Environmental pollution in the Gulf of Guinea – a regional approach P.A. Scheren a, * , A.C. Ibe b , F.J. Janssen c , A.M. Lemmens c a Eindhoven University of Technology, P/a Royal Haskoning, P.O. Box 151, 5600 AD Nijmegen, The Netherlands b United Nations Industrial Development Organization, P/a Centre de Recherches Oc eanologiques, B.P. V 18 Abidjan, C^ ote d’Ivoire c Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands Abstract Environmental pollution in the Gulf of Guinea (GOG) coastal zone has caused eutrophication and oxygen depletion in the lagoon systems, particularly around the urban centres, resulting in decreased fish (reproduction) levels and waterborne diseases. A pollution sources assessment was undertaken by six countries in the region as a first step in defining a region-wide Environmental Man- agement Plan. Results show that households produce 90% of solid waste. Industry, however, is responsible for substantial amounts of hazardous waste, specifically the Nigerian petroleum industry. The latter is also responsible for the spilling of large amounts of oil. BOD load from industrial effluents is slightly larger than domestic loads in the industrialised coastal zone. Wastewater treatment systems are either absent or inadequate. Apart from large-scale gas flaring in Nigeria, air pollution, in terms of CO x ; HC; NO x and SO 2 emissions, is contributed mainly by traffic. Particulates, originate mainly from industries and domestic biomass burning. Ó 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Pollution; Marine environment; Pollution assessment; Land-based sources; Large marine ecosystem; Gulf of Guinea 1. Introduction The importance of the Gulf of Guinea (GOG) coastal ecosystem to socio-economic development is widely recognised on account of its vast resources, however, the health of the coastal ocean is increasingly in jeopardy as a result of a rapid intensification of human activities (Hardman-Mountford et al., 2000; Ibe, 1996; Ibe and Zabi, 1998). In 1995, five countries in the region – Benin, Cameroon, C^ ote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria – embarked on a joint assessment of the state of health of the coastal ecosystem, and a definition of common strategies against environmental pollution within the GOG catchment basin. A sixth partner, Togo, joined in 1997 (Fig. 1). The effort is based on the Large Marine Ecosystem approach (Sherman, 1998; Sherman et al., 1993), which recognises that marine pollution and living resources respect no political boundaries and few geographical ones. It was undertaken under a region-wide project, financed by the Global Environment Facility, with the technical assis- tance of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation and other UN and non-UN organisations. Table 1 provides an overview of the socio-economic characteristics of the region. Deriving mainly from early contacts with European ‘‘seafarers’’, the coastal zone is the site of most major cities, harbours, airports, indus- tries and other socio-economic infrastructure. Of the nearly 180 million inhabitants of the six countries, ap- proximately 30% live in coastal urban settlements (Table 1). As a result of migration from rural areas and neigh- bouring land-locked countries, coastal urban population growth is substantially higher than the region-wide av- erage of 2.8% (M etongo et al., 1993). Despite some measure of economic development, poverty rates have been declining only slowly. Industrial activities are concentrated around the coastal urban centres, where 60–80% of industrial pro- duction takes place and which host the major harbours. Industrial development started in the 1950s, at the pe- rimeters of the then existing coastal communities, but in the absence of urban planning became integrated, with time, with the expanding residential areas. Presently, industry accounts for 21.5% of GDP region-wide, but substantially more in Nigeria, where oil exploitation re- lated industries form the core of the country’s economy * Corresponding author. Tel.: +31-24-328-42-48; fax: +31-24-324- 10-59. E-mail address: peterscheren@planet.nl (P.A. Scheren). 0025-326X/02/$ - see front matter Ó 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0025-326X(01)00305-8 www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul Marine Pollution Bulletin 44 (2002) 633–641