NDDC Seeks Environmental Data Collation In N’Delta

The need to initiate a programme that is responsible for collecting and analysing data on every aspect of the Niger Delta Environment has been stressed.

This programme which could be Niger Delta environment Management Programme should be a platform where all the stakeholders brainstorm to come out with ideas that would remediate, enrich and protect its environment.

Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)  board chairman, Chief Tarilah Tebepah giving a keynote address  at an Environment Management and Reputation Workshop organised by The Shell Petroleum Development Company in Port Harcourt last  Thursday said our unbridled pursuit for “good life: has led to our embarking on  development strategies, that were unfriendly to the environment, inimical to the present generation and have compromised the ability of posterity to live a decent and healthy life.

According to him taking compensation  from companies should not be paramount but the Niger Delta as groups, communities, companies and governments should take responsibility to make the environment better.

In his remarks, the managing director of SPDC and country chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu described the impact of crude oil thieves  and illegal refineries on the Niger Delta environment and the nation’s economy as a crisis situation.

“At some point this year over 60,000 barrels of crude was being stolen from SPDC lines every day. The activities of illegal  refineries are extremely damaging to the environment as a significant proportion of the  stolen crude used in the illegal refineries disposed of in the environment”, Summonu stated .

The Anglo-Dutch oil giant’s country chair added that although SPDC applied  the global environmental best practices in its response to oil spills, containment and clean up of such spills, no spill was acceptable.

According to Sunmonu we continue  to make improvement  in our efforts to reduce our operational  spills; these are  spills within our control which are caused by equipment failure, humans error and corrosion”.

He urged the participants to brainstorm on the  theme of the workshop tagged “Protecting the Niger Delta Environment for of Greater Tomorrow shared management  of the Niger Delta Environment for a new Economy” and come up with multi-stakeholder but practical solutions.