Group Condemns Dredging Of Bonny Creek In Rivers

A community-based organisation, the Bonny Improvement Association (BIA), has condemned the dredging and sand-mining activities on the Abalamabie/Inia-Shiri Creek in Bonny local government area of the Rivers State.

BIA, in s state issued in Port Harcourt yesterday and signed by Professor Sodienye Abere and Evangelist Godwin Jumbo, it’s national president and general secretary respectively, described this ongoing dredging and sand-mining  activities as ‘unregulated’.

The statement said the operations, which are being used to source sand for the reclamation of the proposed Bonny Vehicular Terminal (BVT) project site in the Bonny Island, pose an immediate threat to communities’ very fragile environment, local economy, and heritage.

It stated that the ongoing extraction of sand from the Abalamabie/ Inia-Shiri Creek is palpably destroying critical aquatic habitats, accelerating shoreline erosion, and threatening the livelihoods of local fishermen in the area.

The group further stated that the said sand dredging activities negates the statutory stipulates of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) Act, Cap N47 LFN, 2004 which mandates a ‘Buffer Zone’ of at least, 100 to 500 meters between the dredging machinery and the shoreline.

The statement reads: “The foremost registered Bonny Community Based Organization, CBO (founded 1919) profoundly  condemns the ongoing unregulated sand dredging and mining activities in the Abalamabie/Inia-Shiri Creek in the Bonny local government area of the Rivers State of Nigeria.

“These operations, which are being used to source sand for the reclamation of the proposed Bonny Vehicular Terminal, BVT project site in the Bonny Island, pose an immediate threat to our very fragile environment, local economy, and community heritage.

“While the association acknowledges the developmental intentions behind the proposed BVT, we unequivocally reject the use of unsustainable and unauthorized methods that endangers our people.