Comprehension: Cleaning Up Nigeria’s Oil Pollution

          The environmental restoration of Nigeria’s Ogoniland oil region could prove to be the world’s most wide-ranging and long-term clean-up exercise ever, if contaminated drinking water, land, creeks, and other ecosystems are to be brought back to full health, according to a United Nations report.

          It could take 25 years to 30 years, with an initial investment of $1 billion just for the first five years, to clean up pollution from more than 50 years of oil operations in the Niger Delta, ranging from the disastrous impact on mangrove vegetation to the contamination of wells with potentially cancer-causing chemicals in a region that is home to some one million people.

          The independent scientific assessment, carried out by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) over a 14-month period, showed greater and deeper pollution than previously thought after an agency team examined more than 200 locations, surveyed 122 kilometres of pipeline rights of way, analysed 4,000 soil and water samples, reviewed more than 5,000 medical records and engaged with over 23,000 people at local community meetings.

          The study found that some areas, which appear unaffected at the surface, are in reality severely contaminated underground, and action to protect human health should be without delay. In at least ten communities where drinking water is contaminated with high levels of hydrocarbons, public health is seriously threatened.