Shell’s claim on Niger Deltapollution “blatantly false” –Amnesty International

Multi-national oil company, Shell, lied
when it claimed it had cleaned up
heavily polluted areas of the Niger
Delta, Amnesty International and the
Centre for Environment, Human Rights
and Development (CEHRD) said in a
new report published on Tuesday.
The report titled, “Clean it up: Shell’s
false claims about oil spills in the
Niger Delta”, documents ongoing
contamination at four oil spill sites
that Shell said it had cleaned up years
ago.

Amnesty said the report was published
to mark the 20th anniversary of the
execution of the environmental activist
and writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Mr. Saro-Wiwa, who campaigned
relentlessly against damage caused to
the Ogoni area of Rivers State, was
executed by the Sani Abacha junta on
November 10, 1995.
“By inadequately cleaning up the
pollution from its pipelines and wells,
Shell is leaving thousands of women,
men and children exposed to
contaminated land, water and air, in
some cases for years or even decades,”
said Mark Dummett, Business and
Human Rights researcher at Amnesty
International.
“Oil spills have a devastating impact on
the fields, forests and fisheries that the
people of the Niger Delta depend on for
their food and livelihood. Anyone who
visits these spill sites can see and
smell for themselves how the pollution
has spread across the land,” he said.
The report also documents the failure
of the Nigerian government to regulate
the oil industry.
Its watchdog, the National Oil Spill
Detection and Response Agency
(NOSDRA), is under-resourced and
continues to certify areas visibly
polluted with crude oil, as clean,
Amnesty said.
“As people in Nigeria and around the
world remember Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight other
Ogoni leaders who were executed in 1995, Shell and
the government of Nigeria cannot ignore the terrible
legacy of the oil industry in the Niger Delta. For
many people of the region, oil has brought nothing
but misery,” said Stevyn Obodoekwe, CEHRD’s
Director of Programmes.
“The quality of life of people living surrounded by
oil fumes, oil encrusted soil and rivers awash with
crude oil is appalling, and has been for decades,” he
added.
AI said its investigation found visible pollution at
sites Shell claimed it had cleaned.
“The Niger Delta is the biggest oil-producing region
in Africa. The largest international oil company
there is Shell. It operates around 50 oil fields and
5,000 km of pipelines, much of them ageing and
poorly-maintained. The oil giant’s own figures admit
to 1,693 oil spills since 2007, though the real number
is probably higher,” AI said in a statement.
After a 2011 investigation by United Nations
Environmental Programme (UNEP) exposed massive
levels of pollution caused by oil spills from Shell
pipelines in the Ogoniland as well as health risk the
people in the region are exposed to as a result of
Shell’s failure to clean up the spills, Shell promised
to clean up sites identified by UNEP and improve its
response to future spills.
According to AI, its investigation at four of the spill
sites UNEP identified as highly polluted in 2011,
revealed all four remain visibly contaminated even
though Shell says it has cleaned them.
“The investigation demonstrates this is due to
inadequate clean-up, and not new oil spills,” AI
stated.
“At one of the locations, Shell’s Bomu Well 11,
researchers found blackened soil and layers of oil on
the water, 45 years after an oil spill took place –
even though Shell claims to have cleaned it up twice,
in 1975 and 2012. At other sites, certified as cleaned
by the Nigerian regulator, researchers found soil
and water contaminated by oil close to where people
lived and farmed.
“The investigation shows Shell has not addressed
problems with its entire approach to cleaning up oil
pollution in Nigeria, including how it trains and
oversees the local contractors that actually conduct
the work,” the statement claimed.
AI said one contractor who had been hired by Shell
told Amnesty International how half-hearted and
superficial clean-up efforts failed to prevent lasting
environmental damage.
“This is just a cover up. If you just dig down a few
metres you find oil. We just excavated, then shifted
the soil away, then covered it all up again,” the
contractor was quoted as saying.
AI said when contacted, Shell disagreed with its
findings but did not give further details.
“The company directed researchers to its website,
but this provides very little information about clean
up. Shell also repeated its claim that most oil spills
and pollution are caused by illegal activity, such as
people stealing oil from pipes rather than poor
maintenance, the statement claimed.
“Amnesty International and CEHRD have exposed
false statements made by Shell about illegal activity
and the extent of oil spills due to corroded pipes in
previous reports. In any case, Nigerian law says
companies who own pipelines are responsible for
cleaning up, no matter what causes a spill,” the
statement said.
Amnesty International called on the Nigerian
government to strengthen its watchdog, the National
Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA).
It also ask Shell to be more transparent with the
clean-up it claimed to be doing.
”Shell says theft is to blame for oil spills, but even if
that were true it would not excuse the company’s
consistent failure to clean up oil pollution. Shell’s
blame game can no longer deflect attention from its
broken promises and neglected infrastructure,” said
Mark Dummett.
“As long as oil companies fail to live up to their
commitments, the Niger Delta will remain a
cautionary tale of communities promised prosperity,
but left with blighted, devastated lands.”