Another Oil Spill Occurs In Obio/Akpor

Even as the oil spill that erupted in Rumuewhara, Elelenwo in Obio Akpor Local Government of Rivers State is still waiting to be addressed, another spill has occurred in another community in the same LGA, raising fears among oil host communities in that area.
Residents of densely populated Rumuewhara Community woke up August 29, to see their environment heavily flooded with crude oil spewing from an oil pipeline belonging to Shell.
Further investigations by a team from Pilex Centre, an environmental justice advocacy organization following a visit to the spill site on August 29, revealed that, “the spill was basically as a result of characteristic lack of maintenance of oil facilities by Shell resulting to corrosion of underground pipes transporting crude.
“These underground pipes were laid over 60 years ago and are worn out drastically and, are due for change,” a concerned indigene of the spill affected Rumuewhara Community told the Pilex team.
Lamenting that in spite of the gamut of laws on environmental protection in the country, the Niger Delta has continued to grapple with concerns of environmental pollution with a disturbing record of oil spill on daily basis, the Centre, speaking through its executive director, Courage Nsirimovu, pointed out that community members reported that the spill has continued for many days with devastating impacts on the eco-system and the livelihood of members of the community, whose economic mainstay is derived from farming.
It called on Shell to deploy its technical team to the spill site to quickly respond to the situation, which it said, “is gradually building into an environmental emergency.
Pilex recalled that the Rumuwhara, oil spill of August 25, still from a Shell facility, is yet to be addressed and called on the oil spill regulatory body, NOSDRA to rise to its duty and ensure the oil operator does the needful as well as ensure that the affected community is not exposed to further adverse consequences from the spill.
Nsirimovu said Pilex would want its earlier recommendations on the way forward on the Elelenwo spill to be applied to addressing the Rumuewhara spill and these include:
*An underground assessment of the spill site by Shell and NOSDRA to ascertain the depth of the spill in order to better contain the almost intractable crude below the soil surface, and assessment of the underground water in the community to determine the level of underwater pollution by independent experts.
*Building of a health center in the community by Shell to check the health status of residents of the polluted area with a view to determining the impact of possible contaminated drinking water, ingested food and, inhaled air, and treatment of the victims.
* Immediate replacement of all the old pipelines in the community and, Niger Delta as a whole, in conformity with international best practices.
* Moratorium placed on divestment until Shell decommissions properly in line with the Petroleum Industry Act.
*A clean-up of the entire Niger Delta beyond Ogoni by HYPREP while the divestment procedure should be reformed to include clean-up /restoration of the environment before transfer of liability is approved.
* That SHELL and other multinational oil companies, MNOCs, stop their operations until they begin the replacement and clean-up of the Niger Delta Environment.