‘Akwa Ibom can’t afford environmental impact of dugout port’

A former managing director of Nigerdock Plc and Chairman Oron Nation Technical Committee for Ibaka Deep Sea Port, Nkpubre Okon Nkpubre, has called on the Federal Government to disallow the building of a dugout port to be built in Nigeria, owing to the adverse environmental and social impact it will have on the people.

He said the environmental and social impact of creating an artificial ocean for a dugout deep-sea port is unquantifiable.

Nkpubre stressed that a situation where dry land is dug out and water channeled in to build a seaport should not be contemplated in the country. He added that Nigeria has over one thousand kilometer of coastline with a natural harbour and numerous river estuaries and channels where seaports could be sited.

He added that the proposed dugout seaport in Durban, South Africa, never saw the light of the day as environmentalists who know the adverse effects of the project kicked against it.

He said Ibeno was already encumbered with a huge gas flare site with grave environmental impact. According to him, Ibeno also hosts Qua Ibeo Oil Terminal operated by Mobil with the biggest crude oil tank farm in Nigeria.