With about eight million tones of plastics and five trillion pieces of plastics in the ocean, Managing Director of NLNG Ship Management Limited (NSML), Abdulkadir Ahmed, has warned that waterways and, by extension, the world oceans are in the depths of a plastic crisis.
He said that plastics and marine pollution have found their way into every marine ecosystem in the planet, impacting not only economic activities but also the health of the people and environment.
Ahmed stated that scientists had warned that by 2050 there would be more plastics, by weight than fish in the sea, with an ever-increasing level of micro-plastics entering the global food chain.
He gave the warning in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, at the NSML water initiative programme organised for stakeholders, with focus on highlighting the devastating impacts of plastics, debris, litters and wastes in the waterways and, by extension, the oceans.
He explained that the essence of the initiative was not “only highlighting the extent of the problem, but also building consensus and alignment for collective action.
“The expectation is that we will engender open and frank discussion on the malaise of marine pollution, while building and developing a broad-based coalition necessary to address the menace going forward,” Ahmed said.
He stressed that the threat of plastic pollution called for action both at the micro and macro levels, saying that in addition to other environmental considerations the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14) is focused on the need to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
In his remarks, , General Manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development, Andy Odeh, said the clean water initiative is a universal course, given the importance of water to human existence.
He said: “The clean water initiative campaign for which we are here today is part of NLNG Ship Management Limited (NSML’s) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative to highlight the effects of plastics, debris and other litter in the waterways in Rivers State.
“The initial scope of this campaign is the company’s primary areas of operation comprising the waterways from the NLNG Jetty in Port Harcourt to its operating terminal in Bonny Island. We are aware that this route has coastal communities whose livelihoods depend largely on the water through fishing and other economic activities.”
Odeh observed that the initiative was borne from the fact that the presence of marine litter in the Bonny-Port-Harcourt waterway is increasingly posing a threat to economic activities and creating ecological problems to the aquatic and marine ecosystem.
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