Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project on Thursday announced plans to begin the remediation of oil contamination within the shoreline areas of Ogoniland.
Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Dr Ferdinand Giadom, announced this at the workshop on detailed site characterization, remediation and framework development held in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Giadom also disclosed that HYPREP has commenced the implementation of the UNEP recommendations with regards to mangrove restoration.
“The inter-tidal remediation projects that will particularly address contamination within the shoreline areas of Ogoniland has commenced and in due course, the procurement processes will begin for vendors and contractors who will attend to the shoreline remediation contracts.
“Consequently, the SCAT Team commenced field activities at B-Dere and K-Dere both in Gokana and assessed a total of three hundred and fifty-one grids covering an area of about 1,416 hectares.
“The assessed grids are along shorelines, channels, mud flats and degraded mangrove platforms.”
The HYPREP boss also said HYPREP’s technical team of assessors have commenced characterization and delineation of complex and medium risk impacted sites across Ogoniland.
“This is done to determine the specific characteristics of each site, extent of contamination and possible remedial actions to be taken. The site characterization is designed in line with HYPREP’s standard operating procedures on assessment. It was preceded by the Electric Resistivity Tomography modelling.
“The Electric resistivity tomography is a near-surface geophysical tool for ground investigations that helps to reveal ground features and map the soil structure.
“It works by using electrical current that is injected into the ground through short steel (electrodes) distributed along a straight line, and the resistance values between the injection points are measured. When processed, a two-dimensional resistivity profile of the ground is derived and displayed graphically on the Tomogram. This gives a guide to the positioning of the auger points and boreholes.”
Also speaking, SPDC Manager, Ogoni-Shell Project, Mr Vincent Nwabueze, assured that the SPDC JV will continue to provide all the funds required from them as a joint venture to make the clean-up project a success.
Nwabueze also tasked stakeholders to collaborate against the repollution and to ensure that Ogoniland remains clean after the clean-up.
“SPDC is happy to be part of this process and as you alll know, SPDC JV is providing 90percent of funds for the project.”
Follow us on twitter
