Analysis of Marine Pollution of Ports and Jetties in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

Ports and jetties complex operations come with various forms of pollutions. The analysis of marine pollution from ports becomes very necessary and complicated due to the various types of pollution, sources, effects and different characteristics. The sources of environmental pollution other than ships and from industrial activities in port and jetties were critically looked at and analyzed. A complete review of the environmental pollution in ports and the tools to assess and minimize such negative environmental impact are analyzed. The instrument of questionnaires was employed and distributed among two seaports and one jetty; Onne, Okrika and Port Harcourt to collect respondents’ opinions on effects, sources and causes of marine pollution. The chi-square test for independence was used with 180 respondents from Onne port, Port Harcourt port and Okrika jetty. Water sample was collected from Onne seaport and pollution contents such as total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH), bio-chemical oxygen demand (BOD), turbidity, pH and salinity were tested in the laboratory. The result shows that Onne water had a salinity level of 20,790 (mg/l) which under the salinity range of water is considered saline, a turbidity level of 4.00 (NTU) which was considered average comparing with a 5.00 (NTU) bench mark, BOD5 level of 0.48 (mg/l) which was considered pristine because most pristine seawater will have BOD below 1 (mg/l), pH level of 7.77 which falls under the range of sea water being alkaline (7.2 - 8.4), TPH level of 2.98 (mg/l) since all conditions of sampling and sample preservations were observed and the value is less than the DPR limit (10 mg/l). It was concluded that the activities in Onne port are within the acceptable limits. It was also observed from the questionnaire that a larger population of respondents in Onne, Okrika and Port Harcourt ports where conscious of the sources and effects of environmental pollution from their respective ports.