The position of Anthropogenic Activities on Atlantic and Indian Oceans in Africa

English Abstract:

Africa is the second largest and most populated continent after Asia. Geographically it is located between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Most of the Africa’s most populated and industrialized cities are located along the coast of the continent facing the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, example of such cities include Casablanca, Dakar, Accra, Lagos, Luanda and Cape town all facing the Atlantic Ocean and cities like East London, Durban, Maputo, Dar-es-salaam and Mogadishu are all facing the Indian Ocean. As a result of the geographical locations of African Coastal Cities plus increase in their population, industries, sea port operations, petroleum exploration activities, trafficking of toxic wastes and improper waste management culture lead to the incessant increase in the pollution of the two oceans.

NATURE OF POLLUTION OF THE ATLANTIC OCEAN

i. The petroleum exploration activities going on along the coast of “Gulf of Guinea” region in countries such as Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon, Nigeria, Angola and others continuously causes oil spillages in the process of drilling, bunkering and discharging of petroleum products in the Atlantic Ocean.

ii. The incessant degreasing of the Sea Ports “Quay Aprons” along the Coastal cities of Lagos, Duala, Libreville, Luanda, Cape Town etc are continuously polluting the Atlantic Ocean with chemicals which is affecting negatively the Ocean marine biodiversity of the Atlantic Ocean in general.

iii. Local wastes generated from the houses located in the coastal cities are always finding their ways directly or indirectly into the Atlantic Ocean. In fact this explains why plastic containers are always deposited by the Ocean along the African beautiful coastal beaches.
iv) Gas flaring activities in the gulf of guinea region is another source of pollution and even source of canalizing the ongoing climate change across the globe in the region. Because a report released by the renown non-governmental organization on environmental pollution the Netherlands based Climate Justice Programme under the aegis of “friends of the Earth” indicated that the coastal region of Nigeria along accounts for 16 percent of the world’s total flare.