Women of Otu-Jeremi Community Calls for End to Gas Flaring, Fossil Fuel Extraction 

 As part of the African People’s Counter COP Assemblies Action, the women of Otu-jeremi community in Delta State have called for an end to gas flaring and oil pollution in their community.

 The women of the community have also demanded compensation for the years long damages they have endured due to fossil fuel extraction.

The decades-long extraction of fossil fuels from the Niger Delta region of Nigeria has exposed host communities to several forms of environmental pollution that has destroyed the lands, waters and livelihood of the people, thereby creating health challenges and poverty in these host communities. 

This made the women of Otu-jeremi community during a One-Day People’s Assembly Action organized by Community Development Advocacy Foundation – CODAF, to present the people’s perspective on gas flaring and to demand for real solutions in the forthcoming Conference of Parties (COP 28) set to hold in Dubai. 

Otu-jeremi community plays host to the largest gas plant station in Nigeria and West Africa, with three gas flaring plants located in the community.

While sharing their displeasure on the level of pollution they have suffered, the women complained of health issues such as hypertension, loss of sight, loss of hearing and other ailments caused by the environmental pollution in their air and water. 

They also revealed that the agricultural produce of the community has reduced drastically and the people are in deep poverty due to the gravity of pollution on their lands and  waters.

They report that the rate of fish caught in their waters has reduced drastically causing fisherfolks to have low returns in their fishing business.

Speaking at the program, the Executive Director of African Center for Environmental and Rural Development, Fred Nohwo spoke on the effects of gas flaring on agriculture, stressing that gas produces acid rain that destroys the pH of the soil, depositing sulphur dioxide and other harmful chemicals that deters the growth and metabolism of plants.

Also speaking at the event, the Executive Director of Neferok Foundation, Ayo Nefertiti Okotie stated that despite hosting gas plants and the associated environmental pollution and health hazards suffered by the people of Otu-jeremi, they still have a deep level of energy poverty in the community. 

On his part, the Executive Director of CODAF, Benin Richard pointed out that the People’s Assembly Counter COP is being held to hear the perspective of the affected host communities and to seek real solutions to the decades long environmental pollution and health hazards caused by fossil fuel extraction in the Niger Delta. 

The highlight of the event was a river side action by the women of the community.

 

Their advocacy messages included a firm call for an end to fossil fuel extraction, to put an end to gas flaring in the community, a demand for environmental justice and sustainable development, a restoration of the ecosystem and the payment of loss and damages caused by extractive activities.