Akwa Ibom residents increase contemporary alarm as deserted oil wells wreak havoc

John mentioned the neighborhood, till HOMEF’s intervention, didn’t understand how to reply to the spill.

“When oil pollution occurs, when oil comes out from the ground, it is something we did not understand. This foundation came and enlightened us,” he mentioned, including that the village will now organise to doc and report the spills.

For Bassey Henry of Uyo Afaha Nkan Village in Ikono, the impression is seen on each rooftop and farm.

According to him, “Roofing sheets in the area do not last up to five years, while palm trees have stopped producing fruits as they once did. Crops such as cocoyam, cassava and yam often withered in the ground before harvest. While okro and other vegetables cannot have good yield in the area,” he mentioned.

“Millipedes, snails and fishes have gone extinct because of the effect of this pollution on our environment,” Henry added.

Another villager from Ikono, Namonso Nya, lamented: “Villagers in these communities where these corked well heads are suffering; go to these communities, nothing grows again. SPDC should come in and compensate the people; it has affected lives. Most of the diseases we suffer today – cancer, high blood pressure are because of this oil of a thing.”

Most of the people interviewed have similar reports of living with the consequences of leaking capped wellheads, which included poisoned streams, barren farmlands, dying economic trees, vanishing aquatic life and a new wave of insecurity.

‎Beyond the pollution, Friday John painted a picture of total neglect, saying, “There is no hospital; if there is any medical emergency, before we can take patients to the city of Uyo, they die on the way because there is no road, no light, no hospital, no facilities, nothing. Even good water to drink can’t be found”.

On his part, Executive Director of HOMEF, Dr Nnimmo Bassey, stated that the wells in Ikono and Ibiono Ibom were drilled and subsequently capped by Shell in the 1950s after they were deemed commercially unviable, adding that although commercial extraction is no longer taking place, residents said the physical and environmental consequences have persisted.

He described abandoned oil wells in the Niger Delta as “ticking time bombs” threatening the setting, well being and livelihoods.

“There is an pressing want for the decommissioning of deserted oil wells. An oil firm might cease producing from a nicely, however that doesn’t imply its environmental accountability disappears,” he said.

‎”An deserted nicely stays harmful infrastructure. It can deteriorate, it may be infiltrated, and it could possibly pose environmental and security dangers. That is why deserted oil wells require correct evaluation, monitoring, and decommissioning.”

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‎”Communities residing beside oil services have to know what is going on to their setting. What has been spilled? What chemical substances are current? Is the water secure? What are the well being dangers? Who is accountable? And what’s being executed about it? Environmental choices mustn’t occur with out the individuals who reside with their penalties,” he said.

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Bassey said environmental justice is more than clean-up, noting that ‎”Environmental justice requires greater than cleansing up after a catastrophe. It requires prevention. It requires monitoring. It requires reparation. It requires clear info. It requires significant neighborhood participation. And the place oil infrastructure is not in use, it requires correct decommissioning and dismantling. Where air pollution has occurred, there should be remediation and restoration. Destructive extractivism within the Niger Delta should cease,” he said.

“HOMEF is asking on the Federal Government, Shell, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, and the Akwa Ibom State Government to handle excellent claims in regards to the deserted Ikono 1 nicely, together with environmental remediation, compensation and restoration,” Bassey added.