In a bid to implement to the letter the recommendations of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report on Ogoniland, a team of experts from the United Nations body arrived Port Harcourt last Sunday, to support the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) to drive the Ogoni clean-up project, with a firm promise and commitment to build and enhance the capacity of top management staff of the Federal Government agency.
The Head of the UNEP delegation, which visited HYPREP’s corporate office in Port Harcourt, Monday, Mr. Mike Cowing disclosed that in supporting the agency to actualise its core mandate of remediation of oil impacted sites in Ogoniland, UNEP would provide training to top management staff of the agency.
Cowing further hinted that HYPREP’s senior managers and members of the Governing Council would also be taken on study tours of Europe, to expose them on how projects of the scale and magnitude of the Ogoni clean-up are planned and executed, and listed the countries to be covered by such tours to include the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands.
He said the UNEP team was in Port Harcourt to provide the requisite support to HYPREP’s activities because, as he put it, some of the works it is going to embark upon are very challenging and very demanding, stressing that “being here signifies the commitment of UNEP’s real engagement in the clean-up of Ogoniland.”
“We are going to be back-stopping HYPREP.
We are going to be adding to their in-house capacity. We are going to be providing training where training is needed, both in the classroom and in the field. And training will take place in Port Harcourt and in Ogoniland. There will be a set of training opportunities in Europe as well,” he said, adding that the UNEP team was expected to work with HYPREP over the next 12 months.
Cowing, however, disclosed that UNEP plans to open an office in Port Harcourt in
March, stressing that he and his four colleagues from the UNEP Office in Geneva would at the moment be preoccupied with spelling out requirements for the capacity building and training, before going back to Geneva to put together the training courses and bringing down the expertise from the United Nations.
“We are very excited to be here. We are hoping that if the partnership goes well, if we deliver on our policies, then, it is quite possible this relationship will carry on for many years to come,” Cowing said.
In his remarks, the Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Dr. Marvin Dekil expressed delight over the visit of the UNEP team, contending that the team came at the best time when the Ogoni clean-up proper had commenced.
Dekil explained that the UNEP team was in Port Harcourt to support the clean-up project, ensure compliance with the recommendations of the UNEP Report as well as ensure that HYPREP’s activities are best delivered to benefit the Ogoni people.

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