The Project Coordinator of
Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP), Marvin Dekil has explained
why Ogoni cleanup was missing in the 2017 budget.
Dekil, who spoke in Port harcourt
yesterday, said the policy of Polluter Pay Principle made it impossible for the
National Assembly to include it.
He said HYPREP and the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) had drawn up a road map for the holistic remediation
of the environment, which is expected to gulp $200 million this year.
He explained that $200 million
would be required for the project this year, while the remaining $800 million
for the next four years, would be provided by the international oil companies,
in partnership with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
He said the Federal Government’s
commitment to the implementation of the UNEP report has already been received
from a four-man committee that was raised to identity and evaluate existing
water facilities in Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme local council areas.
“The report was done in line with the
recommendation of UNEP, which stated that before any cleanup of the oil
impacted environment could be done, potable water must be provided for the
people”, he noted.
Dekil said HYPREP has also opened
up different sites, at no cost, for the demonstration of remediation
opportunities by companies who volunteered to test them technologies.
He said HYPREP has collected new
samples (soil, water surface and underground) at various demonstration sites at
Kwawa, K-Dere, Korokoro and Ogale communities.
“The report is valid, we are
doing an update of the baseline that was obtained at that time. A site that was
accessed in 2011, this is 2017, if we wanted to remediate that site today, we
will do scooping. It is an exercise that would allow us to capture the
contamination profile as at now. And that is what we will use to design the
remediation plan”, he said.
Dekil said HYPREP has opened up
different sites for the demonstration of remediation technologies by companies
who volunteered to test their technologies.
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