[ 2011-08-06 ]

Cleaning up Nigerian oil pollution could take 30 years, cost billions of dollars
The environmental restoration of Nigeria's
Ogoniland oil region could prove to be the world's
most wide-ranging and long-term oil clean-up
exercise ever, if contaminated drinking water,
land, creeks and other ecosystems are to be
brought back to full health, according to a United
Nations report released today.

It could take 25 to 30 years, with an initial
investment of $1 billion just for the first five
years, to clean up pollution from more than 50
years of oil operations in the Niger Delta,
ranging from the “disastrous” impact on
mangrove vegetation to the contamination of wells
with potentially cancer-causing chemicals in a
region that is home to some 1 million people.

The independent scientific assessment, carried out
by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
over a 14-month period, showed greater and deeper
pollution than previously thought after an agency
team examined more than 200 locations, surveyed
122 kilometres of pipeline rights of way, analyzed
4,000 soil and water samples, reviewed more than
5,000 medical records and engaged over 23,000
people at local community meetings.

“It is UNEP's hope that the findings can break
the decades of deadlock in the region and provide
the foundation upon which trust can be built and
action undertaken to remedy the multiple health
and sustainable development issues facing people
in Ogoniland,” UNEP Executive Director, Achim
Steiner said of the report, which was presented to
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan today in
Abuja, the capital.

“In addition it offers a blueprint for how the
oil industry, and public regulatory authorities,
might operate more responsibly in Africa and
beyond at a time of increasing production and
exploration across many parts of the continent.”


The report, Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland,
proposed the establishment of an Ogoniland
Environmental Restoration Authority as soon as
possible, with an initial capital injection of $1
billion from the oil industry and the Government
to cover the first five years of the clean-up
project; and a soil management centre with
hundreds of mini-centres to treat contaminated
soil and provide hundreds of job opportunities.

It also recommended setting up a centre to promote
learning and benefit other communities impacted by
oil contamination in the Niger Delta and elsewhere
in the world.

The study found that some areas, which appear
unaffected at the surface, are in reality severely
contaminated underground, and action to protect
human health and reduce should be taken without
delay. In at least 10 communities where drinking
water is contaminated with high levels of
hydrocarbons, public health is seriously
threatened.

In one community, Nisisioken Ogale, near a
Nigerian National Petroleum Company pipeline,
families are drinking water from wells
contaminated with benzene, a known carcinogen, at
levels over 900 times above UN World Health
Organization (WHO) guidelines, warranting
emergency action ahead of all other remediation
efforts.

The report noted that the impact of oil on
mangrove vegetation had been disastrous, with many
inter-tidal creeks where mangroves that serve as
nurseries for fish and natural pollution filters
denuded of leaves and stems, the roots coated in
layers of a bitumen-type substance. But despite
community concerns, fish consumption was not
posing a health risk.

Meanwhile, Ogoni communities are exposed to
hydrocarbons every day through multiple routes.
While the impact of individual contaminated land
sites tends to be localized, air pollution related
to oil industry operations is pervasive and
affecting the quality of life of close to 1
million people.

UNEP has emphasized that the study, which began in
late 2009, is independent and its funding by the
Shell Petroleum Development Company is in keeping
with the polluter-pays principle.

United Nations - www.unic.org

Source - United Nations

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