Residents of Ogoniland (pop. 832,000), in Rivers State, Nigeria, are demanding compensation and clean-up of the oil that has polluted water sources and destroyed their livelihoods. A UNEP study [1] published in August 2011, concluded that the environmental restoration of Ogoniland could take 25 to 30 years and would require an initial investment of US$ 1 billion contributed by the oil industry and the Government.
Communities relying on polluted wells should immediately be provided with adequate sources of drinking water, the UNEP study said. However, three months after the release of the study, only two of the ten communities where drinking water was found to be dangerously contaminated by oil had been provided with safe water, claimed Chris Newsom of Stakeholder Democracy Network.
[caption id="attachment_2364" align="aligncenter" width="334" caption="A water tanker supplies potable water to a community in Nisioken Ogale, 15 Sep 2011. Photo: UNEP"][/caption]
Published on: 20/12/2011
Residents of Ogoniland (pop. 832,000), in Rivers State, Nigeria, are demanding compensation and clean-up of the oil that has polluted water sources and destroyed their livelihoods. A UNEP study [1] published in August 2011, concluded that the environmental restoration of Ogoniland could take 25 to 30 years and would require an initial investment of US$ 1 billion contributed by the oil industry and the Government.
Communities relying on polluted wells should immediately be provided with adequate sources of drinking water, the UNEP study said. However, three months after the release of the study, only two of the ten communities where drinking water was found to be dangerously contaminated by oil had been provided with safe water, claimed Chris Newsom of Stakeholder Democracy Network.
A water tanker supplies potable water to a community in Nisioken Ogale, 15 Sep 2011. Photo: UNEP
Although widespread violence led to the closing down of oil production in Ogoniland in 1993 [2], the facilities themselves have never been decommissioned and oil pipelines still transverse the territory. In 2008, two consecutive oils spills, which were caused by faults in the Trans-Niger pipeline, resulted in thousands of barrels of oil polluting the land and creek surrounding Bodo, a town of some 69,000 people.
Earlier in 2011, Royal Dutch Shell accepted responsibility for the 2008 oil spills after the Bodo community took them to court in the UK. The Bodo community, represented by London based law firm Leigh Day & Co, is now seeking compensation. In a separate US lawsuit, King Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi and four other tribal leaders are suing Royal Dutch Shell for US$ 1 billion on behalf of the people of Ogale in the Eleme local government area, where UNEP found the most serious groundwater contamination. The US lawsuit is backed up by a joint report [3] published by Amnesty International and the Center for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD) demanding that Shell must commit to pay an initial US$1 billion to begin the clean-up of pollution caused by oil spills in the Niger Delta.
Local communities are resorting to Western courts due to a lack of faith in the Nigerian system. The National Oil Spill and Detection Agency (NOSDRA), formed in 2006, does not have the power to enforce good practices said Aster van Kregten, a researcher at Amnesty International. Amnesty has called on the Nigerian government to set up mechanisms for independent monitoring of the oil industry and to strengthen NOSDRA. If no action is taken, there are fears that militant groups in the Niger Delta, who were responsible for attacks on oil facilities and kidnapping oil workers but were pacified in an amnesty in 2009, will again resort to violence.
[1] UNEP, 2011. Environmental assessment of Ogoniland. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme. Available at: <http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/OEA/UNEP_OEA.pdf> [Accessed 20 December 2011].
[2] The government crackdown on protests by Ken Saro-Wiwa and his Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) against Shell in the 1990s resulted in the death of 2,000 Ogoni people and displacement of 80,000. The execution n 1995 of Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders, after a rigged trial by the Nigerian government, provoked international outrage and continues to inspire activists like the Nigerian-born hip-hop singer Nneka
[3] Amnesty International and CEHRD, 2011. The true tragedy: delays and failures in tackling oil spills in the Niger Delta. (Demand dignity). London: Amnesty International. Available at: <http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR44/018/2011/en > [Accessed 20 December 2011].
Related news: Nigeria: Dutch court to try Shell for oil spills, WASH news Africa, 04 Jan 2010
Related web sites:
Source:
