By Hillary Asemota
The Minister of Environment, Dr. Mohammed Mahmood Abubakar, on Tuesday said the International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria have contributed $1 billion to the Ogoni clean-up even as he excitedly said that federal government has made considerable progress on the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) mandates since 2016.
Briefing a cross section of the Media in Abuja on the update of the clean-up, he said 21 out of the 69 lots delineated have been remediated assuring that very soon more of the delineated lots will be cleaned of the pollution and pollutants.
While admitting that the clean-up is one year behind schedule, he said the achievements made by President Muhammadu Buhari Administration in the project will remain a litmus test that other jurisdictions will emulate, adding that the project bordered on local and international concern.
He said FG is working meticulously hard in collaboration with the contractors to cover much ground however underscoring that the project has to do with highly toxic chemicals.
“We want to make sure that the environment is clean and that it is properly done, that is the reason for the delay we are actually catching up and you can see that a lot of progress and ground had been covered and made with that.” The Minister, said.
On challenges, Abubakar, said the HYPREP initiative is a new kind of operation in the country, besides the age long traditional land disputes coupled with the outbreak of the COVID-19 in 2020 was also a setback.
“Artisanal refining by the youths have been major cause of the draw back in the sense that as the cleaning is ongoing youths involved in illegal oil drilling are further compromising the remediation process therefore compounding the progress being made by government.” Abubakar said.
According to him, the HYPREP mandates include to remediate and restore hydrocarbon contaminated areas, stop further pollution, provide potable water to impacted communities, provide sustainable alternative livelihood to the impacted communities and to undertake health inventory of people living in impacted areas.
On achievements, he said: “Remediation of 21 lots-phase 1 batch 1 works: As at today, 17 lots have been completed by HYPREP, out of which ten have been closed-out by National Oil Spill Detection Agency (NOSDRA). Certification sampling of 3 Lots for close-out has been completed, while the other three are awaiting certification sampling for close-out by NOSDRA. The remaining five which are yet to be completed by HYPREP are at various stages of completion.
“36 remediation contracts comprise of two (2) Project activities namely soil remediation works (29 lots) and Tier 2 (T-2) Assessment of groundwater works (7 lots) were awarded in February 2020. However, due to the global corona virus pandemic in the first and second quarters of 2020, activities preceding mobilization of these contractors to sites were slowed down.
“However, as at today, nine (9) remediation lots have been completed and are awaiting NOSDRA certification and Seven (7) other contracts for detail quantitative environmental risk assessment to determine ground water conditions in some selected sites were completed.
“On 22nd March 2021, I officially flagged-off the construction of the six water schemes at Bori in Khana Local Government Area of Ogoniland, The sites are:
Bori/Kpea Water Scheme in Khana Local Government Area, Barako/B-Dere/K-Dere Water Scheme in Gokana LGA, Terabo Water Scheme in Gokana Local Government Area, Korokoro/Nonwa Water Scheme in Tai LGA, Alesa Water Scheme in Eleme Local Government Area and Ebubu/Nsisioken/Ogale Water Scheme also in Eleme LGA. Rehabilitation and construction works have started in earnest in all the Sites.
“As part of the employment creation drive of HYPREP, 882 community youths have been
engaged by batch 1 remediation contractors, while additional 1118 community youths are being engaged by Batch 2 remediation contractors. Therefore, as at today, a total of 2000 temporal jobs were created in the course of remediation across the four LGAs of Ogoniland besides the numerous indirect jobs that are to be created in the form of trading and support activities.
“A tripartite capacity building partnership between HYPREP, IITA and the Democracy Network (SDN) trained 15 youths from 4 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Ogoniland. At the end of the three 3 months intensive training, the trainees fabricated machines which were used in setting up a cassava processing/fabrication facility at Korokoro, Tai LGA. On 14th July 2020, the facility was commissioned.”