Integrated Assessment of Surface-Water Pollution, Human Health Risks, Oil-Spill Preparedness, and Community Resilience in Petroleum-Producing Communities of Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract

Pollution of surface water in a petroleum-producing community has overlapping environmental, health, livelihood, and resilience challenges. Water-quality assessment, human-health risk modelling and socioeconomic analysis was incorporated into this study for 9 communities in Delta State, Nigeria. A cross-sectional mixed methods design was used. Upstream, impact, and downstream locations in Okpai, Aboh, Kwale, Udu, Sapele, Ovwian-Aladja, Warri, Forcados, and Escravos yielded 81 surface-water samples, while 423 adult residents within the sampling area provided questionnaire data. Standard APHA and USEPA methods were used to analyse physicochemical parameters, heavy metals, oil and grease, BTEX compounds, and 16 priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Pollution indices, ingestion and dermal exposure risks, multiple regression, correlation, PCA, and hierarchical community classification were used. The findings indicated a significant spatial difference between the inland and the coastal oil-rich communities. Escravos recorded the highest WQI (182.7), HPI (157.8), PLI (2.47), TPH (4.38 mg/L), Σ16 PAHs (0.126 mg/L), hazard index (1.96) and lifetime cancer risk (2.48×10⁻5), followed by Forcados and Warri. All communities reported lead concentrations above the guideline value of 0.010 mg/L, and the hazard indices for 6 communities exceeded 1. Environmental deterioration (β = −0.406) and hydrocarbon pollution (β = −0.182) significantly contributed to the reduction in community resilience, while Oil Spill Preparedness (β = 0.332), Institutional Preparedness (β = 0.248), and Socioeconomic Stability (β = 0.221) contributed to the increase in community resilience. The model accounted for 71.6% of the variance in resilience; the first principal component accounted for 99.674% of the variance in environmental risk. The study concludes that pollution control policies should be implemented alongside policies on safe water provision, health surveillance, remediation, institutional accountability, livelihood restoration, and community-based spill preparedness. These findings represent an evidence-based approach to prioritise intervention in environmentally burdened communities in the Niger Delta.