Despite local and international concerns generated by the United Nations Environment Programme’s report on Ogoniland, the federal government and Shell are yet to address the main recommendations three years after, writes Alike Ejiofor
Precisely three years ago, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) conducted an independent assessment of the environment and public health impacts of oil contamination in Ogoniland in Rivers State and made far-reaching recommendations for remediation.
The UNEP’s study, which was at the instance of the federal government discovered that crude oil contamination in Ogoniland was widespread and severely impacting many components of the environment.
“The Ogoni people live with this pollution every minute of every day, 365 days a year. Since average life expectancy in Nigeria is less than 50 years, it is a fair assumption that most members of the current Ogoniland community have lived with chronic oil pollution throughout their lives.
Children born in Ogoniland soon sense oil pollution as the odour of hydrocarbons pervades the air day in, day out. Oil continues to spill from periodic pipeline fractures and the illegal practice of artisanal refining, contaminating creeks and soil, staining and killing vegetation and seeping metres deep into ground, polluting water tables.
Smoke from artisanal refining is a daily presence and fire close to inhabited areas is a constant threat from pools of oil which gather after a spill due to corrosion or bunkering or where artisanal refining of crude oil takes place,” the report said. The report recommended measures to clean up the contamination and restore the devastated environment.
Emergency measures
UNEP recommended that “SPDC should conduct a comprehensive review of its assets in Ogoniland, including a thorough test of the integrity of current oilfield infrastructure” with a view to developing an “Asset Integrity Management Plan for Ogoniland.”
It also urged the oil giant to map out a comprehensive decommissioning plan and also specify risk levels, inspection routines and maintenance schedules for assets it wants to retain and communicate same to the Ogoni people.
Shell was also charged to carry out an environmental due diligence assessment of the plan, prior to the decommissioning plan.
UNEP also advocated a campaign to bring to an end illegal oil-related activities – tapping into oil wells/pipelines,transportation of crude, artisanal refining) should be conducted across Ogoniland.
According to the global body, the campaign should be a joint initiative between the federal government, the oil companies, Rivers State and local community authorities.
The report noted that while a National Oil Spill Contingency Plan exists in Ogoniland, with NOSDRA having a clear legislative role, the situation on-the-ground indicates that spills are not being dealt with in an adequate or timely manner.
“In order to ensure that all oil spills, regardless of the cause, are dealt with within the shortest possible time, an oil spill contingency plan (OSCP) for Ogoniland, covering both land areas and water bodies, should be prepared. The plan should be communicated to the community, with particular emphasis on how any delay in reporting or responding to a spill will have disproportionate environmental consequences,” UNEP said.
UNEP also called on SPDC to discontinue the current approach of cleaning-up contaminated sites through remediation by enhanced natural attenuation (RENA).
According to UNEP, even SPDCs revised Remediation Management System does not address the issues observed in its assessment.
UNEP report said the Ogoniland might require the world’s biggest-ever clean-up that would likely take up to 30 years and recommended that both the Federal Government and the oil industry should contribute $1billion.
Three years after the recommendations
Amnesty International and other groups in the Niger Delta recently alleged that only little action had been taken by the federal government and SPDC to implement the report.
A new report by Amnesty International, Friends of The Earth Europe, Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development, Environmental Rights Action, and Platform, further alleged that crude oil production had contaminated the drinking water of at least 10 communities in the Ogoni area.
“In the three years since UNEP’s study was published, the federal government and Shell have taken almost no meaningful action to implement its recommendations,” said the joint report, according to AP report.
“The failure to fully implement any of the non-emergency measures after three years has resulted in a loss of confidence among many stakeholders. Even the emergency measures have only been partially implemented,” the groups said. …continue reading on THISDAY website