Federal Government said it has identified 11 sources of the soot being experienced in Rivers State, and is working out plans to eliminate the dreaded air pollution.

Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Usman Jibril, made the disclosure yesterday, when he spoke at Terabor/ Gokana Local Government Area of the state, while inspecting the ongoing medical outreach organised by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP).

Jibril said he had a joint meeting on the soot with stakeholders in the state, organise by National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), in Port Harcourt.

He said the ministry would work with relevant stakeholders, both in the state and federal, to eradicate soot from Rivers and its environs.

He said: “The federal government plans to eliminate the soot by taking concerted actions, and we have identified 11 sources which are causing the soot. And, having identified them, we have to tackle them.

“In the meeting we just had, we have set up an inter-administerial committee, a standing one, not ad-hoc, and everybody who needed to be involved must be involved, the state ministries of Environment, Health, Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

“Others to be involved are the federal ministries of Health and Environment as well as the security agencies, so that together, we put our heads and make sure since we are aware of what was going on, we will now attack the issue from the bottom, and make sure the root cause is eliminated,” the minister said. (Daily Sun)