings come before anything happens for preventive measures to be put in place,” he said.
Prof. Ordu condemned the government policy of distributing palliatives to victims of environmental disasters stating that it merely treats the symptoms instead of providing curative measures.
The Provost who described the RSU College of Medicine as the best in the country with over 577 qualified personnel pointed out that the rating has put the college in tight position to ensure that it sustains and maintains the standards already achieved.
“So we need improvements in infrastructure, manpower and departmental needs.
“If we don’t manage our success well. It won’t survive like it happened in the premier Universities,” he stated.
The Provost therefore appealed for support from the state government, individuals and organisations to make the RSU Medical School a World class model and the best in the World.
On his part, Prof. Paul Nwafor called for proper identifications of environmental degradations in the region and the immediate and thorough cleaning of the impacted areas to enable the residents have new lease of life stressing the need to replicate the Ogoni remediation clean up in other areas of the Niger Delta.
Prof. Nwafor however expressed disappointment over the poor implementation of infrastructural projects in the region lamenting that his Umuechem community which according to him hosts lots of oil Wells and produces the World’s best crude oil, the Bonny Light crude still lives in abject poverty and squalor with no basic infrastructures.
President of WASP, Prof. Ching Poh while expressing delight at the success of the conference called for more attention on the health and environmental problems affecting the society stressing that health is wealth.
Head of Department, Pharmacology and Chairman, Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the Conference, Dr. Christian Uraka identified climate change and environmental degradation as topical issues that have attracted global discussions adding that the Niger Delta has suffered unmitigated cases of environmental issues such as pollution arising from crude oil spill, wastes materials and other forms of pollution on the environment which he said has caused a lot of changes and challenges in the ecosystem of the region.
Dr. Uraka lamented the recent upsurge of such diseases like cancer, ear, nose and throat (ENT) infections among others, as a result of environmental pollution and degradations adding that it was the reason that the Medical college had to assemble astute researchers across the globe to brainstorm on the way forward.
He therefore called on the nation’s policy makers to enact relevant laws and policies that will improve the well-being of  humanity.