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Social impacts of Oil related pollution in Nigeria: What is the hope of the environmentally displaced persons?

Social impacts of Oil related pollution in Nigeria: What is the hope of the environmentally displaced persons? . Presented By Eloamaka Carol Okonkwo The Law School, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK IUCN 12 Colloquium, Tarragona, Spain, June-July, 2014

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Social impacts of Oil related pollution in Nigeria: What is the hope of the environmentally displaced persons?

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  1. Social impacts of Oil related pollution in Nigeria: What is the hope of the environmentally displaced persons? Presented ByEloamaka Carol Okonkwo The Law School, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK IUCN 12 Colloquium, Tarragona, Spain, June-July, 2014 Email:eloamaka.okonkwo@strath.ac.uk

  2. Outline • The Background • Causes of oil related pollution in Nigeria • Some pollution cites and exposed pipelines in Nigeria • Social impacts of pollution, social problems and the Niger Delta • Oil exploration, Nigerian laws and pollution abatement • Nigeria, environmentally displaced persons and the laws • Is there a ray of hope? • What is more?

  3. Background • Oil was discovered in commercial quantity in Nigeria in 1956. • Today Nigeria is one of the world largest producers of Petroleum • Oil main source of revenue since the period of oil boom in 1974 . • More than 80% of the government's budgetary revenue, and more than 90% of exports • Oil related activities causes pollution leading to colossal damage including destruction of socio-economic activities. It also affects health, environment, economy and social lives. • Looking at the damage caused by oil related activities, UNEP report on Ogoni reported that it could take 25 to 30 years to repair

  4. Causes of oil related pollution in Nigeria Oil Spills, Gas flaring and other sources 1. Oil Spills Three main causes of spills in Nigeria • Sabotage/intentional damage and theft • Equipment failure and • Operational failure/human error Sabotage/intentional damage and theft • Widely acclaimed that most oil spills in the Niger Delta is caused by sabotage. SPDC blamed 40% in 2000 on sabotage. Shell’s Head Oil Spill Response, said that over the past 5 years, less than 30% of spills are from operational failure. Equipment Failure • The Oil Pipelines Act and EGASPIN require companies to maintain infrastructure. EGASPIN requires monthly pipeline inspections. Some spill statistics • Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC): about 300 spill incidents annually. • DPR: Recorded spill between 1976 and 1996 was 4,835 • NOSDRA identified 2000 sites needing remediation in April 2008 with some of them being polluted more than once. • UNDP said more than 6,800 spills were recorded between 1976 and 2001 • SPDC reported an average of 221 spills per year between 1989 and 1994, 220 between 2008-2009 and an average of 201 between 2011 and 2013. So far, 83 is been recorded in 2014.

  5. Causes of oil related pollution in Nigeria 11 2. Gas Flaring • Gas flaring is the process of burning associated and non-associated gas that come with crude oil during extraction process. • Nigeria flares about 14.6% being the second top in the world after Russia and contributes about 10% of the worlds flare. World Bank and UNDP 2004 report shows that Nigeria losses about US$2.5 billion on annual basis to gas flaring. • Impacts on health, environment, economy and social lives. It is likely to cause 49 premature deaths, 5000 respiratory illnesses among children, 120,000 asthma attacks and 8 additional causes of cancer each year. (ERA ) 3. Other sources: Effluent and Waste discharges.

  6. Some pollution cites and exposed pipelines in Nigeria A man walks through farmland polluted with oil in the Kalaba community, near Yenagoa, Bayelsa State Nigeria Gas flaring site, Spill sites and exposed and rusted pipelines in the Niger Delta

  7. Social impacts of pollution, social problems and the Niger Delta Key points: • Impact on Traditional Institutions of Authority and Cultural Values • Conflicts • Prostitution and fatherless children • Destruction of Cultural Areas And Spirituality • Reduction in tourism and hospitality industries. • Destruction of Communities, forced Displacements, migration and the rise of Environmental Refugees • In Ogoni, 27 villages were raided resulting in the death of about 2,000 and the displacement of about 80,000-100,000. More than 2,000 Ogoni people have been forced to escaped to neighbouring states. Social problems: Kidnap, militancy, vandalism and associated vices. Commenting on this Okonkwo said • After few years of struggle for ‘environmental justice’… political realities on the ground that led to the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa , the Odi massacre and other acts of brutality, the game plan moved back to economic survival. As a result the present acts of kidnapping and armed militancy. Summing up the problems of pollution in the Niger Delta, Hon Justice Inko-Tariahsaid • Their streams get polluted … their farm crops planted on the remaining areas of farmland get damaged by oil pollution; their economic trees are hewed down; their economic situation bites and there is no help for them. These deprivations without any compensatory benefits cause frustration … The compensations paid for these deprivations are just pittance, meagre pittance, on which people cannot subsist for even six months and they become frustrated with life….

  8. Oil exploration, Nigerian laws and pollution abatement • The legal framework for oil exploration is set by the Petroleum Act, 1969 and the Regulations made under it. • Several others enacted to reduce oil related pollution includes: • Mineral oils safety Regulation, 1962 • The Oil Pipeline Act 1965 • Hydrocarbon oil refineries act, 1965 • Oil in Navigable Waters Act, 1968 • Oil Terminal Dues Act 1969 • The Associated Gas (Reinjection) Act of 1979 enacted to regulate gas flaring. • Petroleum (Drilling and Production) Regulations 1969provides for practicable precautions to prevent spills and take prompt steps to end the effects. • Environmental Guidelines and Standards for the Petroleum Industry in Nigeria 1992 (EGASPIN) sets out comprehensive standards and guidelines to abate pollution among other things. It requires immediate containment of spill. It covers the six stages of petroleum operations in Nigeria. • National oil spill detection and response act, 2006 mandates NOSDRA toensure safe, timely, effective and appropriate response to major spill amongst other functions. • And now the Petroleum Industry bill 2012 (Still with the National Assembly) that prohibits gas flaring after 'flare-out date, however, by section 277 (2), gas can be flared after the 'flare-out date' with permission.

  9. Nigeria, environmentally displaced persons and the laws • The question is: are persons displaced by oil related pollution really protected in Nigeria? • No specific national legislation that deal with persons displaced by environmental factors including oil related pollution. • However, there can be succour in the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria. Chapter 4 deals with the fundamental rights of every citizen. Section 33 deal with right to life • Also, the 1998 UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement may be applicable • However it is not legally binding. • Did not specifically deal with environmental displacement • Deals with persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes for reasons including natural or human-made disasters and violations of human rights • The African Union Convention for the protection and assistance of internally displaced persons in Africa (Kampala Convention) in 2009 can be used. • Entered into force on 6 December 2012, ratified by Nigeria on the 17th of April 2012, but yet to be domesticated • First legally binding regional instrument that imposes obligations on states to protect IDPs. • The closest to protecting displaced people due to pollution is Article 10 on displacement induced by Projects There is a protection gap

  10. Is there a ray of hope? • They are still entitled to their human rights protection • Human rights are rights possessed by people simply as human beings and because they are human beings. Introduced by the English Bill of Rights in 1688 • Core principles: • Universality and inalienability • Interrelatedness, interdependent and indivisibility: • Equality and non-discriminatory and finally • It entail both rights and obligations to respect and to protect individuals and groups against human rights abuses. • Human rights and environmental rights are related. Judge Weeramantryof the International Court of Justice in 1997 said • The protection of the environment is . . . a vital part of contemporary human rights doctrine, for it is a sine qua non for numerous human rights such as the right to health and the right to life itself. It is scarcely necessary to elaborate on this, as damage to the environment can impair and undermine all the human rights spoken of in the Universal Declaration and other human rights instruments

  11. Is there a ray of hope 11? • Right to life adjudged the most fundamental • Right to life has been widely interpreted to mean more than mere physical existence including including right to a healthy environment. • Principle 1 of the Stockholm Declaration established a foundation for linking human rights, health and environmental protection to life when it stated that “Man has the fundamental right … and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well- being.” • Most displaced Niger Deltans become unemployed as they lose their land rights, therefore may not fish or farm which affects the quality of life and sustenance: With quality of life affected, their human rights to life will be breached. • The relevant human rights instruments • 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Art 3: Model for many human rights instruments • The 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Art 6 • The 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Art 12 • The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child: Art. 24 • The African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights: Art 4 and 24 • The 1991 International Labour Organisation’s Convention 169 on the Rights of Indigenous People • The 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Article 7 • Yes there is a ray of hope

  12. What is more? • Establish a legally enforceable frameworks as well as develop guidelines and policies • Strengthen policies, Integrate into Government plans and strategies, enhance co-ordination between national government ministries and implement regional and international instruments. • Strengthen international machinery that make the countries accountable. • Develop the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement to include environmental damage that forces peoples to migrate which in essence includes oil related pollution.  • Develop professional expertise both legal and operational in human rights protection and environmental rights. • Local communities to establish non-governmental organizations aimed at defending the interests of the environmentally displaced persons because of oil production. • Sue under human right instrument pending enactment of suitable laws and implementation of my recommendations.

  13. Some References • A.O. Isichei and W.W. Sanford, "The effects of waste gas flares on the surrounding vegetation in south-eastern Nigeria" in Journal of Applied Ecology 13, 1976, pp. 177-187; The World Bank, Defining an environmental development strategy for the Niger Delta II, pp. 40-44. • C.I. Obi, “Oil Extraction, Dispossession, Resistance, and Conflict in Nigeria’s Oil-Rich Niger Delta”, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1–2, 2010, pp. 219–236 • Ibaba Samuel Ibaba and John C. Olumati, Sabotage induced oil spillages and human rights violation in Nigeria’s Niger delta, Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa (Volume 11, No.4, 2009) ISSN: 1520-5509 Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Clarion, Pennsylvania. • LegborsiSaro Pyagbara:2004:Minority Rights, Development and Migration-The Case of the Ogoni People • Los Angeles Times, Nigeria Oil Spills Have Created Ecological Disaster, (05 August 2011) http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/05/world/la-fg-nigeria-oil-20110805 (Last visited on 21/08/2011). • Oil For Nothing: Multinational Corporations, Environmental Destruction, Death And Impunity In The Niger Delta, http://www.essentialaction.org/shell/Final_Report.pdf p • Oil of Poverty in the Niger Delta :2004:A publication by African Network for Environmental and Economic Justice • SPDC: http://www.beg.utexas.edu/energyecon/new-era/case_studies/Environmental_Catch_22_in_Nigeria.pdfhttp://www.shell.com.ng/environment-society/environment-tpkg/oil-spills/monthly-data.html • US energy information and administration http://www.eia.gov/countries/country-data.cfm?fips=NI • http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Projects/idp/GPEnglish.pdf

  14. Thank you for your time & attention

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