Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, has announced its support and solidarity to the agenda of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, in providing potable water to the people of Ogoni in Rivers State.
The provision of potable water was an emergency measure recommended by UNEP in its report since 2011; since the water scheme kicked off in 2021, HYPREP has completed some water facilities in Eleme, Khana, Gokana and Tai LGAs, while reticulation into the communities are also ongoing.
Speaking at the workshop on Potable Water Sustainability in Ogoni recently, SPDC Manager, Ogoni-Shell Project, Mr Vincent Nwabueze, said the Dutch company was fully in support of what HYPREP was doing to ensure sustainable water in Ogoniland.
Nwabueze explained that the SPDC support was imperative, in order to ensure that every person in Ogoniland have access to potable drinking water.
“As highlighted by the Project Coordinator in his address, we have alot of water schemes already existing in Ogoniland. But most of it did not see one year after commissioning it, due to a number of challenges that faces the schemes.
“And indeed as we are now going to put in place more water schemes in Ogoniland, on one hand some new (water facility) and on the other hand rehabilitate the existing ones.
“The whole idea is to be sure that the whole environment of Ogoniland is covered and that every individual in Ogoni will now have access to safe drinking water
“That is essence of this whole exercise and therefore on behalf of SPDC JV, we are declaring our support and our solidarity to this agenda and we do hope that this workshop today will assemble expertise, experiences and help build a building block to a sustainable water system in Ogoniland.”
Follow us on twitter
