ERA/FoEN Raises Alarm over Devastation on Odimodi Creeks by Shell Waste Disposal Line
…Calls for Declaration of Environmental Emergency
By Ekemini Simon
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria has raised alarm over the devastation caused by toxic spills from Shell Petroleum Development Company facilities in Odimodi Community of Delta State.
The Spill which occurred mid-August has caused the death of hundreds of fish along the creek of the Odimodi Community among other environmental and health hazards posed to the community.
The organisation had put the public on alert through its field report signed by the Organisation’s Program Manager, Ubrei-Joe Mariere and made available to newsmen on Thursday, September 1, 2022.
The report notes that ERA/FoEN on Sunday August 21, 2022 had received a distress call from the community reporting a spill of waste petroleum products that spewed from Shell’s waste disposal pipeline that carries products from the Forcados Shell’s terminal down to the high sea.
ERA/FoEN noted that the faulty pipeline has been in the community for more than five decades and consistently leaks waste petroleum products from the valves of the pipeline.
The organisation said that the vegetation of the environment where these droplets are found and water body is constantly brownish in color.
“This incident was reported by motorcyclists who noticed the massive spilling of the waste petroleum products into the creeks to the community. This alarm necessitated ERA/FoEN to ascertain how far the waste petroleum products have spread and the havoc it has wreaked on the creek,” ERA/FoEN stated.
In its observations, ERA/FoEN insisted that Odimodi community has become a polluted colony with unaddressed crude oil spillage of 2018 and the August 19, 2022 waste water spillage.
The organisation noted that despite the fact that the people relied on fishing as their major sources of livelihoods, Shell inaction has continued to wreak havoc on the people’s fishing economy.
ERA/FoEN said Shell and the Nigeria government need to declare an environmental emergency on the Odimodi community.
The organisation insisted that Shell must as a matter of urgency return to the community to conduct post impact assessment and put machinery in place to clean up all affected areas in the community by the crude spillage of 2018 and the present pollution from the waste water disposal pipeline.
It added ” All ongoing oil-induced inter and intra community conflicts should be resolved with all fairness. Affected people of the community should be compensated for the economic hardship meted on them by the oil industries.”
Some of the reported plights of the community highlights losses incurred by the devastation.
According to the Public Relations Officer of the community, Amb. Dere Podoki, up till the date that the incident was documented by ERA/FoEN field monitors, Shell has not fixed the broken valve, although the company has shut down the line.
He said that a similar incident was confirmed to have happened in 2020 but the difference was that the wastewater and crude products spewed only on land but with much impact as well.
Podoki added ” Shell repaired its facility but failed to clean the environment and there was no compensation for the crops and other vegetation/economic trees destroyed.
“Shell is known to have demonstrated an unprofessional way of responding to spill in the Odimodi environment by cleaning only the spill point and ignoring affected areas by the spill. A practical example is the fact that the spillage that occurred in 2020 is still visible in affected places in Odimodi community even when Shell has been certified to have completed the cleanup process.
“The community also confirmed that they have noticed that the regulators usually compromise their standards. The fishes found dead on the water that some community folks picked from different parts of the creek that they thought were because of natural death, we reported to have had bitter taste and offensive odour. Most of the people are afraid that their health will be badly affected.”
The story of retired DSP Fred Obi is of interest too. He owns a fish camp at the Burrow Pit Creek in Odimodi Community.
Obi said when he retired in 2017, he used all of his retirement benefits to invest in fish farming by establishing fish ponds on the shore and off the shore but when the 2018 pollution struck, all the fishes he had all died and none was left.
He said “At a time I relied on the life of mangrove fish ponds. (deep it by the mangrove that retains water and fish during low and high tides) It became unproductive as a result of the spill. All the fishes I imported and stocked all died because of the pollution. At the moment, the 2018 spill is still visible in the creek (the mound under the river is soaked in crude). Before the spill, I can easily catch a lot of Bonga fish and small fishes I also used as fish feed have all gone. My major demand is that Shell should restore the environment and compensate me for the loss because their spill swept away my retirement benefit.”