Gbo Kabaari, the forum of Ogoni elders and leaders, has raised concern over the contaminated water in Nsisioken Ogale community in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The Chairman of Gbo Kabaari, Senator Bennett Birabi, told Niger Delta Trust in Port Harcourt that the people have been drinking the water with benzene at a level more than 900 times the World Health Organisation (WHO) threshold.
He said that the people were being exposed to the risk of contracting carcinogenic substances.
He accused the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) for failing in its responsibility to clean up the contaminated water despite the huge sums of money budgeted for the project.
The chairman said that cleaning and mopping up the benzene contaminated water of Nsisioken Ogale was in the emergency core mandate of HYPREP.
“A major item recommended by UNEP as emergency measures has to do with provision of safe drinking water to communities with contaminated water sources. The UNEP Report showed the people of Nsisioken Ogale have been drinking water with benzene at a level more than 900 times the WHO threshold.
“The continuous refusal to implement this all-important recommendation is, therefore, a serious threat to the corporate existence and sustainability of Ogoni people who, as Nigerians, are protected by the Nigerian constitution,” he said.
He called for a comprehensive overhaul, re-jigging and restructuring of HYPREP.
Birabi said that the agency has performed below expectation in providing clean water, cleaning up of the land of contamination and sediments, rehabilitation, surveillance and monitoring as well as providing alternative employment to those in artisanal refining.
The Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Dr Marvin Dekil, said recently that contract for the provision of water in all the environmental impacted sites of Ogoni land would soon start.
He said that HYPREP used the first 18 months of its existence to put machinery on ground and went into full remediation in January 2019.
