Godwin Haruna
20 April 2005
Lagos — The Federal Government has been urged to declare the Niger Delta region a disaster zone, following recent research, which confirmed the presence of carcinogens in water samples taken from across the region.
An emergency water supply network was also asked to be deployed immediately, to cater for its population, the Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth International (ERA/FoEI) said yesterday.
Besides, the environmental group, in a statement issued in Lagos, urged the government to order oil corporations to halt discharge of toxic wastes into Niger Delta waters.
ERA also wants government to direct the corporations to commence detoxification of the whole Niger Delta waters, while compensation is worked out for the years of pains that the pollutants have inflicted on the local communities.
A research, conducted by the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lagos (UNILAG), found a chemical, benzo (a) pyrene, an alternant polynuclear hydrocarbon, in water samples taken from 18 different sites in the Niger Delta.
The chemical, according to the researchers, in a report published in the Nigerian Quaterly Journal of Medicine, Vol. 14, July-December, 2004, threatens the lives of the people through exposure to skin, lung, breast and abdominal cancer.
"For several years, there has been criminal cover-up of the extent of the pollution. This is the first time a scientific conclusion that the oil companies have poisoned the Niger Delta waters and marine foods is being made public. Government can no longer look the other way or feign ignorance," ERA Executive Director, Nnimmo Bassey said.
According to him, "the Federal Government must rescue our people from ill-health and untimely deaths, there should be thorough clean-up. The culprits, Shell and other oil corporations should be held liable and victims adequately compensated," he said.
The water samples taken from boreholes, wells, lagoons and beaches, showed a high concentration ranging from 0.43 to 4ug, far above the stipulated 0.7ug/1 for benzo(a) pyrene in drinking water by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The samples were taken from Olomore, Okpe, Abraka, Afiesere, Uvwiamuge, Ekpakpamire and Oleh communities in Delta State, as well as Siokolo community in Rivers State.
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