Small-scale industrial village in Benin City, Nigeria: Establishment, failure and phytotoxicity assessment of soils from the abandoned site

In 1986, the then Nigerian Military Government promulgated a decree stipulating that all small-scale industries be moved out of the city centres to designated locations in the more remote areas or villages. In line with that decree, the then Edo State Government decided to create the Small-scale Industrial village at Ogbesan, near Benin City, Nigeria. This article summarises the situation leading to the establishment of a typical small-scale industrial site (Ogbesan), its failure and the current state of the abandoned site. To test the phytotoxic effect of soils taken from the impacted area in the abandoned site at Ogbesan, seeds of Arachis hypogaea were used for experiments. Growth of test plant was generally depressed by soils from the impacted area. One hundred percent germination inhibition was observed in sub-soil obtained from the centrally located plot (D3) in the study area. Twenty eight days after sowing, plant height, root elongation and leaf area values were consistently lower in plants from almost all the experimental plots than the control and this effect was more in the subsoil samples. In the most affected plots, plant height, root elongation and leaf area were 83, 100 and 87% (B5) and 94, 67 and 71% (C1), respectively, lower than the control. The results indicate clearly that the activities and wastes dumped at the sites adversely affect the ability of soils from the site to support plant growth.