…Monitors demand end to sources of pollution

Environmental monitors have called for an end to all sources of pollution in Ogoniland, including bunkering activities and the setting of tankers impounded with stolen petroleum products on fire by the Military Joint Task Force.
This was a resolution at the end of Ecological Defenders Consultative Meeting and Training organised by the founder of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey, in Ogoni, Rivers State recently.
The burning of petroleum products, according to a report is an emerging major source of air and soil pollution with immediate devastating health impacts.
The stakeholders who expressed fear over the many cases of ongoing pollution in Ogoniland, said it was making the proposed clean-up rather complicated.
In the resolution, they noted that, since pollution has continued five years after UNEP released its report, it was recommended that the report be updated to reflect current realities, stressing that “The levels of pollution recorded between 2011 and 2016 may have changed the original findings significantly.”
The resolution also demanded that residents of pollution impacted sites in Ogoniland should immediately be provided with alternative source of drinking water in line with the emergency measures recommended by UNEP.
The people, according to the report, have continued using and drinking water from contaminated sources since 2011 after the UNEP Report was made public.
The stakeholders also emphasised the need for the process of consultation and sensitisation to be intensified and carried on through all the stages of the clean-up implementation process.
This, they said, was to ensure that communities understand what each stage entailed and what was expected in order to avoid possible confusion and misunderstanding which could result in conflict.
In order to ensure that the clean-up activities enjoy the support of government establishments, “An executive bill proposing the legal frameworks for the structures and funding of the clean-up process should be immediately sent to the National Assembly for consideration,” the UNEP report also urged.