Climate Change in Africa

NIGER DELTA, home to 20 million people and 40 different ethnic groups, this floodplain makes up 7.5% of Nigeria's total land mass. It is often called THE LAND OF MONEY. Niger Delta is the largest wetland and maintains the third-largest drainage basin in Africa. Its environment can be broken down into four ecological zones: coastal barrier islands, mangrove swamp forests, freshwater swamps, and lowland rainforests. This wonderfully well-endowed environment, contains one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity on the planet. The area is facing serious environmental pollution due to the extraction and processing of crude oil. Some of these problems are oil spills, water, air, land and noise pollution. Research as shown that the region could experience a loss of 41% of its inhabitable terrain in the next thirty years as a result of extensive environmental degradation and dam construction in the region.

Already the region is facing the impact of the environmental problems which include acid rain, destruction and migration of fishies, infatile farm land, lack o clean-drinking water, no good air, noise pollution. Gas flaring is also a major problem in this region. Along with the inefficiency of gas flaring, another problem gas flaring poses is the release of large amounts of methane, which has very high global warming potential. Areas like Eket and it' environs in Akwa Ibom State are already importing drinking water from neighbouring communities, Port-Harcourt, Bayelsa,...