Rights group, NGOs step up pressure on oil companies to clean up polluted Nigeria's Niger Delta

18 Juin 2020

Lagos, Nigeria, June 18 (Infosplusgabon) - Human rights group Amnesty International and NGOs are stepping up pressure on oil companies to clean up the pollution of the Niger Delta in Nigeria.

It said a new investigation by four NGOs has found that nearly 10 years after a clean-up was urged for areas polluted by multi-national energy company, Shell and other oil companies in the Niger Delta, work has begun on only 11% of planned sites while vast areas remain heavily contaminated.

In 2011 the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) released a report documenting the devastating impact of the oil industry in Ogoniland, and set out urgent recommendations for clean-up, Amnesty International said in a statement on Thursday.

But the new investigation has found that “emergency measures” proposed by UNEP have not been properly implemented and that the billion-dollar clean-up project launched by the Nigerian government in 2016 has been ineffective.

The statement said over five decades, oil and gas extraction have caused large-scale, continued contamination of the water and soil in Ogoni communities.

"The continued and systematic failure of oil companies and government to clean up have left hundreds of thousands of Ogoni people facing serious health risks, struggling to access safe drinking water, and unable to earn a living," it said.

Numerous conflicts of interest around Shell have also been revealed involving the management of the clean-up agency, HYPREP, and the Nigerian government.

This year, Shell is facing a series of European court battles over its business in Nigeria, the statement said.

On 23 June, the UK’s Supreme Court will hear an appeal brought by two Niger Delta communities, Ogale and Bille. They claim that over several years they have suffered systematic and ongoing oil pollution because of Shell’s operations.

Godwin Ojo, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria said: “After nine years of promises without proper action and decades of pollution, the people of Ogoniland are not only sick of dirty drinking water, oil-contaminated fish and toxic fumes. They are sick of waiting for justice, they are dying by the day. The Nigerian government should acknowledge this project has been a failure and reinvigorate HYPREP with technical skills and strategic thinking, fully involving the community.”

Osai Ojigho, Amnesty International Nigeria, said: “The discovery of oil in Ogoniland has brought huge suffering for its people. Over many years we have documented how Shell has failed to clean up contamination from spills and it’s a scandal that this has not yet happened. The pollution is leading to serious human rights impacts – on people’s health and ability to access food and clean water. Shell must not get away with this - we will continue to fight until every last trace of oil is removed from Ogoniland.”

The statement said work has begun on only 11% of polluted sites identified by UNEP, with only a further 5% included in current clean-up efforts, and no site has been entirely cleaned up;

It said actions classified by UNEP as “emergency measures” - immediate action on drinking water and health protection - have not been implemented properly and there are still communities without access to clean water supplies.

Health and environmental monitoring has not been carried out; there has not been any public accounting for how the US$31 million funding provided since 2018 has been spent; and 11 of 16 companies contracted for the clean-up are reported to have no registered expertise in oil pollution remediation or related areas.

The statement added that HYPREP has numerous conflicts of interest as Shell continues to be involved in the governing boards for the clean-up and even places its own staff in HYPREP.

The NGOs are asking, among other things, a rapid clean-up and in particular that the Nigerian government makes sure that Ogoni people can access their basic rights including the right to safe drinking water and also develops and implements a strategy to address the root causes of oil pollution, while fully involving local communities.

It asks Shell to provide proper compensation to all communities affected by failed or delayed clean-ups of oil spills, decommissions all aging and damaged pipelines and commits to funding the clean-up of Ogoniland and the rest of the Niger Delta until completed that European governments home to oil companies operating in the Niger Delta.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/ILM/GABON2020

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