To keep oil host communities abreast of happenings in the oil industry, an environmental rights non-governmental organization, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), has trained no fewer than 60 community volunteers in Bayelsa State.
Speaking to the volunteers during the training which held in Ikarama Community, Yenagoa Local Government Area, Nnimmo Bassey, the executive director of HOMEF said a safe environment is fundamental to support lives and livelihoods.
He said there was need for people, who reside near oil and gas fields, to remain vigilant in conserving the environment advising that they should also ensure that the economic interests of investors do not threaten the environment.
He said there was need to raise volunteers who would defend the ecosystem from further degradation and pollution stating said that Ikarama community was the worst hit and most impacted when it comes to oil spill in the Niger Delta region.
According to him, available data indicates that the area records the most frequent oil spills from the operations of Shell and Agip. He advised them to develop their skills and capacity to listen to the environment.
Bassey narrated how a young man found oil in a supposedly cleaned up site.
“A community youth Benjamin Enebiri who, invested resources to excavate his farm for fish farm found out that oil was oozing out from the ground.
“He said he invested over N600,000 in hiring an excavator to dig the pond regretting that all has become a waste of resources for him and his family”.
The HOMEF ED called on oil and gas operators to set up a standard hospital in Ikarama to address the health impact of their activities and a release of tests conducted at contaminated sites in the community.
“I’m calling on Shell and other oil firms to always consider the needs of the rural people by providing them a standard hospital, because the people are dying from various ailments caused by oil exploration. I did this last year and this year, it is shocking that the exposure of this level of pollution has not driven the polluters to action immediately.
“We heard Shell has come here to take samples. Up till now, we have not heard that the result has been released. We want to be sure that the result should be released as soon as they are ready.
“The Ministry of Environment, NOSDRA and those from the federal ministry of Environment should be involved too. We are having contamination not just in this location here. It is very important to test soil across the community because we are having oil facilities traversing Ikarama community and other Niger Delta communities,” Bassey said.
He recommended a clean-up of oil impacted areas as the people have been affected badly by the oil spill in the Niger Delta region.
Also speaking, Alagoa Morris, an environmentalist and field officer, Friends of the Earth said monitoring the environment demands factual and evidence-based data collection, recording and reporting.
He called on Shell and other oil companies to be proactive when such happens for the safety of the rural dwellers, and the aquatic lives that the people depend on.
The interactive segment of the training featured the volunteers from the community sharing experiences on the adverse impacts of oil and gas exploration on their environment.
