NIGERIA: Residents and experts say oil spills in Nigeria have caused poverty and an ecological catastrophe

Record ID: 235304

  • Title: NIGERIA: Residents and experts say oil spills in Nigeria have caused poverty and an ecological catastrophe
  • Date: 11th June 2010
  • Summary: BOYS PLAYING IN OILY WATER
  • Embargoed: 26th June 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Nature / Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVA1F92YMXXBVNJA7B6L74QHWNL9
  • Story Text: Nigeria's decades of oil spills have caused poverty for the people living there and an ecological catastrophe for the continent's only 9000 square kilometres of precious mangrove.
    Forty-five (45)-year-old Innocent Tomwee, a resident of Bodo village in the oil rich Ogoniland, said he had stopped casting his fishing nets a long time ago after several oil spills in the area engulfed most of the river and killed the fish.
    Tomwee said an old Shell pipeline which ruptured was to blame for a recent massive spill which had covered most of the lower part of Bony River near the village, adding to the agony of the people dependent on the waters.
    He said life was difficult without an alternative job, since he depended on fishing to raise school fees for his four children and also to feed them.
    "We can not go fishing any more, even if we go to the river we catch no fish," said Tomwee.
    Experts have said that 50 years of oil spills in the delta have destroyed not only the livelihoods of over 20 million people living there, but also threatened a sensitive ecosystem.
    Multinational oil companies operating in the delta since oil was discovered in Oloibiri in 1958 have been heavily criticised for their role in polluting the environment and doing little to minimise the damage caused by oil spills.
    "We are totally frustrated and we are angry," said Tomwee.
    In the river most of the vegetation on the river bank has dried up and is covered in a layer of dark greasy oil.
    But despite the hardships cause by the spills, a few young men have found a means of trapping the spilled oil and refining it using crude gadgets comprising series of drums heated by fire.
    Daniel Muukor, now 15, has never attended school and can barely express himself, but together with friends, he collects using pipes and a dug out canoe, the spilled oil from the river to refine and sale to earn a living.
    "Because of negligence on the part of Shell, the pipeline has not been replaced for sometime and has been ruptured here and there, and this is one of the sites. And because this thing affected our aquatic life, biodiversity and all that has been affected and there is no more fishing as used to be, so most of them have now devised another means for ensuring they survive through this thing," said John Nyiedah, the assistant secretary Bodo Youth Council in Ogoniland.
    The Nigerian government figures show that there were more than 7000 spills between 1970 and 2000 but environmentalists say the figure is much higher.
    In 2009 Shell admitted to spilling 14, 000 tonnes of oil but blamed it on oil thieves and sabotage by militants who blew up a wellhead in the Odidi field.
    Experts say that, unlike in the United States of America where a recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico prompted President Barak Obama to demand compensation from the oil giant BP for those affected, in Nigeria, the companies operated with impunity and recklessness.
    Shell has over 1000 lawsuits against it because of its oil spills.
    Chief Albert Hoisfall, Chairman Rivers State Rehabilitation Committee, said the government knew what was happening but had its hands tied.
    "The government of this country do not wish to get involved directly or politically in what the commercial companies do, you can understand partly why, we live virtually by the revenue that is generated from oil and the tendency has always been to accommodate them," said Hoisfall.
    Tom Ateke, a Niger Delta militant leader, who waged war against government and oil companies, said the Nigerian administration was doing little to control the effects of oil spills in the region.
    "Nigeria and U.S, there is a big difference, in Nigeria if such a thing happens, they will just keep silent and if you talk, they will look for a way to put you into problems," he said.
    Nigeria depends on oil exports from the Niger Delta for nearly 90 percent of its yearly budgetary needs but the region has remained greatly neglected and under developed.
    40 percent of all the crude exported into the U.S comes from the Niger Delta dubbed by locals as the world's capital of oil pollution.
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