Environmentalist Reveals Solution to Global Pollution 

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt 

Rivers-born Nigerian environmental scientist, Dr. Suka Momta, has unveiled what he regards as a solution to global environment pollution. 

The discovery it was learnt has been tested in some polluted areas in the oil Niger Delta region and has allegedly been demonstrated before an oil operating giant in the region.  

Dr. Momta, who was a guest of the Energy and Maritime Reporters (EMR) Roundtable on Rivers State Television (RSTV), said the research had spanned over 30 years. He described it as organic-based nanotechnology.

The scientist said it was sad that every aspect of the environment has been affected: infrastructure, human beings, even the organisms are affected. “The creeks, waterways, water bodies, streams, and groundwater are heavily polluted,” he said.

He said there were conventional approaches used to remedy the situation, but despite all these efforts made, people were still agitating that the pollution was much, and getting worse. “In fact, the environment of the Niger Delta is described as a fragile ecosystem because of the pollution, despite all these efforts made.”

Momta said the new approach turns the waste to drinkable water and the water can be discharged back to the environment or used for irrigation. 

“Our team carried out an independent investigation in a particular community in Niger Delta. That community is a very large town that has a population of over 400,000 people. We sampled 10 locations for groundwater (the water they are drinking from). We picked on only two pollutants, organic pollutants that are associated with oil and gas. 

“We picked Poly Aliphatic Biphenyls (PCB) and Polychlorinated Hydrocarbons (PAH). The Poly Aliphatic Hydrocarbon is an organic compound that has high concentration of benzene ring,” Momta revealed.

He said the United Nations has also carried out an investigation in that particular community. “And what we know about PCB and PAH is that they are always reported to be organic pollutants that are very persistent in places you find them.”

The environmentalist explained that in 2024 in Lagos, he discussed his discovery in an international conference and professors and industry experts showed huge interest but kept asking one question: “How long can this tech you are talking about take to destroy and dissolve PCB and PAH? I said, ‘a matter of hours’.”

He said his team has demonstrated this with a particular operator in Nigeria in the oil and gas industry. “And we used their facility, we used their test equipment, and they saw the result within hours that thick hydrocarbons were turned to water. They tested it and the properties were the same properties of water in terms of pH and other—it lost the hydrocarbon, lost all its hydrocarbon properties just within hours.”

Insisting there is no problem without a solution, Momta said: “And what we are saying here now is that we have a permanent solution to the environmental challenges as it has to do with oil spill in the Niger Delta. 

“It’s a permanent solution. That solution is to restore the environment back to its original state. So, there has been over 30 years of research on the best approach to address environmental challenges relating to oil and gas operation.

“An organic-based nanotechnology has been developed that is addressing these concerns. Where conventional approaches will take years without restoring the environment, this method can work within weeks and months.”

He named another major concern as the produced water. “Companies that are producing oil in all the hydrocarbons come out with three phases: it comes with water, comes with oil, and comes with gas. So they separate the oil and gas and then water. The water that is coming out is not pure water. It’s impregnated with hydrocarbon compounds. 

“That is why Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) will not allow any company to discharge that water in the environment. And before you discharge, they give you guidelines; you will tell them how you are going to handle your produced water.”

On costs, he admitted that the new method is more expensive but has zero risk. 

He added, “But look at the advantages. Number one, it’s not going to harm any human being. It’s not going to harm any crop. It’s not going to harm even earthworms in the ground, the soil. It’s not going to harm anything whereas some of the conventional methods always lead to re-contamination. There will be no re-contamination. It has zero effect on the environment and the ecosystem.”