Well 8 Pollution Site, Confirmation Of UNEP Report-Minister

The Minister of Environment, Surveyor Suleiman, Hassan Zarma, says the Well 8 oil spill impacted site in Korokoro Tai Community in Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State is a confirmation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report on Ogoniland and other assessments carried out by the Federal Ministry of Environment in the area.
Zarma, who made the remarks in an interview with newsmen shortly after handing over the site to contractors for its clean-up recently, expressed shock over the level of devastation of the site, and assured that as professionals, the contractors have the technical wherewithal to deliver the clean-up project ethically, having undergone series of screening and scrutiny including procurement processes.
The Minister, who inspected the site before handing it over to the contractors explained that introducing and presenting the site to the people of the community was a way of making them to secure and take ownership of the project, and also make the contractors to feel safe and secure in the community while cleaning up the site.
He advised the contractors to deliver a quality work, having gone through a very difficult procurement process, saying that the quality of work delivered at the end of the day would determine whether or not they would be given another consideration in the course of the Ogoni clean-up exercise.
Zarma noted that the contractors would be under constant radar and supervision, to ensure that they deliver a quality project, insisting that whenever an infraction was noticed on their part in the course of the work, they would be called to order.
Also speaking with newsmen, the President of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Mr. Legborsi Pygbara urged the contractors to work in accordance with best standards, and to involve the youths of the community in the clean-up exercise, saying, “ this is the only security the contractors need to keep the work going.”
“For us in MOSOP and the Ogoni people, the clean-up is the end of a long journey. We started this journey in 1990, one of which was our cry for the stoppage of the Ogoni environment from further degradation. Today, we are seeing that stoppage being enacted with the final handover of spill sites to contractors to clean. We are happy that the struggle at the end of the day was not in vain,” he said.
The representative of the four contractors handling the clean-up in the area and Managing Director of Amazing Environmental Solutions International Limited, Mr. Emmanuel Thomas indicated the readiness of the contractors to work with the people of the community and to involve the youths in the clean-up exercise.

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