Environmental Crises in Government-controlled Municipal Solid Waste Management in Rivers State, Nigeria

This paper investigated and evaluated the crises that rocked municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in Port Harcourt, the capital city of Rivers State, Nigeria, as the State transited from one governmental regime to another in 2015. The city witnessed unprecedented increase in waste heaps at every nook and cranny, that were unattended to for a relatively long time. The investigation used field data and literature information from various stakeholders, including personal interviews and participant observations. Field reports and interview responses were analysed using simple mathematical relations and global best environmental practices. It was found that overbearing political interests and deficiency of funds elicited the crises. The critical aspects of MSWM in the metropolis are undertaken by contractors who depend almost entirely on government funding, making the processes not self-sustaining, hence a transitional defect in the State jolted the stability of the MSWM fabric. The existing practice of simply collecting waste from streets and disposing has not encouraged self-funding for the waste management sector. Formulation and implementation of appropriate policies and creation of incentives for green management; and introduction of friendly advance disposal fees may be feasible options in the solution to the challenges of MSWM in the metropolis. Keywords: Environmental crises, municipal solid waste, political interest, government-controlled, transitio

Impact of treated sewage effluent on the microbiology of a small brook using flow cytometry as a diagnostic tool

Flow cytometry was applied to assess the microbiological impact of treated sewage effluent discharge into a small brook carrying surface runoff water. Increases in dissolved organic carbon and soluble reactive phosphorous were accompanied by increases in counts of intact bacteria by up to eightfold. Effluent ingress furthermore resulted in a pronounced shift of bacterial clusters. Whereas brook water upstream of the discharge point was characterised by a bacterial cluster with low nucleic acid (LNA) content, downstream water showed a shift to bacteria with high nucleic acid (HNA) content. Changes in the LNA/HNA ratio were largely maintained along the course of the brook. Results suggest that the LNA/HNA ratio can under certain conditions serve as an indicator of anthropogenic nutrient impact. Measuring impact on this low trophic level might be more sensitive and straightforward than measuring macroindicators. More evidence will however be required to assess the usefulness of LNA/HNA measurements to assess the ecological nutrient status of natural waters and the impact of nutrient pollution