Mkpoikana Udoma
29 January 2019, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt — The United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, has urged the Federal Government to ensure that the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, has all the tools and resources to clean up Ogoniland.
Recall that UNEP was in 2007 invited by the Nigerian government to carry out an environmental impact assessment of Ogoniland and the report was concluded and submitted in 2011.
UNEP Representative, Mr. Mike Cowing, when he led a delegation of UNEP officials to HYPREP office in Port Harcourt, said if HYPREP is well funded there will be no reason why Ogoniland will not be adequately remediated.
Cowing also said UNEP would partner with HYPREP in training of technicians both in-country and in Europe, adding that UNEP has had a large presence in Ogoni since 2007 when the environmental impact study began.
According to him, ” HYPREP has a very challenging task and I think the only thing we can tell the Nigerian government now is to ensure that HYPREP has all the tools and all the resources necessary to execute the clean-up project.
“If that is done, then there is no reason why HYPREP should not be able to implement the report.”
Cowing also said there is going to be study tours in UK, Germany and The Netherlands to exposed the management and the technicians of HYPREP to proper management techniques on how to successfully plan and execute project of this magnitude.