It is customary in many riverine communities in the Niger Delta region to bury people who drowned or were killed at sea or any water by the seaside or in the mangrove. GODFREY GEORGE, who visited such communities in Rivers State and took water samples for laboratory investigation, in this first part of a two-part investigation, writes that this practice contaminates the water sources in the area, exposing residents who drink and use the polluted water for their daily needs to deadly diseases
“Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink!” The words of renowned American poet, Samuel Coleridge, in his poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” best describes the situation in Bonny Island, a small oil-rich area in Rivers State.
Surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and blessed with an abundance of crude oil, no one would think residents would still be struggling with something as basic as potable water to cater to their everyday needs.
Unknown to many residents of the town, their waterways are constantly being contaminated as a result of some harmful cultural practices, where corpses of people who died as a result of drowning and other water-related causes are buried by the seashore.
After getting a lead from several local sources of multiple disease outbreaks like cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid, rash and numerous degrees of stomach aches in some communities in the area after such burials, our correspondent embarked on a journey to uncover what may be the cause and was shocked by a damning discovery.
Travelling several miles, the reporter landed at the Nembe Waterside jetty on a bright Thursday afternoon after weeks of consultations with locals who promised to help uncover what the threat might be.
At the Port Harcourt jetty, leading to Bonny town, sweaty bodies clashed as they struggled to fill the two spaces needed, heading for Peterside, another small community in the area plagued with many woes, one of which is the unavailability of clean water.
A tumultuous ride
In what looked like the end of the world was near, the ride from Port Harcourt to Peterside was bumpy. It had everyone aboard praying to their creators as the boat danced to the impact of the waves.
The driver, who our reporter got to know as Mr Toru, said the weather had been bad for a few days, and advised everyone aboard to hold on to the boat as fast as they could to avoid falling off from the shock waves.
The ride came to a halt at the Peterside stop and our reporter alighted and was led into the community.
The air as soon as one steps up the cemented walkway was different. Some children swam by the river and some women were seen washing what looked like fishing nets. Most of them spoke the Andoni language, belonging to another local government area in the state.
Headquartered in Ngo Town, the Andoni people are well-known for their fishing and swimming prowess across the state.
A short walk that evening exposed the fact that residents there still grappled with issues around water safety, as they also observed the tradition of burying the dead by the seashore.
Mostly in huts near the river banks, many residents of the community who spoke to our correspondent noted that it had been the norm for years, across all riverine communities in the area.
A few weeks before our correspondent’s arrival, a yet-to-be-identified resident of the community was buried by the seashore after his corpse was found by fishermen floating in the Atlantic.
Getting residents to talk about the matter was like squeezing stones for water. Their lips were sealed. It was a taboo subject. However, a classroom teacher, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the incident to Saturday PUNCH.
She said, “The man drowned and his body was buried inside the atuma (mud) where others who died like that were buried. It is the norm around here. My parents told me that it had been our custom for thousands of years before I was born.”
There was only very little the woman could say, considering the sensitive nature of the matter and the risk of going against a custom she had upheld all her life.
Visit to burial site
Through the help of some fixers engaged in the investigation, our correspondent walked for almost two miles to get to a location that was said to be the burial site of most of these cases.
The site looked regular from afar, except that it smelt different.
One of the fixers, Tonte (surname withheld), who is a titled resident in one of the communities in the area, said the location always smelt badly because of the presence of the corpses that were taken there for burial.
He stressed that sometimes when the water overflowed, the corpses came up afloat and the residents had to rebury them.
“All these are done in hush tones. Burials by the seashore are seen as taboo burials. Drowning in riverine communities is viewed as unnatural as many communities make sure to teach their kids how to swim before they clock five. So, if anyone drowns while swimming or is killed by the water under any circumstance, the culture requires that they are buried inside the mud,” he added.
Because of the relief of the area which is generally lowland with an average elevation ranging between zero metre (sea level) and 60m above sea level, the geology of the area comprises coastal plain sands and alluvial basins.
The area has a rainforest, raffia palms, and thick mangrove forests. With sandy ridges at the oceanfront, a maze of interconnected rivers and creeks separates the swamps into numerous large to small parcels; these areas are subjected to diurnal flooding owing to tidal waves and river backflows.
Our correspondent also gathered that residents in the area depend solely on ground water such as wells which are not typically deep enough for their water needs. Others, who live just by the seashore and are mostly poor, use the regular seawater for their daily needs, unaware of the health complications.
For instance, a mother of five, Deri Oyibo, told our correspondent that at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many residents suffered some waterborne diseases which led to several deaths in the area.
“When the government people came, they also said it was from the water and promised to address some of our issues including access to electricity and road networks to other areas in the state, but we have not heard much from them.
“We have a borehole but the water, we have discovered, is also not good because it is from the same ground source. It gives us rashes. If you drink it without boiling, it irritates the throat and can cause severe diarrhoea. Many people have lost babies here but nobody is willing to help us,” she lamented.
Groundwater is an important natural resource that supplies billions of gallons of water for drinking, agriculture, industrial purposes, and other uses.
Water has some physical characteristics that guarantee its wholesomeness – it must be colourless, odourless, tasteless, and readily foam with detergents. It must also be devoid of pathogens and pollutants, like corpses or human remains.
Three scholars from the Department of Physics, Rivers State University, Iyeneomie Tamunobereton-ari, Arobo Amakiri and Aminayanasa Paddy-Ngeri, in their work, “Pollution Risk of Groundwater in Rivers State: A Function of Lithology and Pollutant Load of the Area,” noted that the known surface water bodies in the area covered by this investigation were severely polluted by direct discharge of domestic and industrial waste into them.
As such, they added that about 90 per cent to 95 per cent of the population now depended on groundwater as their source of water. Thus, harnessing and preservation of clean and safe groundwater becomes imperative.
“Groundwater becomes vulnerable when the water quality starts deteriorating and becomes severely contaminated up to a certain extent beyond the potable standard.
“The contamination of this all-important source will have a devastating effect on the ecosystem, especially man. Groundwater cannot be easily restored when contaminated or polluted and it should be well protected and not made vulnerable to pollution from unwholesome human and industrial activities for the continuous benefit of man, the environment, and the ecosystem to thrive,” the research work stated.
Our correspondent got water samples from several locations in the area and headed for another community.
Visit to Beresiri, Dema villages
That same evening, our correspondent set out on a hired boat belonging to Mr Tonte, and rode to Beresiri, another community in Bonny.
Welcomed by another titled citizen who had just regained freedom after he was abducted, our correspondent was led to the home of a woman, whose son was buried by the seashore in 2012 despite her many pleas to have him buried in the village cemetery.
After several months of persuasion over the phone, she shared her experience of pain.
“He had gone out fishing in August 2012 and never came back. We searched and searched for him but did not see him. I thought he had been attacked by sea pirates because, at that time, there were a lot of cases of killings on the sea and some fishermen were victims.
“Five days later, some youths said they found his corpse on the other side of the sea. He was ferried in a canoe and buried in the atuma (mud). They didn’t even let me see him. He was just 16 years old then.
“Their reason was that it was taboo to bury him up in the plains, as his corpse would bring some kind of misfortune. To date, I still live to always remember the dishonourable way his body was treated,” she said.
The titled chief who is an indigene of the area told our correspondent that burying people by the seashore was the norm for riverine communities for two reasons physical and spiritual.
“Physically, after a corpse has spent days in the river, it becomes bloated and may not be easy to carry to the land for burial. So, it is easier to bury them by the riverside.
“Spiritually, anyone who dies by the river is said to belong to the river. Dragging what belongs to the river goddess ashore for burial where others are buried is an abomination and can attract the wrath of the gods and sanctions from the elders.
“Whoever digs out the remains of that person from the atuma and buries them at home or in the cemetery can even be banished from the land, irrespective of who the person is, because he puts the entire community at risk,” he said.
Our correspondent was not allowed to visit the Beresiri burial site despite several pleas.
However, water samples from the area were collected for testing in the laboratory for contamination.
In Dema, which is just a few minutes from Beresiri, the residents were not as kind. As soon as they heard the questions posed by the reporter, they became hostile.
A youth in the community who had been contacted to help facilitate the investigation, Marcus Hart, turned around and joined other youths in sending the reporter out of the area.
One of the two fixers was physically attacked, and the reporter sustained some injuries as he tried to get on the speed boat whose engine was already revving.
Days before, Hart had, on the phone, stressed that it was culturally wrong to question culture, adding that burying people by the riverside was not against the law of the land which he termed as ‘customary’.
Two days after the encounter in Dema, our correspondent set out to visit Abalamabie, Akiama, Ajalamonia, Borokiri, and Amariari villages, which were all areas the investigation was meant to cover.
On the evening of the second day, the reporter set out to Bonny’s main town on a boat. Landing at the Cool Beach at about 7 pm on a commercial boat, no one suspected anything odd.
Saturday PUNCH earlier contacted two women and a chief who promised to help uncover the deadly poisoning caused by this harmful cultural practice of burying the dead by the seashore.
Speaking to our correspondent, a civil engineer and safety consultant, Miracle Morgan, said burials in Bonny had many dimensions, adding that how a person died determined how they would be buried.
“It has been a norm and irrespective of its safety, the community has come to recognise it as customary, and since burials are mostly customary in Nigeria, there is very little the government can do to change some of these things,” he said.
He, however, stressed that if the water sources of residents were being contaminated as a result of the practice, the government needed to step in and find a lasting solution to avert the disaster.
Also, another indigene, Tamunoene Longjohn, told our reporter that she had witnessed several burials where the remains of deceased residents were buried in the mud which she said was called ‘atuma ogbonga’ which loosely translates to ‘muddy burial ground’.
“When such people are brought to the land for burial, there is usually an after-effect. Most people in the communities may suffer from mysterious stomach swelling. All these are myths because I have not seen such repercussions but this belief is rooted in culture and is very difficult to disprove even with incontrovertible evidence,” she added in an interview with our correspondent.
Bernard Benneth, another resident of Bonny from Andoni, said it was a customary practice among several riverine communities, including his, to bury people who died by drowning and other water-related causes by the seashore close to the mud.
“In Bonny, there is a designated location which is called the ‘Atuma Ogbonga’. It is right opposite the Cool Beach and is not easily accessible because of the myths around it,” he told our correspondent in an interview.
A visit to ‘Atuma Ogbonga’
Our correspondent boarded a speed boat from the Adaposhe market in the main town and asked to be taken to the Atuma Ogbonga.
“You say?” The boat rider who had just received complete payment for his service retorted in pidgin English, stressing that it was impossible to visit the area except for burial.
After much persuasion, he agreed to pass by and point to the area. After a short ride of about five minutes, the driver slowed down, pointed at the location, and sped off, giving no suspicion from the boat workers at the beach.
Our correspondent also fetched out of the water source with a bottle.
The pungent smell that emanated from the area cannot be easily forgotten. The boat driver recounted how he had been contracted to help drop off a corpse there for burial in 2018 when a boat capsized, leading to the death of many, a few minutes after taking off.
“I cannot forget that day. There was blood all over my boat. They just dug the ground and dumped the remains; thereafter they covered them with George wrappers.
“Those wrappers to us are culturally significant as it is a way of shielding the ‘abomination’ that had occurred in the land and begging the gods for peace,” he added.
Because of the topography of the muddy soil, our correspondent gathered that it was difficult to dig deep, causing the corpses to float if the tides were high.
In August 2023, a 15-year-old boy identified as Ekine who was reported missing was found dead around the Mbudayia river in Rumuolumeni community, in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The remains of the teenager, our correspondent gathered, were discovered three days later.
It was gathered that the parents of the deceased, who resided in Mile 2, a densely populated axis of Diobu in Port Harcourt, had reported a case of a missing person to the Police on Tuesday, August 8, 2023.
A source who pleaded anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the matter had told The PUNCH that the late boy’s corpse was seen by a boat driver three days later when it floated on the river.
“Nobody knows exactly what happened. It was the boat driver who spotted his body floating on the river.
“Already we learnt that his parents had been informed and upon arrival at the scene, they discovered it was their missing son. And they buried him at the waterside,” the source added.
When contacted, the spokesperson of the state police command, Grace Iringe-Koko, while confirming the incident, said the boy drowned.
Iringe-Koko said, “From the information available to me, the boy was picking packs of noodles. After that, he went to the river to wash the packs. When he was done, he went to wash his legs at a different location. That was how he drowned.”
“We (police) have commenced an investigation into the incident to ascertain what happened,” the spokesperson, who also confirmed that the parents of the teenager had buried their son near the river, added.
Death, burial and link with communicable disease
American scholars, Rebekah Lee and Megan Vaughan, in their article, titled, “Death and Dying in the History of Africa Since 1800” published in the Journal of African History, University of Cambridge, London, noted that in Africa, the dead were not cut off from society.
For them, the populations lived with their dead, and as such, the social world of Africa was made up of both the living and the dead.
In human history, however, human corpses and funeral rites remain a medium for transmitting communicable infections, according to research.
For example, the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa and COVID-19 globally established the transmission of the virus from a corpse to a living human being through traditional funeral rites.
To this end, experts urged the government, which exists primarily for the protection of the life of its citizenry from death and disease and the adoption of measures that can guarantee such safety, to rise to its responsibility by regulating burial rites in the country.
The continuous record of communicable infection outbreaks vis-à-vis the sustenance of the cultural rites availed to the dead has been noted to spread diseases.
The spread of diseases has also prompted different measures by governments and international organisations such as the World Health Organisation, including awareness creation, prevention of mass gatherings, and prohibition of burial without permission from the state. Despite these measures, the burial of a human corpse by the seashore continues in Nigeria.
Water contamination
Available statistics from the United Nations show that 65 per cent of the over 30 million people in the Niger Delta live in villages and generally rural communities without access to safe drinkable water, therefore resorting to unhygienic methods of purifying polluted water for drinking.
This is further compounded by several man-caused contaminations like seaside burial.
A professor of microbiology at the Pegasus-Zion Community and Environmental Health, Nigeria, Adenike Ogunshe, in an interview with our correspondent, said that as the human body decomposed, 0.4 to 0.6 litres of leachate was produced per one kilogram of body weight.
“These leachates consist of pathogenic bacteria, viruses, intestinal fungi, and protozoa and about 60 per cent water, 30.0 per cent nitrogen, phosphorus, Cl, HCO3-, Ca2+, Na+, salts, as well as, various metals like Ti, Cr, Cd, Pb, Fe, Mn, Ni, and about 10.0 per cent organic substances.
“In addition, there can be among the human remains leachates, chemical substances applied in chemotherapy and embalming processes, such as arsenic, formaldehyde, and methanol, makeup (like cosmetics, pigments, and chemical compounds), as well as, other various items, such as teeth fillings, cardiac pacemakers, paints, varnishes, metal hardware elements, iron nails, etc.
“All the aforementioned leachates can easily contaminate the groundwater, and cause diseases when consumed one way or the other,” she added.
According to her, this serious health concern was being investigated in some countries, noting that it was equally important to also focus on the issue, particularly, as another unquantifiable hazard in the Niger Delta region.
“The peculiarity is that crude oil explorations in the region have tremendously reduced the land mass, such that, burying of the dead is mostly close to the water shores, which by translation means hidden pollution of the entire water body in the region and beyond.
“In cases where burials are not close to water shores, the fact that the region has become mostly water-porous, due to pollution, can also lead to eventual contamination of water reserves, deep below, which naturally connect with the water bodies.
“The resulting biochemical oxygen demand affects the leachate-containing liquid of decomposing bodies and is characterised by the distinctive putrefying odour.
“The leachates, and associated microorganisms that pollute substrates, surface water, and groundwater, usually include environmental microorganisms, basically from animals, soil, water, and the atmosphere,” she added.
Some major indicator microbes identified in decomposing human bodies, according to Prof Ogunshe, include enterobacteria, which are intestinal bacteria, such as total coliform bacteria, belonging to the Escherichia coli, enterobacter, klebsiella, and Citrobacter, species, and also other bacteria like Bacillus spp., streptococcus faecalis, and clostridium perfringens.
Others may include Clostridium welchii, mycobacterium tuberculosis, salmonella enterica typhi, and a few other Salmonella spp, pseudomonas aeruginosa, vibrio cholerae, etcetera.
She further said that human-related viruses involved in decomposition included but were not limited to enteroviruses, variola virus, hepatitis virus, and human immunodeficiency virus, among others.
“The fact that most of the constituents of the human decomposing leachates can survive in the environment, even, for some years, especially, in soil and water bodies, must raise additional concerns, as several of the constituents are quite toxic xenobiotics, and can be carcinogenic, inflammation-inducing, infectious, etc. apart from the ecotoxicity due to crude oil explorations already ravaging the region.
“Some implicated compounds associated with decomposing bodies and reportedly highly toxic can further combine with some other compounds already implicated as products of crude oil extractions, being other routes of environmental pollution, which are most severe to the soil and water.
“Moreover, the effects of exposure to hazards of oil explorations, which could have compromised the immunity and health statuses of the host populations in the Niger Delta region, along with significantly high poverty levels, would make the people of the region extremely more vulnerable to the added effects of seepages from leachates of decomposing human bodies.
“Considering that, severe infectious agents from diseases like HIV, hepatitis, and tuberculosis, have been implicated in fomites; it is, therefore, disturbing that burial locations can also serve as hidden sources of infectious (and non-infectious) agents, as well as, chemicals from the dead bodies.
“The soil and water that have been thereby polluted are primary sources of contamination of the minimal crops, plants, and the highly affected sea foods, fishes, and other creatures in the water.
“These stand to contribute to food insecurity in this region as well. Proper and sanitary management of cemeteries, as well as the location of new ones must thus, be of much attention to the government, to alleviate the seriously compromised conditions of the people in this region,” she further noted.
Call for public health campaign
Similarly, a graduate student at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain, with a focus on the epidemiology of infectious diseases, Steven Edwards, and roots in Bonny Island, noted that seaside burials posed public health threats for residents.
He said, “I have observed firsthand the traditional burial practices in riverine communities such as Andoni, Bonny, Opobo, Ogoni, and others. The custom of burying individuals who died in boat mishaps or drowned, along the riverbanks, poses significant public health risks, particularly due to the area’s soft topological nature.
“These practices, while culturally significant, can have serious effects on community health. The nearness of residential areas to the riverbank cemeteries means that human remains are buried near or within the watershed, potentially leading to water contamination.
“Many homes rely on boreholes and local water bodies for their water supply, which can be directly affected by the leachate from the graves.”
Corroborating Ogunshe’s stance, Edwards added, “This contamination can introduce pathogens such as Vibrio cholerae, which causes cholera, and other gastrointestinal infections into drinking water. The risk is worsened during heavy rains or flooding, which can rapidly spread contaminants through the water systems.
“The presence of drugs and other substances within the human body can lead to the presence of harmful chemicals in the water supply. These contaminants can have a variety of chronic health effects, including hormonal disruptions and increased cancer risks.”
He further urged the government to transition to more sanitary burial practices to prevent environmental contamination.
“This could include establishing designated cemeteries away from water sources, employing watertight barriers in graves to prevent leachate escape, or considering alternative burial methods, where culturally acceptable,” he added.
Also speaking on the risk posed by the cultural practice, a water resources and environmental engineer, Maryam Ijaiya, said, “Decomposition releases organic matter and potentially harmful substances, impacting water quality. As an advocate for water safety, I would advise working with neighbourhood groups to investigate environmentally friendly burial options that reduce the chance of contamination.”
This report was facilitated by the Africa Centre for Development Journalism as part of its 2023 Inequalities Reporting Fellowship supported by the MacArthur Foundation through the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism in collaboration with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting.
