Post date: Aug 04, 2011 8:1:32 PM
A U.N. report says full environmental restoration of a region at the heart of Nigeria's oil production could take 30 years, as the main historical operator there, Royal Dutch Shell, agrees to take responsibility for two oil leaks in the area.
BODO CREEK, BODO VILLAGE NIGERIA, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HANDOUT- Nigeria's Ogoniland in the oil-rich Niger Delta has suffered 50 years of pollution and could need the world's largest ever oil clean-up, which will cost an initial $1 billion and may take 30 years, the United Nations said in a report on Thursday (August 4).
Royal Dutch Shell was the largest operator in Ogoniland prior to being forced out by communities in 1993 who said the company destroyed fishing communities with pollution.While Shell does not operate in Ogoniland anymore, its pipelines and other infrastructure remain and still suffer spillages and sabotage attacks. This week Shell took responsibility for two leaks in the region that took place in 2008 and 2009.
Shell agreed on Wednesday (August 3) that the communities in Bodo, Ogoniland, can seek compensation in a British court, potentially opening up the oil giant to bigger future financial and reputational damages. The oil group has already accepted responsibility and promised compensation for the 2008 and 2009 spills.
The pressure group, Amnesty International filmed an interview with a Bodo fisherman who recently recounted his reaction to the spill in 2008.
"I nearly fainted. So after sometime I come back again, come to myself and begin to weep because everything we have put in, all the labour for quite a long time, all just in a moment disappeared," Pastor Christian Lekoya Kpandei said.
In Thursday's U.N. report, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said the environmental restoration of Ogoniland could prove to be the world's most wide-ranging and long term oil clean-up exercise ever undertaken.
UNEP said drinking water in some areas was contaminated so seriously it needed immediate emergency action. The findings were undertaken over a 14-month period, surveyed 122 km (76 miles) of pipeline rights of way, reviewing more than 5,000 medical records and engaging over 23,000 people at local meetings.
The report is the most detailed scientific study on any area in the Niger Delta, the heartland of Africa's largest oil industry, UNEP and rights groups said. It was paid for partly by Shell after a request by the government.
Amnesty International, actively involved in Niger Delta environmental problems, said the report proved the Anglo-Dutch major was responsible for the pollution.
''We found the report and the contents of the report both confirming things that were already in the public domain, but confirming them with scientific evidence for the first time, but we've also found some shocking revelations in there. Two of the things that Amnesty, in particular, would draw out are: the pollution of water in the Niger Delta, pollution of water that people drink, this has been exposed in the report because UNEP -- the environmental experts -- were able to take water samples across Ogoniland and they've shown that the water that people drink is polluted, not just in the rivers and streams, but that ground water is polluted,' said Amnesty International Global Issues Director, Audrey Gaughran.
''So this exposure of Shell's failure to clean up is extremely serious, because Shell's often maintained that it operates to best international standards; that is totally debunked by this report,'' she added.
"SPDC (Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria) welcomes the submission of the UNEP report to the Nigerian government. We will study the contents carefully and will comment further once we have done so," a spokeswoman told Reuters by e-mail.
Shell has said most oil spills in the Niger Delta are caused by oil theft and sabotage attacks but says it cleans up whatever the cause.
Amnesty said the UNEP programme, based on peer-reviewed science, would help progress towards tackling Delta pollution.