NIGERIA: No change on Nigeria's biggest oil spill one year after landmark U.N. report.

Record ID: 235750

  • Title: NIGERIA: No change on Nigeria's biggest oil spill one year after landmark U.N. report.
  • Date: 4th August 2012
  • Summary: PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA (AUGUST 2, 2012) (REUTERS) WIDE OF POLLUTED MANGROVE IN BODO COMMUNITY OF OGONILAND ABANDONED OIL DRUM VARIOUS OF FISHERMEN ON BOATS VARIOUS OF OIL SLICK ON THE RIVER / DEAD MANGROVE FOREST (SOUNDBITE) (English) FARMER, CHRISTIAN AMADI, SAYING: "Now, it's all destroyed, there's no fish, you can't fetch water from the stream because of the oil pollution and ever since then life in this place changed and the people don't use it." VARIOUS OIL SLICK IN THE CREEKS PARKED CANOES BY THE RIVER BANK RESIDENT IN BODO COMMUNITY, JOHN INEDAN, SCRAPING OIL OFF WATER (SOUNDBITE) (English) BODO COMMUNITY RESIDENT, JOHN INEDAN, SAYING: "As I speak to you from 2011 until now, nothing has been done to remedy the situation." GENERAL VIEW OF MANGROVE FISHERMEN IN BOAT DEAD FISH IN BOAT (SOUNDBITE) (English) BODO COMMUNITY YOUTH PRESIDENT, PATT KPOBARI, SAYING: "We have exhausted our patience, we are keeping quiet now because we are assured that the government is trying to wipe us off from the surface of the earth but what we are waiting for is the judgment at the London court and if it doesn't go the way we expect we will think of some other means whether we will be alive or government have its way because I think they are in the payroll of the oil company and not representing us well." PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA (AUGUST 3, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF NIGER DELTA ACTIVIST, INEMO SAMIAMA, IN HIS OFFICE (SOUNDBITE) (English) NIGER DELTA ACTIVIST, INEMO SAMIAMA, SAYING: "What it shows is that the federal government pays lips service to a lot of issues that are actually crucial to the well being of the people. It does not show seriousness, it doesn't show a sense of urgency because the UNEP did pull the alarm bell about the impact of oil spills on the environment and also the health of the people and federal government is not taking it seriously because one year after, nothing really has been done. What has been done is really cosmetic and, the civil society, we are really disappointed. But the federal government should know that we are not going to let the UNEP report die, like so many others. The issues will be raised and will remains on the front burner that something must be done for Ogoni land and for the wider Niger Delta region." MEN SITTING OUTSIDE HOUSE IN BODO COMMUNITY WOMAN WALKING WITH FOOD ON HER HEAD MAN ON MOTORCYCLE POLLUTED AREA
  • Embargoed: 19th August 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Disasters
  • Reuters ID: LVA6VM4Q3P89SE56G43N3RUBDIA8
  • Story Text: One year on since the United Nations called for the world's biggest ever oil pollution clean-up in Nigeria, activists say nothing has been done to help save the Ogoni.
    A year ago the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said Nigeria's Ogoniland needed the world's biggest ever oil pollution clean-up.
    Twelve months on, thick black oil still floats along the area's creeks, located in the heart of Nigeria's oil and gas industry on the restive Niger Delta, where a maze of pipelines criss-cross mangrove swamps and rivers.
    The 2011 UNEP report said the clean-up could take at least 25 years and cost 1 billion dollars in the first five years - a big committment - but locals and activists say not even a start has been made.

    "Now, it's all destroyed, there's no fish, you can't fetch water from the stream because of the oil pollution and ever since then life in this place changed and the people don't use it," local farmer, Christian Amadi said.
    In a region where millions of people scrape a living from subsistence fishing or farming and live in mud-huts with no electricity, the presence for decades of a multi-billion-dollar oil industry with its high-tech equipment and luxurious compounds for expatriate workers has led to deep resentment.

    "As I speak to you from 2011 until now, nothing has been done to remedy the situation," Bodo community resident, John Inedan, said.
    In one central case, a group of 11,000 Nigerians launched a suit against Royal Dutch Shell at the London High Court in March, seeking tens of millions of dollars in compensation for two oil spills in 2008 that they say destroyed their livelihoods but contaminating fishing grounds.
    Shell admitted responsibility for the two spills but disagrees about how much oil was spilt and how much compensation the claimants should get.
    As the case goes on, residents of the Bodo fishing community say they have to travel to other communities to source for food in order to sustain their families.

    "We have exhausted our patience, we are keeping quiet now because we are assured that the government is trying to wipe us off from the surface of the earth but what we are waiting for is the judgment at the London court and if it doesn't go the way we expect we will think of some other means whether we will be alive or government have its way because I think they are in the payroll of the oil company and not representing us well," Patt Kpobari, the Youth President in Bodo community said.
    Nigeria's Oil Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke announced a clean-up initiative called the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration project last month but said it was still to define the scope, action and financing of the initiative.
    UNEP cautiously welcomed the pledge but warned it was a huge task that will require long term financing.
    The National Coalition on Gas Flaring and Oil Spill in the Delta, a local activist group, says it intends to keep pushing for the clean-up to be on the government agenda.

    "What has been done is really cosmetic and, the civil society, we are really disappointed. But the federal government should know that we are not going to let the UNEP report die, like so many others. The issues will be raised and will remains on the front burner that something must be done for Ogoniland and for the wider Niger Delta region," Inemo Samiama, an activist in the group, said.
    Royal Dutch Shell also says it remains committed to cleaning up Ogoniland, but argues that most oil spills are nowadays the result of theft by armed gangs hacking into pipelines, and this must be addressed alongside any clean-up.
    The Bodo case is particularly troublesome for Shell because the area was the scene of one of the company's worst public relations disasters.
    In 1995, nine Ogoni activists including the environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who had been campaigning against Shell's activities in his homeland, were tried on trumped-up charges and hanged by the then military dictatorship of Sani Abacha.
    Saro-Wiwa has become a martyr to many environmental activists around the world.
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