Abuja, 4 August 2011
- The environmental restoration of Ogoniland
could prove to be the world's most wide-ranging
and long term oil clean-up exercise ever
undertaken if contaminated drinking water,
land, creeks and important ecosystems such
as mangroves are to be brought back to full,
productive health.
A major new independent
scientific assessment, carried out by the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),
shows that pollution from over 50 years
of oil operations in the region has penetrated
further and deeper than many may have supposed.
The assessment has been
unprecedented. Over a 14-month period, the
UNEP team examined more than 200 locations,
surveyed 122 kilometres of pipeline rights
of way, reviewed more than 5,000 medical
records and engaged over 23,000 people at
local community meetings.
Detailed soil and groundwater
contamination investigations were conducted
at 69 sites, which ranged in size from 1,300
square metres (Barabeedom-K.dere, Gokana
local government area (LGA) to 79 hectares
(Ajeokpori-Akpajo, Eleme LGA).
Altogether more than
4,000 samples were analyzed, including water
taken from 142 groundwater monitoring wells
drilled specifically for the study and soil
extracted from 780 boreholes.
Key Findings
Some areas, which appear
unaffected at the surface, are in reality
severely contaminated underground and action
to protect human health and reduce the risks
to affected communities should occur without
delay says UNEP's Environmental Assessment
of Ogoniland.
In at least 10 Ogoni
communities where drinking water is contaminated
with high levels of hydrocarbons, public
health is seriously threatened, according
to the assessment that was released today.
In one community, at
Nisisioken Ogale, in western Ogoniland,
families are drinking water from wells that
is contaminated with benzene- a known carcinogen-at
levels over 900 times above World Health
Organization guidelines. The site is close
to a Nigerian National Petroleum Company
pipeline.
UNEP scientists found
an 8 cm layer of refined oil floating on
the groundwater which serves the wells.
This was reportedly linked to an oil spill
which occurred more than six years ago.
While the report provides
clear operational recommendations for addressing
the widespread oil pollution across Ogoniland,
UNEP recommends that the contamination in
Nisisioken Ogale warrants emergency action
ahead of all other remediation efforts.
While some on-the-ground
results could be immediate, overall the
report estimates that countering and cleaning
up the pollution and catalyzing a sustainable
recovery of Ogoniland could take 25 to 30
years.
This work will require
the deployment of modern technology to clean
up contaminated land and water, improved
environmental monitoring and regulation
and collaborative action between the government,
the Ogoni people and the oil industry.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and UNEP Executive Director, said
the report provided the scientific basis
on which a long overdue and concerted environmental
restoration of Ogoniland, a kingdom in Nigeria's
Niger Delta region, can begin.
"The oil industry
has been a key sector of the Nigerian economy
for over 50 years, but many Nigerians have
paid a high price, as this assessment underlines,"
he said.
"It is UNEP's hope
that the findings can break the decades
of deadlock in the region and provide the
foundation upon which trust can be built
and action undertaken to remedy the multiple
health and sustainable development issues
facing people in Ogoniland. In addition
it offers a blueprint for how the oil industry-and
public regulatory authorities- might operate
more responsibly in Africa and beyond at
a time of increasing production and exploration
across many parts of the Continent,"
said Mr Steiner.
"The clean-up of
Ogoniland will not only address a tragic
legacy but also represents a major ecological
restoration enterprise with potentially
multiple positive effects ranging from bringing
the various stakeholders together in a single
concerted cause to achieving lasting improvements
for the Ogoni people," said the UNEP
Executive Director.
UNEP today presented
its report to the President of Nigeria,
The Hon Goodluck Jonathan, in the Nigerian
capital Abuja.
Among its other findings
are:-
Control and maintenance
of oilfield infrastructure in Ogoniland
has been and remains inadequate: the Shell
Petroleum Development Company's own procedures
have not been applied, creating public health
and safety issues.
The impact of oil on
mangrove vegetation has been disastrous.
Oil pollution in many intertidal creeks
has left mangroves-nurseries for fish and
natural pollution filters- denuded of leaves
and stems with roots coated in a layer of
bitumen-type substance sometimes one centimetre
or more thick.
The five highest concentrations
of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons detected
in groundwater exceed 1 million micrograms
per litre (µg/l) - compared to the
Nigerian standard for groundwater of 600
µg/l.
When an oil spill occurs
on land, fires often break out, killing
vegetation and creating a crust over the
land, making remediation or revegetation
difficult. At some sites, a crust of ash
and tar has been in place for several decades.
The surface water throughout
the creeks in and surrounding Ogoniland
contain hydrocarbons. Floating layers of
oil vary from thick black oil to thin sheens.
Despite community concerns,
the results show that fish consumption in
Ogoniland, either of those caught locally
or purchased from markets, was not posing
a health risk.
The report says that
fish tend to leave polluted areas in search
of cleaner water. However, the fisheries
sector is suffering due to the destruction
of fish habitat and highly persistent contamination
of many creeks. Where entrepreneurs have
established fish farms for example their
businesses have been ruined by an "ever-present"
layer of floating oil.
The Ogoni community
is exposed to hydrocarbons every day through
multiple routes. While the impact of individual
contaminated land sites tends to be localized,
air pollution related to oil industry operations
is all pervasive and affecting the quality
of life of close to one million people.
Artisanal refining (a
practice whereby crude oil illegally obtained
from oil industry operations is refined
in primitive stills), is endangering lives
and ultimately causing pockets of environmental
devastation in Ogoniland and neighbouring
areas.
Remote sensing revealed
that in Bodo West, in Bonny LGA, an increase
in artisanal refining between 2007 and 2011
has been accompanied by a 10% loss of healthy
mangrove cover - or over 307,380 square
metres.
Remediation by enhanced
natural attenuation (RENA) - a way of boosting
the ability of naturally-occuring microbes
to breakdown oil and so far the only remediation
method observed by UNEP in Ogoniland - has
not proven to be effective.
Currently, SPDC applies
this technique on the land surface layer
only, based on the assumption that given
the kind of oil concerned, factors such
as temperature and an underlying layer of
clay, hydrocarbons will not move deeper.
However, in 49 cases UNEP observed hydrocarbons
in soil at depths of at least 5 m.
Next Steps Recommendations
Through a combination
of approaches, individual contaminated land
areas in Ogoniland can be cleaned up within
five years, while the restoration of heavily-impacted
mangrove stands and swamplands will take
up to 30 years.
However, according to
the report, all sources of ongoing contamination
must be brought to an end before the clean-up
of the creeks, sediments and mangroves can
begin.
The report recommends
establishing three new institutions in Nigeria
to support a comprehensive environmental
restoration exercise.
A proposed Ogoniland
Environmental Restoration Authority would
oversee implementation of the study's recommendations
and should be set up during a Transition
Phase which UNEP suggests should begin as
soon as possible.
The Authority's activities
should be funded by an Environmental Restoration
Fund for Ogoniland, to be set up with an
initial capital injection of US$1 billion
contributed by the oil industry and the
government, to cover the first five years
of the clean-up project.
A recommended Integrated
Contaminated Soil Management Centre, to
be built in Ogoniland and supported by potentially
hundreds of mini treatment centres, would
treat contaminated soil and provide hundreds
of job opportunities.
The report also recommends
creating a Centre of Excellence in Environmental
Restoration in Ogoniland to promote learning
and benefit other communities impacted by
oil contamination in the Niger Delta and
elsewhere in the world.
Reforms of environmental
government regulation, monitoring and enforcement,
and improved practices by the oil industry
are also recommended in the report.
Notes to Editors
The Environmental Assessment
of Ogoniland report is available online
at: www.unep.org/nigeria
Site-specific fact sheets
containing detailed information about 67
of the contaminated sites studied in detail
are also available at this website.
This report details
how the UNEP team carried out their work,
where samples were taken and the findings
that they have made.
The UNEP assessment,
alongside options for remediation, was conducted
at the request of the Government of Nigeria.
If requested, UNEP is willing to remain
a committed partner of the Nigerian authorities
and of the Ogoni people as they address
the environmental challenges ahead.
+ More
Nairobi Students Selected
as Environmental Envoys for Kenya
Winners of UNEP-Bayer
Young Environment Envoy Programme Announced
Nairobi, 10 August 2011 - Two Nairobi students
have been selected as Young Environmental
Envoys for Kenya by the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) and Bayer, a global innovator
enterprise with core competencies in the
fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech
materials.
Michael Sam Muli, 18,
from Nairobi and Ruth Cherono Sego, 23,
from Eldoret, will travel to Germany in
October to join other envoys from 18 countries
for a week-long environmental study tour
featuring business leaders, environmental
organisations and celebrities.
The two envoys were
unveiled during a ceremony held at the United
Nations compound, Gigiri.
Young people from across
Kenya were asked to submit a proposal for
a community-based environment project as
part of the selection process for the competition.
Michael Muli, a student
in Environmental and Bio-systems Engineering
at the University of Nairobi, put forward
a green energy project that aims to replace
firewood and charcoal used as cooking fuel
in households with briquettes made from
dried foliage and waste paper. The project
seeks to reduce carbon emissions from the
burning of fossil fuels and to create jobs
and income for local residents through the
production and sale of the cleaner fuel
briquettes.
Ruth Sego, an Environmental
Health student at Kenyatta University, Nairobi,
put forward a proposal focusing on the sustainable
production of castor oil as a biofuel. The
project explored how the castor oil plant,
which is indigenous to East Africa, could
be sustainably cultivated to help meet the
fuel needs of communities in Kenya, but
in a way that did not adversely affect food
production. The proposed project also recommended
using by-products of castor oil to manufacture
soap, candle wax and ornamental beads through
community-based micro-enterprise schemes.
"The projects put
forward by Michael and Ruth address many
of the crucial environmental issues at stake
today both in Kenya and beyond", said
Theodore Oben, Chief of Outreach at UNEP's
Division of Communications and Public Information.
"Both projects
contain important economic aspects, demonstrating
how sustainable, community-based initiatives
have a key role to play in the transition
towards a low-carbon, resource efficient
Green Economy. We congratulate Michael and
Ruth on their achievement and hope their
participation in the UNEP-Bayer Young Environmental
Envoy programme will be an enriching and
rewarding experience."
The envoys' visit to
Bayer headquarters and other sites in Germany
in October will have a strong focus on environment
and industry. Through a series of interactive
workshops, talks and site visits, the young
people will experience first-hand examples
of how sustainable development principles
can be integrated into product development,
manufacturing, waste disposal and other
industrial procedures.
Launched in 1998, the
UNEP-Bayer Young Environment Envoy Programme
aims to improve knowledge of environmental
issues among young people and support them
in developing and implementing projects
on sustainable development, conservation
and other aspects of the environment in
their own communities.
Originally conceived
as a local project in Thailand, the programme
has since grown to cover 17 other countries:
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia,
Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia,
Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, South
Africa, South Korea, Venezuela and Vietnam.
After completing their
year as Young Environmental Envoys, young
people then become members of an alumni
network that brings together past envoys
from all participating countries. The network
acts as a support group for envoys implementing
their own environmental projects and as
a forum where young people can share experiences
on environmental issues.
The Young Environmental
Envoys event in Germany will come just two
weeks after the TUNZA International Children
and Youth Conference on the Environment
in Bandung, Indonesia. Organised by UNEP,
the event will bring together over 1400
young people from 100 countries under the
theme 'Reshaping our future through a Green
Economy and sustainable lifestyles'.
The event is set to
be the largest environmental gathering for
young people in the run-up to the UN Conference
on Sustainable Development (also known as
Rio+20), which will take place in Brazil
in June 2012. Participants at the TUNZA
conference in Bandung will put together
regional action plans on promoting sustainable
lifestyles and issue a youth statement on
Rio+20, with which they hope to influence
decisions taken by world leaders on sustainable
development in Brazil next year.
+ More
UNEP Wins UN21 Award
for Climate Neutrality
New York / Nairobi,
3 August 2011 - The United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) has received the UN21 Award
for Climate Neutrality from the UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon.
UNEP was unveiled as
the co-winner of the award along with the
UN Department of Field Support during a
ceremony at the Dag Hammarskjöld Library
Auditorium at UN Headquarters in New York.
Held every year, the
UN 21 Awards recognize outstanding initiatives
by United Nations staff members or teams
to improve the delivery of the Organization's
programmes and promote its values. The winners'
stories are intended to inspire other staff
members to follow their example, replicate
good practices and make strides to improve
the delivery of UN programmes and services.
"When the UN 21
Awards were initiated 15 years ago, the
idea was to honour initiatives that would
help to prepare the United Nations for the
twenty-first century", said UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon at the awards ceremony in New
York.
"We are now well
into the twenty-first century, but the purpose
of the Awards remains as relevant as ever.
We are an evolving Organization, always
eager to find better ways of doing business,
to implement best practices, and to strengthen
the work we do for the world's people",
added Mr. Ban.
UNEP, which has been
climate neutral since 2008, is at the forefront
of ongoing sustainability efforts within
the United Nations.
Last year, it became
the first UN organization to publish an
Emission Reduction Strategy, including a
target to reduce emissions by 3% per annum
in 2010-12 (from 2009 levels). Implementing
the efficiency measures could save UNEP
an estimated US$800,000 per year.
The new office facility
that houses UNEP and UN-HABITAT headquarters
in Nairobi set a new benchmark for sustainable
buildings when it was opened by the UN Secretary-General
in March 2011.
The new offices boast
myriad environmental features, including
6,000 square metres of solar panels installed
on the roof, environmentally-friendly paint
and rainwater collection systems.
The building is "energy
neutral", which means it generates
as much power (via renewable sources) as
it consumes over the course of a year. Energy
consumption is estimated at 42.5 kWh per
square metre each year, which ranks highly
among green buildings worldwide.
Earlier this year, UNEP
coordinated the publication of the total
greenhouse gas emissions for 52 United Nations
institutions, covering 200,000 employees,
as part of ongoing efforts to reduce the
Organization's carbon footprint. UNEP has
also provided advice to other UN organizations
on how to reduce emissions from travel in
its 2010 report Sustainable Travel in the
UN, which built on existing UNEP guidelines
on sustainable buildings, sustainable procurement
and the use of video-conferencing to reduce
air travel.
The Greening the Blue
initiative, coordinated by UNEP, was launched
in 2010 to bring together the latest information
about sustainability within the UN and to
offer suggestions for both staff members
and external organizations towards achieving
climate neutrality.
