Onyebuchi Ezigbo
24 February 2009
Abuja — A team of experts from the United Nation's Environment Programme (UNEP) yesterday unveiled its work programme in a collaborative venture with the Federal Ministry of Environment to clean up oil spill impacted sites in Ogoniland in the Niger Delta region.
Speaking during a meeting with the Minister of Environment, Mr. John Odey, the leader of the UNEP team and the Director of the Regional Office in Africa, Mr. Mounkaila Goumandakoye, said his team had come to kick-start the implementation of the remediation work on the oil spill incidences in Ogoniland.
He said as part of the preparation for the commencement of the project, the team intends to familiarise with the key officials of the Ministry of Environment.
"We intend to hold discussions with officials of the Ministry of Environment, especially those in the relevant agencies. We have come to Nigeria with a team of engineers and we are going to consult and discuss issues of the programme implementation and financial issues involved so that this time the project is effective. We are ready to move UNEP to the area and we would appreciate the support of the President and the minister.
"We are going to consult with the community leaders to ensure that everybody knows what we are doing and they will be welcome to be part of the programme," he said.
He said UNDP and UNEP had made a commitment to the implementation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and intends to work hard to complete the work within a scheduled time frame.
Federal government had earlier set up a committee headed by Reverend Father Mathew Kukah with the Chair of the Ogoni Council of Chiefs, Minister of Environment, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Representative of Rivers State Government, UNEP and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as members to facilitate the execution of the project.
As part of its engagement, UNEP said it would ensure total clean-up of all the impacted areas in the affected communities and in addition provide capacity-building programmes and infrastructure for the local populace to improve their living conditions.
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