The delta covers 20,000 km?within wetlands of 70,000 km?formed primarily by sediment deposition. Home to 20 million people and 40 different ethnic groups, this floodplain makes up 7.5% of Nigeria's total land mass. It is the largest wetland and maintains the third-largest drainage basin in Africa.

However, as large as this is region is, it has suffered a lot of setbacks in terms of environmental protection. The carelessness of The Federal government and non-challant attitudes of oil companies to spillage has in recent times, aggravated the challenges facing this region of the country.

Slow poisoning of water has been reported which led to the destruction of vegetations and arable lands by oil spills. It has been reported that half of oil spillage occurs as a result of broken pipeline and oil tanker accidents. This is caused by improper inspection and maintenance of pipelines by the appropriate authorities.

According to the Department of Petroleum Resources a total of  1.89 million barrels of petroleum were spilled into the Niger Delta between 1976 and 1996 out of a total of 2.4 million barrels spilled in 4,835 incidents (approximately 220 thousand cubic metres). A UNDP report states that there have been a total of 6,817 oil spills between 1976 and 2001, which account for a loss of three million barrels of oil, of which more than 70% was not recovered. 69% of these spills occurred off-shore, a quarter was in swamps and 6% spilled on land.

Apart from the destruction of vegetations, spills has also denied the residents of the Niger-Delta their major occupation: Fishing. Fish and sea foods are essential in Nutrition because it is a rich source of protein. The availability of these essential commodities is questioned as their natural habitats has been depleted due to uncontrolled human activities.

Although, little attention has been paid to this ravaging problem in this region, some states has adopted the use of biological remediation to detoxify and restore the ecosystem in the area.

Bioremediation involves biological components in the remediation or cleanup of a specific site. The process of bioremediation is in two stages the first state is the use of Hibiscus cannabinus, a plant species indigenous to West Africa. H. cannabinus is an annual herbaceous plant originally used for pulp production. While the second stage of bioremediation involves a plant known as Vetiveria zizanioides, a perennial grass species. V. zizanioides has a deep fibrous root network that can both tolerate chemicals in the soil and can also detoxify soils through time requiring little maintenance. This method has been used to improve the quality of drinking water, soil conditions, and the health of their surrounding environment in some parts of the Niger Delta.

The campaign for a safe environment in the Niger Delta will continue until adequate and pragmatic measures as well as  the necessary infrastructures  are put in place by the government and oil exploration companies to ensuring a habitable abode for not only humans alone but aquatic lives and vegetations.