No Toxic Waste in Koko – Delta State Ministry of Environment

Delta State Government through the Ministry of Environment has debunk allegations of the presence of toxic waste dump in Koko, Warri North local government of Delta State.

Briefing the press on the outcome of the analysis carried out by its Ministry, the Commissioner for Environment, Barr. John Nani said that the substance presumed by the residents to be toxic is harmless and therefore there is no cause to worry.

In his words, “The further analysis of the collected samples using DPR parameters also revealed that the substance has minimal toxicity and therefore not capable of contaminating groundwater as alleged. The result also shows that the substance has no serious threat to human health, aquatic lives, vegetation and environmental sustainability.”

“Consequently, No environmental remediation will be required as samples falls below DPR intervention values. The sample collected from Ebenco Global Links Ltd, Koko is a Solid Non-Toxic Waste”, he stressed.

However, there are still doubts that the findings by the Ministry of Environment Team is not enough as more test analysis are being awaited to allay the already established fears.

It will be recalled that the Delta state Government was awaken to this development by an eye witness report on Channels Television on Sunday, 26th February, 2017, of an alleged dumping of substance suspected to be toxic waste at the dump site of Ebenco Global Links Ltd, an integrated waste management facility in Koko.

The Ministry of Environment led by the Hon. Commissioner, Barr. John .O. Nani mobilized to the site for on-the-spot assessment were samples of the substance were randomly collected and stored in plastic containers for further laboratory analysis at Quality Analytical Laboratory Service limited, Benin City.

The analysis findings by the Quality Analytical Laboratory Service revealed that the substance was a product of crude petroleum, it appears to be a treated petroleum sludge, some of the toxic parts of the crude oil such as PAH, BTEX, Hg, Cd, Pb, As, Cr, V, Ni e.t.c were among the parameters analysed and compared with DPR intervention values which was reported to be below DPR intervention values.

The tension raised by this waste dump instituted fears in the minds of Deltans, that the ugly and unpleasant experiences of 1988, when imported toxic waste from Italy were dump in Koko town was playing out again.