…Wants end to artisanal refinery
Blessing Iruoma, Port Harcourt
A group, the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD), has called on the Federal Government through Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) to ensure the speedy cleanup of Ogoniland.
This as the group has also urged the federal government to ensure an end to Artisanal Refining activities in the creeks of Ogoni environment and other Niger Delta areas.
Prof. Nenibarini Zabbey, Coordinator of CEHRD made the call to end artisanary refining activities, during a media interactive session in Port Harcourt, on a policy brief titled “Environmental, Health, Human Rights and Gender Baseline study for Ogoniland cleanup:a framework for statutory and policy change”.
According to Prof. Zabbey, the cleanup of Ogoniland cannot be properly done if the issue of artisanary refining in the area is not tackled, with the provision of sustainable livelihoods for the refiners to sacrifice activities for the remediation of both the land and coastal environment of Ogoni.
Zabbey said “I think in terms of artisanary refinery, it is important that the industry ceases to operate in Ogoniland. The reason is that for HYPREP to successfully carryout coastal remediation in a tider area. UNEP report actually recommended that for them to start coastal restoration, they had to deal with the issue of artisanary refining.
“If the activities of the artisanary refining is subsisting while the cleanup of the coastal environment is also carried out, it will be synonymous to cleaning the floor while the tap is on and it will not work. So the artisanary refiners need to be reintegrated into the process by being provided with alternative livelihoods system, mechanisms that are sustainable”.
Zabbey who is a Professor of Hydrobiology (Biomonitoring and Restoration Ecology) with the University of port Harcourt, disclosed that CEHRD unveiled a policy document that speaks to the Ogoni cleanup and the wider Niger Delta region.
He added that the Ogoni cleanup requires a collective report of stakeholders for best practices.
Explaining the unveiled document, Dr Sam Kabari, Head, Environment and Conservation at CEHRD, stressed that the reason there is still problem in the Ogoni cleanup exercise was because there was no baseline for the project.
Dr. Kabari who stated that the essence of the study was to provide a baseline before HYPREP intervention, stressed that if the recommendations in the policy document is followed accordingly, it will ensure a perfect cleanup exercise with regards to the UNEP report on the remediation of Ogoniland.
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Some of the recommendations as contain in the document, include that “Given that the Communities expectation is beyond HYPREP, Rivers State Government and other agencies should collectively develop a developmental plan for the area
“HYPREP should ensure the use of appropriate technology to clean all contaminated sediments, surface and ground water, and soul with the ultimate aim to restore biodiversity in Ogoniland.
“The Federal Government through HYPREP should expedite action on the Ogoni cleanup process to make the environment free from pollutants and other harmful substances”.