Nigeria: Di black soot people dey breathe for Port Harcourt
E don tay wey people for Port Harcourt, south-south Nigeria don de cry say di air wey dem de breathe no dey safe and e dey cause serious sickness.
Di air for dia dey polluted with soot, wey be say if you clean your nose, na black things go stain your handkerchief. Now, one global app wey dem dey call Air Visual don kukuma say di air for dia no dey safe at all. Dis app dey see how safe di air for any location for di world dey. Wired Ng, wey be online tori people, use di app for Port Harcourt, come see say di Air Quality Index (AQI) for di city na 190 and e get one dangerous substance wey dem call PM2.5. Dis one fit cause cancer and premature death. How people dey react? Port Harcourt people don raise alarm concerning dis issue especially for social media. Dem don start many social media campaigns like 'My Environment My Wealth', '#StopTheSoot' for both Twitter and Facebook, including many demonstration wey dem don do for dis mata. Wonne Afronelly, di person wey start 'My Environment My Wealth' tell BBC Pidgin tori person Karina Igonikon, say di Harmattan wey dey blow now dey make di pollution worse. She say one thing wey dey add to di pollution na di illegal crude oil refining aka 'kpofire', wey boys dey do for di area and di way wey military people dey take destroy and burn di kpofire camps wey dem find. Afronelly say e bad say dis soot pollution mata don pass one year wey dem de cry about am and di thing still de worry till now. Di state government say dem don close three asphalt companies wey dey comot soot before, but nobody know wia di companies dey. Afronelly say if dem no do anything, doctors go start to see new sickness join di cough and breathing sickness we dem don dey see now. Wetin government talk? Rivers State Commissioner for Environment, Professor Roseline Konya, tell BBC Pidgin say di state government de on top of di mata. She say di state don do research on top di soot come see say di tyre, dirty wey people dey burn na wahala. Asphalt production and substance from refinery and industrial processes join. Konya say dem don dey talk to companies and other people dem wey dia work dey cause pollution, including NNPC and military dem. She come add join say government go use law wey be di Environmental Protection Management Bill wey dem dey arrange take fight di soot mata, including punishment for people wey dey use dia work pollute di air.