Environment and health laid waste in Nigeria

By Katie Hamann 28 September 2009, 11:08AM

A fisherman with his canoe in Goi, Ogoniland, Nigeria. Oil pollution has damaged crucial sources of livelihood for communities. © Kadir van Lohuizen/NOOR

The 31 million people who live in Nigeria's once pristine coastal wetlands remain desperately poor – despite their government and multinational companies having extracted an estimated US$600 billion worth of oil revenue from beneath the fragile ecosystem.

Call on Shell’s new Chief Executive, Mr. Peter Voser, to make a public commitment to take action to clean up Shell’s operations in the Niger Delta.

More than 60 per cent of the people in the region depend on the delta for their livelihood. But fish, their primary source of protein, are now contaminated with oil and other toxins – if they can be found at all. The water the residents draw for their crops, cooking, bathing and even drinking, poses significant risks to their health. A fisherman described the devastation to the Nigerian-based Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Developments in 2008: "If you want to go fi shing, you have to paddle for about four hours through several rivers before you can get to where you can catch fi sh and the spill is lesser … some of the fish, when you open the stomach, it smells of crude oil". The fact that the people of the Niger Delta have not benefited from oil wealth is only part of the story, says Amnesty International in a new report: Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta (pdf 792Kb). "Widespread and unchecked human rights violations related to the oil industry have pushed many people deeper into poverty and deprivation, fuelled conflict and led to a pervasive sense of powerlessness and frustration," says the organisation.

The Niger Delta ranks among the world's most important wetland and coastal marine ecosystems. The massive oil deposits beneath the delta have been a source of revenue and of confl ict for half a century.

Environmental cost

Extracting the oil riches has come at incalculable cost to the region's natural environment and peoples. In 2006 a group of experts declared the region "one of the world's most severely petroleum-impacted ecosystems". On 28 August 2008, a fault in the Trans-Niger pipeline resulted in a signifi cant oil spill into Bodo Creek in Ogoniland. Oil poured into the creek for weeks, swamping the area in a thick slick and killing a number of fi sh species that provide the protein needs of the local community. The pipe is the responsibility of the Shell Petroleum Development Company. Shell claims the spill was only reported to them in early October – but the leak was not stopped until 7 November, more than two months after it started. Nigerian oil industry regulations require that leaks be stopped swiftly and spills be contained and cleaned up. As of May 2009, Bodo Creek remained clogged with oil and the food security of local communities drastically compromised. An offer of food relief from Shell eight months after the spill was rejected as "wholly inadequate" by the Bodo community. Meanwhile, Shell has offered no explanation as to why a clean-up has not been completed.

Health problems

The Amnesty International report says this pattern of neglect has been repeated over many years. Almost every community visited by researchers said that creeks, ponds or rivers had been damaged by oil spills or other oil-related pollution – often more than once. While the situation is exacerbated by some communities blocking access to sites and demanding payment for entry, some companies have flagrantly exploited a lack of government oversight. The Nigerian Government has failed to enforce its environmental codes and offers little defence or guidance for its people. Communities must negotiate directly with powerful multinational corporations to gain compensation for environmental damage and loss of livelihoods. In addition, Shell and other companies do no adequate monitoring of – or disclosure of information on – the human impacts of oil operations. This lack of information feeds fears and insecurity within communities, contributes to conflict and fundamentally undermines human rights. In 2006, Shell reportedly carried out a study that looked at the impact on marine life of wastewater disposed of at sea. Amnesty International could not fi nd this study and received no response from a request for a copy. The company also claims to have spent US$2 million in the mid 1990s examining a wide range of environmental issues and impacts, including human health and pollution.

When it commissioned the study, Shell acknowledged that, "There is a need to know more about population growth, migration, farming, deforestation, soil degradation, oil activities, road building and other factors and how these have affected each other over time". Despite pledging to make the report available to the public and government agencies, the Niger Delta Environment Survey has never been publicly released.

Oil and conflict

Oil and conflict have become defi ning features of the Niger Delta. The Nigerian Government's failure to invest its oil profits in development, coupled with the destruction of livelihoods and the lack of accountability of both the government and oil companies, has resulted in conflict. It has also led to the emergence of armed criminal groups, fuelling a deepening sense of insecurity across the delta. They are responsible for sabotage of oil infrastructure, large-scale theft of oil and abuses of human rights, including kidnapping and killing of oil workers. The government has responded to attacks on oil infrastructure and protests (including peaceful protests) with excessive force including extra-judicial executions, torture and destruction of homes and property. Amnesty International acknowledges the considerable challenges faced by oil companies operating in the Niger Delta. However, its research has found that much of the damage and pollution, which has contributed to serious and ongoing human rights abuses, was foreseeable and avoidable. It says the Nigerian Government has systematically failed to protect the rights and interests of its citizens and to hold oil companies to account. That oil companies such as Shell have failed to act responsibly in this void and uphold their own stated commitment to social and environmental standards demonstrates a blatant disregard for human rights. "Oil companies such as Shell are not free to ignore the consequences of their actions just because the government has failed to hold them to account," says Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International's Head of Business and Human Rights. "The international standard is not 'whatever a company can get away with' – there are international standards for oil industry operations, and in relation to environmental and social impacts, that oil companies in the Niger Delta are very well aware of."

Take action

Shell in Niger Delta: The human rights cost of oil - call on Shell’s new Chief Executive, Mr. Peter Voser, to make a public commitment to take action to clean up Shell’s operations in the Niger Delta.

More information

Nigeria: New petroleum law must include stronger protection for human rights and the environment - News, 3 August 2009

Katie Hamann is a freelance writer and regular contributor to the Human Rights Defender.

Subscribe free to our quarterly Human Rights Defender magazine to stay up-to-date on current human rights issues.

Share: What are these?

Features and analysis

Sorry, commenting is no longer available in this weblog entry.

Make an impact

Gas well burning from oil exploration, Niger Delta © Kadir van Lohuizen

Destroying the environment, driving conflict, deepening poverty, deteriorating health – the human rights costs of oil from Niger Delta is far too high.

Stay Informed

Sign up for email updates

Email address:

Subscribe using RSS

Get Involved

We need your support to defend and protect people who have been silenced, abused, or had their most basic rights as individuals violated. Become a Human Rights Defender today

• Join Amnesty International
• Act locally