Towards combating environmental degradation

The World Environment Day (WED), held on June 5 each year, is a day set aside by the United Nations to stimulate global awareness and encourage political action by governments on environmental issues. In Nigeria, the spate of environmental degradation has been on the increase. The unhealthy state of the nation’s environment has been underscored by a recent global environment performance index which ranked Nigeria 119th out of 132 countries assessed. The index which was compiled from studies carried out by the Yale Centre for Environmental Laws and Policy, Yale University, and Centre for International Earth Science, Information Network, Columbia University, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland and Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, ISPRA, Italy, tracked performance and progress of the countries assessed on environmental health and ecosystem vitality, including environmental burden of disease, water, effects on human health, air pollution, biodiversity, forestry, fisheries, agriculture and climate change. Nigeria scored 40.1 percent and was ranked among the lowest “but improving” countries. It is particularly worrisome that Nigeria was dismally ranked 19th out of 21 sub-Saharan African countries!

Studies have shown that environmental degradation, including industrial pollution (air and water, outdoor and indoor) in Nigeria is largely engendered by the unscrupulous activities of business and industrial concerns, particularly those engaged in the production, transportation, storage and processing of noxious, toxic/poisonous, chemical and gaseous substances which not only pollute the environment but also have deleterious and debilitating effects on the health and sensory of people.  There is also the growing environmental concern of companies, especially foreign concerns, engaged in the deplorable practice of dumping of hazardous, harmful and toxic substances, including disused, near-end-of-life and end-of-life products, such as electrical and electronic products (computers, television sets, refrigerators, etc.), otherwise called e-wastes, as well as expired food and drugs, unserviceable automobiles, motorbikes, abandoned ship wrecks etc into the country. Of more serious and particular concern, however, are the ecological and environmental hazards posed by the activities of extractive industries, especially those engaged in uncontrolled mining activities, oil drilling, as well as exploration and exploitation of other mineral and natural resources.

The unbridled exploration activities of the oil producing companies have been a major source of environmental concern, especially the unabated gas flaring, incessant oil spills, sporadic leakages and explosions. These come with devastating impact on the environment and ecosystem, including air and water pollution (contamination of both surface and underground water), as well as biodiversity loss, destruction of aquatic life, ravaging of vegetation, farmlands and agricultural production, general land degradation, health hazards and untold hardships and discomforts to the people living in the affected oil bearing communities. For example, in 2011, no fewer than 168,000 fishermen in 350 communities of Bayelsa and Delta States were affected by the Bonga Oil spills depriving the fishermen of their sources of livelihood and leaving the communities devastated. It is rather regrettable that the Nigerian government seems to be underestimating the environmental risks and degradation caused by the activities of oil exploration/producing companies in the oil bearing communities. According to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), pollution from oil operations in the Niger Delta region over the past 50 years “has penetrated further and deeper than many may have supposed… there are also contested claims that the extraction of oil and coal beyond threshold levels could increase the frequency of earthquakes and some claim that this threshold level has been surpassed”. (2011 Harvard Business review, New York Times Syndicate, published in BusinessDay of Thursday, 15 March, 2012).

Going forward, the environmental impunity and ecological irresponsibility of oil companies in particular, as well as industrial and manufacturing concerns in Nigeria, must not only be interrogated but also effectively tamed to ensure global best practices in their operations. In this direction, since industry is a major culprit of environmental pollution and degradation, it must also be the leading solution provider. In fact, it is in their self-enlightened interests that companies and industries must begin to take the leading role and assume voluntary responsibilities for solutions to environmental issues and problems, most especially in the communities where they operate. Companies must realize that the cost of protecting the environment from any form of pollution tends to outweigh the cost and efforts to combat same. Therefore, companies should begin to pay greater attention to environmental protection through properly articulated, strategically coordinated and well-implemented environmental initiatives and management techniques than had hitherto been the case. This implies that companies should be proactive, by way of self-regulation and self-censorship, rather than waiting on government for solution or for government to enact appropriate legislations or administrative procedures to deal with environmental issues and problems. In this context, ensuring environmental protection should be taken as matter of conscious and deliberate corporate social responsibility – and not by happenstance – by every responsible and forward-looking company. By so doing, such companies would not only ensure a peaceful relationship and harmonious coexistence with the host communities but, more importantly, would have demonstrated visible commitment, shared responsibility and clear sensitivity to public health and safety issues, which will endear them to the people of the community.

Furthermore, as part of measures to lessen environmental problems and positively impact the lives and wellbeing of people in their host communities, companies should get directly and intimately involved in the physical development of the communities by way of financing relevant developmental projects such as roads, water/power supply, schools, hospitals, security support, police stations, job creation/employment opportunities for local indigenes, etc.

In conclusion, while environmental management and protection are primarily a government responsibility, business and industrial concerns as well as other stakeholders cannot afford to extricate themselves from environmental issues and improvements. Indeed, solving the varied and complex environmental challenges requires a multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary and multi-agency approach. Towards this end, appropriate government agencies (including the Ministries of Environment, Federal Environmental Protection Agency, National Environment Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency etc.), together with business and industrial concerns, must constantly obtain, review, update, provide, share and exchange necessary information relevant to peculiar environmental issues and problems, with a view to conducting Environmental Impact Assessments in accordance with Act No. 86 of 1992, as well as vulnerability analysis to ensure environmental protection and safety at all times. In particular, companies, in concert with relevant government agencies and other stakeholders – ecologists, conservationists, environmentalists, biologists, economists, geoscientists, earth scientists, soil scientists and other relevant professionals – would have to bring their varying skills and respective competences to bear in identifying and having a better understanding of the scale, nature, complexity and magnitude of environmental issues and problems, so as to ensure that the methods of solving them are adequate, efficient and effective.

While the development of new and improved technologies may eventually ease some of the environmental problems, there is equally the need for the Nigerian government to urgently sign into law and implement, without any further delay, the long-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which will provide the necessary policy and regulatory framework for the operations of companies engaged in the oil and gas sector. Industry experts believe that the full and effective enforcement of the PIBl will, among others, go a long way in controlling the activities of the oil companies, thereby minimizing environmental risks and degradation in the oil producing communities.

KAYODE OLUWA