Oil Spill Clean-Up To Commence In Ogoniland, Next Month

Following the identification of Spillage sites in Ogoniland, by a team of United Nations Environmental Protection Agency (UNEP), there are indications that actual clean-up exercise may commence by April this year.

The UNEP Project Coordinator in charge of the scheme, Mr Cheresa Boteyah dropped the hint in an exclusive chat with The Tide recently in Port Harcourt.

Mr. Boteyah disclosed that the actual clean-up exercise would last for five months, but said the sampling of the identified sites would also be conducted.

He said the sampling would cover the four local government areas in Ogoniland including Tai, Eleme, Khana and Gokana.

He stated that a team of experts to conduct the actual clean-up would be made up of four representatives each from the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Water Resources and those from Austina.

The UNEP Project Coordinator said the  selected from the country would be trained as they would conduct sampling of soil, water and plants from the area.  “Immediately that has ended the samples would be sent to our laboratory for analysis in the UK”, Mr Boteyah said.

He stressed that the result of the analysis would determine the kind of clean-up to be done since each of  the area would need different type of treatment and clean-up.

Mr. Boteyah said the cost of the project was yet to be determined due to the magnitude and scope of the scheme.

Commenting on why Ogoniland was chosen among the other Niger-Delta communities, the UNEP official said the exercise was being conducted at the request of the Federal Government.

Though UNEP is the real technical partner, he disclosed that it is also a collaboration between the federal and state governments.

Currently, he said, the team is awaiting further instructions from their head office in Kenya and Geneva and that after the exercise in Ogoniland, their next port of call would be determined by the government as well.