By Obiabin Onukwugha
Bonny local government area in Rivers State, like other communities of the Niger Delta region, is endowed with natural resources.
Bonny local government is host to Nigeria Natural Liquidity Gas (NLNG) and a terminal from which Nigeria’s gas and oil are sold to the international markets.
Seated in the atlantic ocean, Bonny communities are only accessed through sea routes.
Over the years, oil companies operating in the area have boasted of developing the island with basic amenities. But some communities have come out to cry the devastating impacts of the activities of the IOCs, including massive floodings arising from altering of the natural topography, which is been propelled by climate change.
They said the people now suffer from combined effects of the use of polluted waste pipes for shore protection, incessant crude oil spills, which are mostly unreported, wastes from drainages, noise pollution, and hunger arising from food shortages.
An environmental activist in the area, Akie Hart recently told our correspondent that activities of the IOCs was constituting a threat to the livelihood of communities in the area.
“The creeks and the rivers that are the economic life wire of the people are heavily polluted and the marine organisms are either dead or severely impacted, posing health challenges if eaten.
“The farms are also polluted, so there are nowhere for the residents to go and fend for themselves and the only option is to go for deep sea fishing and they need bigger boats, outboard engines and nets which they lack because of their economic strangulations.
“Our people now resort to fishing at their neighborhood and the mouth of Bonny river which is the only viable place to go for fishing. Regrettably, the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), and Exxon Mobil under the leadership of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas came up with a policy of “Fishing Exclusion Zone” where they utilize the security agencies to stop our people from fishing while gas and crude tankers are on the sea and when loadings are taking place. The regular loading and movement of oil and gas tankers on the sea made it impossible for our people to go for their daily bread through fishing.
“The security agencies at the instance of NLNG in the lead and the other companies are sustaining their prevention of fishing while loadings are going on based on their reasons of security and safety without making any alternative plans for the sustenance of the people. They rather resort to doing superficial net donation exercise where the companies staff even make profits from the net purchase contracts which are a drop in the ocean of the needs of the people,” he said.
Hart particularly mentioned the case of Iloma Community where the activities of the NLNG company has disrupted the livelihood of the people.
The activist accused NLNG of creating and abandoning an artificial creek to lay pipes for their operations, thereby blocking their sea route.
He lamented that life has become unbearable for people in the community since the company decided to destroy their mangroves and indiscriminately lay pipes.
Hart said: “NLNG opened up the mangroves for pipe laying and later condemned the creaks it created artificially. They went to another area within the community to damage while laying pipelines in the new site. This was done without restoring the old abandoned site which is a flagrant violations of International and Local Laws.
“Before the coming of NLNG to indiscriminately lay the operational pipelines that are not only disadvantageous to the people, but negatively impacting on the environment, the people depended on the mangroves, sea foreshores and the creeks for their sustenance:
“They feed and trade on seafoods such as periwinkles, “Ngolo” (cockle), “Ikoro” (water snail), fish, crabs, shrimps, mudskippers, etc., but with the sand that was dredged that is causing sustained erosion and the disruption of the topography of the area, coupled with the pipelines that destroyed their access to means of living, they are now left with no means of livelihood.
“Their natural creeks are destroyed and the smaller areas that they can manage are inaccessible and they cannot go too for their daily bread, thereby suffering double jeopardy from the abandoned NLNG created artificial lake.
“The dredging done by NLNG has led to massive erosion in the community as the sand that serves as the shore protection was taken for NLNG projects in Bonny Island and for coconut estate road project.
“Right now, the Iloma community can not fish nor have access to the sea for free movements in and out of the community. This has limited their socio-economic activities. The people can no longer fish marine food earlier mentioned, which is the only source of income for women, while the men are predominantly fishing folks.”
He added that these deprivations require urgent remedial action and substantive restoration to protect the physical and human environments in line with subsisting local and International Laws, as the people were beginning to suffer the impacts of climate change arising from the activities of the oil companies.