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Can you imagine drinking water with 8cm of visible oil floating ontop? What about water with pollutants 900 times the levels deemed safeby the World Health Organization? Is it tough to imagine growing foodon land polluted with oil 5 meters deep? Unfortunately, the people ofOgoniland do not need to imagine; they are forced to live this nightmareday in and day out.
The Ogoni people are an indigenous group who have lived in the NigerDelta region of Nigeria for more than 500 years. They are known fortheir fierce independence and at one time, depended on fishing andagriculture for subsistence. Once oil was discovered in Nigeria, theOgoni way of life changed.
Back in 2008 and again in 2009, the Trans Niger Pipeline—owned byShell Oil—burst. A combined number of 250,000 to 350,000 barrels of oilspilled into the Ogoniland area of the Niger Delta. Just recently, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)announced that Shell Oil and other firms have systematicallycontaminated 1,000 sq km (386 sq mile) of land. The damage is so severeUNEP estimates it will cost around $1 billion to clean up and 25 to 30 years to restore the environment.
In 2005, Global Greengrants Fund provided a small grant to Movementfor the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) to conduct their ownresearch on the oil spill and to raise awareness on the effects of theoil operations. The UNEP report proves Movement for the Survival of theOgoni People (MOSOP) was valid in their citations of injustice.
A hand reaches into a water source and comes out covered in oil (Courtesy of Environmental Rights Action)
Years later, little clean up has been done.
In August of 2011, Global Greengrants Fund Executive Director Terry Odendahlvisited the site of the 2008 spill to bear witness to the pollutionthat remains. She recalls the image of the water that remains (thecommunity’s primary source of drinking water): “You could stick yourhand in the water and it would come out slick with oil.” Terry’s visitcame two and three years after the twin ruptures of the Trans NigerPipeline. During the visit, Nnimmo Bassey,Global Greengrants Fund Board Member and West Africa Advisor, explainedthat there are over 800,000 environmental refugees from that areaalone, many of whom were farmers and herdsmen who can no longer surviveoff the land.“Shell’s actions are not just negligent, but criminal.” – Terry Odendahl, Executive Director, Global Greengrants Fund
Oil spilling from Shell equipment (Courtesy of Environmental Rights Action)
But the tragedy does not stop there.
Court documents released in 2009 reveal Shell regularly worked withthe Nigerian military to suppress resistance to its drilling activities.This involved stopping peaceful protests of the oil pollution andplanning raids on opposed communities. Moreover, recent reports claimShell actually contributed to human rights violations in Nigeria byfunding militants who were implicated in the murder and torture ofseveral residents. Drafted by the United Kingdom non-profit, Platform,the report alleges militants were paid large sums of money by Shellthat led to violent incidents. One incident resulted in the killing ofat least 60 people in the town of Rumuekpe.
The government must act.
From a recent article, “Oil Politics: The Agony of Ogani,” Bassey states:“Ogoniland (read Niger Delta) ranks as one of the mostpolluted places on earth. What is urgently needed is for the federalgovernment to declare an environmental state of emergency here.Ecological problems do not observe community or political boundaries.How the government handles this case will tell a lot about who we are asa people.” |
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发表于 2011-10-25 13:50:27
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