Oil Floods Bayelsa Farmlands

Oil Floods Bayelsa Farmlands

A devastating oil spill has flooded farmlands in Ikarama, a rustic Ijaw community in Bayelsa State.

Spokesperson for Environmental Rights Action (ERA),Nigeria's foremost environmental rights advocacy group, Mr. Philip Jakpor, told AkanimoReports on telephone on Monday that his organisation's attention was drawn to the spill by natives in the area.

According to the ERA spokesperson, ''at exactly 2:30 pm on Sunday August 15, 2010, our attention was drawn to another oil spill at Ikarama community. Natives called ERA monitor on phone to report that crude oil was spewing close to the community at the Adibawa delivery line owned by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC)''.

Our correspondent however, reports that Ikarama community can be accessed by road and locals are involved mainly in Farming and fishing.

Community sources told ERA monitor that it was the presence of three Shell staff that arrived the community in a Hilux Jeep that made indigenes suspicious that something had happened.

According to a community source who is a member of the Host Communities Network of Nigeria, the oil workers had just returned from inspecting the spill site when some of the community folks who were not aware of what had happened spotted them at the entrance to Adibawa delivery Line.

The spill allegedly occurred in the early hours of Sunday August 15.

Mr. Berebose Jonah, Shell Surveillance Contractor in-charge of the pipe line alerted the oil firm of the incident which informed the presence of the company personnel in the community.

Although the cause of spill was sketchy as at ERA’s first visit on the same day the alert came through, when the environmental rights group visited again on August 18, 2010, Shell officials were seen going about attempting to clamp the spill points. At the end, the company attributed the cause of spill to sabotage.

Mrs. Rebecca Williams, 25 year old mother of five had this to say, ''most of their fertile lands have been destroyed and the few places currently in use for farming gives poor yield and as such we are no longer making enough money from farming any more. I have started buying yam in the market now because my farm is polluted”

On her part, Mrs. Ozie Susan Sha’drach, a 38 years old mother of three said, ''you see! The spills have destroyed every farm around the place and rendered this huge farmland useless; it spoiled everything when it occurred. We used to cultivate plantain, banana and other food crops in that land before crude oil spill destroyed them.

''This situation has forced me and so many other farmers to relocate further into the bush to explore for more productive lands. Presently we have less farmland to produce sufficient food for our children. As a result we buy food from other communities. Crude oil slick has also killed our fish and forced surviving fish to move into swamps in other communities.

''With this knowledge we are even hesitant in consuming fresh fish that are killed in other areas because of the fear that they may be poisonous. For the past three days I have been using this route to farm and perceiving this odor of crude oil which is responsible for my catarrh and cough..” It was not all women testimonies. A youth from the community, Mr. Afolabi Marcus, said,''we are not happy with the oil spill, no matter the cause; nothing good has come our way from it. Family farms have been burnt and there is no hope of fishing and hunting in those areas for a very long time. Instead of Shell to compensate us and remediate the environment, during clamping exercise Shell workers will present suspicious persons as government representatives to discourage the community from taking the matter to the appropriate quarters”

For another youth speaker, Mr. Confidence Festus : ''It is Shell that is causing all these spills around our community. In 2008 the company made a promise to us that it will engage more surveillance guards from here if there are no sabotage- related spill for a period of one year. Not only that, they even promised to increase the current salaries of those working as surveillance guard. But, up till now, as I speak to you Shell is yet to fulfill its promises to the community youths; while the youths have met their own side of the bargain by being vigilant to guarantee no sabotage related spill occurred''. Our correspondent who visted the area observed that about 30 meters from a bridge constructed by Shell for easy access to its Okordia manifold, is the Adibawas Delivery Line /Right of way. Weed around the pipeline is most times removed since that is the only access route natives use to access their farms.

The strong smell of crude oil was could be perceived in the environment around Ezewari-Gbe bush through the pipeline. ERA field monitor witnessed a hole containing a stagnant, thick black crude oil (point of rupture) that has stopped leaking with a heap of mud beside it. Though the cleared area in Shell’s right of way had no sign of crude, much of the crude oil had spewed into the environment was lodged in shrubs and grass in the swamp.

Some persons were seen trying to use booms to contain the spread of the crude oil slick but judging by the volume of spill it seems more like a futile effort. In the mean time, ERA is demanding that Shell should allow community members properly identify those they call representatives; should carry out cleanup of the impacted swamp and follow up with remediation to enable community folks go about their normal farming activities; and respect the regulations regarding Joint Investigation Visits which must include genuine representatives of the people, not faceless community representatives.

ENDS

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