The polluted water/
.Wants Shell to clamp leaking pipeline
‘Fishing is my occupation and I reside at the Ekuraba fishing camp. For about a week now we are not catching fish as we used to due to this incident’
By Valentine Amanze
The Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has called on Shell to immediately clamp its leaking condensate pipeline located at Ekuraba Creek in Otuasega community in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
The call came after a field visit by a team led by the Programme Manager and Head of the Niger Delta Resource Centre, ERA/FoEN, Comrade Alagoa Morris, visited Otusaga community and the affected pipeline as a follow up to a distress call from a video posted on social media by an indigene of the community, showing a high level of pollution in the Ekuraba creek.
Otuasega hosts Shell’s Kolocreek Logistic Base, Oil Wells where Shell extracts crude oil /gas daily, Shell’s Kolocreek Tie-In Manifold and pipelines.
The community is in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. Like other host communities, Otuasega has experienced some of the negative consequences associated with oil industry induced pollution.
Also read: Shell’s unending spills
One of the fishermen living in the Ekuraba fishing camp, who led the community leaders and ERA/FoEN from the spill point downstream [monitoring spread of condensate], Akpobolokeme Odofori, lamented the level of pollution the spill had caused along the Ekuraba creek and its effect on fishing activities in the area.
“Fishing is my occupation and I reside at the Ekuraba fishing camp. For about a week now we are not catching fish as we used to due to this incident. This morning some persons came and said that they want to see where the Kerosene was bubbling and the environment.
“That was how I volunteered to guide them to this area where much of the spilled substance is gathered. The substance looks like Kerosene, diesel and petrol.
“Due to this pollution we have ceased using our fishing nets on the creek. There are no fish again as before too. Right now the bubbling has stopped, maybe Shell has shut down the line’’.
On the spill, a member of Otuasega community, Igbeta James Brown, explained that they were informed about the spill by fishermen residing within the Ekuraba Creek environment a week ago and was duly reported to Shell without any response uptill the date of filling this report.
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