UNEP Team Now in Nigeria: Jonathan to Implement Ogoniland Report

UNEP also highlighted that due to high rainfall in Ogoniland, any delay in cleaning up oil spills would worsen the current levels of contamination   

 UNEP representatives, led by Special Envoy Erik Solheim, will meet with top Government of Nigeria officials and other key partners this week in Abuja and Port Harcourt regarding the implementation of the environmental remediation proposed by UNEP in the Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland.

The August 2011 study - the most comprehensive assessment of its kind ever undertaken in the Niger Delta - found that oil contamination in Ogoniland, as a result of oil industry operations in the area since the late 1950s, is extensive and having a grave negative impact on the environment. The report called for establishing an "Ogoniland Environmental Restoration Authority" with initial funding of US$1 billion, in addition to implementing emergency measures to mitigate the ongoing harm to communities from the oil pollution.

FURTHER RESOURCES

• UNEP Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland
• UNEP Disasters and Conflicts

UNEP also highlighted that due to high rainfall in Ogoniland, any delay in cleaning up oil spills would worsen the current levels of contamination - rain would carry the oil across farmland and into creeks and the root zone, and subsequently kill crops and other plants.

In July 2012 the Government of Nigeria set up the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) to implement the environmental clean-up in Ogoniland and conduct environmental assessments in other parts of Nigeria impacted by oil contamination.

Erik Solheim, with a core technical UNEP team, is meeting with key government officials, non-governmental organisations, and civil society representatives, in order to establish the next steps in assisting with the environmental clean-up.

"With regard to Ogoniland, the UN system is committed to supporting the government throughout the entire process of implementing the recommendations of the report. On behalf of UNEP, I look forward to coordinated and collaborative action with our Nigerian and international partners in addressing pollution in Ogoniland," said Solheim. "We can only ensure long-term environmental sustainability through dialogue, confidence and trust, and it is in this mindset that I lead the UNEP team here this week."

The environmental restoration of Ogoniland is possible, according to UNEP, but could take 25 to 30 years. Due to the wide extent of contamination in Ogoniland and nearby areas, and the varying degrees of degradation, there will not be one single clean-up technique appropriate for the entire area. Therefore a combination of approaches will need to be considered.

Continued delay in the implementation of the recommendations will not only undermine the livelihoods of the Ogoni communities, but will also cause the pollution footprint to expand. In the long run, the findings of the study itself will become dated, and therefore further assessments will be needed, causing additional delays. UNEP hopes to convey this sense of urgency to the stakeholders during this mission.

Notes to Editors

The Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland report is available online at: http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/OEA/UNEP_OEA.pdf. Site-specific fact sheets containing detailed information about 67 of the contaminated sites studied are also available at this website.

Erik Solheim, former Norwegian Minister of Environment and International Development, is currently Chairman of the Development Assistance Committee for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Devlopment (OECD). He was appointed UNEP Special Envoy in January 2013 to deal with issues relating to UNEP's sub-programme for Disasters and Conflicts.

Map of Ogoniland, Federal Republic of Nigeria

For additional information please contact:

Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson and Head of Media (Nairobi) on Tel. +254 733632755


Source: UNEP

Oil Spills Destroy My Village in Nigeria

Shell has admitted liability but has a long way to go to make amends

Oil spills destroyed my village in Nigeria and decades of environmental and social injustice are still to be addressed

by Patrick Naagbanton, Thursday 4 August 2011 Reposted from guardian.co.uk                       Shell’s admission of liability for two massive oil spills in 2008-09 in my village of Bodo in the Niger Delta is a step forward in the long struggle for corporate accountability. An impoverished village that yesterday lay in ruins has today felt a welcome glimmer of hope and justice. We are happy with the news that Shell could be forced to clean up the environmental devastation it has caused and to pay more than $400m in compensation. But our jubilation is overshadowed by more than five decades of environmental and social injustice yet to be addressed. Bodo village is a fishing community in the minority Ogoni region of the Niger Delta. Shell was forced out of Ogoni in 1993, following mass protests led by writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed on 10 November 1995 alongside eight other campaigners. Shell’s vast network of oil wells, pipelines, flow-stations and gas flares remained in Ogoni and are an everyday reminder of what we have suffered. Many of Shell’s rusty, leaky pipelines date back to the 1970s and have been poorly maintained ever since (see pages 31-36 and 43 of Friends of the Earth Netherlands report). It was equipment failure that caused Shell’s high-pressure Trans-Niger pipeline to rupture on 28 August 2008, gushing an estimated 2,000 barrels of oil per day into Bodo for weeks. The land and water was covered in thick layers of crude. Shell was also responsible for a second spill from the same pipeline on 2 February 2009. Oil spills have effectively destroyed my community. Local farmers and fishers were forced to abandon their traditional ways of life. Bodo Creek is, ecologically speaking, dead. The fish that were not killed by the heavy pollution now reek of petroleum and cannot sustain a village population of 69,000 people. Shell has violated our basic human rights to food, water and livelihood. The compensation Shell offered us – £3,500 plus bags of rice and sugar – was insulting and wholly inadequate. Full article Image: Ogoni Spill-Amensty International photos