Suspended Marine Litter in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria: A Case Study of Cross River, QUA Iboe River and Jaja Creek

Abstract

A study of Ten coastal communities along the Cross River, Qua Iboe River and Jaja Creek (all in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria) was conducted to: Identify and Geo-reference affected navigable channels in Akwa Ibom State; create a map of affected navigable channels in the state; qualitatively and quantitatively characterize floating marine debris in affected channels; Delineate the affected channels; and create awareness among coastal communities on marine litter dangers. The data for average depth revealed that the water body in Essene had the highest depth (13m) while Ufak had the least (3m); average width was highest (850m) at Akpam Nfrugam and Enitan while the least width (250m) was recorded in Ikot Ibritan; and the average flow velocity was highest (1.1 m/s) at Akpam Nfrugam and Essene, least (0.4 m/s) at Edik Ipa and Akuakpa Urang. The result of the characterization of the suspended debris showed that the debris comprised of plastic, nylon, can, foil and "others". "Others" was made up of mainly nypa palm and unidentified objects. Nylon

Macrodebris and microplastics pollution in Nigeria: first report on abundance, distribution and composition

“…Compositional profiling revealed that the majority (59%) was made of plastic, a category generally dominant within the rivers ( Figure 6). Similarly, a study by Babatunde and Arinze et al [50] which studied some rivers in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria for suspended marine litter also reported the highest quantity of plastic group more than 5000 kg/m 2 . In comparison with international studies, the plastic group was also reported to be in high abundance in the marine environment and in seafloor [39,44,[46][47][48]51].…”

The importance of microplastics pollution studies in water and soil of Nigeria ecosystems

“…al., in 2019 [13] reported that plastic contributed 59 % of the 3487 macrodebris items/m 2 counted from shore of Rivers in Nwangele Local Government Area of Imo state. Similarly, a study of Cross River, Qua Iboe River and Jaja Creek in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria for suspended marine litter also reported high quantity of plastic (> 5000 kg/ m 2 ) compared to other waste (can, foil etc < 1000 kg/m 2 ) [19]. Reports have shown that Macroplastics correlated strongly with microplastics indicating that wherever there is high abundance of macroplastics, there will be a corresponding high abundance of microplastics in that area [13,20].…”