While speaking on environmental degradation in Lagos, the Environmentalist said that the acidic downpour caused by gas flaring was antithetical to biodiversity and threat to human habitat.
The Executive Director, Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development, Dr Leslie Adogame, expressed shock on the continual degradation of the South-South zone of the country through oil exploration.
According to him, gas flaring practice which contaminates the ozone layer returns to the zone as acidic rainfall that clogged water percolation, reduction in soil nutrients, and biodiversity disequilibrium.
“Shrubs and economic trees are not left out in the environmental menace of acid rain as many of those rarely survive the chemicalised ecosystem.
Similarly, the National President Nigeria Environmental Society of Nigeria (NES), Dr Dorothy Bassey, said that the acidic rainfall prevalent in and around Niger Delta region contributed to social strife in the area.
“With the heavy dependence of the people on farming when crops are affected, so produce is less as it leaches minerals from the soil.
Bassey, who expressed concern over youth unrest in the area, urged the Federal government to expand the scope of its amnesty programme in the zone.
He said the expansion will also accommodate more youths especially the unemployed graduates to pacify the society and create an enabling environment for more private sector participation in the economy.
Eniang, who foresees further despair of the people, called on the government to compel oil exploration firms in the area to advance their community social responsibility to help the people with basic needs.
He noted that as the PH is low in the area as a result of gas emission, it makes the rain mixed with nitrous oxide acid that among other things corrodes roofing sheets.
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