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<div class="blog_text">
<h1>
Niger Delta oil spills bring poverty, low crop yields to farmers.
</h1>
<small>Industry insiders say six decades of oil exploration have made the Niger Delta one of
the
most
polluted places on earth
and damaged a lot, including farmlands.</small>
</div>
<img src="./img/allafrica.png"
alt="An oil slick polluting a farmland is seen in Ibeno village in Nigeria's Akwa Ibom State November 15, 2012 [Tife Owolabi/Reuters]"
style="width: 100%; position: absolute; height: -webkit-fill-available; z-index: -1; object-fit: cover; border-radius: 8px;">
<div class="text-block">
<small>Nigeria: Air Pollution - 31 August 2018 [Shola Ogundipe/Vanguard]</small>
</div>
</div>
<br></br>
<div class="d-flex cont-text-padding">
<div class="two blog_text_style col">
<img src="./img/oil-spill.png"
style="margin-top: 5px; border-radius: 5px; width: 100%; max-height: 500px; object-fit: contain;">
<div class="citation-text">-Source [nosdra.oilspillmonitor.ng]</div>
</div>
<div class="three blog_text_style col">
<p>
<strong>Yenagoa, Nigeria</strong> – This June, Aibakuro Warder was disappointed by the
size
of
the
yam and cassava
tubers
she harvested from her farms in Ikarama, a community in the southernmost Nigerian state
of
Bayelsa.
Most were tiny and
in some locations, there was no yield.
</p>
<p>
“This is what we have been dealing with since oil spills started,” the 51-year-old
mother of
five
said. “It makes it
difficult for me to feed my family and train my children in school because that is the
only
thing I
do”.
</p>
<p>
Thirty years ago there were no spills, Warder recalls. Then she would go to the farm
with
her
mother
and grandmother.
The harvest was always bountiful, she said, sometimes up to 20 bags and sometimes more.
Yam tubers were huge and sometimes up to three feet (91 cm) tall, she said. And they
sold
every
farm
produce they took
to the market and bought whatever they wanted on their way back, she added.
</p>
<p>
Now all of that has changed.
</p>
<p>
These days, Warder is forced to accept whatever amount buyers offer for her tubers at
the
market
because the produce is
tiny. And the proceeds are insufficient to buy basic items at the market for her
children or
cater
to their education.
</p>
<p>
“It is better we don’t even cultivate because our crops die after planting and we must
replant
repeatedly,” she said.
“As we dig the soil, we find crude oil during planting,”. “Some species of cocoyam have
disappeared.”
</p>
<p>
She is not alone. Dominion Ibatou, 67 is yet to harvest anything from his farm in
Ikarama
because
the plants are
stunted. Washington Odoyibo, another farmer in the community, has waited for two years
for
his
plantain seeds to yield,
but they have not.
</p>
</div>
<div class="four blog_text_style col">
<p>
The Niger Delta region, home to more than 6.5 million people who depend on fishing and
farming,
has
all-year-round
agricultural production activities by virtue of being in the country’s rainforest and
mangrove
forest vegetative zones
of Nigeria.
But it also houses all of the deep oil and gas reserves that have accounted for more
than 70
percent
of Nigeria’s foreign revenue since the 1970s.
</p>
<p>
And industry insiders say six 60 years of oil exploration have turned it into one of the
most
polluted places on earth and ruined among other things, farmlands.
</p>
<p>
In 2015, research published in the International Journal of Environmental Sciences by
scientists
from the Federal
University of Technology, Owerri in Imo – one of the states in the region – showed that
an
average
of 150 spills had
been recorded annually in the 60 years before.
</p>
<p>
In 2020 and 2021, Nigeria’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA)
recorded a
combined total of
822
oil spills, resulting in 28,003 barrels spewing into the environment. Last December, a
month-long
spill in Nembe
community in Bayelsa led to youths protesting there and in the streets of the
capital Yenagoa.
These repeated spills and their effect on crop yields have led to a decline in local
food
production
and deepened poverty in communities in the Niger Delta.
</p>
<p>
“This has contributed to an increase in the price of food,” said Nnimmo Bassey, an
environmental
rights activist and
director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF). “Quality of food consumed has
also
been
affected”.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<section>
<div class="blog_text_style" style="grid-column: span 3;">
<div class="img_wrapper">
<figure>
<img src="./img/blog_1.png"
alt="An oil slick polluting a farmland is seen in Ibeno village in Nigeria's Akwa Ibom State"
class="article-sub-images">
<figcaption>
An oil slick polluting a farmland is seen in Ibeno village in Nigeria's Akwa
Ibom State
<div class="citation-text">-November 15, 2012 [Tife Owolabi/Reuters]</div>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img src="./img/article_1_image_1.jpeg"
alt="An oil slick polluting a farmland is seen in Ibeno village in Nigeria's Akwa Ibom State"
class="article-sub-images">
<figcaption>
An oil slick polluting a farmland is seen in Ibeno village in Nigeria's Akwa
Ibom State
<div class="citation-text">-Source [Acme Environmental]</div>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img src="./img/article_2_image_2.jpeg"
alt="An oil slick polluting a farmland is seen in Ibeno village in Nigeria's Akwa Ibom State"
class="article-sub-images">
<figcaption>
An oil slick polluting a farmland is seen in Ibeno village in Nigeria's Akwa
Ibom State
<div class="citation-text">-Source [Safety4sea.com]</div>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<div class="blog_text_style cont-text-padding d-none" id="more_news">
<p>
In Goi in neighbouring Rivers State, community leaders say crude oil seeps out of the
fermented cassava as it is
processed by local women making the staple meal of garri, rendering it unsafe for
consumption.
In 2021, a Dutch court ordered the Nigerian subsidiary of Shell to compensate four farmers
from Oruma in Ogbia in
Bayelsa who had instituted a case against the company for a 2008 oil spillage they say
affect their farms and yields.
</p>
<p>
One hotspot is Ikarama, a fishing and farming community in Bayelsa state, with an estimated
population of 50,000 people.
According to Morris Alagoa, Yenagoa-based head of field operations, Environmental Rights
Action/Friends of Earth Nigeria
(ERA/FoEN), it has the highest frequency of oil spill incidents in the state.
While there is no accurate data on the number of spills in the community, Alagoa says at
least 100 spills have been
recorded between 2007 and 2022.
Between June and December 2008 alone, five oil spills from Shell’s facility were recorded in
Ikarama. In 2011, at least
twelve oil spills and two fire outbreaks were reported in the community.
“Ikarama has lost its place as a food hub,”, Charles Oyibo, a lecturer at the department of
Geography and Environmental
Management at the Niger Delta University.
He said his unpublished research shows that most of the food items sold at the Ikarama
market, come from other
communities.
</p>
<p>
The oil companies operating there are Shell Petroleum Development Company [SPDC] and
Nigerian Agip Oil Company
[NAOC/Eni].
Alagoa alleges that most of these spills were from SPDC pipelines close to residential
buildings and farmlands. Other
spills have also occurred along Agip pipelines.
While SPDC claims that the spill sites in Ikarama have been cleaned and remediated in
accordance with industry
standards, civil society groups say they have documented testimonies from locals, with
indications to the contrary.
“We visited one of the locations where oil spills occurred in August 2021 and after we
cleared and dug a fresh spot, we
discovered crude oil at a depth of more than one metre (100cm), “Alagoa recalled.
</p>
<h2>
Third-party interference
</h5>
<p>
Locals have linked most of the spills – including that of April 2021, when one of the
pipelines operated by the SPDC
discharged 213 barrels of crude oil into Ikarama – to equipment failure. But the company
often blames illegal
third-party interference (sabotage).
Locals say they have always wanted to protest for a proper clean-up but Ibatou claims
that
they are often intimidated by
the presence of security operatives in the community.
Oyibo told Al Jazeera that some locals are in cahoots with oil companies, hence the
continued spills and no efforts to
curb it.
“Until the community realises that their livelihoods depend on their lands, they will
continue to allow a few people to
benefit at their instance,” he said, adding that those with polluted farmlands are too
scared to protest.
And now, Warder and her peers say they are now considering trading options as an
alternative
source of livelihood. Some
of them now hew firewood from nearby bushes to sell.
“I have been looking for how to get soft loans from the government or any organisation
that
will be willing to help me
because I can’t go back to farming,” said Warder.
</p>
<h3 style="font-style: italic; text-align: right;">
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
</h3>
</div>
</div>
<a class="pointer cont_readn mt-4" href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="hideNews()">
<strong><em>Continue Reading >>></em></strong>
</a>
</div>
<div id="article_2">
<div class="blog_container ">
<div class="one">
<div class="blog_text" style="color: black;">
<h1>
Niger Delta communities in ‘great danger’ as month-old oil spill continues
</h1>
<small>by Mongabay on 6 December 2021</small>
</div>
<img src="./img/news-2.png"
alt="An oil slick polluting a farmland is seen in Ibeno village in Nigeria's Akwa Ibom State November 15, 2012 [Tife Owolabi/Reuters]"
title="An oil slick polluting a farmland is seen in Ibeno village in Nigeria's Akwa Ibom State November 15, 2012 [Tife Owolabi/Reuters"
style="width: 100%; position: absolute; border-radius: 5px; height: -webkit-fill-available; z-index: -1; object-fit: cover;">
<div class="text-block">
<small>Photo: Sosialistisk Ungdom/Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0</small>
</div>
</div>
<div class="d-flex cont-text-padding">
<div class="two blog_text_style col">
<img src="./img/nigerian_oil_spill.jpg" alt=""
style="width: 100%; border-radius: 5px; height: -webkit-fill-available; z-index: -1; object-fit: cover; margin-top: 1rem;">
<div class="">
<small>Map of incident reports in the Niger Delta since June 2019, courtesy
NOSDRA.</small>
</div>
</div>
<div class="three blog_text_style col">
<ul>
<li>
Oil has been spilling from a wellhead in Nigeria’s Bayelsa state for a month
now, with the local company responsible unable to contain it.
</li>
<li>
Experts say the scale and duration of the spill is so severe that it’s
imperative
that local communities be relocated
for their safety.
</li>
<li>
Oil spills and other forms of pollution caused by the industry are common in
Bayelsa, the heart of the oil-rich Niger
Delta.
</li>
<li>
Companies, including foreign oil majors, are largely left to self-declare the
spills
that frequently occur, but face
only token fines for failing to respond quickly.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Crude oil from a blowout has been pouring into creeks in the Niger Delta since Nov. 5,
with the well’s owner, Nigerian
energy firm Aiteo, unable to contain the spill and specialists called in to help.
</p>
<p>
The blowout, at a non-producing well in the Santa Barbara field in Bayelsa state, has
caused extensive pollution of
rivers and farmland in the Nembe local government area, according to the state governor,
Douye Diri. According to the
News Agency of Nigeria, he said Aiteo should not think that “this criminal neglect of
its facilities and disregard for
human life and the environment, as demonstrated by its conduct, will not be accounted
for.”
</p>
<p>
In a statement released Nov. 22, the company blamed the incident on sabotage. “Aiteo
remains committed to ascertaining,
immediately the well head is secure, the immediate and remote causes of the leak which
will be driven by a [joint
investigative visit] that will follow,” it said.
</p>
<p>
The oil industry in Nigeria attributes many oil spills to sabotage by people trying to
steal crude. Nigeria’s National
Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), which relies almost entirely on the
industry itself for access to on-
and offshore oil facilities, reports that around 75% of spills are caused by sabotage
and theft.
</p>
</div>
<div class="four blog_text_style col">
<p>
The joint team initially despatched to the Nembe spill was unable to determine the cause
of the spill, as the wellhead
could not be accessed “due to hydrocarbon fumes that saturated the atmosphere in the
area.” A video of the spill site,
captured Nov. 29, showed a high-pressure stream of brownish liquid spraying through the
creeks from a wellhead as
technicians worked on the site.
</p>
<p>
The scale of the spill has overwhelmed local disaster response capabilities, and
U.S.-headquartered oil-well control
specialist Halliburton Boots and Coots has been drafted in to “kill the well,” a process
that involves injecting cement
into the well to plug it.
</p>
<p>
“Work is still ongoing at the site to stop the spill,” NOSDRA director-general Idris
Musa told Mongabay last week, but
all activities around the well were temporarily suspended Nov. 29 to allow the well-kill
operation to proceed.
</p>
<h4>
Decades of destruction
</h4>
<p>
The Niger Delta is rich in biological diversity and natural resources. Its creeks,
swamps and mangrove forests are home
to fishing and farming communities as well as threatened species including manatees
(Trichechus senegalensis),
chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ellioti), and the Niger Delta red colobus (Piliocolobus
epieni).
</p>
<p>
But decades of oil production have made the region one of the most polluted places on
Earth. NOSDRA recorded 639 oil
spills in just the past two years, resulting in 28,003 barrels spewed into the
environment, according to the agency’s
data.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="blog_text_style d-none" id="more_news_2">
<p>
Bayelsa is where oil was first discovered in Nigeria, in 1956. In the decades since, oil
spills from wells and pipelines
have contaminated farmland and water bodies, and exposed residents to toxic chemicals.
Flaring of gas has led to acid
rain falling on the area, while contributing to making Nigeria the 17th largest producer of
greenhouse gas emissions in
the world. This environmental destruction has been caused by oil majors including Shell,
Chevron and
Eni. The Nembe well was bought
from Shell by Lagos-based Aiteo in 2015.
</p>
<p>
“It is extremely disturbing because the trend we are seeing now is that international oil
companies know that their
equipment are dilapidated, and to avoid responsibility, they move offshore and sell to
gullible local companies who
think they can make profit and are not ready or equipped to [deal with] this kind of
emergencies,” said Nnimmo Bassey,
an environmentalist and founder of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), a
prominent green NGO in Nigeria.
</p>
<h3>
Consequences — just not for oil companies
</h3>
<p>
The impact of the Nembe spill on local communities and the environment is still to be
determined, but Samuel Oburo, an
environmental activist affiliated with Friends of the Earth, who lives about 50 kilometers
(30 miles) from Nembe, says
villagers in the area have been badly impacted.
</p>
<quote>
“I can tell you that the people there face great danger. They have started crying out. They
have started experiencing
strange illnesses due to the unfriendly atmosphere this spill has exposed the community to,”
he told Mongabay over the
phone.
</quote>
<p>
But getting oil firms to clean up or pay for environmental crimes in Nigeria is difficult.
Legal claims for compensation
can take years, even decades, and companies are expected to pay relatively little in fines
when they err.
</p>
<p>
NOSDRA’S regulations say oil companies have 24 hours to respond to the discovery of a spill.
A joint visit by government
agencies, company officials and community representatives should take place as soon as
possible. But a 2018 study by
Amnesty International found frequent delays, with some spills continuing for months after
they were reported.
</p>
<p>
Shell, one of the largest operators in the country, visited spill sites within 24 hours on
just 26% of occasions,
Amnesty said. The slowest response time recorded was when Eni took 430 days to respond to a
spill in Bayelsa state.
“These delays point to serious negligence. Shell and Eni are wealthy, powerful
multinationals: why can’t they act
faster? Why can’t they do more?,” the report said.
</p>
<p>
But the penalties for noncompliance are negligible: 1 million naira ($2,400) for an initial
default, and an additional
500,000 naira for every day after that.
</p>
<p>
“How much is N500,000 to an oil company?” NOSDRA’s Idris Musa said. An amendment increasing
the fines is in progress.
</p>
<p>
Speaking to the ongoing spill at Nembe, HOMEF’s Bassey said that considering the apparent
scale and duration of the
latest spill, the safest option for residents of the area is to be relocated. “This area
does not have pipe-borne water,
and when the river is covered with crude oil, it means they have to depend on imported
water,” he said. “Some may drink
from that river because these areas are permanently polluted and they have no option.
Children will swim in that river
and people will drink from that river.”
</p>
<p>
“Crude oil contains very toxic heavy metals like lead; you know, lead affects a lot things
concerning people, the
nervous system, causes cancer. You have mercury in oil, you have cadmium, you have arsenic
and benzene and many others,”
he told Mongabay.
</p>
<section>
<div class="blog_text_style" style="grid-column: span 3;">
<div class="img_wrapper">
<figure>
<img src="./img/article_2_image_3.png" class="article-sub-images">
<figcaption>
Oil was first pumped in Bayelsa in 1956 by Shell. Since then, several international oil companies have extracted oil from across the Niger Delta.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img src="./img/news-2.png" class="article-sub-images">
<figcaption>
In Kerala, Protests Mount Against SilverLine Rail Project, a ‘Mega Disaster’
Dead and dying trees near the site of a previous Niger Delta oil spill in
2020. Photo: Sosialistisk Ungdom/Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img src="./img/article_2_image_1.jpeg" class="article-sub-images">
<figcaption>
Niger Delta communities in 'great danger' as month-old oil spill continues
<div class="citation-text">-Source [Mongabay on 6 December 2021]</div>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<p>
“So anybody eating fish from that river is in trouble already. So the relief that they are
giving, I believe they should
actually evacuate people from that territory at this time.”.
Oburo agreed: “So long as the spill continues, there is nothing that can be done to restore
the air quality. The only
solution is to evacuate those people from there because their lives are precious.”.
Bayelsa government spokesperson Dan Alabrah said the state is providing relief materials to
communities, but had no
plans to relocate them.
</p>
</div>
</div>
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<div id="article_3">
<div class="blog_container ">
<div class="one">
<div class="blog_text">
<h1>
No clean up, no justice: Shell’s oil pollution in the Niger Delta
</h1>
<small>Godwin Ojo, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria</small>
</div>
<img src="img/no_justice.jpg"
alt="An oil slick polluting a farmland is seen in Ibeno village in Nigeria's Akwa Ibom State November 15, 2012 [Tife Owolabi/Reuters]"
title="An oil slick polluting a farmland is seen in Ibeno village in Nigeria's Akwa Ibom State November 15, 2012 [Tife Owolabi/Reuters"
style="width: 100%; position: absolute; height: -webkit-fill-available; z-index: -1; object-fit: cover; border-radius: 5px;">
<div class="text-block">
<small>
Friends of the Earth Europe, Amnesty International, Environmental Rights Action
</small>
</div>
</div>
<div class="d-flex cont-text-padding">
<div class="two blog_text_style col">
<p>
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. But the new investigation
highlights 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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
Numerous conflicts of interest around Shell have also been revealed involving the
management of the clean-up agency,
HYPREP, and the Nigerian government.
While oil companies like Shell spend millions greenwashing their image, tens of
thousands of people continue to suffer
from their pollution and negligence <br>
~Colin Roche, Friends of the Earth Europe
</p>
<p>
This year, Shell is facing a series of European court battles over its business in
Nigeria. 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.
The court will decide whether it
can proceed on the critical issue of whether Royal Dutch Shell (UK and Netherlands
headquartered) is liable for the
actions of its Nigerian subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).
</p>
</div>
<div class="three blog_text_style col">
<p>
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.”
Shell must not get away with this – we will continue to fight until every last trace of
oil is removed from Ogoniland. <br>
~Osai Ojigho, Director of Amnesty Nigeria
</p>
<p>
Colin Roche, Friends of the Earth Europe said: “Nine years on, there is still no
clean-up, no ‘emergency’ health and
water measures, no transparency and no accountability. Without urgent action there will
be no justice. While oil
companies like Shell spend millions greenwashing their image, tens of thousands of
people continue to suffer from their
pollution and negligence. European governments like the UK, the Netherlands, France and
Italy must act to support a
truly effective clean-up and ensure these companies are held accountable for the
devastating pollution of the Niger
Delta.”
</p>
<p>
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.”
</p>
</div>
<div class="four blog_text_style col">
<h4>Key findings of the report include:</h4>
<p>
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;
</p>
<p>
Actions classified by UNEP as “emergency measures” – immediate action on drinking water
and health protection – have not
been implemented properly; there are still communities without access to clean water
supplies; • Health and
environmental monitoring has not been carried out;
</p>
<p>
There has not been any public accounting for how the 31 million USD funding provided
since 2018 has been spent;
</p>
<p>
11 of 16 companies contracted for the clean-up are reported to have no registered
expertise in oil pollution remediation
or related areas; 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.
</p>
<h4>The organisations demand a rapid clean-up and in particular that the Nigerian
government:</h4>
<p>
makes sure that Ogoni people can access their basic rights including the right to safe
drinking water
develops and implements a strategy to address the root causes of oil pollution, while
fully involving local communities
strengthens HYPREP and ensures it is an independent, transparent agency without
involvement of Shell in oversight and
management structures
publishes all information on the clean-up project and its progress
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="blog_text_style d-none d-flex cont-text-padding" id="more_news_3">
<p>provides proper compensation to all communities affected by failed or delayed clean-ups of
oil spills
decommissions all aging and damaged pipelines
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:
makes a fundamental shift to prioritise the clean-up of Ogoniland and the rest of the Niger
Delta over the interests of
companies
increases engagement with and support for the Nigerian government to ensure effective
implementation of UNEP’s
recommendations, independent oversight of the oil industry and effective remedy for affected
communities
establishes strong international regulations for corporate liability abroad – such as an EU
law for mandatory Human
Rights due diligence and a binding UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights.
</p>
</div>
</div>
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