Ocean Surge Threatens Brass LNG …Host Communities Raise Alarm

President Goodluck Jonathan (right) in a handshake with Senegalese Special Envoy, Mr. Daouda Maligueye who paid a visit to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Monday .

The traditional rulers and elders of the coastal communities of Twon Brass in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State have raised alarm over the threat posed by the gradual depletion of the shorelines of their area by the Atlantic Ocean.

 They are also saying that the $12 billion  Brass Liquefied Natural Gas plant, would be submerged by the syringe ocean, warning that failure to check the rampaging damage may cost the nation the expected gas resources from the Brass LNG. 

The community leaders of Brass Local Government,in a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, said though past efforts by the federal and state governments at checking the rising menace were feeble and of no effect, the decision to alert the Federal Government on the state of the coastlines was targeted at saving the nation from losing the Gas Export Terminal and the LNG gas plant in the area. 

 In the letter, written under the aegis of the Twon Brass Council of Traditional Rulers and Chiefs and signed by the Chairman, Caretaker Committee,  Chief Inatimi Nyingifa and Secretary of the Committee, Iniel Joel-Owoko, the coastal communities noted with concern that there had been a steady and fast depletion of the land mass of the towns due to the coastal erosion of the shorelines. 

 According to the communities, though the Twon Brass terminal hosts the ports through which over 40 per cent of the nation’s crude oil are exported on a daily basis and hosts the $12billion Liquefied Natural Gas plant being built in the area, “the strategic importance of these investments and the value of the export terminal and the LNG plant makes it imperative that something be done as soon as possible.” 

 They noted that unlike in the past where the inhabitants of the island were able to yell to the other kits and kins across the other side of the coastal banks and take a five minute swim, “today, the divide is such that it takes over one hour to paddle across. Coastal erosions have swallowed up a five football field length of the land.  Also listed as part of the damages done by the rampaging erosion is the second oldest church in the Niger Delta, St. Barnabas Church of Twon Brass.”

The church was fabricated in England and shipped to Brass where it was erected.

The original church has been washed away into the Atlantic Ocean. A new church was erected at what was then the inland but today, it stands less than 150meteres from the rampaging waves.” 

 “We beg the President and the Bayelsa Governor to come to the aid of the community. Government after governments have promised.

We  believe your administration will be different.We are thus pleading with you  to cut through all the red tapes and save the coastal town of Brass immediately,” they concluded.