Edith CHUKU
In their determination to bring the lingering environmental challenges in the oil rich Rivers State and the Niger Delta region to an end, Civil Society Organisations have paid a congratulatory visit to the newly appointed Zonal Head of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency NOSDRA, Mr. Bello Augustine.
The visit to the NOSDRA zonal office in Port Harcourt, on Wednesday, was attended by representatives from Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth ERA, Kebetkache Women Development Centre, Media Awareness and Justice Initiative MAJI, Lekeh Development Foundation, Rights Advocacy and Development Centre, among others.
The civil society groups while congratulating the zonal head, reaffirmed their committement to a more better partnership with the agency, as well as strengthen NOSDRA to be more productive and effective in responses to oil spills, community claims and deal with polluting companies.
They emphasized the need for a continued and better working relationship to eliminate the unending pollution of the Niger Delta by oil and gas companies operating therein.
The CSOs also revealed issues around quick response to environmental challenges, how to improve and monitor air quality, as well as issues that has to do with the NOSDRA Act.
They lamented over the devastating impacts of oil spills, gas flaring, and other ecological threats on the environment, livelihood and the risk it poses on human health, citing the lingering Ogoniland clean-up.
Speaking during the visit, the Coordinator of Oil Watch International, Mr Kentebe Ebiaridor said, “we decided to embark on this visit looking at the fact that NOSDRA and civil society have been working together in the past but we felt that there was this little gap considering the type of events that happen in the environment and also looking at issues around the clean up in Ogoniland, so, we decided to pay a visit to NOSDRA to reaffirm our committement and working collaboration with them.
“This visit is also to assure them that we are still working with them and if they have challenges we are here to support them because at the end of it all, we want the environment to be better off and also our communities to have a better environment.”
Lisiting their expectations from NOSDRA, Ebiaridor who is also the Programme Manager for Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria ERA noted that, “what we expect from NOSDRA; (1) A better working relationship in terms of NOSDRA and civil society. (2.) We also look at issues around quick response to issues where civil societies must have raised in terms of environmental issues.
“(3) We also have an agreement in looking at outstanding issues that has to do with the NOSDRA Act. We have an agreement to see how we can work to strengthen NOSDRA to be more productive and more effective in responses to oil spills, response to community claims and also making them work stronger to have the edge and also the strength to be able to deal with polluting companies.
“So, that is why we are here and that is what we take away from this particular meeting because we believe that having a very strong knowledgeable NOSDRA will reduce the spills in the Niger Delta and also improve our environmental.”
On ways to strengthen the NOSDRA Act, he said “first and foremost we feel that the Act is okay but not sufficient enough, we feel there are some grey areas that needs to be strengthened, we feel that NOSDRA should be independent enough to be able to have logistical equipments to engage in oil spills whether on land or on seas.
“We believe that if NOSDRA is a little bit independent by having funds, logistical vehicles, speed boats, helicopters, they will be stronger enough in defending the environment and also not relying on the polluters because when the polluters are the ones taking this stand it gives us a huge indifference as civil society people and as community people to not want to trust the outcomes of such events.”
Also speaking, the Executive Director, Kebetkache Women Development Centre, Dr. Emem Okon, spoke on the negative impacts of oil activities on the health of women.
Okon who was represented by the Program Officer, Idongesit Umoh-Smart, expressed concern that, “women are more affected by environment related issues such as gas flaring, oil spills which are extremely harmful to women.
“There is need for NOSDRA to work with women to improve women’s health as they are the most affected in this sadly polluted Niger Delta region. We want our environment to be restored to what it used to be.”
Some others who spoke were Mr Friday Barilule Nbani, who called for the promotion of healthy environment free of pollution.
In a bid to promote sustainable environmental protection through effective data collection, the Executive Director of MAJI, Mr Okoro Onyekachi Emmanuel spoke on air quality monitoring and environmental sensor deployment using low-cost sensors, even as he presented one of the devices to the NOSDRA Zonal Director.
For Rights Advocacy and Development Centre, RADEC, the Program Manager, Mr Ejit Josiah, explained that, “we are particularly concerned about oil spills on artisanal refinery sites in communities in the Niger Delta. These spills negatively affect communities as much as other forms of pollution do.
“Our findings reveal that the National Oil Spill Detection and Remediation Agency whose primary mandate it is to detect spills on land and water bodies and respond appropriately in the country, does not have a framework or mechanism to address spills that occur on artisanal refinery sites in communities where they happen and still happening.”
Josiah added that, “RADEC’s visit to NOSDRA today, was to understand the limitations of the agency as regards artisanal refinery spills, and to seek collaboration and partnership to ensure that communities who are impacted by these spills receive the attention NOSDRA can bring. We are confident that this collaboration will birth, fine-tune frameworks which will become an advocacy tool to further engage, with a view to address oil spills and other forms of pollution in the Niger Delta, especially those that happen as a result of artisanal refining.”
In his response, Bello commended the group for coming and assured them of NOSDRA’s commitment to a partnership that will ensure an improved and safer environment for all.
Meanwhile, NOSDRA and Environmental Rights Action have in the past, trained communities on response to oil spills and joint investigative visits which brought about alot of good results because communities became better informed on how to monitor an environment, what they need to do when an oil spills occurs and also if an oil spills occurs, who and who should be reported to and when.
