By Okhide Em’ya David & Bob MajiriOghene-Etemiku
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), has uncovered a toxic waste dump site allegedly built by Shell in Kdere, Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State.
ERA/FoEN in a press statement, signed by its Programme Director, Barrister Mike Karikpo, stated that a team of its Environmental Field Monitors visited Lot 13 and Lot 14 on September 28, 2021 and unearthed Shell’s toxic waste dump site in Kdere community.
According to the statement, some workers of Centennial Development and Investment Limited, the contractor assigned to clean up and remediate Lot 13, phase 1 batch 1 of the HYPREP delineated cleanup sites had also complained of a powerful stench oozing from the Lot.
ERA /FoEN disclosed that its field monitors noticed colored creamy substances in the soil within the excavated pit. ERA further stated that an environmental scientist in the team disclosed that the stench and the color of the groundwater in the pit are telltale signs that the site could be a toxic waste dump site.
The excavated area has been cordoned off but despite the possible health and safety implications of working in such deleterious environment work was still ongoing at the different sections of the site and many of the workers did not have the benefit of protective face masks or other protective gear needed for such harmful site work.
Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria,Dr Godwin Uyi Ojo, while lamenting the situation, condemned Shell’s frequent acts of secret cocktails of toxic chemicals with repugnant smell dumped in Ogoni.
He said this is a major source of soil contamination and water pollution with serious health hazards, and community folks die off in instalments owing to no fault of theirs but the greed and plunder of an oil company that will not play to the rules but has perfected the art of repeatedly violating the people of Ogoniland and their environment.
Dr Ojo stated that, “what is playing out in the Ogoniland clean up in the uncovering of secret toxic waste dump sites is the lack of transparency and accountability of oil transnational companies’ faulty clean up operations throughout the Niger Delta that have destroyed the environment, reduced livelihoods potential and impoverishment of the people.”
To this end, Dr Godwin Uyi Ojo called for the “immediate investigation by relevant agencies especially NOSDRA of the alleged waste dump by Shell to ascertain the level of toxicity and harm to the people, environment, livelihoods and provide appropriate remediation.”
He added that, “the federal government should urgently declare ecological emergency in the Niger Delta to address the decades of ecological disaster in the region.”
Barr. Mike Karikpo, Programmes Director, (ERA/FoEN) stated that, “proper evacuation of the hidden cargo of toxic materials from Lot 13 should be conducted by experts and in a transparent manner and involving the relevant government agencies, impacted communities and civil society that are interested in tracking the movement of this likely cargo of death.”
ERA/FoEN again reiterated its call for the immediate removal of Shell and Prof. Philip Shekwolo from the HYPREP structures and clean up process, noting that “Shell and its former staff neither have the temperament nor the capacity to act with integrity and sincerity of purpose when it concerns Ogoni environment and the entire Niger Delta.”
