By Jonas Odocha
Sustainable development, in its strict sense, looks beyond today and beyond this generation. It thrives on the determined effort to protect and preserve our finite environment, through policies and actions that leave it better than we met it. In this regard there are practices that we need to condemn and review, so that we do not worsen a bad situation.
The Niger Delta region, over time, has been characterised by massive environmental degradation as a consequence of the search, exploration and exploitation of petroleum resources, endowed in the region. The greatest culprit is the negative impact on the environment caused by oil spillage, attributable to four key factors of equipment failure, human error, sabotage and theft. This is a nightmare for any operator in the petroleum industry as the maxim spells out that the polluter pays. But then it is worse when saboteurs and thieves, within the communities, vandalize production and distribution lines, causing pollution of water bodies, farmlands and the atmosphere, as toxic gases are released, occasioning loss of lives and physical assets. All these have socio-economic consequences which do not add value to sustainable development.
But today, I am bringing up an issue which I deem far more worrisome than pipeline vandalism. In 1999, the pipelines and products marketing subsidiary of the NNPC [PPMC] had released documentary reports of incessant pipelines breakages. Investigations revealed the siphoning and “bunkering” of crude oil and products into standby vessels for illegal sales. Deeper probes discovered that illegal distillation [refining] of crude oil had commenced in the creeks and swamps of the region. I can still recall a governor of one of the states of the region, inviting the NNPC in 2000, to share security reports of this dangerous trend, and to find ways to curtail future occurrences. 20 years after, this has now festered and numerous “refining sites” have emerged in these creeks and swamps. The government has vowed to eliminate this scourge on the economy and the environment, but this fight must be carried out without inducing more harm to an already devastated environment. The report of the sinking of a crude oil laden vessel and the destruction of drums of 2m liters of illegally refined AGO [diesel] in this environment, is most regrettable. The impact on the aquatic environment and biota will take decades to recover. Ecologists can confirm that it takes 60-70 years to rejuvenate a damaged mangrove swamp.
I believe that we can do better to seize such a vessel laden with crude oil or products, and evacuate the contents for purchase by any modular refinery and finally auction the vessel. Same goes for any seized AGO or PMS volumes, instead of bursting these storage drums, spilling their contents and damaging farmlands and impacting bio-diversity. The apprehended culprits should then be prosecuted as the country equally recovers some revenue from their heinous crimes.
Let us not lose revenue and also defer sustainable development by such destructive practices, as the protracted Ogoni-land cleanup still remains a nightmare. We can, and should do better.
•Sir Jonas writes from Abuja, Nigeria
