BENIN CITY- The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), has alerted on the presence of a toxic waste dump site allegedly run by Shell in Kdere, Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State as it urged government to declare an ecological emergency and ensure proper evacuation of toxic waste by experts.
Blowing the whistle in a press statement signed by Barrister Mike Karikpo, Programmes Director, ERA/FoEN, the environmental rights group stated that its field monitors noticed a coloured creamy substance in the soil within the excavated pit of Lot 13 and Lot 14 on September 28, 2021, thus unearthing Shell’s toxic waste dump site in Kdere community.
Karikpo said some workers of Centennial Development and Investment Limited, the contractor assigned to cleanup and remediate Lot 13, phase 1 batch 1 of the HYPREP delineated cleanup sites had complained of a powerful stench oozing from the Lot, and, “An environmental scientist in the team disclosed that the stench and the colour of the groundwater in the pit are telltale signs that the site could be a toxic waste dump site.”
However, he lamented that, though the excavated area has been cordoned off due to 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 use of protective face masks or other protective gear needed for such harmful site work.
Pointing accusing fingers at Shell for shoddy remediation of the environment and non payment of compensation to affected persons and community, ERA/FoEN recalled that this has been the bane of Kdere from 2008 through 2018.
He pointed out that Shell’s lead cleanup/remediation contractor to this area was Dr. Marvin Dekil who would later be appointed the coordinator of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) in 2017 while the actual work awarded in 2008 was supervised by Prof. Phillip Shekwelo who incidentally is the current acting coordinator of HYPREP on secondment by Shell.
Dr Godwin Uyi Ojo, Executive Director, ERA/FoEN, 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, with community folks dying off in instalments owing to no fault of theirs but due to 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.
He asserted, “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.”
He therefore called for the, “Immediate investigation by relevant agencies especially the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (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,” while “The Federal Government should urgently declare an ecological emergency in the Niger Delta region to address the decades of ecological disaster.”
ERA/FoEN reiterated its call for the immediate removal of Shell and Prof. Philip Shekwolo from the HYPREP structures and cleanup 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.”
