NDDC Scores HYPREP High On Remediation

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) says it is highly impressed with the remediation work the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project(HYPREP) is carrying out in Ogoniland in Rivers State.
The NDDC, which gave this indication during its inspection visit to some remediation sites in K-Dere and Bomu Communities in Gokana Local Government Area on Tuesday, said HYPREP is actually working to restore the degraded ecosystem in Ogoniland, contrary to insinuations in some quarters.
This is apparently the inevitable verdict of a team of top officials of NDDC, who stormed an ongoing remediation site in K-Dere community and the mangrove restoration site in Bomu community, during the visit.
The team lead and Director 2 in the Environmental Protection and Control Unit of the NDDC, Dr Henry Asuquo Okokon, while speaking with newsmen at the end of the exercise at Bomu Waterfront, said the team was highly impressed with what HYPREP is doing in the area.
According to him, the NDDC team undertook the inspection visit in order to see for itself the quantum of work HYPREP is carrying out at its remediation sites, as some persons outside there were insinuating that it was not doing anything.
Okokon said with what the team had seen on ground, it was scoring HYPREP very high, and urged the government to encourage the project to do more for the people of Ogoniland.
He further indicated that HYPREP needs collaboration with other bodies and agencies to secure the necessary financial support and booster to successfully carry out its assignments in Ogoniland.
He expressed delight that life was gradually returning to the highly degraded mangroves in Ogoniland, going by what HYPREP is doing in Bomu Community in particular, where over two million mangroves had been planted.
Also speaking, HYPREP’s Director of Technical Services, Prof Damian Aguiyi thanked the NDDC team for the inspection visit, stressing that it was an opportunity for the Federal Government agency to see for itself what HYPREP is doing in Ogoniland, and to take a cue from it, with a view to replicating same in other parts of the Niger Delta.
The Director of Technical Services said it was not the first time HYPREP was collaborating with NDDC, adding that the project is committed to partnering with other agencies and organisations, in order to improve the living conditions of the Ogoni people.
He disclosed that HYPREP was already in touch with the African Development Bank(AfDB) and other United Nations agencies, in order to collaborate with them, saying such partnership and collaboration would bring in the needed funds at the end of the day, to enable HYPREP accomplish its core mandate in Ogoniland.
Aguiyi expressed delight that the ecosystem in Ogoniland, especially the mangroves are now being restored, as fishermen and other inhabitants of the area are today picking periwinkles, crabs and oysters in the mangroves, which he said were very bare before this time.

Donatus Ebi