Behind the suburban Amadi-Ama community in southern Port Harcourt is a vital inland water body. This is the Amadi Creek, an estuary which lies on the north of the Bonny River, upstream from the Bight of Benin.
Aside from the destructive oil spills, the waterway is also struggling with the swirly toxicity of plastic junks, exposing the fauna to more harm.
Peter Daniel, an energetic and muscular man in his 30s, sits on an abandoned brick amidst a vast chunk of plastics. Living as a fisherman in Amadi-Ama community, Mr Daniel spends a lot of time fishing at the creek.
This places him at the forefront of the marine scourge, one of those outrightly disturbed by the water.
The United Nations has identified the contamination of water bodies with plastics and by-products as a complex and multi-dimensional environmental hazard.
“Plastic waste is one of the biggest threats to the world’s oceans,” the UN says. “More than eight million tonnes of plastic leak into the ocean each year – the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck of plastic every minute. Plastic waste harms wildlife, damages marine ecosystems and causes adverse impacts to human health.”
Nta Wogba stream
The Nta Wogba stream is another freshwater body exposed to this environmental disaster. Situated in a town with dense human settlement and massive non-biodegradable waste problem, the stream cuts across Diobu and three other local government areas. It flows beneath several highways and empties into the Bonny River.
Oto Obasi is standing close to the bank, beside a group of flowering plants. The small-scale gardener would rather plant his flowers in a vase than directly in the soil even though he had intentionally chosen that spot for planting.
Plastic wastes have a direct effect and implication on the coastal environment. They contain particles as small as a virus that has an ecological effect.
There’s a global battle against plastic waste, particularly when it comes to the single-use plastics.
A global review from the UNEP and the World Resources Institute (WRI) shows out of 192 countries reviewed, 127 have adopted some form of legislation to regulate plastic.
Africa is leading the world in plastic regulations with 34 countries adopting taxes or ban.
However, Nigeria is yet to adopt any proactive measure to curb plastic despite been estimated as the ninth in the world for mismanagement of plastic waste.
Data released by Our World in Data (OWID), an online science publication estimates that Nigeria generates 5.96 million tons of plastics.
Annually, over 20 thousand tonnes of plastics wastes are littered by coastal populations within 50 kilometres away from a coastline.
In May 2019, the House of Representatives passed a bill banning the use of plastic bags in Nigeria. The Plastic Bag for Prohibition Bill proposed to prohibit use, manufacture and importation of plastic bags used for commercial and household packaging.
“The bill seeks to address among other things, the use, manufacture and importation of all plastic bags used for commercial and household packaging to address harmful impacts to oceans, rivers, lakes, forests, environment as well as human beings and also to relieve pressure on landfills and waste management and for other related matters,” a section of the bill read.
Although the bill mirrors punitive legislations prevalent in other African countries, it is not treated as such.
However, a year after the House of Rep passed the bill, nothing has been heard of its enactment. It is as though the plague is of no particular interest to the government.
Worrisome wave
From grocery bags, straws wrapped food to disposal plastics, plastics have become ubiquitous in the marine environment. This is due to its indiscriminate disposal and poor recycling. These non-biodegradable products are entering the ocean at a rate of about 11 million metric tonnes annually.
The use of plastics is increasingly becoming dominant and production is steadily on the rise.
Since most drains and gutters in Port Harcourt are built to direct all waste into one inland water body of the other, marine litter is unavoidable.
For Mr Daniel, until plastic production is halted, marine debris will continue to be a menace in his community since people will always purchase, use and dispose of randomly. Curbing marine debris is a very difficult goal to achieve.
“The careless disposal of single-use plastics by the residents and even neighbouring residents is largely responsible for the enormous amount of plastics and microplastics you find offshore and the water surface. The accumulation of these wastes is as a result of human negligence. Most drains and gutters are filled with domestic plastics waiting to be washed into the river.”
Plastics can end up in the marine environment through a variety of pathways. As such, there are often clear patterns between plastics in the marine environment and plastic waste in a nearby site.
The chunks of plastics on the coast of Abuloma are deposited by the flowing river. It is majorly influenced by high tides and the wave pattern. The riverbank represents a major sink for plastic waste due to the wide network of water connections in the city.
When the tide is high, the water flows down with countless plastics and is directed by the wave pattern.
Wastes are moved from distant or neighbouring towns and are abandoned offshore until the tide is high enough to take them back.
“These plastics come from Elelewa, Apajor, Woji and many other communities. When the tide is high, plastic wastes flow down from these communities. Some are abandoned offshore while the others are carried down to the high sea. wastes are abandoned. That’s why these trash cans are all over the place,” Mr Obinna said.
Scavengers worsen situation
Few kilometres away from the coast of Woji river, a neighbouring estuarine to Abuloma jetty, is a group of nine scavengers. The group operated what looked like a local recycling centre and has been in action for close to a decade.
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