Effects of Petroleum Pollution and the Remediation attempts in Ogoniland, Rivers State, Nigeria: A Review.

Abstract

Abstract: Ogoniland has been suffering from severe environmental devastation occasioned by petroleum pollution since the discovery and exploitation for over five decades. This has brought ill-health and untold hardship to the Ogoni people as the farmlands and water were destroyed. The situation is exacerbated by the uncertainties hanging around hope of complete clean-up and prevention of further spills with consequent public health risks implications. The overall effect has been worsened due to neglect by the stakeholders and relevant authorities. This enormous environmental devastation provoked the Ogoni youths into violent protest and clashes with the security agents which led to the stoppage of activities by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in 1992. The situation compelled the relevant authorities to seek a way of attending to the massive environmental devastation in Ogoniland. In Ogoni environments, soil and water are still severely polluted despite several claims of clean-up. Large volume of this pollution occurs as a result of human error with abandoned dilapidated flow stations/oil transport lines, illegal drilling/refining of crude oil and deliberate destruction of oil transport lines. There is deployment of inappropriate remediation strategies and abandoning without the needed monitoring. This review re-evaluates the cumulative impacts of crude oil pollution on the Ogoni environments and the people, different clean-up attempts, strategies and the present state of the environment. Generally, work progress at the remediation sites has been judged to be very slow. However, excavation of the affected soil, subsequent transfer to the bio-cell treatment sites and backfilling of treated soil is ongoing at the moment. Therefore, it is hope that the present remediation strategy will completely clean-up Ogoni environments of crude oil pollution, restore life and hope to Ogoni people while appropriate measures are put in place to prevent further oil spills in Ogoniland.