World Bank observes high chemical wastes emptied into Rivers’ waters

The World Bank has observed that there is high concentration of chemical compound wastes emptied into several waters in Rivers State. This has made most waters in parts of the state to be absolutely unsafe for human consumption.

The global money lender, whose Rights Monitoring Group (RMG) is in the state to assess cases of oil spills, gas emissions, flooding and other global issues affecting the state, discovered that high chemical wastes were emptied in waters in the Okrika area of the state.

Team leader of the World Bank’s RMG, Olufemi Aduwo, said at the weekend in Port Harcourt that the Group had visited several parts of the state to gather facts on impacted areas, noting that they observed that a high chemical concentration of industrial wastes emptied into the rivers in Okrika and other areas.

Aduwo said the World Bank would be requested to intervene to ameliorate the plight of the people in the impacted areas.

It is recalled that Rivers, a heavily endowed state with hydrocarbon resources, is replete with decades of oil spills, gas emissions and emptying of effluents into streams and rivers by most industrial concerns in the state.

In August 2011, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), after months of technical findings in the state, submitted report that most parts of Ogoni land had their underground water contaminated by at least 900 percent of benzene content.

This was due mainly to over five decades of oil production activities and the attendant oil spills by the Royal Anglo Dutch Shell, which has operated in many parts of the state.

The UNEP in its report indicated that it would take at least $50 billion over a 30-year period to undertake a comprehensive environmental remediation of the Ogoni area.

Meanwhile, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has called on the visiting World Bank environmental rights Monitoring Group to assist the state government in tackling ecological challenges confronting it.

Governor Wike made the call in Port Harcourt when members of the Rights Action Group, a non-governmental organisation mandated by the World Bank to assess Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) projects, visited him at the end of their three days tour to impacted sites in the state.

The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Ipalibo Harry Banigo, expressed satisfaction with the team for demonstrating interest in the environmental challenges facing the state, and urged them to transmit the exact situation on ground in their assessment report.