TRAVELOGUE: The water in this Akwa Ibom river is unbelievably green at all times

By Aniete Usen

MISSION TO AKWA IBOM GREEN RIVER


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-LnFlKZ7oY


�We had planned to visit the strange river on Monday, April 26, 2021. But Thomas Thomas, the ‘Mungo Park’ of the Green River and my tour guide was hard to track down on D-day. A struggling but brilliant journalist, he had choked up his itinerary to the brim on Monday, in his quest to make ends meet. But today, I was too determined to let him off the hook, until he escorted me to the unusual river that he first reported a week ago.

�As we meandered through the serene, sandy slope that led to the river at Ikot Akpa, Ibesikpo, the weather was gloomy and somber. It was clear that sooner or later the windows of heaven would open and showers from above would descend. I was equipped like a pilgrim with tools of an explorer. Temperature was 28 degrees centigrade. Humidity was 89 percent. Wind gust was approximately 15 kilometers per hour.

�But I was not quiet prepared for what my eyes would soon encounter. As I savoured the serenity and utter quietude of the village focusing on the right side of the bush path, Thomas tapped suddenly on my shoulder. “Sir, see the green river there”. What I saw transfixed me. My jaw dropped. I was motionless with horror, wonder and astonishment. Awe-struck, I covered my face with both palms so that the enigmatic river would not stare at me and I would not see it either.
�“Park, park, park”, I told Abednego, my driver. There was a mild confusion as the driver himself was visibly scared of what he saw. Like me, he had never seen a green river before. It took some moments for me to recover from the overwhelming amazement. My driver took a longer time to regain his composure. He refused to come down the slope with the ‘Mungo Park’ and I. It took a bit of persuasion for him to drive the car down to the riverside. I doubt whether I would have dared to approach that river, if I were alone. It was simply too mystifying for my driver to comprehend. “Sir, I have never seen something like this before”, he said.

�The green wonder was flowing peacefully from left to right, or was it from east to west, as far as my eyes could see. Slowly and reverentially, we approached the river. In no time I had mustered sufficient confidence to pose by the river for photographs. Three villagers were at hand by the river, but some 100 meters away. Initially we ignored them and chose to trek in the opposite direction, I guess for two kilometers.

�“Here we are! The sand is white. The river is green. And the wind feel like dew drops”, I said aloud with a poetic flair. At least, that’s what I thought.
�We couldn’t get to the end of the river as the thicket of green shrubs and bamboo plants had formed a blockade. I wished aloud there were canoe boys to paddle us down the end of the river and back. Thomas concurred and said money is waiting to be made by the boys when visitors begin to frequent the river.

�The only canoe seen had no paddler nor paddles. Maybe the three natives we sighted earlier would canoe us up and down the river, we reasoned. No, they said, when we caught up with them 15 minutes or so later. But they told us some stories about the green river of Ikot Akpa. “I was born to see the green river this way”, Edidiong Archibong, a native said. We wanted him to take us upstream, towards the source of the river. He turned down the request.
�According to him the green river originates and oozes out from a rocky little hill, overgrown now by thickets of clumping and perennially evergreen bamboo plants. “These days nobody bother to go there anymore” another native added. Archibong said, the river is usually greener in dry sunny seasons than what we saw. Rainy season like now, he added “has tampered” with the crystal green and adorable colour of the river, because rain water usually washed the soil down the hills into the river, as in the last three days.

�I was curious to know what the colour of the water would be in a cup or bottle. Green or white? The natives said white. But Thomas, true to his name was doubtful. He volunteered to go down the slope to fetch and see the water in a bottle himself. He was warned by natives to beware of the depth of the river. “It’s very deep. If you put this tall palm tree inside, the river will swallow it completely” another native said.

�Gingerly, Thomas went down to the etch to fetch the water with a plastic bottle. “It is white”, he shouted, before he climbed back up to where we stood. For a while, we sat at the bamboo bench constructed by natives under a bamboo tree, to snack and take pictures.
�So why is the river green in the eye and white in the bottle? Another native said the river is green because it is mirroring the environment of green palm fronds. That is doubtful because nearly all the other rivers in Akwa Ibom are overshadowed and sandwiched by green trees and shrubs. The issue of algae was ruled out completely by these three natives.
�What is not ruled out is the hand of God. For sure this site would now attract not just tourists and writers, but hydrologists from nearby universities and government officials from relevant agencies. That means we have not heard the last yet about the Green River of Akwa Ibom�

Source: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10223242188617171&id=1057656518

Thomas Thomas holds out a container to show that water from the river turns white when put inside a bottle
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Nice

Azure Water you mean.

awesome

This is just by my community. Akwa Ibom isongo!!!!

wow

acesboy:
Interesting.

Interesting.

So pristine

This is a tourist gold for any smart country but alas... this is Nigeria. Brilliant citizens with dead leaders

This place would have been developed if it was in a working country

nature's wonder

wooow! looks beautiful.....

Beautiful

And government can not harness the potential of that site and turn it to a tourist site. Maldives utilized their blue water and today people all over the world go there on vacation.

Udom Emmanuel think smart, I know you're still one of the governors that thinks well not like the Nebuchadnezzar we have in Rivers that for six years is yet to create just one employment.

To the Nebu of Rivers State governance is only about building bridge in the name of flyover, make noise and shout with frog voice.

Beautiful sight

Cool

Wow have never heard of this. Sencillo should build a resort around it and watch the value of the entire stretch shoot up. Gold mine.

Wouldnt mind a holiday around there though.

Spirogyra filled water

Nice scenery. Would luv to come kayaking here some day.

I wish I can get a team we will all pick a day off our very busy lives and go on an adventure....as a team, we contribute and fund our tourism around Nigeria ��.....


My eyes hunger for breathtaking sights.....

My senses are open to capture every moment...


But alas I fear this are just wishful thoughts



Beautiful river

Water is colourless, odourless & tasteless! na so dem teach us for sch oooo.

wonderful nature

Hope this is not as a result of Algal bloom

this is pure LIES AND FAKE NEWS ,come to the North and see where we have BLOOD RED RIVER

People from akwa ibom are the most luckiest people in Nigeria always bless with good leaders everything in that state is organized

Leun:
Azure Water you mean.

Nope.
Office 365 water

With all that is going on in this country, why don't you just play it alone with your family and become richer than dangote

Wonders of God

Algae?

Azure River!

This is beautiful ...I'm proud to come from this great land... A land of promise..


Akwa ibom isongo !!!