… Names cure to polluted underground water body
As demand for a pan-Niger Delta clean up and solution to mass pollution in the oil region rises, a Rivers-born Nigerian environmental scientist, Suka Momta, has unveiled what he calls solution to global environment pollution.
The Ogoni-born scientist said the discovery has been tested in some polluted areas in the oil region and has allegedly been demonstrated before an oil operating giant in the region.
Momta, who was guest of the Energy and Maritime Reporters (EMR) Roundtable on Rivers State Television (RSTV) this week 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.
He said: “The creeks, waterways, water bodies, streams, groundwater are heavily polluted.”
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.”
He said the new approach turns the waste to drinkable water and the water can be discharged back to the environment or used for irrigation.
Explaining details, Momta said: “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 Polyaliphatic Biphenyls (PCB) and Polychlorinated Hydrocarbons (PAH). The Polyaliphatic Hydrocarbon is an organic compound that has high concentration of benzene ring.”
He said the United Nations has also carried out 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 place you find them.”
He said 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 they kept wondering if it was possible but that he kept saying it was not about what is possible but what is being done.
His words: “So, it can dissolve any organic compound just within hours, break it and turn it to water.”
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 hydrocarbon was 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 have been over 30 years of research on the best approach to address environmental challenges relating to oil and gas operation.
“And an organic-based nanotechnology has been developed that is addressing these concerns. Where conventional approach 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 hydrocarbon comes 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.
“And 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.
“But I’m telling them that with this our organic-based nanotechnology, that produced water can be treated and they will discharge it into the environment and use it for irrigation. So going forward, the pollution in the ground—and of course, some of the conventional methods used to address spill in the area — is like they did excavation. So if you want to address pollution in underground water, that is within the community where people are living, you no longer will face the challenge of whether to evacuate all the people in the community, pull down their buildings, and excavate them to the aquifer. No.
“But we are telling you that it doesn’t matter the depth where the organic compounds have contaminated the groundwater. We are going to treat it without removing any building, without destroying crops, and then find a permanent solution to it. So we can restore our environment to its natural state using this our organic-based nanotechnology.”
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 earthworm 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 to the environment, to the ecosystem.
“Yes, other disadvantages associated with the conventional methods are not there. So when you count the risks that are associated with other conventional methods, and this one has no risk. You look at the material data sheet of that organic-based nanotech, it’s zero on all risks.”