Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Environmental experts have raised the alarm that livelihoods of fisherfolks in the Niger Delta are under threat due to the devastating impact of oil spills and gas flaring on the region’s water bodies and aquatic life.
To this end, Akwa Ibom Oil Producing Community Development Network, AKIPCON, has expressed concerns over an impending fish scarcity in the Niger Delta, owing to environmental pollution caused by oil spills and gas flaring, sea piracy and insecurity.
Founder and President of AKIPCON, Mr Ufot Phenson, stated this during the public presentation and launch of the book, titled “State Security Management, Hydrocarbon Pollution, Environment and Implications on Human Rights in Nigeria” in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital.
Phenson warned that the unchecked oil pollution including the most recent in Ibeno Local Government Area of the state, would worsen the food crisis that locals were already facing and force many into crime.
He said, “Gas flaring and incessant oil spills have forced many fisherfolks to abandon the fishing occupation, as the water bodies and aquatic life have been disrupted by oil and gas leaks.”
He faulted the government for not doing enough to ensure the protection of the environment and the livelihoods of the common people, as oil producing communities in Akwa Ibom and the Niger Delta have been subjected to high levels of poverty, without the required infrastructural development.
Also, the Executive Director of Environmental Defenders Network, EDEN, Barrister Chima Williams, said the book was timely and captures in clear and understandable language the situation in most communities in the Niger Delta where oil is drilled.
“Insecurity in the Niger Delta is fueled by the pollution and neglect of the host communities and their frustrations as producers of the golden egg but have nothing to show for it.
“The solution to the environment crisis in Akwa Ibom, like much of the Niger Delta, must start with a comprehensive environmental audit to determine the amount of destruction of the ecosystem to be able to come up with holistic solutions,” said the Executive Director of EDEN.
Williams described the book author as eminently qualified to x-ray the issues bedeviling the Niger Delta oil belt and proffer solutions as one who has traversed the public service and now engaging with the impacted peoples at the grassroots.
He also disclosed that EDEN will work with AKIPCON to further document oil impacts and challenge the relevant state institutions to take action to remediate the environment and hold its destructors to account.
