HYPREP Invites Foreign Experts For Complex Sites Remediation

The Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) has invited some foreign experts and companies to handle the remediation of high risk complex oil impacted sites in some parts of Ogoniland in Rivers State.
This indication came to the fore last Tuesday, when the Chairman of Haemers Technologies, a company based in Europe, Mr Jan Haemers, visited one of the complex sites in Alode Eleme Community, to take stock of the extent of work to be done and the level of contamination of the site.
Haemers and his team were taken to the polluted site by the Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Prof Nenibarini Zabbey, and other officials of the project.
Speaking to newsmen at the site, Haemers said the HYPREP’s Project Coordinator had specifically invited him, adding that he had come to Nigeria to develop partnerships with HYPREP and to bring remediation technologies to this area, in particular, to clean up soil and groundwater contaminated sites, in full respect of the local communities.
He noted that in the course of the work, he would also bring some other aspects of the job to the table, adding that the job would essentially take some time.
He further indicated that the work would be done in such a way that the whole time would not be wasted, as standards would be deployed to show results on regular basis, stressing that his company would ensure that most of the work on site would be done by the local people in the Ogoni communities.
Describing pollution issues as a legacy problem, Haemers said some small part of his company’s vast technologies would also be deployed to the area, to actually develop the skills of the people, in such a way that they would be directly involved in the remediation work.
He hinted that technologies that have been deployed by his company, in other parts of the world, including Africa and remote parts of North and South America, that had faced similar challenges of contamination, would be brought to bear in Ogoniland in carrying out the remediation work.
According to him, the clean-up is expected to be done in such a way that it benefits the local people and would be done by them so that they can also develop their skills and be the driving force behind the whole remediation efforts.
Haemers, who hails from Belgium said he was actually at the Alode Eleme contaminated site to know the realistic time of commencing the project, adding that assessing the level of contamination of the site and equally carrying out the characterisation of the site are very important and necessary.
He said though he could not place his fingers on the actual time the work would commence, he expressed optimism that it would start as soon as possible.
“We have come here to bring up the concrete steps involved.How long this job will take, I do not know. Part of the job is also to assess. Thecharacterisation should not stop the remediation of what is already known”, he said.
On his part, the Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Prof Nenibarini Zabbey said the remediation process in the Ogoni clean-up is structured into phases, namely; simple sites, medium range sites and high risk complex sites.
According to him, HYPREP is currently remediating the medium range sites and is getting ready to move into the complex sites.
He indicated that both soil and groundwater are contaminated in the complex sites, which are located in residential areas.
In places like that, Zabbey said, there is absolute need for less disturbance, saying, “HYPREP is determined to deploy the best innovative technology that can be found globally”.
The Project Coordinator hinted that the visit of Haemers and his team is a culmination of the visit of the Minister of Environment, with his delegation to Europe in February, to search for companies to handle the complex sites.
He noted that a couple of companies had been identified to carry out the remediation of the complex sites, adding, “We are asking them to come and do comprehensive assessment of the complex sites, to determine the extent of contamination”.
He said after the assessment, the companies would come up with the proper technology to use at the sites.
The Project Coordinator said HYPREP had delayed the remediation of the complex sites until this year because it wanted to carry out proper investigation of the sites, stressing that site investigation involves proper scoping of the sites.
Zabbey assured Ogoni people that their capacities would be built to ensure that they are directly involved in the remediation of the complex sites.
“ We have been reminding and assuring our local people that our eyes are on the ball to give them the best of what is available globally”, he said.

By: Donatus Ebi