Rivers State

Rivers State, also known simply as Rivers, is one of the 36 states of Nigeria. According to census data released in 2006, the state has a population of 5,185,400, making it the sixth-most populous state in the country. Its capital, Port Harcourt is the largest city and is economically significant as the centre of Nigeria's oil industry. Rivers State is bounded on the South by the Atlantic Ocean, to the North by Imo, Abia and Anambra States, to the East by Akwa Ibom State and to the West by Bayelsa and Delta states. It is home to many indigenous ethnic groups: Ikwerre, Ibani, Opobo, Eleme, Okrika, and Kalabari, Etche, Ogba, Ogoni, Engenni and others. The people from Rivers State are known as "Riverians".

The inland part of the state consists of tropical rainforest; towards the coast the typical Niger Delta environment features many mangrove swamps.

Rivers state, named after the many rivers that border its territory, was part of the Oil Rivers Protectorate from 1885 till 1893, when it became part of the Niger Coast Protectorate. In 1900 the region was merged with the chartered territories of the Royal Niger Company to form the colony of Southern Nigeria. The state was formed in 1967 with the split of the Eastern Region of Nigeria. Until 1996 the state contained the area now known as Bayelsa State.

River

A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water. Small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the generic term river as applied to geographic features, although in some countries or communities a stream is defined by its size. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; examples are "run" in some parts of the United States, "burn" in Scotland and northeast England, and "beck" in northern England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always: the language is vague.

Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Water generally collects in a river from precipitation through a drainage basin from surface runoff and other sources such as groundwater recharge, springs, and the release of stored water in natural ice and snowpacks (e.g. from glaciers). Potamology is the scientific study of rivers while limnology is the study of inland waters in general.

Port Harcourt

Port Harcourt (Igbo: Ụ́gwụ́ Ọ́chá;Pidgin: Po-ta-kot) is the capital of Rivers State, Nigeria. It lies along the Bonny River and is located in the Niger Delta. According to the 2006 census, the Port Harcourt urban area has a population of 1,382,592.

The area that became Port Harcourt in 1912 was before that part of the farmlands of the Diobu village group of the Ikwerre, an Igbo sub-group. The colonial administration of Nigeria created the port to export coal from the collieries of Enugu located 243 kilometres (151 mi) north of Port Harcourt, to which it was linked by a railway called the Eastern Line, also built by the British.

In 1956 crude oil was discovered in commercial quantities at Oloibiri, and Port Harcourt's economy turned to petroleum when the first shipment of Nigerian crude oil was exported through the city in 1958. Through the benefits of the Nigerian petroleum industry, Port Harcourt was further developed, with aspects of modernisation such as overpasses and city blocks. Oil firms that currently have offices in the city include Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron.

State

State may refer to:

Law and politics

Science and technology

Rivers State Monorail

The Rivers State Monorail (also known as Rivers Monorail and occasionally as Port Harcourt Monorail) is an under-construction monorail urban transportation project in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

It will travel on a fully segregated, mostly elevated, right of way. The right of way will include two tracks, except for single-track sections at terminals and for one-directional loops. It is planned to use Intamin People Mover P30 rolling stock.

The initial route segment will go from Sharks Park to Waterlines, a distance of 5.4 km. Phase 1A of the project will extent from Sharks Park to UTC Station, while Phase 1B will extent the route further north to Waterlines. Further extensions are in planning phases.

The decision to build the monorail was taken in 2009. In 2010, building of the project foundations began. The Government of Rivers State had in February 2013 announced that phase 1A and 1B of the monorail system would be completed during September that year. By 2014, monorail trains were performing test runs through UTC Station.