Nigeria, March 20 -- "I am happy the mangroves are coming back. I feel happy because for a longtime now, we haven't had fish, no crabs; life has not been easy. But today, I can walk through that (pointing at the river in Gio) to fetch this jionudor (a palm tree-like stump) that serves as our firewood. Before now, the river was covered by oil. Everything in it died. Now, aquatic life is coming back gradually. I am happy and I know many of our people are happy."

The above are the words of 65-year-old Godwin kirijio a retired civil servant, as he waded through the shallow end of the Ogoni River in Gio, Gokane Local Government of Rivers State. I engaged the retired civil servant by the bank of the river.

At a time when the Rivers of Crisis ...