The seasonal rains in the tropics is in full swing within the months of April and November with the heaviest volumes experienced in June and July. It is not uncommon for people in communities in the southeast and else where to collect rain water in containers and underground water reservoirs with the intention of putting such to domestic use.
This practice, which dates back to millennia is most pronounced in rural areas and other places with acute water scarcity; without the luxury of portable pipe borne water.
In many communities in the past, water collected from seasonal rainfall was considered to be the purest available. This assumptionstemed from the argument that rainwater comes directly from the heavens and as such’ no impurity could possibly come in contact with such water source’.
Recently what may appear as a shock to many who attempt to collect rain water for domestic use is the colour and particles which comes with the water from the sky.Presently water from usual seasonal rainsisoften black in colour!.
This dark coloured water, a stark contrast to what it was in the past is filled with tiny blackparticles; and sometimes oily making it unfit for the least domestic use.
The insides of Plastic or metal containers used in collecting such water are often coated with a dark layer of fine particles which requires intense scrubbing with soap to effectively remove them.
Some have speculated that recentrainfall yielding black water is linked tomakeshift petroleum refining in the creeks of the Niger Delta.
These open air unregulated refineries use intense wood fire in the refining process, giving off much smoke and sooth. This billows into the skyand carried far by the winds.When the rains come, these sooth particles mixin the atmosphere and are trapped in the clowd yielding the unusual ‘black water’many have come to worry about!
Thus the term ‘acid rain’ readily comes to mind.
This further aggravates the ongoing issue of environmental degradation in the southeastparticularly in the Niger Delta region which is linked to oil spillage and the lack of adequate security for the protection of crude petroleum infrastructure to stem vandalism.
In the midst of this, the unsuspecting victim ends up being thelocal indigene or resident in thatrural community, townorvillage as far as the winds carry the sooth; ash-black particles and other contaminants to dump as ‘black rain’ into buckets, containers and underground reservoirs.
This unusual shade of rain water has been reported in several cities in the southeast and Niger Delta region including Port Harcourt, yenogou, ABA, Umuhia and several towns around these major cities. Many in these places shy away from collecting rain water for domestic purposes anymore.
The just concluded conference on climate protection in Glasgow Scotland paints a grim picture of the earth’s health. Much blame has been and continues to be ascribed to the damaging effects of fossil fuels as a major contributor to high global greenhouse gas emissions.
After much talk, it doesn’t look like the government’s of nations are yet ready to wean themselves off their on fossils while the oil industry continues to thrive on new investments in fossil fuel exploration and development.
On the local level, the rise in acid rain and other degrading fallouts of oil exploitation continue to stare everyone on the face!