The Niger Delta, which has long suffered from environmental pollution brought on by the oil industry, has recently experienced an oil spill at a Shell facility in Nigeria that has contaminated farmland and a river, disrupting the livelihoods of fishing and farming communities in the area.
The Trans-Niger Pipeline, run by Shell and passing through communities in the Eleme area of Ogoniland, is where the spill originated, according to the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, or NOSDRA.
Shell, a London-based energy company, has been battling local opposition to its oil exploration for decades in this area.
Although the amount of oil spilled has not been quantified, environmentalists have shared photos of farmland, water, and dead fish covered in oily crude.
Activists refer to this spill as a “major one,” despite the fact that spills are common in the area due to vandalism and poor pipeline maintenance, according to the UN Environmental Programme.
Environmental activist Fyneface Dumnamene, whose nonprofit keeps track of spills in the Delta, called it “one of the worst in the last 16 years in Ogoniland,” which started on June 11.
“It lasted for over a week, bursts into Okulu River — which adjoins other rivers and ultimately empties into the Atlantic Ocean — and affects several communities and displaces more than 300 fishers,” said Dumnamene of the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre.
Despite deadly unrest from locals protesting environmental damage that forced Shell to halt production in Ogoniland more than 20 years ago, the Trans-Niger Pipeline continues to transport crude from other oil fields in other areas through the region’s communities to export terminals.
The leak has been stopped, but the treatment of the spill’s effects at farms and the nearby Okulu River has stalled, according to NOSDRA Director-General Idris Musa.
Musa blamed the delay on residents’ protests and said, “response has been delayed but engagement is going on.”
Source-Aljazeera
