The region has long endured environmental pollution caused
by the oil industry.
The country’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response
Agency (Nosdra) said the spill came from the Trans-Niger Pipeline operated by
Shell that crosses through communities in the Eleme area of Ogoniland, a region
where the London-based energy giant has faced long-standing local resistance to
its oil exploration activities.
The volume of oil spilled has not been determined, but
activists have published images of polluted farmland, water surfaces blighted
by oil sheens and dead fish mired in sticky crude.
While spills are frequent in the region due to vandalism
from oil thieves and a lack of maintenance to pipelines, according to the UN
Environmental Programme, activists have described the spill as a “major”
incident.
Fyneface Dumnamene, an environmental activist whose
non-profit Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre monitors spills in the
Delta region, said the spill which began on June 11th is “one of the worst in
the last 16 years in Ogoniland”.
He added: “It lasted for over a week, burst into Okulu River
— which adjoins other rivers and ultimately empties into the Atlantic Ocean —
and affected several communities and displaced more than 300 fishers.”
Mr Dumnamene said tides have sent oil sheens about 10km
further to creeks near the nation’s oil business capital, Port Harcourt.
Shell stopped production in Ogoniland more than 20 years ago
amid deadly unrest from residents protesting against environmental damage, but
the Trans-Niger Pipeline still sends crude from oil fields in other areas
through the region’s communities to export terminals.
Nosdra director general Idris Musa said the leak has been
contained, but treating the fallout from the spill at farms and the Okulu
River, which runs through communities, has stalled. “Response has been
delayed,” Mr Musa added, blaming protesting residents. “But engagement is going
on.”
The apparent deadlock stems from mistrust and past
grievances in the riverine and oil-abundant Niger Delta region, which is mostly
home to minority ethnic groups who accuse the Nigerian government of
marginalisation.
Africa’s largest economy overwhelmingly depends on the Niger
Delta’s oil resources for its earnings, but pollution from that production has
denied residents access to clean water, hurt farming and fishing, and
heightened the risk of violence, activists said.
Mr Dumnamene said the communities “are very angry because of
the destruction of their livelihoods resulting from the obsoleteness of Shell’s
equipment and are concerned the regulator and Shell will blame sabotage by the
residents”.
Oil companies often blame pipeline vandalism by oil thieves
or aggrieved young people in affected communities for spills, which could allow
the firms to avoid liability.
Shell said it is working with a joint investigatory team,
consisting of regulators, Ogoniland residents and local authorities, to
identify the cause and impact of the spill.
The firm’s response team “has been activated, subject to
safety requirements, to mobilise to the site to take actions that may be
necessary for the safety of environment, people and equipment”, a company
statement said.
Nosdra confirmed the joint investigation, but a cause of the
spill – whether sabotage or equipment failure – has not yet been revealed.
Mr Dumnamene said hundreds of farmers and fishermen who have
been cut off from their livelihoods would insist on restoration of the
environment and then compensation.
At the request of the Nigerian government, the UN
Environment Programme conducted an independent environmental assessment of
Ogoniland, releasing a report in 2011 that criticised Shell and the Nigerian
government for 50 years of pollution and recommended a comprehensive,
billion-dollar clean-up.
While the government announced the clean-up in 2016, there
is little evidence of restoration on the ground. The government says community
protests and lawsuits by local activists have hampered progress.
Ledum Mitee, a veteran Ogoni environmental activist and
former president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, said: “A
credible clean-up would have been a beacon of hope for the Niger Delta and
other areas in Africa that have suffered oil pollution, but no credible
clean-up is ongoing.
“It is a cover-up, and we do not see the impact.” - AP