Ogoni clean-up: We’ve cleared 15 oil-polluted sites, says FG

The federal government says it has cleared 15 oil-polluted sites in Ogoniland, Rivers state.

Muhammad Mahmoud, minister of environment, disclosed this on Wednesday at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja.

Some residents had complained that they were still being killed by poisonous water despite promise by the federal government to clean up Ogoniland.

Commenting on the reason for the delay in the execution of the project which was signed off in 2016, Mahmoud said the host communities refused to grant workers access to the sites.

The minister said the council approved N6 billion for the provision of potable water in Gokana, Khana, Eleme and Tai–four local government areas of Ogoniland.

“The mandate of the project is not just cleaning up the contaminated areas by oil pollution, but also to provide drinking water and three to also provide alternative livelihood for the people of that area,” Mahmoud said.

“This is a project that previous governments have tried to do, but it just turned out to just be you know, just talk, but President Buhari, in 2015 promised and this thing started in 2016 and currently, there will be six water projects that will be provided in this four local government areas of Ogoniland and this has just been approved and work will start immediately.

“…Let me clear the air that the project is not behind by five years. Yes, we have some delays. And this was evident when we came to assess the project and we went all the way to Geneva, and met with UNEP, that’s the United Nations Environment Programme that designed the project, conducted the studies and make the recommendations.

“When we came back, I went and explained to Mr. President that according to their record, we were behind by just one year. And we sought for approval to make some changes, and he graciously approved. And we have made those changes. And between then, and now 15 sites have been cleaned up and certified, clean.

“So there was a delay of one year yes, but then we have progressed. Now I can say that within the last one year, we have done up to 15 sites. So there’s tremendous amount of progress.”

The minister further said that 36 other sites have been awarded for clean up.

He explained that given the novelty and size of the project, some of the hiccups experienced are not unexpected.

“We have awarded additional contracts about 36 sites, but it took us about five to six months to even access some of the sites that have already been contracted out because some communities are in dispute and will not let us go into the land to even commence the clean up,” he said.

“It was just recently, not more than three months ago, that we’re able to get them to understand we’re not there for land dispute, but for cleanup, and once you get the cleanup done, whoever gets the land, gets a clean land.

“We awarded the first site in 2017 and the contractors were mobilised in 2018. Now, cleanup started, like I said, because being a brand new project, there were a lot of hiccups.”

TheCable had reported how illegal refiners are still causing pollution while the government is expending billions to clean up the land.