Ground in Ogoniland

Environmental conservation has been a big debate in all countries around the world. Nigeria one of Africa’s largest countries situated in West Africa is among the countries which are blamed for contaminating environment through petroleum processing in which communities in Ogoniland became the victims.

In Ogoniland, Oil exploration commenced in the 1950s handled by Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC). 

In spite of its great success in oil production, Nigeria on the other side has been facing consequences on environmental conservation.   

Tensions arose between the native Ogoni people of the Niger Delta and petroleum industry in the 1990s claiming very little money earned from oil and the environmental damages caused by Shell's practices.

Ogoni community was the pioneer of different movements raised in Nigeria in 1993 by organizing large protests "the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP)" against Shell and the government often occupying the refineries.

On early 2011 Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth International contested the claims by Shell that up to 98% of all oil spills in Nigeria were due to sabotage. A UNDP report states that there have been a total of 6,817 oil spills between 1976 and 2001 which account for a loss of three million barrels of oil of which more than 70% was not recovered.  

Spills in populated areas often spread out over a wide area through contamination of the groundwater and soils during petroleum operations in Nigeria. The consequences were the slow poisoning of the waters, fish population, destruction of vegetation and agricultural land and a large number of accidents, fires and explosions on refining sites claim dozens of lives every year quite apart from the longer-term health effects of ingestion, absorption and inhalation of hydrocarbons.

People in the affected areas complain about health issues including breathing problems and skin lesions. Many have lost basic human rights such as health, access to food, clean water and an ability to work.

At the request of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the United Nations Environment Programme UNEP has conducted an independent assessment of the environment and public health impacts of oil contamination in Ogoniland in the Niger Delta and options for remediation. The study in Ogoniland, Nigeria covers thematic issues of contaminated land, groundwater, surface water and sediments, vegetation, air pollution and public health. 

UNEP discovered that Shell and other oil firms systematically contaminated a 1,000 sq km (386 sq mile) area of Ogoniland in the Niger delta with disastrous consequences for human health and wildlife.

Pollution from over 50 years of oil operations in the region has penetrated further and deeper than many may have supposed showing that communities have faced a severe health risk, with some families drinking water with high levels of carcinogens.

In at least 10 Ogoni communities where drinking water is contaminated with high levels of hydrocarbons, public health is seriously threatened. In one community at Nisisioken Ogale in western Ogoniland families are drinking water from wells that is contaminated with benzene.

The oil industry has been a key sector of the Nigerian economy for over 50 years, but many Nigerians have paid a high price.

Some areas, which appear unaffected at the surface, are in reality severely contaminated underground and action to protect human health and reduce the risks to affected communities should occur without delay.

UNEP report suggested that the environmental restoration of Ogoniland could prove to be the world’s most wide-ranging and long term oil clean-up exercise ever undertaken if contaminated drinking water, land, creeks and important ecosystems such as mangroves are to be brought back to full, productive health. It may require the world’s biggest ever clean-up that could take 20-30 years.

The UN Environment Programme also called for the oil industry and the Nigerian government to contribute $1 billion to a clean-up fund for the region that has been devastated by oil pollution.

The clean-up of Ogoniland will not only address a tragic legacy but also represents a major ecological restoration enterprise with potentially multiple positive effects ranging from bringing the various stakeholders together in a single concerted cause to achieving lasting improvements for the Ogoni people.