THE SOOT CITY LIFE EXPECTANCY

Every country has a determined life expectancy and Nigeria is no different.

But for the people living in Rivers state, Nigeria’s second largest oil-producing region, the 52-years life expectancy didn’t take into account one thing their communities dealt with on a daily basis… Soot.

Since 2016, oil bunkering, gas flaring, pipeline explosions and the proliferation of illegal artisanal refineries have combined to create the largest emission of soot ever recorded anywhere in the country. On some days, soot particles found in Rivers State reaches a level 40x worse than the World Health Organization’s guideline for 24-hour exposure.
Worse still, the dialogue about soot has died down as focus has shifted to other national problems, literally leaving residents in the dark. To bring National attention back to the issue, with a real chance of getting a policy solution, The Extra Step Initiative, launched THE SOOT LIFE EXPECTANCY campaign.

The campaign obtained Soot data spanning 40 countries from the German Environmental Protection Agency and EIONET, then combined it with the average air quality data of Rivers State, and the official life expectancy of Nigeria, to create a formula that gives a new but more realistic life expectancy.

This formula was locked into a website called SOOTCITY.COM and we rolled out communications directing people to visit to check their new expectations of life. The website is also linked to LED billboards around the country publishing results for everyone to see as they come in.

In trying to create real change, the website also automatically generates a letter on behalf of every visitor who checks their life expectancy and sends it to all senators in Nigeria urging them to bring an end to the soot problem.