"Government May Not End Port Harcourt Soot" Scientists

Scientists have advanced reasons for Federal Government’s failure to identify the source of Port Harcourt ‘black soot’ in order to end the environmental and health hazards it poses to the people of Rivers State.

They noted that government has failed to look into the immediate and remote causes of the dangerous substance for over three years after it was discovered in Port Harcourt and its environs.

An environmentalist, Efegbidiki Okobia, told The Guardian that government has not made any attempt to monitor the development to ascertain where the black soot was emanating from.He said the soot, made up of carbon monoxide emission, was as high as 200 ppm in no fewer than 80 locations, adding that Port Harcourt residents are complaining that particles were entering their homes.

Okobia lamented that experts were not being carried along in determining the cause of carbon emission, otherwise referred to as Total Suspended Particular Matter (TSPM), saying they should be invited to discuss the way forward.