By: Felix Ikpotor
Project Coordinator of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), Dr Marvin Dekil, has given clarification on why the Federal Government decided to jettison some of the recommendations of the United Nations Environmental Organisation, UNEP, in its clean up process of oil impacted sites in Ogoni.
Deekil spoke during a town hall meeting with key stakeholders in Saakpenwa, Tai Local Government Area yesterday.
UNEP in the report released about eight years ago had advised the FG to commence the cleanup exercise with the provision of potable water, healthcare and other emergency services for the people of the area before the clean-up proper.
Explaining why the government decided to jettison the recommended guidelines, Dekil said that the decision to start with the clean-up, as well as the adoption of newer strategies, was taken because the implementation of the project started eight years after the release of the UNEP report.
According to him: “We adopted a new strategy as we were eight years late (in the clean-up exercise). The UNEP Report was released in 2011; hence the adoption of a new strategy.
“In 2011, UNEP said: as an emergency measure, provide water, but this was not done. So, having lost eight years, everything now became an emergency; meaning we must do everything simultaneously.”
He noted that under the new regime, all aspects of the recommendations were now being treated as emergency measures rather than implementing in any particular order.
The HYPREP boss said the clean-up of the oil-impacted communities together with the provision of potable water and setting up of the Integrated Soil Contamination Management Centre, among others, were being addressed simultaneously.
“We have started (clean-up) with the less complex sites because the site’s remediation will not require the Integrated Soil Contamination Management Centre.
“Plans are underway for the setting up of the centre. Also, the process for the provision of World Health Organisation standard water has reached an advanced stage.
“HYPREP, in collaboration with the Rivers State Ministry of Water Resources, had commenced assessment of existing water facilities in Ogoniland as well as mapping for the installation of new water facilities,”.
Deekil however, assured the Ogoni people that the agency would carry out the clean-up exercise in line with the UNEP Report and international best practice.
Earlier in his remarks, Chairman, Supreme Council of Ogoni Traditional Rulers, HM King Godwin Gininwa, urged the agency to expedite action on the remediation project.
He called on HYPREP to adopt a process where indigent Ogonis would partake in the project.
“I fought to ensure the clean-up project comes into fruition. So, I will continue to be a father to HYPREP because I do not want it to fail,” Gininwa said.
