Comparative Assessment of Seasonal Air Pollution in Rural and Urban Areas of Rivers State, Nigeria

Ordinarily, the air quality in the rural areas were supposed to be cleaner than in the urban areas because of the natural sinks in the rural areas. However, owing to the recent practices in the rural areas, the air quality in the area is no longer different from what is experience in the urban areas. The study examined comparative assessment of seasonal air pollution in rural and urban areas in Rivers State, Nigeria. Longitudinal type of descriptive research design was adopted for the study. Samples were taken from 26 communities cutting across both the rural and urban areas of the state during the wet and dry seasons using Aeroqual 500 series gas monitor, Bosean multi gas detector, EG Air quality detector, Blatn air quality detector, met metre as well as a GPS device. The pollutants that were assessed are O3, CO, PM, SO2, NO2, VOC, CH4, H2S, NH3 and CO2, Relative Humidity, Wind Speed, Temperature and Wind Direction. It was found that Some communities have higher concentrations in certain pollutants than other. The rural areas’ air pollutant concentrations were on the increase amidst the presence of features which could naturally bring down the concentrations. Urban areas tend to exhibit more consistent air quality patterns, but with higher concentrations of pollutants such as CO, O3, and PM2.5 and PM10 while rural areas experience more significant differences in air quality, particularly for pollutants such as SO2 and PM1.0. However, the air quality as measured for both the wet and dry seasons across the locations show remarkable differences as the concentrations for the dry season are higher than those of the wet season. It was recommended that the rural and urban areas in Rivers State be equipped with more comprehensive and widespread air quality monitoring stations to track changes in real time. This would help in understanding pollution hot-spots and provide valuable data for decision making.