Shell: Own Up and Pay Up to Clean Up the Niger Delta

[polly7]

Africa, Business and Human Rights | Posted by: Corporate Action Network, November 10, 2011 at 9:23 AM

http://blog.amnestyusa.org/business/shell-own-up-and-pay-up-to-clean-up-the-niger-delta/


http://amnesty.org/sites/impact.amnesty.org/files/PUBLIC/Niger%20Delta%20True%20Tragedy%20EMBARGOED10Nov.pdf

“At first, they were still bathing in the crude. People had to protect children. There could be no bathing in the water.”

Kpoobari Patta, president of the bodo youth council, may 2011

Despite the widespread pollution following the 2008 spills, no health monitoring was done and the Bodo community has been left with fears about the health implications of living in close contact with crude oil.


The pictures in the pdf are really amazing. These people and their environment have been completely devastated.

[jwirr]

1. Is this deep well drilling or just regular wells? It is a shame that the

people of Africa who are already in such trouble with poverty and climate change are subjected to this kind of robber baron business. And I am sure that they are NOT getting the profits.

[polly7]

2. I'm not sure.

The spills appear to have come from pipelines. Oil was allowed to flow from them reportedly on two occasions for four weeks and ten weeks before Shell even attempted to make repairs and stop it. Some areas still haven't had any attempt made to clean it up, three years later. The amount of oil was compared in Amnesty's report to the Exxon Valdez spill. These oil giants seem to think they can operate without any scrutiny in these already poor areas ... they know oil is all that keeps many of these countries afloat, and it's just sad to see how little they care.

[jwirr]

3. And I doubt that it will ever get cleaned up - after all they have not

even cleaned our spill up and we are big enough we could make them. This is truly an addiction we have to oil.